Dr Greg Bahnsen - Proverbs: Proverbs 5; 6:24-7:27 (Fools and Loose Women) (Part 16)

As we're going to be considering, as we're going to today. The reason why it's necessary to read this lengthy portion of Scripture is because it's all hanging together. The author of Proverbs wrote a great deal and concentrated it in one place in particular in the book, it turns out, on the question of sexual immorality. And we're going to be reading in Proverbs the fifth chapter, from the beginning of the fifth chapter to the end of the seventh chapter, omitting only the first twenty some verses of chapter six which deal with another subject. The amazing thing to me is after all of this that we will be hearing about sexual immorality, one of the modernist commentaries that I have on the Book of Proverbs tells us that this is not the occasion for an old fashioned sermon against sexual immorality. And you'll just have to sit there and shake your heads too as you read it and tell me why it isn't as a matter of fact, directly about sexual immorality. Beginning in God's word at Proverbs the fifth chapter, verse one. My son, attend unto my wisdom. Incline thine ear to my understanding, that thou mayest preserve discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge. For the lips of a strange woman drop honey and her mouth is smoother than oil. 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 on Sheol, so that she findeth not the level path of life. Her ways are unstable, and she knoweth it not. Now therefore, my sons, hearken unto me, and depart not from the words of my mouth. Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house, lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel, lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours be in the house of an alien. And thou mourn at thy latter end when thy flesh and thy body are consumed. And say, how have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproof. Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me. I was well nigh in all evil in the midst of the assembly and congregation. Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. Should thy springs be dispersed abroad in streams of water in the streets, let them be for thyself alone, and not for strangers with thee. Let thy fountain be blessed, and rejoice in in the wife of thy youth, as a loving hind and a pleasant Doe let her breast satisfy thee at all times. And be thou ravished always with her love. Why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman. And embrace the bosom of a foreigner? For the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah. And he maketh level all his paths. His own iniquities shall take the wicked. And he shall be holden with the cords of his sin. And he shall die for lack of instruction. And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray. And then in chapter six, we begin our reading at the 24th. To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of a foreigner's tongue. Lust not after her beauty in thy heart. Neither let her take thee with her eyelids. For on account of a harlot a man is brought to a piece of bread. And and the adulteress hunteth for the precious life. Can a man take fire in his bosom. And his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk upon hot coals and his feet not be scorched? So he that goeth in to his neighbor's wife. Whosoever toucheth her shall not be unpunished. Men do not despise a thief if he steal to satisfy himself when he is hungry. But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold. He shall give all the substance of his house. He that committeth adultery with a woman. Is void of understanding. He doeth it who would destroy his own soul. Wounds and dishonour shall he get. And his reproach shall not be wiped away. For jealousy is the rage of a man. He shall not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not regard any ransom, neither will he rest content. Though thou givest many gifts, my son, keep my words and lay up my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments and live and my law as the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy fingers. Write them upon the tablet of thy heart. Say unto Wisdom, thou art my sister. And call understanding thy kinswoman. That they may keep thee from the strange woman. From the foreigner that flattereth with her words. For at the window of my house I looked forth through my lattice. And I beheld among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths. A young man, void of understanding, Passing through the street near her corner. And he went the way to her house in the twilight, in the evening of the day. In the middle of the night and in the darkness. And, behold, there met him a woman. With the attire of a harlot. And wily of heart. She is clamorous and willful. Her feet abide not in her house now. She is in the streets, now in the broad places, and lieth in wait at every corner. So she caught him and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him. Sacrifices and peace offerings are with me this day have I paid my vows. Therefore came I forth to meet thee diligently to seek thy face. And I have found thee. I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come, let us have our fill of love until the morning. Let us solace ourselves with loves. For the man is not at home. He has gone a long journey. He hath taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon. With her much fair speech she causeth him to yield. With the flattering of her lips, she forceth him along. He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as one in fetters to the correction of the flesh, till an arrow strike through his liver and a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. Now therefore, my sons, hearken unto me and attend to the words of my mouth. Let not thy heart decline to her ways. Go not astray in her paths. For she has cast down many wounded, Yea, all her slain are a mighty host. Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death. And thus far the reading of God's word. If this is not an extended polemic against sexual sin, I'm not sure where we would find it or how it could possibly be written. On and on the author of Proverbs goes, laying out for us the problems with a life of sexual sin. I've entitled this morning's message Fools and Loose Women. That may seem offensive in our modern day. I would think if I were a woman, I would be sitting where you're sitting, thinking, now, wait a minute. Isn't it true that for every loose woman there is to be found a loose man? I don't know mathematically whether that has to work out that way. But as a matter of fact, the person who is being guided in this passage is not simply the loose woman, but the fool who runs after her, who goes like an ox to slaughter. The passage is not saying women tend to be sexually loose and men are exonerated from the sin. The passage is condemning both equally. And so I don't want to be misunderstood when we Title the sermon the Way that I have. Both men and women need to hear this message. And I trust that as a result of our consideration this morning, all of us will be on the road to greater sexual health if we pay attention to the wisdom of God's word. Unchastity in our day has been romanticized. If you stop and think about it, the unchaste lifestyle has been made something to tolerate, something to expect, something maybe even to enjoy. Just look at the innumerable heart of gold prostitute portrayals that we find in modern tv, modern movies. How often are prostitutes presented for what they are in the book of Proverbs? Wily, impudent, destructive individuals who take apart the fabric of society and destroy lives with shame and dishonor? No, they're presented as people who mean well, who are really good people at heart. The old I may have a dishonorable lifestyle, but I'm really inside more honorable than those who are self righteously condemning me. Over and over and over again we get such portrayals. Look at how often we see a tolerant presentation of extramarital sex as what is to be expected in life, certainly in modern American culture. Think about the unending stream of teenage movies about sexual initiation or sexual humor or sexual exploits. Think of the shameless encouragement of fornication and all of these presentations. I think of one that just especially outraged me. The Last American Virgin, I think was the title of the movie. The idea being no one wants to be a virgin, no one wants to be a prude, no one would want to be in that position being the last person to have lost their chastity. We have simply become jaded about sexual sin. And I don't mean we in the general sense now. I mean those of us sitting in this room, the person standing behind the pulpit. It has so inundated our lives that we have lost our ability to be righteously indignant about it. We note as entertainment the Mayflower madam. You remember the story over the last couple years of this Boston upper crust, blue blooded woman who turned out to be running a very expensive call girl trade. And we look at that and we say, hmm. And we note the illegal maneuvers of an Olympic track star caught dallying with a police decoy street walker. And we say, hmm, entertaining, isn't it? We learn from all of this that prostitution is an unavoidable, perhaps even a quasi respectable part of American culture. And we can't even go into a convenience store anymore these days without being confronted with racks of high gloss pornographic material which is readily available on a regular monthly basis, not only readily available, with all the allurement of the covers right there, so that we can't pay without getting out and seeing that, but advertised on television and radio too, as though no one should think anything of this. Get this month's Playboy magazine. Read such and such an article. And so, like the author of Proverbs, we must today stand back and marvel at the way in which people freely engage in sexual immorality, but are utterly at ease in this element of their sin. Look at Proverbs 30:20. The author has said that there are three things, yes, four which he finds marvelous in this world. If you look at verse 18, there are three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not. And the way of an eagle in the air. The way of a serpent upon a rock. The way of a ship in the midst of the sea. And I always enjoy this. The way of a man with a maiden. All that's good, however, that's fine. These things are marvelous in his sight. But then there's this fifth astounding one. He says, and so is the way of an adulterous woman. She eateth and wipeth her mouth and saith, I have done no wickedness. The author of Proverbs says, and this is too marvelous, not in the good sense, this is too incredible for me that a woman could live that kind of life, eat her dinner, wipe her mouth and say, what could there be wrong with me? Our culture has become just like that. An act of adultery is as unremarkable in our culture as a meal. And there's an utter self deception of innocence about sexual unfaithfulness, about us today and today's psychologists. Today, today's pop artists all throw their efforts into reinforcing this deception about the normalcy of immoral sexual behavior. We want sexual infidelity to become as unremarkable as a verbal infidelity. The white lie, the acceptable compromise. We've all learned to live with that. That's just part of life, right? And our culture would have us also learn to live with the fact that people commit adultery, that no one is sexually pure, that chastity is outdated. We take it for granted, we wipe our mouths and we say, there's