Transcription
I want to just say that as we study this today, just a little warning. If you have to get up and leave, it will probably incriminate yourself by getting up to leave. Uh, it's pretty intense stuff. If you have young people here today, it's probably be a pretty good idea to to pack up and go uh outside or maybe take them to their class, but it's going to be adult.
Uh, because the Bible's going to be very adult here in a moment. Okay, you guys. All right. Okay.
I'll read verse 10 if you read verse 11. And let's let's measure. Let's take in every word.
"When wisdom enters your heart and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, discretion will preserve you. Understanding will keep you. To deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things, from those who lead the paths of uncleanness to walk in the ways of darkness. And here's where we go today in our study. Who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perversity of the wicked, whose ways are crooked and who are devious in their paths. To deliver you from the immoral woman, from the seductress who flatters with her words, who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God. For her house leads down to death, and her paths to the dead. None who go to her return, nor do they regain the paths of life. So you may walk in the way of goodness and keep the paths of righteousness. For the upright will dwell in the land, and the blameless will remain in it. But the wicked will be cut off from the earth, and the unfaithful will be uprooted from it."
And all God's people said, "Amen."
Amen. You may be seated.
So, we're looking at this series, this this chapter, uh, we've titled "Wisdom Will Save Your Life." You'll see obviously you're starting to see a hint of it even now in the reading. The wisdom of God will in fact save your life. So, it is incumbent upon every single one of us to pay absolute attention to God's word, the Bible. And it may be possible that today, maybe you're watching right now or uh, maybe you're here right now and uh, God's arrow will strike your heart. And if that happens to you today, I want to encourage you, take it. Suck it up. Let God hit you with everything he's got so that he might save your life. So that you might turn from your wicked way and pursue God and find not only life but eternal life in Christ. So let God have his work with you today. Don't be so proud that you've got to get up to think that you got to protect yourself or reach over to the TV and turn it off because you think you all of a sudden now you got something else to do. And a warning would be something like this. Hm. I think I I think I need to change the oil in my car. And you don't even have a car. You'll know that that's the devil trying to get you from hearing the truth.
But God's wisdom will save your life. And we've learned that the entire book of Proverbs is the way of wisdom. We have been learning this in verses 1 to 5. It's time for us to wise up as a people against the worldly wisdom of this world. We learned in verses 6-9 that we need to show up to the opportunities that God provides for us. You can read all about that in it in those details later. Um, or look at our previous study. And last week, verses 10 to 13, we saw that it's not only wise up, show up, but we need to wake up to the fact that there's good and that there's evil and we are to choose today whom we will serve. What will what will we serve? Will it be evil? Will it be good? And this draws a line right down the heart of your life, the heart of your home, the heart of your community, the heart of this nation. There's the good and there's the evil. And listen, folks, somebody's going to win the day. And whatever area good and evil are being battled out, I say whatever area. I believe it's in every area. In politics, in business, in our uh society, in churches, good and evil, warring, light and darkness, warring, the spirit and the flesh, warring. We're in a great war. We're in a great battle.
And so, we now look at this fourth argument, verses 14 to 19, and that is that we are to stand up as a people of God. Look at verse 14. We read it there a second ago and it says in verse 14, who, that is those who are evil, rejoice in doing evil. They love doing evil and they delight in it. Now, again, approach the Bible as a skeptic. Is evil there such a reality? The Bible says there is. Could such an a person who's evil rejoice? The Bible says they do. And the Bible tells us that they delight in perversity that is of the wicked. Verse 15 says, "Whose ways are crooked." We're going to learn all about that. And who are devious in their paths. Wow. Verse 16, "To deliver you from the immoral woman, from the seductress who flatters with their words, who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God. For her house leads down to death and her paths to the dead." We're going to see how remarkably scientific that is. Verse 19, "None who go to her return, nor do they regain the paths of life."
Number one, church, jot it down if you would. We're going to be called by God to take a stand. And it's pretty obvious, verses 4, 14, and 15, is that to stand up against temptation. Will you mark that down? Will you write that down? None of us are exempt from it. I wrote a little book called Temptation, and nobody bought it. You want to know why? Because the title of the book was called Temptation. Uh, somebody told me, "You should have put like puppies and daisy and flowers on the cover and said something like um something else other than temptation, because if you buy a book that's titled Temptation, then people are going to think, look, that guy just bought a book on temptation, he must be one who's being tempted." The ridiculous thing about that path of logic is every single one of us as Christians are under an onslaught of temptation. The only person who is not tempted in this world is somebody who just died. The moment you die is the moment temptation uh is no longer launched at you by Satan. Temptation hits every believer. It hits every unbeliever. It's one of Satan's tactics. And you and I, the only way, listen, the only way that you and I are going to be able to be victorious over temptation is by standing up in the power of God's word against it. You cannot deny it's going to come to you. It comes. And so, what do we do? How do we war?
