Welcome to the For the Gospel Podcast, where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Kosti Hinn, and I want to welcome our listeners on Apple, Spotify, and those of you enjoying this on our YouTube video podcast format. And I also want to greet those of you who are listening around the world since For the Gospel is actively downloaded in a number of different countries globally. This is episode two of our series on sexual immorality. We started off last time with a clear definition of what sexual sin is all about. And I want to do this series because we need to navigate one of the great temptations and challenges in life for us as Christians, just like anybody, every human being is tempted to sexual sin. And even as Christians, we are righteous in Christ. We are going to uh heaven as far as our assurance and the looking forward to eternity, and yet we still sin. We're gonna wrestle with it. Sin is a part of life in that sense that we're not yet in the perfect. And in particular, sexual sin is a favorite tool of the devil. Nobody in their right mind is gonna ever argue against uh pornography as being prevalent today, sexual sin as being prevalent today. The pornography industry remains one of the most lucrative markets in the world. Online use of pornography and its distribution is at all-time highs in many different studies. The stats are clear. And when you pair that with apps that encourage sexual immorality and the breakdown of relationships and adultery and sexual promiscuity of all kinds, the nature of human sin and immorality is on display 24 hours, seven days a week. And when you think about how little we actually need media in order to be exposed to sexual sin, you can actually begin to realize that in normal life, without a screen, people in general, if you put them together, are tempted to sexual sin. Sexual sin was prevalent in the Bible. They didn't have Instagram, they didn't have uh YouTube, they didn't have any type of media with a screen, and yet sexual immorality invaded society. So the Bible has a lot to say about it, and it's still applicable as it was then, it is now. And the Bible specifically gets into the steps that lead to sexual sin because sexual sin takes no prisoners. Sexual sin is irrespective of time frame in history, it is prevalent from adultery to infidelity. There are a myriad of ways in which people get lured in, pornography, of course, being a prevalent one. The goal of Satan is to devour people through sexual sin. So in this episode, I'm going to boil down some of the basics and go to a particular passage that will help us. But I really want to preface this by helping you who are married or desire to be married understand that uh the statistics on adultery are an eye-opening way to gauge the state of the world and immorality. You say, well, even if I'm single, what does this have to do with me? When you think about adultery, you begin to think the sexual assault on all relationships. There was a recent study that found that 26% of its respondents had experienced infidelity in their marriage. And that is not including those in the report who have had emotional affairs. And so you have a lot of people, who are at least the ones who are honest in these types of studies, committing adultery, experiencing infidelity in their marriage, be it their fault or the other party. You have a lot of people who are not leaving and cleaving, not only from mom and dad, but from the ways of this world. There are people who have given themselves over to sexual sin and just said, well, that's normal, that's our marriage. People practice these open marriages and different forms of sexual sin within marriage, all in an effort to either gratify themselves, no doubt, but also say, Well, if I if I allow them to do this, or if we don't do this, then, and then there's some uh outcome that they're fearful of, so why not just allow people to do that? You get these kind of co-parenting relationships or open marriages in which people just say, Well, we're gonna do what we want, which keeps the relationship uh together or bonded to some degree, and it's better than getting a divorce. Look, society is going the direction that the devil has strategically wired it towards. Self-regatification, I do what I want, I'm sucked into what feels good, I'm presented sexual sin as though it's this great high, and if I just experience it, I'll be fulfilled. And then, like any drug, it leaves you empty and broken. Uh, studies galore can make the case, but the reality is the Bible is the best place to go to. The Bible describes sexual sin, the steps to sexual sin in a very provocative way in Proverbs chapter seven. And so I'd like you to turn there, or if you are driving or you're working out, you can listen. And I'm gonna walk you through some principles from Proverbs chapter seven. It's a chapter devoted entirely to the what I would just say kind of biblical language, the wiles of the harlot, or the poisonous trap of the prostitute, or if you like more alliteration, the lies of a loose woman. And if you want to just pick on the man as well, the moronic foolishness of a man. Proverbs