nothing wrong with us. But of course, we are finding ourselves at the suffering end of the sexual revolution. We're now combating its vicious consequences. Now, the less dramatic ones, the ones we don't see ballyhooed and brought before us and made a matter of entertainment, are far More devastating, I think, these less dramatic consequences of the sexual revolution being first of all, the heartbreaking loss of family stability. There is no more concept of family unity and loyalty and fidelity and hard work and dominion because we don't believe in families anymore. We believe in genital satisfaction and, and selfishness. We believe that we can make promises and break them whenever we feel like it. When it comes to marriage, the sexual revolution has brought the heartbreaking loss of family stability. I see this all the time in my teaching. The number of children that I have to teach that come from homes that are divided where one the father or the mother have taken off or there's been adultery or divorce or what have you, it's devastating in our culture. And doesn't it scare you when you look around and see the statistics growing and growing and growing? What will be left of decency? What will be left of self control? What will be left of discipline at the most crucial level of the family if things stay on the path they are now on? And think of the personal, emotional, loss of health that comes to people because they've engaged in promiscuous sex and now they don't know about themselves. They don't know about their self esteem. They don't know what makes them acceptable. They don't know. They don't know why people break their heart and why people aren't true to them. We have to deal with these sorts of things, okay, that's not what you have set before you in the modern media. That's the less dramatic, but certainly crucial consequences, vicious consequences of the sexual revolution. On the dramatic side, of course, we have the rise in homosexuality to put up with an increased rape in our society, child molestation and the runaway pornographic industry. We cannot forget, of course, the physical tortures of herpes and aids. The sorts of things that happen when people defy the laws of God. On and on we could go, and yet we wipe our mouth and say we've done nothing wrong. Who could find any sin in us? We have a healthy modern attitude towards sex. The Bible says otherwise. The Bible says we are fools and we will suffer in the way of fools if we don't come around on this question. In Proverbs 5. 3 we are introduced to someone called the strange woman. And we can make all sorts of light hearted jokes about that. I think some of my friends are married to strange women. People might say, but that isn't what the book of Proverbs is getting at. The strange woman means the foreigner, the one who is outside the circle. A Proper social relations. She doesn't belong where she is. She is strange in that sense. She's an outsider. The Revised Standard Version of the Bible correctly expresses the idea with a contemporary English idiom, the loose woman. Who is the loose woman? Well, it's hard to pin this down. If you look at chapters 5, 6, and 7 in Proverbs, she seems to be amalgam of all the different forms of sexual looseness that you might find. On the one hand, she's a street walker. Chapter 7, verses 11 and 12 describe this woman in these words. She is clamorous, meaning boisterous and willful. Her feet abide not in her house. She is in the streets now, in the broad places, and lieth in wait at every corner. And so she's out on the prowl. She's catting about. She's looking for a sexual contact. She's a street walker. Yet on the other hand, if you look at chapter nine, that reverts to this theme again, verses 14 to 16. She's as well, a woman who stays at home and engages in illicit contacts with men. The foolish woman is clamorous. She is simple and knoweth nothing. She sitteth at the door of her house on a seat in the high places of the city, to call to them that pass by, who go right on their ways. Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither. And as for him that is void of understanding, she saith to him. And so her approach, see, is made from the doorway of her house. She's in the streets. She's at her house as well. She is very simply a woman who is seeking adulterous affairs. Look at chapter seven, verses 19 and 20. She says, for the man is not at home. He has gone a long journey. He had taken a bag of money with him and will come home at full moon. She says, my husband is away, and so we can have all the fun we want. He's going to be gone for a number of days. She is, quite simply, the woman who is loose in her sexual morality, whether she be a paid prostitute, whether she be a woman engaging in extramarital affairs, whether she's someone who's simply dallying outside of the bonds of marriage and sex. And the Bible would have us take note of her tactics. I want to list these for you. The Bible knows the ways of men and women very well. The Bible says, first of all, look at her words. Chapter 5, verse 3. For the lips of a strange woman, drop honey. Chapter 6, verse 24. To keep thee from the Evil woman from the flattery of the foreigner's tongue. Chapter 7, verse 5. That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the foreigner that flattereth with her words. And verse 21 of that same chapter, with her mouth. Excuse me. With her much fair speech, she causeth him to yield. With the flattering of her lips, she forceth him along. And look back at chapter two, verse 16, which we considered a few weeks ago. There we read, to deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the foreigner that flattereth with her lips. You can't get beyond it. Over and over and over again. The book of Proverbs stresses that sins of the mouth precede sexual sins