And so, just a reminder, because verse 14 comes right off of verse 13. Verse 13 is the foundation that launches us into this challenge to stand up against temptation. It says in verse 13, "for those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness." This is the number one thing is to now give up to uh be uh interested in this. This is not a verse nor it's nor is it a theology here regarding losing your salvation. The the question is, do you even have it? That's the most important question you should ask yourself this morning. Am I really a Christian? Now, look, as a Christian, you and I are going to be tempted. But as a Christian, you and I will never, never be abandoned by God.
Amen.
We will we will be tested. And the test will come from God. And it's tailor-made from God. A temptation is something that Satan fabricates to launch against you. The Christian is tested, trials we call them, that comes from the Lord. Satan pulls out one of his arrows and puts it into his bow and will launch it right at you because he knows your weakness, and all of us have weakness. But we need to fight them. By the way, it's my opinion. This is going to sound kind of corny, only because I don't know how to say it rightly, but I know what I believe. I'm not afraid of those areas of temptation. I'm not afraid of those. Do you know what I'm afraid of? I'm afraid of those areas where I think I'm strong. Where I think I can take care of this. Because when you are in a state of warfare and temptation is being shot at you, you're on guard.
Look, right now we're here right now. It's a nice day. It's a Sunday and we're kind of relaxed. Some of you are going to go to the beach. Some of you going to go to the game or some of you, whatever, whatever it's, it's nice. Let me tell you something. If all of a sudden we could snap our fingers and we could be in some war zone, you'd want to throw away your flip-flops and get some boots. Why? Because your environment changed. And right here, right now, in your heart and your life, we need to have an environmental change in our lives to wake up to the fact that though on the outward we may look comfortable, on the inside we need to be vigilant soldiers because we are spiritually at war.
And so when he says here in verse 14, "who rejoice in doing evil," marking the word rejoice, look what this word means. It's it's if you and I didn't live in the 21st century, it would be hard to believe, but you and I are going to understand this just perfectly well that the evil who depart from the path or the ways of God, um, they rejoice. And the word means they're glad. It means to be glad about it. Glad about it. To be made happy about it, to make merry about it, to be pleased. To celebrate. Oh boy. To celebrate. Do we live in a world that announces evil? The kind of evil that 50 years ago would be hidden. Are you guys awake?
I need you to be awake because I'm not even awake. We 50 years ago in our culture, the the sin was hidden. Now it's celebrated. The Bible, a 3,000-year-old passage of scripture is saying, "Watch out because there will be those who depart from the ways of truth and of God, and they will celebrate their sin. They will be so glad about it. They'll be made happy about it. They'll make merry about it." Does it sound like I'm making this up? Or is this incredibly accurate?
Don't you love the word of God? Even when it stings, it's a good kind of sting. I I don't know why. Sorry, interrupting myself. Is anybody old enough to remember? I don't know what it was in our home. There was one thing that was the cure-all for everything. And my dad would go get it. We hated it. It was called methylate. Does any please raise your hand if anyone knows of? Several of you know. Okay. If you got hurt and you're bleeding, the last thing you wanted to do is to tell your dad that you've been injured. Why? Because he would hold you down and unscrew that little knob and pull out that thing which to make it worse has got like a little needly pricky thing on the end which doesn't help. It could have been cotton, but no, they're thinking this is to be applied to wounds and injuries and it's very, it stains everything it touches and they would put it. But that's not it. You forget about the stain and you forget about the fact that you cut yourself on the glass because the math hurts so bad that you would yell and scream. And the more you yelled and screamed, the more your dad felt good that you were getting healed. Methylate. It's probably illegal, which is why you haven't heard about it in a long time. But it stings and it's supposed to be putting out all of these bad things. God's truth stings. But we live in a world right now when people instead of being stung, they rejoice and they flaunt sin like never before.
If you don't think we're living in the last days, I don't know where you're looking or what you're thinking. But when we dedicate things like an entire month to the celebration of perversity, we are far from God's way. And as a nation, the Bible makes it clear, every nation that practices such things, God says he will judge. And America is not exempt. God is not in heaven waving a red, white, and blue flag, folks. He is the holy, almighty God, and he hates sin. And just because we're affluent and just because we're the global world power and because we have this and that and the other thing, don't think that those blessings have somehow put us in some special relationship with God. We need to repent as a nation, as a nation. Would to God that we'd have leaders that would say, like Washington did, of course, that we need to have, Lincoln did this. We need to have a day, this is how they called it. We need to have a day of repentance and humiliation and prayer. That's what they called it. Humiliation. It's when we woke up to realize we need to repent of our sins because we've been humiliated by what we've allowed and what we're engaged in. And we need to pray and seek God. Our national leaders used to call such things. And now in our day and age, if a national leader called such a thing, they'd probably kill them.