seven describes this man as lacking sense. He is a fool. And she is on the prowl. So we're gonna walk through some provocative truths here. This is a small heads up for those of you that may be driving with children. Hit pause, pick it up later. Uh, but these are good truths, and I pray wherever this episode finds you, that God's word would convict you, encourage you, and help you flee from sin and keep your eyes on Jesus. Let me just give you a little runway into our text. Proverbs 7 is part of a bigger thought. Solomon, he is uh giving wisdom, laying down the foundations for life, the idea of my son, listen to me, hear me, follow my instructions. And he lays out life decisions and life scenarios for his son, if you will, and you can apply these to your life. And the whole idea of these first seven chapters of Proverbs is that this son of Solomon's wouldn't say, Well, no one ever taught me that. No one ever told me, no one ever prepared me. And in a very real way, I would love for us to get to the place where Christians never say, Well, I didn't know it would end up like this, or, oh, I didn't think it would be that big of a deal. Or, you know, nobody ever told me about this. Instead, we can immerse ourselves in the scriptures and realize that Satan hates you. He hates your marriage, your relationships, your future marriage if you're single, your children if you have them, your future children if you want them, and your grandchildren. He hates your entire legacy, your generation. He hates everything about that which would bring you joy. Most of all, he hates your relationship with Christ. And so one of the ways that he's going to assault that is by shifting your eyes off of a love for God and in obedience to his word, shifting your eyes to a love for yourself and a desire to gratify the temptations of sin rather than go to war against them. And so let's jump in and then we'll land with some applications here. He begins, My son, keep my words and treasure my commandments within you. Keep my commandments and live. And my teaching is the apple of your eye. The idea being this is central, this is what you focus on. Keep, treasure, focus on them, bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart, so get them in you. Say to wisdom, you're my sister, and call understanding your intimate friend. There's a closeness there. You're my relative. Why? Verse 5, that they may keep you from the adulteress, from the foreigner who flatters with her words. I want to begin by understanding first that sentence. The adulteress, the foreigner who flatters with her words. There's this appeal to our ego that sexual sin invokes. Flattery. This idea that we're conquering, this idea that we're enough, this idea that we can we still got it. You know, the phrase, like, yeah, he still got it, that whatever that it is, ego is your enemy and mine. In sexual sin, it's often at the core. I've been flattered, I've been flirted with, I've been lured in to some false idea of satisfaction, ultimately left destroyed. Verse 6 For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice, and I saw among the naive, I discerned among the youths a young man lacking sense. So the idea here is uh this one who is giving the wisdom is looking out and observing society and seeing the community and seeing the city and the landscape and sees a young man lacking sense. This is a young man who is not thinking. He's not being mindful, he's not staying sharp. If you were to apply this with New Testament language, he is not taking every thought captive. He's not being intentional. And so, what do we see right away? Also, sexual sin is not just going to center on your ego and flatter you, but sexual sin is rooted in those who lack sense, meaning this, it targets those who lack sense. That's what the enemy's looking for. He's looking for you to and I to disengage our mind, to not think, but to just act and go with how we feel. Listen to the targets, though. There's more. Passing through the street, verse eight, near her corner, and he takes the way to her house. So he goes the way of her house. Now we see that this targets those who are looking for loose women. Sexual sin is right there for those who are on the prowl for it. So the question is, what are you looking for? What am I looking for? What are you after? You can find what you want. And so what is it that you want? Your affections are a huge deal when you talk about what we love. Do you love God? Do you love yourself? Do you love your sin or do you hate it? Verse nine, in the twilight in the evening, in the middle of the night, and in the darkness. It's secret. There's a reason why clubs don't open at two in the afternoon. There's a reason why bars don't promote a heavy schedule in the morning. Why? Night. Night is when we go to drunkenness. Night is when we go to the pornography. Night is when we go to the adulteress. Night is when you're sending the messages. Night is the time when so many people go out looking for or engaging in their sexual sin. Verse 10, and behold, a woman comes to meet him, dressed as a harlot and cunning of heart. Provocative dress and cunning. This