Recognize the Deceptive Ways of Sexual Temptation
Proverbs • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
Samson, David, and Solomon: what are common thoughts that are occurring now in many minds in this audience when I mention those three names? They are all famous for various incidents where they succumbed to the ways of sexual temptation. I could name other examples from scripture as well, for there are many examples in the Bible of man violating God’s pure, holy design for human sexuality. When I say the name, Joseph, is the first thought that comes to mind that he is an example of someone who overcame the temptation to violate God’s design for human sexuality when he fled from Potiphar’s wife?
Although we don’t like to talk about it, sex is a major avenue of temptation in the world today, and it has been throughout all of human history. How well versed are you in the ways in which the world, the flesh, and the Devil seek to lure you into the path of sexual folly? Our text today presents us with three questions to help us recognize the deceptive ways of sexual temptation.
I. How Can We Recognize the Path of Sexual Wisdom? (Pr 5:1-2)
I. How Can We Recognize the Path of Sexual Wisdom? (Pr 5:1-2)
A. By gathering biblical truth (Pr 5:1)
A. By gathering biblical truth (Pr 5:1)
Explanation: From a certain perspective, life can be presented as a competition: God vs. the Devil, wisdom vs. folly, right vs. wrong, good vs. evil, the spirit vs. the flesh, and light vs. darkness. These are just a few of the ways in which the scriptures present the battle that rages in this world for our hearts. Solomon’s address in Proverbs 5 highlights a competition that is extremely prevalent in the world: the truth about sex that God’s Word presents to us and the lies about sex that the world, the flesh, and the devil present to us.
Argumentation: The way for us to come out on the winning side in this battle is to saturate our minds with the truth. And, like the father in the introductory section of Proverbs, we need to be passing on biblical truth to our children. In this first verse, we see the father imploring his child to listen attentively and accept what he says as true. Solomon employs a poetically synonymous phrase to picture our response to his teaching by using a verb that means to turn toward or incline the ear. Once again, the implication is to listen obediently.
Application: In my youth, and perhaps still today, Christians have fallen prey to a subtle trap of the Devil. Because the world confronts us with lurid, false images of sex, we have assumed a strategy of believing that it is best not to talk about sex at all. We treat the subject as if it is embarrassing or even forbidden. Unfortunately, in following this path, we have ceded the battleground to Satan almost without a fight, and our kids and our culture are the worse for it. How dare we refuse to talk about what the Bible clearly declares? We have abdicated our responsibility as messengers of God’s truth. We have chosen to retreat in this area. We have fled the battlefield and left it in possession of the Devil and his minions!
B. By valuing biblical truth (Pr 5:2)
B. By valuing biblical truth (Pr 5:2)
Argumentation: It is not enough just to be aware of biblical teaching in an area. Demons know biblical truth. James says, “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble” (Jas 2:19).
Explanation: The father encourages the child to preserve and protect his knowledge of biblical truth. We can only do that as we place a high value on it. The truth can be shared with us, but if we despise it, if we assign it a low value, we will NOT act on it. To be ignorant of the truth and thereby to not live according to it is one thing, but it is far more terrible to know the truth and to assign it a low value and refuse to live by it. This is what the father is warning the son against in our text today.
Illustration: “There is an island in the North Atlantic where people have been looking for an incredible treasure for more than 200 years. So far, they have found bits of gold chain, a stone slab with strange symbols carved into it, even a 17th Century Spanish coin. To date, six men have died trying to solve the mystery, and, according to legend, one more will have to die before the treasure can be found.” Why has all this been done? Because these people have placed a high value on the supposed treasure!
Application: When the Sage encourages us to regard discretion and keep knowledge, he means for us to pay careful attention to or obey God’s instructions. There is a reciprocal relationship here that illustrates two possible uses of this word; for as we keep (i.e. pay careful attention to) God’s instructions in the area of sex, God’s teaching will keep (i.e. protect) us from the severe consequences of illicit sexual conduct.
II. How Can We Recognize the Path of Sexual Folly? (Pr 5:3-5)
II. How Can We Recognize the Path of Sexual Folly? (Pr 5:3-5)
A. Carefully evaluate its promises (Pr 5:3)
A. Carefully evaluate its promises (Pr 5:3)
Explanation: We are told that the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil. This is representative of the false promises that sin and sinners make. Promises of pleasure, success, fulfillment, and prosperity are made with great abandon. The world’s salesmen are selling us counterfeits. In a moral world, there is only one way that is wise and life-giving. Any other way is foolish and death-dealing.
Quotation: Paul indicates that Satan’s counterfeits will be just like himself. “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” (2 Co 11:14)
Application: Since sexual folly comes in to seduce us at different times in our life, our life circumstances can differ at the time of temptation. So, temptation will, like a skilled salesperson, adjust its sales pitch to make the appeal all the more attractive. The arguments for engaging in pre-marital sex might sound something like these: “You need to sample what is available so that you know what you like. It won’t hurt anything. Everyone does it.” Or maybe that person you are really interested in will say to you, “If you loved me then you will do it. I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone before.”
Argumentation: That saying is utterly false! You must understand that no one who truly loves you (i.e. is acting in your best interests) would lead you into doing something that is contrary to the clear teaching of the word of God! These arguments are just like the ones that Satan used on Eve in the garden when he argued that God was keeping something good from the first couple and no harm would actually come to them (Ge 3:4–5).
Application: There are slightly different arguments that could be used against an already married person. Most often these arguments come from your own sinful nature, and they might be arguments that come from desires for things that are right and holy when procured in a biblical way. “I wish my wife understood and encouraged me the way she does.” Or for a wife, she might tell herself, “If only my husband listened to me and gave me the attention that he does.”