Or shoot them.
Or remove them. It doesn't matter. The church should be calling this out. It's the voice of the church that should matter. And this word rejoice. And it's bizarre, right? They rejoice in doing evil. They love it. And they celebrate it. The word delight, very similar but different. The word delight here, that they they delight in perversity. The word delight is the word that means they become exuberant, animated, gleeful, satisfied once having committed the evil. The Bible tells us right here that there are those who plot evil and think it up and rejoice at the thought of it, and then once they execute it, they become exuberant. It's almost um, they're thrilled about it, and then once they commit it, they're e they're supercharged over it. It's like a frenzy. Think of a a shark attack. They just, they take a bite, and then if there's blood, they go nuts. Evil's like that. And it's destroying our world and our culture. And one of the reasons why is that it's allowed to say, "Well, what are we supposed to do?" Speak up. Make some noise. Get involved. Hold our leaders to account and say something as a believer. Look, you don't have to be a believer. As somebody who cares, they're very bold about it. Do we celebrate righteousness? We should. Do we celebrate doing the right thing? We should. Should we not be thrilled about things that are wholesome and good? Doesn't the Bible tell us that we should be speaking of those things that are edifying and lift people up?
I hope that you see that there's a war against what's good and what's evil. The one who rejoices in doing evil and delights in perversity of the wicked. The word perversity means, and this this is powerful stuff. Uh, to be fraudulent because they are fraudulent. I'll come back to this in a moment. With a forwardness or a boldness, a confidence in doing any or all perverse things. The Bible says, and you judge. Now, look, even though the Bible's actually judging you and I, I'm going to I I want the skeptic in the house to just judge the Bible right now. Is that Hebrew word accurate? That those who celebrate sin are very confident about the perversities that they are supporting? The answer to that is yes, which is why you're so quiet. And look, to be fraudulent because they are fraudulent. Say, "Well, that's a silly statement." Not really. It means this. Um, why does someone, this is an old saying, of course we don't do this here anymore, but why would somebody steal a horse or a car or whatever you have? Why would somebody steal a horse?
Yeah. The reason why people steal horses is because before they steal the horse, they are a horse thief. You say, "No, wait a minute. I'm a I'm a judge, pastor. I I sit in court." Or somebody might say, "I'm an attorney. I'm a prosecutor." That's not true. You're wrong. I'll tell you why. You don't become a horse thief after you steal the horse. The reason why you stole the horse is because you had the thought in your mind, I want that guy's horse. And because it's in your heart and it's in your mind, you go after it to take it and you do that because that's what you are. You do not become a criminal when you commit a crime according to God. You become a criminal when you commit a crime in our human jurisprudence of doing things. I get that. But when do you become a criminal? In the mind and in the knowing of God. God knows your thoughts. He knows your heart.
And this is remarkable. And God knows there are those that are rejoicing in perversity. And they plan on it. They plot in it. They It's like, "Oh boy, I can't wait to dive into this next time." anymore to come back to that or to do this thing. The Bible says to the believer, "Watch out. Know this, your sin will find you out if you're a believer." If you're a non-believer, look, you got other problems bigger than that. But for the believer who's dabbling in sins that he ought not to be dabbling in, God is saying, "You better repent. If you don't, I'm going to let the world know about it." You know, that's how God rolls. You know that if if God is speaking to you and he's saying stop stealing horses, stop doing that thing. If you don't listen to him and if you are a Christian, if you are a Christian and you're not listening to him, he will put it, so to speak, on billboards in Times Square. Your sin will find you out. You don't want that to happen. You want to come before him and confess before him and he'll take care of it.
Wow. That's what you want to do. But quite remarkable is the way of the wicked. They just stay at it. 1 Timothy 4:2 tells us these uh wicked speak lies and hypocrisy having their own conscience seared with a hot iron. This is where we're going today. I told you that's why it's a hard message. People who speak lies and hypocrisy long enough, their conscience becomes seared. And the Bible says uses the terminology a hot iron. A hot iron. Have you ever seen someone who has been severely burned? Their skin is calloused. Imagine that happening to your heart. Your heart eventually becomes so sin-bent in the realm of perversity, you can't feel anything anymore. When you don't feel anything anymore, it means you're not feeling the conviction of God. You don't even think it's wrong anymore. And so, you dawn the colors. You dawn the outfit. To dawn the uh team, the jersey, so to speak, of evil. And God says we're living in a time like that. And God is calling our young people and the old people and all people in between to stand up and resist these evils.