in this woman. She uses her words in the wrong way. She talks about the wrong things. She is a flatterer. She's a teaser. She's a person who uses words as a come on to this man. And her words then gain the prominence that feature occurs in each of these accounts. Just compare Proverbs 22:14. In light of that, there, the author tells us, the mouth of a strange woman is a deep pit. He that is abhorred of Jehovah shall fall therein. So she uses her words, you see, to ensnare someone. She uses her words to engage in sexual infidelity. The Bible points secondly to her lustful beauty. Chapter 6, verse 25. Lust not after her beauty in thy heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids. You know, we can jokingly talk about a woman who can bat her eyelids, you know, and she'll just have the heart of some man. And I suppose if that's her husband, that's all well and good, but here it's not, and it's not at all good. The Bible says, be careful of her looks. Don't lust after her beauty. Don't think inside yourself. Well, what I need is a woman with the following proportions. A woman as the following beautiful face, or a woman who dresses in this way. Don't fall into that trap. Chapter seven, verse nine says, she works at night, in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the night, and in the darkness. Why in the darkness? Well, the Gospel of John tells us most clearly men love darkness because their deeds are evil. Men don't bring things to the light. Men don't like to. You notice when a man goes to a prostitute, he doesn't take a lantern or a torch with him so that everybody will see him and say, I'm on my way to the prostitute's house. I'm on my Way to go to bed with my neighbor's wife. Everyone see that we're going to be over here for a little while. No, we go to the no Tell motel. Right? We go where we can have secrecy, where no one knows about this, because inside we are ashamed of what we are doing. Chapter 7, verse 10 tells us that she has a wily heart with the attire of a harlot and wily of heart. Perhaps not the best English translation. The Hebrew says she has a closed heart, meaning a secretive heart. You know, she is looking for something and she is getting it via this avenue. She conceals her real motivation. In chapter seven, verse 11, as I've already told you, she is boisterous and willful. Chapter 9, verse 13 repeats that saying, the foolish woman is clamorous. She is simple and knoweth nothing. Just the way she carries herself tells you something about her sexual looseness. That's right. Sometimes you go to a party and you see the way a woman goes about talking to other men. And her boisterousness, the way she is carrying herself about already indicates what she's looking for. And chapter 7, verse 13 tells us then she comes onto him. She seizes him, takes him in her arms and kisses him with an impudent face. She says to him, and this is incredible. You think the modern world way to define this kind of religious hypocrisy. She says, I've made my sacrifices today. Let's go have a good time. Religion is a mechanical, external matter of playing the rules. She says, I have made my sacrifices, I paid my vows, and now I'm free to run around and party. I grew up in a Roman Catholic community and I want to make it very clear it's not just Roman Catholics who play this game, but in that community we knew of people who were just the worst in terms of their external moral behavior, in terms of their promiscuity and their sexual liaisons. But they'd go to mass, they'd go to confession every week. They'd pay their vows and go right out and party on Saturday night and have more to confess. Next week it just becomes a matter of a game. And this woman is like that. She's not learned the lesson of true religion. She's not learned to walk with God. She's not been humbled by her sins. She just plays the religious game. And she says, now I'm free to go out and play. And she, of course, has an alluring bedroom. Verses 16 and 17. I've spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, cushions of Tapestry, actually. And with striped claws of the yarn of Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, olives and cinnamon. Well, she wants him to know this is going to be a really nice environment in which to engage in this activity with her. And then she finally, in verse 18 we read, she invites him to an all night lovemaking session. Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning. Let us solace ourselves with loves. She says, this is going to be a wild time. All night long we'll make love. This woman understands very well what we might call the forbidden fruit syndrome. Chapter nine, verse 17, when she calls out. In this case, she's in the door of her house calling out to this person. But here we read her saying to him, stolen waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. What a psychological insight. Isn't that true? She says to him, it doesn't make any difference even if your wife is keeping you happy at home. Stolen waters are sweet bread that you eat in secret. That which is immoral and wrong, that which is forbidden is the most fun. And it turns out this is true. I sometimes have counseled men that have no complaint with their wife, none not with her general lifestyle or attitude, and none with her particular activity in bed. They're satisfied at home. But when they go out on the road and they have the opportunity, there's this something about it being forbidden that's very alluring. Augustine in his book Confessions, doesn't talk about sexual sin in that regard. But the same point is made when he says that he and his friends would steal into an orchard and take this man's pears and eat them. And then Augustine confesses, I didn't even like pears. I wasn't hungry. I did it because it was wrong. And that enticed me to