one is dangerous. She showcases herself, the body, the assets, what she can offer. Here, look, this can be yours. Cunning. Verse 11, she is boisterous and rebellious. Her feet do not remain at home. What kind of woman is this? Well, she's a rebel out on the town. She's out there to have a good time. She's out there to show herself off. She's out there looking for it, and so is he. Verse 12, she's now in the streets, now in the squares, and she lurks by every corner. These are descriptors of a woman that every man ought to avoid, and no woman should desire to be. What is she? She's promiscuous. Look at verse thirteen. She seizes him and kisses him, and with a brazen face, oh, there's a boldness in this one. She says to him, I was due to offer peace offerings. Today I have paid my vows, therefore I have come out to meet you, to seek your presence earnestly, and I have found you. She's lustful. That's another thing. She's not just cunning and dressed in a boisterous way. She's not just rebellious and out on the town. She is lustful. She wants to seek his presence. She's found it. She was looking for it. And then look at verse seven sixteen and seventeen, or listen to this if you don't have your Bible with you. I have spread my couch with coverings with colored linens of Egypt. I have sprinkled my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Okay. This woman is prepared for sex. She was looking for it, dressed for it, lustful for it, and very well prepared for it. I've I've spread my couch with coverings. The bed's ready. I was hoping for this and looking for this. See, see how you can't just say, oh, oops, it kind of just happened. Oh, I, you know, I don't know how this happened. I don't know how the adultery unfolded. No, no, it did because you prepared for it. Sexual sin, if we're really honest, is premeditated. Nobody just oops and falls into it. You have to take steps to engage in it. The Bible always speaks so well, and it helps us be convicted and honest about our sin. Verse 18. Come let us drink our fill of love until morning. Let us delight ourselves with caresses. For the man is not at home. He has gone on a long journey. He has taken a bag of money with him. At full moon he will come home. This woman is prepared for it, dressed for it, went out looking for it. She now expects it. Come let us drink our fill of love until morning. That's not love at all. But it's what's described as love, her definition of it. Let us delight ourselves with caresses. She expects sex and then cheats. This is a woman of adultery. This is the adulteress. With her many persuasions, verse 21, she entices him. With her flattering lips, she seduces him. There you go. Persuasive and seductive. She will tell him whatever she needs to to get what she wants. This is a dangerous woman. And you could apply this to men. This is a dangerous man. Finally, verses 22 to 27 outline the slaughter. Suddenly he follows her as an axe goes to the slaughter. She's poison. Or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool, until an arrow pierces through his liver, as a bird hastens to the snare, so he does not know that it will cost him his life. See the destruction of sexual sin laid out by Solomon? He's basically saying, My sons, listen. She may look good, sound good, smell good, and it may feel good. You just thinking about how much she loves you or likes you, what she's told you, your ego is stroked. Don't fall for it. She is poison. Now listen, therefore, my sons, he says, listen to me, and pay attention to the words of my mouth. Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways. She pulls at the heart. Do not stray into her paths. For many are the victims she has cast down, and numerous are her slain. You think you're the only one? No. Her house is the way to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death. That chapter, Proverbs chapter seven, is one of the most frightful in all of the scriptures when it comes to sexual sin. It outlines the strategic, satanic, intentional, demonic approach of those on the prowl for sexual sin. They devour their victims, but the victims are not innocent. And of course, I'm not referring to people who are raped or abused. I'm not referring to those who are children and are molested viciously. No. I'm talking about those who make the conscious decision to engage in this. When we're talking about the steps to sexual sin, we've got to get really honest with ourselves. We've got to look to the Bible and realize more often than not, we know exactly what we're doing. So the question is, do you want to do something about it? Do you want to fight against it or flow with it? And that's where we come to some applications in this episode. I think number one would be kill sin. Kill sin. You say, what do you mean by that? Well, the idea of go after it, attack it, do not sit back idle, passive about it. Don't eat, don't look for it. Don't love it. Don't cuddle it. Don't nurture it. Don't coddle it. Kill it. It was John Owen who famously said, kill sin, or it will be killing you. Today, you're never going to be perfect, neither am I. But we have this to