In Romans chapter 1, 18, the Bible says, "For the wrath of God is revealed." By the way, the Greek, the Greek word in the original Bible says this: "For the wrath of God is being revealed." It's happening now from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, make fun of the truth, mock the truth. So, just recently, Senator Lindsey Graham died and uh Joy Behar, whoever she is, I don't know who this Joy Behar is. Joy Behar said he supported Israel. He's the reason why so much of our uh government is committed to the defense of Israel.
She's crazy.
"He's in hell," she said.
She said he's in hell.
And um, the Bible warns us about these things like this. But listen, Romans chapter 1, verse 28. "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, I don't want to think about God. Don't talk to me about God. I don't want to hear it." God gave them over to a debased mind or reprobate mind to how do we know to do those things which are not fitting or not correct, not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness and what? Sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness. Yikes. You want to take a shower after you read this verse? They are whisperers and backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things. And he goes on, evil things, but their mind has been seared.
Question to you is this: Why should you trust God? Why should you believe in the Bible? Why should you look to Christ who died on the cross for your sins and rose again from the grave? It's the same Bible telling you this morning that there's a perversity out there and there are those that are bent on wickedness. And God is saying, "I want you to stand and I want you to be different from the world. I want you to walk away from them and I want you to walk closer to me. I want you to forsake wickedness and pursue righteousness." God is announcing this to all of us. He's announcing it to this nation. The things that plague our lives are self-inflicted wounds. Apart, look, of course, apart from those things that are native to a fallen world. I'm I'm not talking about cancers or leukemia. And I'm not talking about that stuff. I'm talking about the things that we do against God and then we reap of what we've sown, and it's not good. Those are those are what I call self-inflicted wounds.
We also see in verse 15 regarding us resisting, standing up against temptation. It says in verse 15, "whose ways are crooked and who are devious in their paths." And this word crooked means to be twisted or like a twisted branch. It's a branch that's not supposed to be twisted, but for whatever reasons, it's twisted. The word also means a crooked path, a perverted or or that which is perverted. Opposite view of reality. The Bible says that those who are wicked have a perverse view of reality. Think of this for a moment. You said, "Jack, that's kind of extreme." I'm I'm going to show you something at the end of this message that is going to prove that point right there in real time. Wow. And then devious. The word devious means having the desire to turn aside. You want to turn aside. You want to depart. You want to go off course. And here's this. What separates the believer from the unbeliever? There are those who will congregate into what we'll call a religious or spiritual gathering. And yet, there are those in that gathering that are longing and pursuing and desiring to draw close to God, to know God, to love God, and to find out more about God and to find out who they are with God and in God. And I hope that's you. I hope that's us.
And in the same group, the same gathering, there are those who have that same burden, passion, if you can put those words together, to have their path altered. They're looking for an an off-ramp. And you say, "I I I just can't believe somebody would be looking for an off-ramp." You're not going to know if they're looking for an off-ramp, but you'll know this, that when stuff happens, they'll they'll take the off-ramp. And I'm building up. I'm building up to something. If they see an off-ramp up ahead, before they get there, they've decided to take it. Are you hearing me?
This is important. Psalm 140, verse 1 says, "Deliver me, O Lord, from evil men. Preserve me from violent men who plan evil things in their hearts. They continually gather together for war. They sharpen their tongues." Who takes their tongue to war? Isn't that I thought that was funny when I was looking at that verse earlier this week, is they they're ready to go to war and it doesn't say about them getting a tank. It says they sharpen their tongues like a serpent. Isn't that interesting? What an interesting war that is. "The poison of adders is under their lips." Yikes. Wow. Graphic. But what does deliverance look like? The psalmist cries out, "Deliver, deliver me, O Lord." So we want to ask the question, what does that look like? Lord, will you deliver me from the evil that is around me? And I believe the answer is in 1 Corinthians 10:12. And it says, "Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." In other words, watch out for what you think are your strong points. Don't trust in yourself. And we're all prone to that. Watch out.
Um, you know what verse 12 means to me? Now, I've never, I when I was in the world, I had my sins, but drinking or drugs was not one of them. I just didn't, that didn't compute to me. Uh, for somebody, that's you. But I, but trust me, I had my other problems. But it would be like this. If you have a problem drinking and you're on your way home from work and you're thirsty, you don't go to Joe's Bar and Grill to get a glass of water. Does that make sense? If you want to stop drinking, carry water with you. Drink that. But don't drive by some saloon to quench your thirst because you'll be gravitated toward what? The alcohol because that is your weakness. Now, if you know that, that becomes something you're very strong against, right? You're on guard against it.