Argumentation: There is nothing wrong or unnatural about a man wanting to be understood and encouraged by his wife. It is normal for a woman to want to feel that she is important and valued, an indispensable member of the husband/wife team. Let it be known, however, that you will never get these good and natural things when you place them too high on your scale of values; so high, in fact, that you are willing to rebel against God to get them.
B. Carefully evaluate its destination (Pr 5:4-5)
B. Carefully evaluate its destination (Pr 5:4-5)
Explanation: Consequently, the wise person evaluates the truthfulness of these alluring promises.
Quotation: As Warren Wiersbe so wisely notes in commenting on this verse, “The Book of Proverbs emphasizes the importance of looking ahead to see where your actions will lead you. The wise person checks on the destination before buying a ticket….”
Quotation: Those who would tempt us to sexual immorality seek to do so with enticements that appear as satisfying to our desires as honey is sweet to our tastebuds. K. T. Aitken, in his commentary on Proverbs, quotes an old, unattributed saying, “Honey is sweet, but the bee stings.”
Exhortation: Solomon’s analysis here is so true. “For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, And her mouth is smoother than oil: But her end is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a twoedged sword. Her feet go down to death; Her steps take hold on hell” (Pr 5:3–5). As we continue on in our study of this chapter of scripture, we will see in greater detail what is only summarized here. The path of sexual folly leads toward physical and spiritual death, with many possible painful emotional and financial consequences in between!
III. What Causes People to Follow the Path of Sexual Folly? (Pr 5:6)
III. What Causes People to Follow the Path of Sexual Folly? (Pr 5:6)
A. They refuse to value biblical truth (Pr 5:6a)
A. They refuse to value biblical truth (Pr 5:6a)
Explanation: Those who do not value biblical truth will not spend the time and labor necessary to discern biblical truth. They willfully ignore the fact that a sinful human being’s default setting is to see things according to his own perspective rather than God’s perspective. The sinful source of temptation in this passage lives in a falsely constructed reality of her own making. She determines her needs by her feelings. She spends no time contemplating whether or not her surface analysis of things corresponds to reality.
Illustration: Imagine a person who believes that there is no such thing as personal property. So, your clothes are not really “your” clothes. Your house is not really “your” house. Your purse, ladies, does not belong to just you, and men, your wallet is not only your own. That is the viewpoint of this person. As a result, this person thinks nothing of taking your purse, taking your clothes, taking your car, etc. What is going to happen to that person? Eventually, that person will be caught and put in jail for theft. We live in a world where the creator designed for us to be stewards of certain items. This is why God’s eighth commandment from Mount Sinai is “Thou shalt not steal” (Ex 20:15). This person does not value truth, and therefore, they will not learn to see things according to reality––reality corresponding to God’s view of things.
Illustration: How many in the audience today like to draw, sketch, or paint? Suppose you heard about an art contest where the grand prize was $25,000. You decided to enter that contest, and you did your very best rendering of a beautiful landscape in watercolor paint. You looked at all of the other contestants’ submissions, and you were confident that you were going to win. However, when the day of judging came, you discovered that you did not win, in fact, you had been disqualified. You failed to read the rules of the contest that clearly specified that all entries in the field of paintings must be done with oil paints on canvas, and you had submitted a watercolor. You failed because you did not value participating according to the contest’s guidelines.
Application: The vast majority of people in this world do not value biblical truth about many areas of life, and especially about sex. This must not be true of us! Listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (1 Co 9:24–27). If we are to stay off this dangerous path of sexual folly which leads only to harm as surely as bitter poison or a sharp sword, we must hold biblical truth in the high esteem that it deserves!
B. They refuse to gather biblical truth (Pr 5:6b)
B. They refuse to gather biblical truth (Pr 5:6b)
Explanation: Biblical truth is the ultimate standard by which all things are judged. When an individual does not value that truth, they will refuse to gather that truth. And when that individual does not possess that truth, they have no clue how far their path is wondering from God.
Argumentation: Some would claim that ignorance of a law excuses the person who breaks it. However, this argument is not acceptable for either divine or human law. As for human law, many judges and lawmakers going back at least as far the days of the Roman Empire have repeated the maxim, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.” As far as divine law is concerned, I give you the Apostle Paul’s epistle to the Romans, chapter 1 verses 18 and 19: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.” (Ro 1:18–19)
Argumentation: Others will claim that divine law has been misinterpreted in order to justify giving in to their natural desires. They defy and deny the clear truth of scripture in order to salve their guilty conscience as they choose to live out unbiblical lifestyles. Perhaps the most obvious example of this in recent times has been so called “Progressive Christianity” and its defense of homosexuality. Nevertheless, there are heterosexuals who do the same thing to justify not following all the teachings of biblical marriage.
Application: You need to be very careful to avoid being like the person represented by the “strange woman” in this parental warning from Proverbs 5. This really brings us full circle. The father in this passage warns his son about being susceptible to following or being influenced by a person with no regard for the truth, and his cure for that is to be a person who knows and values the truth. This ensures that we can recognize the deceptive ways of sexual temptation by answering three simple questions that are asked and answered in our text.
Conclusion:
If you use the Google search engine to search for stories of people getting lost in the woods, you will find seemingly endless examples. I read a bunch of them, and not once did I find a mention of a compass or being able to see the sun, moon, or stars. If you want to avoid taking a chance on getting lost in the woods, you need something that will serve as an infallible guide, like a compass, a path, or an unchanging reference point. People without these have often walked around in circles. All have wasted time, but some have even died. The moral of the story is that our trip through life, like that walk in the woods, requires an infallible guide (i.e. biblical truth) if we want to complete the journey successfully.