consider. Am I playing offense against my temptations and sin? Am I playing offense? Or am I just passively sitting on the bench and I'm a casualty? Number two, consume God's word. Psalm 119, 105 says, Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path. You can read Psalm 119 daily until it saturates your soul. You look at what God's Word says about itself, and I believe you'll find your spirit lifted. I was talking to a brother recently who said, It's crazy how often my temptations to sin and my failures are associated with a lack of time in the scriptures. And my times of thriving, not perfection, but thriving and hope and joy and filling are associated with my time consistently in the scriptures. The lesson there is simple. God has designed his word to be a filling station for you. So use it, consume it. So kill sin. Consume God's word. And number three, keep a close watch on your eyes. We're in a world where you can't avoid it, but what are you doing to guard yourself? Don't excuse it, say, ah, whatever, it's just the world I live in. Don't downplay it. No, think about your eyes, think about your mind. Think about the issue with this young man. He lacked sense. He disengaged the mind and he was on the prowl for it. So you guard your eyes and what you look at and look for, and guard your mind and what you think about. Of course, that's going to lead to guarding your feet as well and where you go. Don't be afraid to make unpopular decisions. Don't be afraid to say, no, that's not going to be a good situation or a good environment for me. The steps to sexual sin for me personally involve this, this, this, and this just about every time. Therefore, I don't want to be a part of around or opening myself up to this, this, and this. That's going to war. That's fighting your sin, and that's strategizing against it. Satan's working overtime with his team of demonic agents, hoping you don't have your sword, you don't want to fight, and you have no clue how to engage this war. And so you fight back by killing sin, consuming yourself with God's word, and then saying, My eyes are the window to the soul, my feet, they are what take me places. I'm going to be mindful about how I'm using my body. Now, I want to stop this episode here because I really think that's enough to stir your prayer life and help us go to the Lord and in that go to the Word and start thinking and processing our temptation. So here's kind of my homework for you this week before next episode when we get deeper into how not to flirt with sin, but how to flee from it. And we're going to talk about deep questions like is masturbation sin? Uh, is there a place for pornography in someone's life and other aspects of this entire topic? We're going to go there. But for this week, here's the homework. I want you, in the privacy of your prayer life, you can write this down in a journal, you can jot it on your phone or just keep it in your mind and pray about it, but have you identified the steps that frequently or typically, depending on your cycle of sin that you wrestle with and how often, have you laid out the steps that lead to it? These will be unique. I don't want to clue you in. I have mine, but you'll be able to identify the environments. A lot of people will call them triggers or the things that lead to that path. They're the things that you typically go back to. Have you been able to identify them? Are they devices? Are they locations? Are they individuals? Think about the company that you keep. How much of Proverbs is about who you hang around with? There's an old adage, show me your friends, I'll show you your future. We kind of eye roll, whatever. It's just about staying away from rebellious friends. No, listen, who you are around is going to influence who you become. So make a list, document your steps, lay them out, and then here's the fun part. What are you going to eliminate? What are you going after? What are you going to change? Ask the Lord's help and for the Holy Spirit to give you courage and conviction and go to war against the steps that lead you to sin. For some of you, it might just be this very video or this very series because you have been the young man or young woman who lacks sense. You're just not thinking about this. You're not going in like it's a fight. You're going in like you're just flowing. No. You've got to lay down some convictions. Maybe you've got to build some fences. Maybe you've got to make some really difficult decisions. Whatever the case, go to war against sexual sin. And it starts by identifying the steps that lead to it. Next time again, we'll take a deep dive into how to flee from sin, not flirt with it. But for now, thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. Thanks for sharing and supporting. If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to our For the Gospel YouTube channel. You can learn more about our ministry or become a monthly gospel patron by going to forthegospel.org. And I'm so excited to be digging into a topic like this. I hope it's a blessing to you and challenges you. I'll be back next Monday with another episode. Keep on living for the gospel.