Verse 13, "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man." In other words, Satan will lie and say, "It's okay. It's okay. Just do it. God will forgive you." And then you cross the line and Satan goes, "You're going to hell. Look at you. You're going to burn. There's no way back for you. It's hopeless." Well, you might say to yourself, "Well, people aren't tempted like I am." I want you to memorize that verse. Every single one of us get hit to the same degree. It might be packaged differently, but we're in the we're in this boat together, folks. But watch this. "No temptation has overtaken you such as is common to man, but God, hallelujah, is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able." So, Satan's launching attacks. And this is where we get the term father-filtered. Have you ever heard that term before? Satan might be launching against your life through people, through things, but as a believer, what makes it through into your life has got to get the Father's approval. Even though he didn't send it to you, he'll allow it, knowing that you in Christ have got the ability to defeat it. And what does that do? It winds up dramatically, wonderfully inflicting the kingdom of darkness.
Hallelujah. I don't know about you, but when you understand that, it's like, bring it on.
Bring it on.
If nothing can come to me, but it's father-filtered and Satan is trying to kill my home or kill my marriage or kill my kids, destroy this church, nothing can come through unless it's father-filtered. And if it comes to me, if it comes to you, should I say this? When it comes to me, when it comes to you, you can stand confidently knowing this did not arrive by an accident. God has allowed Satan's evil to get through, though God is not causing it, for me to stand up against the enemy's attack. And God will use the believer to punish wickedness. Amen.
If you don't think so, go look. It just popped into my head. Go look at 2 Corinthians 10:6. When you're obedient to Christ, Christ will use your obedience to punish all disobedience.
Wow.
And he will not uh allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. That's excellent. And I'll take that. That's a great promise. James chapter 4, verse 4. James 4:4 says, "Adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." Or do you think that the scripture says in vain, "The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously." It means he owns you. He bought you and he wants you to be super, super blessed in life. Don't go down the wrong path. But he gives more grace. Therefore, he says, "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble." So how, what should we do? Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. That's a promise. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands. James is so subtle. "Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." Wow, that sounds like a coach talking to you. Strong. Beautiful.
And then second thing is this. Look at verses 16 to 17. Is that we need to stand up against lust. Lust. It says in verse 16, "To deliver you from the immoral woman, from the seductress who flatters with her words." Why does she do this? Well, she forsakes the companion of her youth and she forgets the covenant of her God. So, this is the introduction in the Bible to the adulterous woman. So, but let's be honest, I mentioned this last week. This is Solomon talking to his son. He's going to be speaking to his son about the adulterous woman. Obviously, there's the adulterous man, right? This is not uh gender dynamic. This is gender fluid in the area of if a woman can do it, a man can do it. And what is that? Immorality. So, don't don't ladies, don't think, "Well, he's really beating up on us girls today." This goes uh this goes to all of us. What's the old saying? If the shoe fits.
Yeah. And so sexual immorality. I want to Are you guys sitting down?
Okay. Hang on to your seats. I want to read this to you. Go ahead and put it up. Sexual immorality. The New Testament word most often translated sexual immorality is the Greek word porneia. Porneia. Take one guess. What that word could possibly also refer to? Porn, pornography, pornographic. Porneia. It's an ancient word, folks. Porneia is also translated as whoredom, fornication, adultery, in association with idolatry. I find that interesting because some argue that idol worship preempts all of the adultery or the sexual immorality that's mentioned here because you're the you're the idol that's being worshiped. And so if I'm the idol that I'm worshiping, then I accept all offerings to come into my life. It's my religion. It's my way. Idol worship results in sexual immorality. Think of it, which is a form of worship. Porneia, one's worship of sexual desire, meaning to surren this surrender as worship, to bow down as worship, to give up sexual purity or to yield as worship. To submit as in worship. To willingly hand over your sexual sovereignty as an act of worship. You say, "I don't believe in that." Yes, you do. Yes, we do. Because listen, when someone yields themselves over to sexual immorality, which is sex outside of God's rulebook, God has a plan. To do that outside is to elevate yourself as the one that must be gratified, the one that must receive from the other person or people. And you've set yourself up as the object of deity, as it were. You've deified yourself. And listen, when you give yourself over in that act, it's not only an act of worship. What's going on is that you are willingly, sovereignly choosing to give yourself over. Does that make sense? This is so unpopular. You're I guarantee you nobody's getting in a sermon like this today in America.
You are going to hate me for what I'm about to say next. So, I have you have the choice to do whatever you want to do with your body. You can choose. Do you agree? Do you understand that? From what you eat to what you swim in or to doesn't matter. Whatever you do, there's a sense as it were of your sovereignty being acted by your will. And I'm going to do this or not do this choice. It's called choice. There is a prevailing absolutely stupid, illogical argument that is never being challenged today because people are afraid. And here it comes. Have you ever heard of a woman's right to choose? A woman's choice. Have you ever heard that? I believe in that. I believe in a man's right to cho to choose. Think about it. So do you. Notice how it's wrongly and selectively applied. Again, I believe in all of our abilities to choose as we will. Look, it may be a bad choice, but that's on you. That's on me. Are you with me?