do something that was wrong. And here's this woman, she understands that. She says, oh, don't worry about your wife. The fact that this is stolen water makes it so sweet. What will be the adverse consequences of consorting with such a loose woman? The Bible graphically portrays her, has her down to a T, knows her psychology, knows her tactics. The Bible also understands very well and very accurately, and you must take very seriously the consequences of consorting with such a loose woman. Let me tell you, first of all, those consequences are inevitable. Chapter 6, verses 27 to 29. Can a man take fire in his bosom and, and his clothes not be burned? What a wonderful way of putting it, right? You see this roaring fire there at Christmas time, right? You go pick up one of those logs that's on fire and clutch it to your bosom. You think your clothes aren't going to get burned? Or can one walk upon hot coals and his feet not be scorched? You go consorting with a loose woman or you loose women consorting with loose men. Again, the condemnations on both of you. You do that sort of thing, do you think you will not suffer the consequences? It is inevitable. Beyond this, the sin will not be excused. There will be no excuse offered for it. And that's why we get this illustrating analogy in verses 30 and 31 of chapter 6. Men do not despise a thief if he steal to satisfy himself when he is hungry. It's true we tend to be sympathetic when we see that the man has stolen because he was hungry. And. And yet the very next verse says, however, if he is found, he shall still restore sevenfold. He shall give all the substance of his house. Now probably should read to be understood in our day that's what should happen. Unfortunately, in our society we let people go when we have some kind of soft hearted excuse that is offered for the sin. But the Bible says you understand that a man steals when he's hungry. But if he's caught, he must still make restitution, even if it means paying everything that that he has. He's got to live up to the consequences of his actions. And that's put in there to remind us that no matter what excuse you offer for your sexual immorality, whatever excuse you think you have for your infidelity, the Bible says you will still pay the full price of your sin. There will be no excuse when someone comes to my office and complains my wife is not satisfying me in bed. My wife is frigid, my wife is this, my wife is that. I have to tell him the Bible says that's no excuse for infidelity. There's an answer for that. Maybe his wife has to change often. He needs to as well to be sure. But the fact is you cannot offer excuses for infidelity. The consequences are inevitable. Clutch fire to your bosom, your clothes are going to get burned. And even if you say, well, you know, but I'm poor, I just couldn't help it. The Bible says you will pay the price. And notice this, the loose woman has a very high tally of casualties. Chapter 7, verse 26 says, for she hath cast down many as wounded, yea, all her slain are a mighty host. Here's a woman who, if I could speak figuratively, has six shooters you know, in her holsters. And she's got notches on those handles, boy. She's cast many men down, she's put many people out and she's taken them down to the, to the pits of death. And sheol in the process. The casualties will be high. In fact, Proverbs 23:27 28 has an interesting way of putting this. We should read that Proverbs 23:27 For a harlot is a deep ditch and a foreign woman is a narrow pit. Yea, she lieth in wait as a robber and increaseth the treacherous among men. The Bible tells us that she brings men into captivity where there can be no escape, at least no unaided escape. You've fallen into a deep well when you go the way of a loose woman. And she treats them ruthlessly for all of her impudent face and all of her come ons and all of her pleasant words. The Bible says, as a matter of fact, she's a robber. And thirdly, we read she spawns social destabilization. She is one who increases the trouble treacherous among men. There are going to be adverse consequences then of consorting with the loose woman. And I want to very briefly lay those out for you as we've read them in these three chapters. The first is wastefulness. It's interesting and tells you something about the family orientation of the word of God. When one of the reasons why a person should not consort with a loose woman is given to us in chapter five, that you are wasting yourself on a stranger. Proverbs 5 at the ninth verse. Lest thou give thine honor unto others, and thy years unto the cruel. Verse 10. Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labors be in the house of an alien. Verse 16. Should thy springs be dispersed abroad and streams of water in the streets. Just think about that, especially in the ancient world where you didn't have piped in water, a readily available supply at the spigot, and then you go out and throw a bucket of water away. No one goes down to the middle of the city, takes the time to dip the bucket in the water and to bring it up and take it home and then just cast it into the street. And the Bible puts it that way about sex too. You shouldn't waste your sexual energies on a foreign woman. You shouldn't give your earnings to a stranger. Verse 20. Why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman and embrace the bosom of a foreigner? Your vigor and your earnings are not to be wasted on someone Else that is supposed to go to the building up the enjoyment of your own family and household. Secondly, the consequences of consorting with a loose woman in the most broad variety of ways. Temporal misery. Temporal misery. First of all, bitterness and wounds will come to you. Chapter five, verse. But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two edged sword. Chapter 