Yes.
Oh, but but I'm going to vote for a woman's right to choose. What do you, what's the context of your discussion here? Of course, that's good. Of course, if you want to have vanilla ice cream today, that's a woman's right to choose. Oh, I see. Now, we see why people don't bring it up. A woman and a man, let's be honest, took two to become pregnant. And then a woman wants to choose after the pregnancy. That's like getting in SpaceX, getting launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, and then calling up Elon Musk and saying, "I want out now." At as you travel at 17,000 miles an hour into, you're not getting out. It's kind of like saying, "Well, you know what? Uh, all this stuff happened, but I'm going to say it didn't happen." Folks, listen. A choice was made. I'm going to give my body to her or she's going to give her body to me. And we're not dumb. We graduated from biology. Babies are conceived.
The choice. The baby inside the woman is not the woman's body. It's a completely different human being. It's called DNA.
That's that's not the point of the message today. But it stings and it hurts because we're talking about the reality of things. And our culture has just said, "No, no, no. We will sacrifice anything and everything to defend this statement, a woman's right to choose, even though it violates so many things because pleasure comes first."
Heaven forbid.
In our nation, God sees this. It's a tragic thing. By the way, can I say this? Well, I'm going to say it. The guy, the guy whose baby that is, uh, if I was the dictator of this country, I would I would I would have that guy be 100% responsible for the welfare of that woman and that child. Period. You know the old saying, you play, you pay. It's the result of a choice. Choices matter, people.
Galatians chapter 5, verse 19. You know, for those of you are visiting church this week, at least you know, at least you know this is not a church you want to come back to next week. Galatians 5:19 Paul wrote to the uh Galatian believers there and he says, "When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, that's what we're talking about. The results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery." That's a wild word. It's Greek. It's pharmakeia. Pharmacy. Hallucinogenic drugs. I mean, he's not talking Advil here. He's talking about sorcery is the kind of drugs you take or something that you smoke or some mushroom you eat and you have a little mind trip. That's the word pharmakeia. Isn't that amazing? It opens you up to another realm. That's why the translators put the word sorcery there. Spirit entrance. Remarkable. I love the Bible. Hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, division, envy, drunkenness, orgies." That's the word there for wild parties. It's the word orgy, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I've told you before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Amen.
That that's the Bible. You live, this is your life, you're not going. No, but I'm a Christian. You're not going. According to your logic, you're the only Christian who's not going. But I'm a Christian and you live like that. This is a habitual lifestyle. Pick one. Maybe three, maybe four, maybe all, maybe one. This is how you live and then you're a Christian. No. It's like me living the life I used to live before I met Jesus and coming to Jesus and then going back to that lifestyle and living it again and then saying, "But I'm a Christian." But I'm a Christian. God cannot hear that. It doesn't work. It burns. It stings. I understand. It should.
She's the immoral woman. The Bible tells us this is remarkable. Please mark this down. You see where it says she's the immoral woman and she's a seductress. You know what those words are? The word immoral means strange woman. And the word seductress means stranger woman. Stranger. Not strange like she's weird. Strange meaning foreigner. Uh, strange meaning, alien. Strange meaning. Wow. We'll see it. In fact, I'll skip ahead. Look at the word immoral. Look at the definition of this. This is who she, who he is. Who is a sexually promiscuous individual? To be a stranger, an alien, the same being but a foreigner. In other words, human. In this case, male or female. But the conduct is foreign. It's not supposed to happen. Some of you who are listening should be catching on to this. Um, the same meaning. Humankind is made up of what? Male, female. God says that in marriage, a male and a female come together and it's his blessing. It's his design. It all, it's everything about it is great. God says, "However, if a male and a male come together or a female and a female come together, it's it's absolute destruction." Same kind, but if they act out of the order, it's foreign. So much so, look at the words that this means. Uh, another unsanctioned flesh. Wow. So, if Bubbles is sleeping with Rocky, what's the translation? That's unsanctioned flesh. Yeah, but he's a guy and she's a girl. Unsanctioned flesh. Rocky is not allowed to uh, what's her name? Bubbles. Rocky's not allowed to touch Bubbles because Rocky and Bubbles are not married in the eyes of God. You said, "Jack, this you look like a two-legged dinosaur talking about these things." Yeah, I know. But you know what? Sometimes truth looks like a two-legged dinosaur, I guess, because here's the word of God up here. And we are warned against foreign invaders, as it were, into our life. The flesh you are not allowed nor supposed to have or also translated illegitimate flesh. Wow. Where does this pop up in the Bible? I knew you would ask. It's Exodus 20:14. "You shall not commit..."
Adultery. Right there. Seventh commandment. Job chapter 31:1. This is awesome. You know, Job was an old man. I wish I had the time. I can't believe this clock. It's wrong. I'm going to identify as that clock being wrong. Job 31:1 says, "I have made a covenant with my eyes. Why then should I look upon a young woman?" Job said that. He's an old man. Let me tell you, you young guys, listen up. Really, let's pretend no girls are in here right now. Young guys, listen up. If you're having lustful thoughts in your mind and you get those images in your head and you're thinking, "Man, I can't wait to be as old as Pastor Jack. All that stuff will be gone because he's dead." Nope. It doesn't go away. The attacks do not stop.
They don't. Young guys, listen up. They don't stop. You fight. You fight against them. You stand against them. But Satan will never give up. Just know that. I had a 94-year-old man come into my office crying. And I thought, he's 94. He's going to tell me finally. I'm dying after 90. I don't even, I don't want to live to 94. Although he was quite agile. He's crying. And then he finally gets it out. He said, "Please pray for me. I had a very erotic dream last night." And I'm thinking, dude, you're 94 years old. Is there any hope for any of us? Yeah, you fight.
You fight. And notice she flatters. The word flatter means that she, the interesting word, the Hebrew word means she uh makes a a distribution with her words. She casts forth her words or his words. Put forth, put out to allure. The word means to divide, implying that her actions are intending to drive a wedge of separation. And the word also means to conquer. She says things like this. The the immoral woman says at the copy machine at work, "Hi, how was your weekend?" And watch this. There's some things that you all know, right? You all know this.
Did you know that you're supposed to be care, be very careful, but in fact, you need to know this so you don't do this. When she comes up and says, "Hey, how was your weekend?" Why is she asking me? That should be your first thought. Why is she asking me? She could care less about my weekend. Um, and you say something like, "It's fine." And no, it's fine's about enough. If you say it's fine, how is yours? And if she just goes, "Well, you know that, watch my shoulder. Listen up, people. Watch my face. I'm exaggerating this, but get it." She kind of like, "Well, watch the listen. Tell your sons. Watch the eyes. Watch the little these. You laugh, but these are indicators. These are big indicators. If she goes like this, she's interested in you. Did you know that?" If she goes like this, like Potter's wife with Joseph. Hi. Hi, Joseph. The Bible says in in Genesis 39, the Bible says in Genesis 39 that she cast upon Joseph longing eyes. Longing. Oh, she's just sending all of this flirtatious indicators, all of this stuff. Why? Because listen, guys, women, listen up, or maybe you shouldn't listen to this, guys. Guys are suckers for flattery.
Did you hear what she said? Then this is you talking to yourself. Did you hear what she said to me? She said she's never seen anybody pull a ream of paper up like that before. She said, "I'm strong." She said, "I wish my husband listened like you do." Exactly. Thank you for gasping for air. The moment you hear that, it's over. You're doomed. The immoral woman will set you up. She's got the presentation. Satan will see to it. You think Bathsheba was a dog? Bathsheba had to be beautiful, or else David would have said, "Next." The beauty will be there, the attractiveness, or the persistence. And these bodily messages that are sent, a little touch on the hand. Watch out for that stuff when somebody brushes over and then they go, "Sorry, a little too close." That's exactly what they wanted. They're trying to send you a message. And but the guy, the guy who's not walking in the Spirit goes, "Oh, that's amazing. She, I think she likes me." She's immoral. She's she exhibits that by her presentation. Watch out for this. Guys, the same. This is a two-way street, people. Guys think this. You're going to hate me. Go ahead. Just everyone hates me. When a woman is wearing certain clothes and she's built a certain way, she's to a guy, she's saying, "Come and get it." And a woman will say, "That's not what I meant. I just, I want to be pretty." Go ahead and be pretty. But a guy, you need to talk to your dad or your or or somebody to find out that those are things that drive guys crazy. Be careful. Be wise.
Avoid the immoral man. And the man who is a seductress goes the same way.
Yep.
He compliments you. Always complimenting you, and he's not your husband. A little brush, a little look, lies locked. What? What? Lies, eyes locked. What is the thing in psychology? Do you remember this? Uh, three seconds. There's like a three-second rule. If somebody's looking at somebody, there's a there's a three-second rule of eyes locked. This is if they don't know each other. And then if they look away and then look back, it's it's over. Dude, the no wonder why the Bible says run. The the Bible says run, flee youthful lust. Remarkable. It says that her um, her path, look at verse uh, and it's it's the end. We're over time. Uh, it's verses 18 to 19. We need to stand up to ruin. To stand up to ruin would be to run. No doubt about it. To run. For her house leads down to death and her paths to the dead. None who go uh to her return, nor do they regain the paths of life. This is quite remarkable because see the word leads, her path, her house leads to death. The word means to slip, means to slip, slip, fall. It means to sink down into her dwelling, to be on a wet, slippery path that is on
A decline. Have you ever seen people go uh on on YouTube? You got those little funny little things of slips and falls where somebody's going down the driveway and it's frozen and they're trying to get to their car just to go to work and they look like they're just going through this thing. What are they doing? They're going down the driveway out to the street until they fall. And the Bible says her path is like that. You get on her path, you're not getting off, you get sucked in.