6, verse 33. Wounds and dishonors shall he get. Chapter 5, verse 11 says, your flesh will be destroyed. We can't help but think of some of the social diseases that go with promiscuous sex. Chapter 6, verse 26 says, it will be costly to you, for on account of a harlot a man is brought to a piece of bread, and the adulteress hunteth for the precious life. In verse 33 of chapter 6, irreversible disgrace, wounds and dishonor shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away. You see, what will happen is that the sinner will be shamed in the midst of society and he'll be left saying, and how often do we see this, this heartbreaking, how often do we hear people who have engaged in sexual immorality end up saying, if only I had remembered, if only I had. If only, if only, if only in the book of Proverbs is right onto that. Chapter 5, verses 12 to 14, speaking of the dreadful consequences. And you say, how have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproof. Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them to instruct them me. If only I'd listened, if only I'd learned my lesson, if only I had avoided this. It was well nigh in all evil, in the midst of the assembly and congregation, brought to shame in the midst of your people, saying, if only I had learned my lessons. And one more temporal misery that you have to take into account that very often you engage in sexual immorality, you gain for yourself an implacable enemy. Chapter 6, verse, verse 34. For jealousy is the rage of a man, and he will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not regard any ransom, neither will he rest content. Though thou givest many gifts, you offend the husband or the wife, whichever way it's going to be. Jealousy is enraged, and don't think that you can buy that off in the day of vengeance you will pay. That person will hate you because of your involvement and what was to be a love relationship that he or she had with someone else. But above all, the book of Proverbs says, not only are you wasting your vigor and your life on someone outside your family. Not only will you be brought to temporal ruin and misery, but finally you will be brought to eternal destruction. And the Bible is so clear about this that the person who engages in sexual immorality destroys himself. Chapter 6, 6:32. At the end, he who doeth it, he doeth it. Who would destroy his own soul? When you make the wrong kinds of decisions about life, when you engage in what is to be the fast track of life, when you go the way of the loose woman, you destroy your own soul. You're like an animal led away to slaughter. Chapter 7, verse 20, 22. He goeth after her straightway as an ox goeth to the slaughter. That's the shameful thing. You see someone who thinks he is in control, he's really living it up, he's got it made. And as a matter of fact, the hook is in his nose and he's being brought to the place where his throat's going to be slit right away to slaughter. Indeed, death in Sheol will be the final outcome of his lifestyle. Chapter 5, verses 5 and 6. Her feet go down to death. Her steps take hold on Sheol so that she findeth not the level path of life. She goes right down to hell. Chapter 7, verse 27. Her house is the way of Sheol, going down to the chambers of death. Think about that next time you think about going to a motel with some woman or going to some place of harlotry, that what you're going into are the very chambers of hell. The Bible says. It's even more graphically portrayed in chapter 9, verse 18, where the woman invites you into her home and we read, but he knoweth not that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of hell. You go into her home, you sit at the table with people who have gone to hell, and that's where you're going when you join her at that moment, meal. Indeed, when we will not listen to what the Bible says about the proper use of sex, we will come under the final, eternal, irrevocable judgment of God. Chapter 5, verses 21 to 23. For the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah. And he maketh level all his paths. His own iniquities shall take the wicked, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sin. He shall die for lack of instruction. And in the greatness of his folly, he shall go astray. Hebrews, the fourth chapter, verse 13, tells us that every creature is laid open and bare before the eyes of him with whom we have to do. God sees it all. You may go in the darkness, you may go secretively to take of stolen waters, thinking they are so sweet. But God sees it all. You may hide from your best friend friend. You may hide from your mate what you've been doing, but God sees it all. And God will take the sinner in his craftiness and God will bring him to destruction. In First Corinthians 6, verses 9 to 20, Paul makes it very clear that unrepentant fornicators cannot inherit the kingdom of God. And so now you see what the Bible understands about the ways of a loose woman and a loose man. Fools and loose women. Women understands very well their motivation very well their tactics, their way of life. And understands very well also the adverse consequences of consorting in sexual sin, a wasting of your vigor, a breaking down of your family, temporal misery and eternal destruction. And so how shall we escape the destruction of the loose woman? How can we avoid falling into the pit that the Bible is describing here? And there are four things that we read about in this passage very briefly. First of all, by the way, you're probably not going to take the first two seriously. That's what worries me. I can give you some direct advice and will in a moment give you some direct advice about avoiding sexual immorality. But the first two points are in a real sense the conditioning, foundation, necessary foundation for the the last two. The first is hearken to parental wisdom and instruction. What? That's right. Listen to the way you were brought up. Listen to your mom and dad and you children here, especially you teenagers in particular. The Bible says, listen to your mom and dad when they teach you about sex. Listen to them. When they try to teach you about self control and the proper use of your body, hearken to that instruction. Chapter five, verses one and two begins, that way. My son, attend unto my wisdom. Incline thine ear to my understanding, that thou mayest preserve discretion and that thy lips may keep knowledge. Verse 7. Now therefore my sons, hearken unto me, and depart not from the words of my mouth. Verses 12 and 13. And say, how have I hated instruction and my heart despised Reproof. Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me. Chapter 6, verse 24. To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the foreigner's tongue, that's what the commandment is, a lamp, and law is light. Reproofs of instruction in the way of life. To keep thee from the evil woman. And then finally, chapter seven, verses one to five. My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments and live. And my laws, the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy fingers. Write them upon the tablet of thy heart. Say unto Wisdom, thou art my sister and so forth. Why, verse 5. That they may keep thee from the strange woman. You see, the instruction of the home is the foundation of sexual chastity. Children who have learned to be teachable before their mothers and fathers, who have been brought up to know the right way and are willing to remember. Remember that. Children who don't go off to college so they can finally get away from the nagging of mom and dad about getting in on time and seeing the right people and living the right kind of life. Children who, when they are away from home, still have their mother and father's words echoing in their ears. They will be the children that avoid the sexual immorality. The first thing you must learn is to hearken to the wisdom of a godly home. Secondly, you must not have a foolish and sinful nature which, because it is void of understanding, ensnares you. Notice how Chapter 5, verses 22 and 23 puts it. He goeth after her straightway as an ox to the slaughter. Or as one in the fetters to the correction of the fool. Till an arrow strike through his liver. As a bird hasteth to the snare and knoweth not that it is for his life. You see, this person has not been prepared. This person has a nature that is easily ensnared in this kind of sin. Look at chapter six, verse 32. He that committeth adultery with a woman is void of understanding. Chapter 7, verses 6 and 7. For at the window of my house I looked forth through my lattice. I beheld among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding. In verse 25, we just looked at. Let not thy heart decline to her ways. Go not astray in her paths. Guard your heart, lest it decline to her ways. Don't be void of understanding. His own iniquities shall take the wicked. And he shall be holden with the cords of his sin. He shall die for lack of instruction. Why do men go to harlots? Why do men engage in adultery? Why do women act in a loose way with respect to their sexual behavior? Because they have no inner strength of spiritual character. And that's the key. This is not simply a resolution to remain sexually pure. The Bible is talking about a more general understanding, wisdom, spiritual maturity. You show me a man who's reading his Bible every day. You show me a man who comes to tears and is humbled by his sins. You show me a man who's regularly taking the Lord's Supper and attending church, a man who's going to Bible study, a man who has the fellowship of God's people. You show me that man who will then willingly, in the afternoon or in the late evening, go to a harlot. It doesn't happen, my friends. I have not known a man yet who engaged in that kind of behavior, who, if you ask about his general spiritual strength, didn't have a much fuller story to tell about how he has wandered from God, how his heart is not right with God, how he doesn't care about the things of the Lord, how he's lost his interest in righteousness, how he does not hunger and thirst for the things of God. The Bible says if you do not protect your heart, if you do not have wisdom within you, if you do not have understanding in the most broad spiritual sense, then you will be ensnared. The loose woman will make easy prey out of you. Where does fidelity come from? It comes from a broader, deeper heart of fidelity that knows God. And that message is so important here. See, when the moment of temptation comes, I don't want to say it's too late, but virtually it's too late. If you haven't got the inner strength there to want to please God, what then will keep you from going the ways of the harlot? Very little. Maybe fear of being caught. Maybe some inner sense of guilt. Maybe. But you see, what we need is a heart that's not even prone to be tempted. Thirdly, very simply, don't go near her. Jesus put it this way. If your hand or your eye offend you, pluck it out, cut it off. For it's better to enter into heaven maimed than to enter into hell whole. Jesus did not, not mean that literally. He did not mean we should go around plucking out our eyes. He meant very graphically, though every occasion for sin should be put away from you. It's far more important to avoid what may be a real wonderful party and go to heaven than to go to that party and fall into the temptation of an adulteress or a harlot or someone that you've been having trouble with in terms of temptation. Do not do it. Don't go near. The Bible says, Chapter 5, verse 8. Remove thy way far from her. Come not nigh the door of her house. Combustible material does not flame up until what? Until there's a spark. And so if you want to avoid being consumed in flames, don't go near the sparks. Very simply, don't go near her house. Stay out of that area of town. Don't read the wrong kind of literature. Don't go to the wrong kind of movies. Avoid occasions for temptation. And then, fourthly and gloriously, the best part of all. How do you avoid a loose woman? Make love with your own wife. Chapter 5, verses 15 to 20. Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. Should thy springs be dispersed abroad and streams of water in the streets. Let them be for thyself alone and not for strangers with thee. Let thy fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of thy youth as a loving hind in a pleasant doe. Let her breast satisfy thee at all times. And be thou ravished always with her love. For why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman and embrace the bosom of a foreigner? The Bible says, very simply that God's answer to fornication is marital sex. Isn't that what Paul says in First Corinthians 7:2? Because of fornication, let every man have his own wife and every woman her own husband. Because of fornication, don't defraud one another. This may sound very strange to hear from a Christian pulpit, but it's God's word. You're under moral obligation to have a good sex life. It's just that simple. It may be embarrassing to you, but that's what I have to tell you. You must have a good sex life with someone to whom you are married if you're going to avoid the ways of a loose woman. Notice here in Proverbs that the word cistern and the word well are in the singular. You don't have a lot of wells. You draw water from one well. The wife of your youth, your childhood sweetheart, if we can put it that way. That's really a beautiful picture. And the Bible says, stick with it. God's answer for fornication is sex within marriage. You see, Proverbs and the Bible generally is not at all against sexual pleasure. Not at all. The writers of Scripture did not have a negative attitude towards sex. There's not the slightest bit of aversion to sexual enjoyment. There's no squeamishness about discussing it in the Bible. How often does it come up? The Bible's not squeamish about sex. We are, because we think we're supposed to be more spiritual than the Bible. Sometimes Scripture is not ascetic in its attitude. It rather encourages, encourages the best and the only pure form of sexual enjoyment within the covenanted bonds of holy matrimony. You see, promiscuous sex does not enjoy the intimacy and the intensity of physical pleasure in the midst of an enduring and loyal personal commitment. To put it simply, modern sex divorces genitals from the heart. The Bible says the best form of sex is a form of sex that begins with the heart. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. Let her breast satisfy thee. Be ravished with her love. That verb there, be ravished is really wonderful. It means frankly infatuated. The Revised standard puts it that way. The Hebrew means to go astray, to be lost in something. In Proverbs 21, also in Isaiah 28:17 or verse 7 of Isaiah Isaiah 28, the same verb is used for the effects of being intoxicated, for strong drink. Very simply, what the Bible is telling us is lose yourself completely. Go head over heels. Be intoxicatingly lost in the love of your wife. Now where did we ever get the idea that the Bible was against fun and pleasure? The Bible is in favor of the highest form of fun and pleasure when it's against be ravished always with the love of your wife. Do we have any fools or loose women who are listening this morning? Probably so. Do you want to avoid being a fool or a loose woman? Then hear what the Bible says to you. First of all, make very sure that you listen to your parents instruction and parents. Make sure you're instructing your children about matters of sex. Don't be embarrassed about it. Secondly, make sure you have a nature, generally a spiritual nature, that is mature and strong in the Lord. Thirdly, don't go to the places and around the people. That will bring you very low. And fourthly, see to it that you have one whale of a good marriage. Because then, you see, you won't be tempted by the foolish woman, the one who walks in a loose and promiscuous way. You'll be rather ravished and head over heels for your own wife. Let's pray. Lord, we recognize this morning that if we are unfaithful to one another, it really bespeaks a much broader and deeper unfaithfulness that we have towards you. We thank you that you, even in the midst of our infidelity, in the midst of our impurity, in the midst of our lust and, and are whoring after other gods came into our life. And took us to yourself and did create the church of Jesus Christ as his bride. And you have made us part of that body. Lord, we value that relationship. It's a very deep and wonderful and significant thing to us that we are your people and are married to you and have an obligation of marital faithfulness and loyalty to you. Lord, we pray this morning that you would make that same lesson come to expression in the way we treat one another. That as we are faithful to you in the covenantal bonds of salvation, make us faithful to one another in terms of our sexual behavior. Give us good marriages, Lord. Happy marriages. Marriages where sex is not subordinated. Where sex is seen as a beautiful thing to enjoy and an expression of love. And keep our marriages pure as we are loyal to one another. Set before the eyes of our young people and those who are unmarried in our congregation. That their only true fulfillment in terms of sexual satisfaction is to be found there in marriage. Keep us true to this ideal, even as you will keep us true to yourself. And forgive us of our so many sins. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.