Listen, you'll know when a young man and a young woman have crossed the line when their relationship becomes grossly inseparable. Meaning, if something breaks them up, if something happens, he can't eat, she can't eat, they can't sleep, they can't do their relationship has been caught. They've been somehow broken up. Maybe he's 13, 15, 16, 18. It doesn't matter when. But when one or the other gives themself over to one or the other for the first time, there is a spiritual bond that you don't even think happens. And I don't have the time to back it up.
The Bible says if you join yourself to somebody that there's a bond, and you're joining Christ to them. And Paul said, "Don't you know that if you're with a hooker that you're joining Jesus to that hooker?" Why? It's spiritual. Sex is spiritual. Yes, it is. You can be that horse thief. You can rob a bank. That's bad enough. But physical contact, God has ordained it as a remarkable spiritual event. That's why, look, I I I'll regain some of my uh love back here in a moment.
The Bible tells us for husbands and wives, you better you better stay together physically and make sure that you maintain that relationship that allows for such an event to be taking place. The Bible says don't stop doing that unless you both agree together to fast and pray and then quickly come back together, or else Satan will tempt you. If you're saying today, I'm a Christian. I don't want to be celibate. Praise the Lord. Then will you ask a a girl out here? Ask her out for coffee. Get to know her. Marry her. But for crying out loud. Don't go to the immoral woman who flatters you on your screen because the Bible calls it porna and it will destroy your life. Stand up to the ruin.
I have so much. You guys scan to You guys have the notes there, right? You can study it later. Things like this. Her house leads down, not upward, but pulling uh you downward like a greased pig. You're already on the slippery uh slip and slide uh to hell. That's some of the stuff that's in the notes that you could have scanned. Um on on on page eight, uh uh question was asked, what are the 10 sicknesses and the diseases among those who are sexually active outside of the bond bonds of monogamy? This was not a Christian report. It's at it's at length, but this has just been pulled out. All of those medical diseases and sicknesses uh reported by the CDC. I'm just going to dial down on one of them and that is uh the destruction of your liver. Isn't it bizarre? Sexual activity destroys your liver like alcohol destroys your liver. Did you know that your immune system when you're sexually active, your immune system is radically compromised and your liver is the thing that pays the price? And when your liver goes out, your lights go out. And I don't mean your house. Isn't it amazing? The Bible 3,000 years ago said, "You mess around with the immoral woman, her path leads to death. These diseases will kill you." And um Oh, there's just so much. I'm sorry.
Um so you might say, "Well, Jack, you've been really harsh today." I I have not been. And I'm gonna I'm gonna ask you to stand, but um I'm gonna for those of you who are visiting from out of California, you're going to be so happy that you don't live here. So, uh the first slide and in light of all that you've heard today, did I speak truth to you or not? First thing, Bill. Bill. This is his name's not Bill originally. This is a Bill. A bill originally seeking to prohibit sex offenders and human traffickers from elected office from from running for office amended to exempt pedophiles. Hey, vote for me. I'm a pedophile. This is in California. Next slide.
Bill to ban sex offenders from ruining from running for office fails in California Senate committee. Excuse me. What? Bill to ban sex offenders. I want to submit a bill that bans sex offenders from running for office. And do you know what the Democrats did in Sacramento? They said, "Yeah, no, that's a bad idea." Wow. Next one. Scott Weiner accused of pushing for exemptions in bill allowing sex offenders to serve in office. He's a state senator. Are you hearing this? This is who we keep voting for. Next, next slide. Or is that it? Oh, to be fair. This is This is 2020. Governor Nuome signs bill to protect sex offenders who have homosexual sex with minors. I'm not making this up. You may not like what I'm saying. I think that's it. Is that it? I'm done. Yes. Good. Who wants that?
If you don't think we're living in the days of the Bible, I'd love to hear your explanation as to how this stuff keeps is is out and escalating and being celebrated to where now it is just the way of the culture of this country. The only hope for America is for you and I and the church to turn back to God. And you listen, if you don't know, you start with Jesus. You and Jesus. This is all this filth that you've heard about today. The stuff that you and I used to live for, Jesus set us free from it. Okay? He did that by going to the cross. He died for our sins and then rose again from the dead. And if you give him all of that garbage and all of that baggage, he takes it away and he replaces it with himself in you and he goes to work in you and you will live because church, the way of wisdom is the way of life. And all God's people said, Amen. God bless you.