Realize What Happens When You Don’t Avoid the Deceptive Ways of Sexual Temptation

Introduction:

When Peter wrote to believers living in the middle of persecution his famous verse about looking out for the devil (“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” – 1 Pe 5:8), he could not have meant that the devil only uses the hammer and anvil of persecution as a weapon to ensnare believers. No doubt, Peter was well aware that the devil is also practiced at attracting believers into sinning with the appeal of things pleasant to the flesh and pleasant to the eyes. I’m sure that Peter was familiar with the story of Joseph and the tremendous temptation provided through Potiphar’s wife. The Sage of Proverbs exhorts us to be vigilant as well, as he continues his exhortations to follow biblical teaching about sex, by listing four things that happen to you when you don’t avoid the deceptive ways of sexual temptation.

I. You Experience Something God Designed for God in the Wrong Way, Making It Evil (Pr 5:20)

A. It fails to depict the holiness of proper sexual relations (Ep 5:28-32)

Explanation: The entire marriage relationship––including its sexual component––was designed from the beginning to be a living illustration of the relationship between Christ and His Bride, the Church, as is revealed by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:32.

Quotation: “This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” (Eph 5:32).

Argumentation: Notice that the design for all of the marriage relationship, including the meeting of one another’s sexual needs, is based on transforming us back into God’s original design for us: that is being people who are holy, or set apart for the service of God.

Application: As Stanton Jones put it many years ago, “To have a truly Christian view of our own sexuality, we must understand the four great acts in God’s drama, the epic poem of God’s saving work. We destroy our understanding of the script if we mix up the order of the acts.

Act 1 is Creation. If we do not understand ourselves first as divine handiwork, created in God’s image, everything else will be distorted.

Act 2 is the Fall, the reality of which much contemporary liberal scholarship denies. The Fall twists and ruins everything but does not destroy the imprint of Creation.

Act 3 is Redemption in and through Christ. Christ is at work in those who love him, redeeming them and the world.

The final act is Glorification, the expected final consummation, the blessed hope.

The Christian view of sexuality must be understood within this biblical drama. For instance, in 1 Timothy 4:1–5 Paul deals with the sexual views of a protognostic group whose teachings denied Creation, exaggerated the Fall, and distorted the proper view of Redemption. In particular, they despised marriage because they saw sex as evil.

To this, Paul said: “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain food, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.”

From this we can get Paul’s understanding of marriage and sex. Paul’s grounding is that God created marriage and sex. Everything God created is good (Act 1). But notice that what God created to be good has to be cleaned off; it has been dropped in the mud—that is, the Fall (Act 2). Through Christ, sex can be redeemed (that is what consecration means) by being received with thanksgiving through “the word of God and prayer” (Act 3). We must start with Creation, recognize the Fall, and participate in Redemption.

The heart of Christian sexual morality is this: God made sexual union for a purpose—the uniting of Husband and wife into one flesh in marriage. God uses sexual intercourse, full sexual intimacy, to weld two people together (1 Cor. 6:16). God has a big purpose in mind for sex because he has a big purpose for marriage—something bigger than simply a means for us to get our sexual needs met, have fun, have kids, and not have to be lonely.

In Ephesians 5, we learn more of what this bigger purpose is. According to Paul, marriage is to model concretely here on earth what God wants in the relationship between Christ and his bride, the church. Jesus is one with the Father, and he tells us that we can be one with him. We are utterly different from God, but he wants to unite with us (1 Cor. 6:17). This reality can be uniquely modeled on earth through the union of two different kinds of human beings, male and female. Marriage is a living parable, a concrete symbol, that models for the world the mystical union of Christ and his people. According to God’s original design, marriages have grand, even cosmic, meaning. And this meaning remains regardless of how pathetically short we fall of that grand design.

Interestingly, the scientific evidence supports this. If it is God’s intent that sexual intercourse is to bond two people together for life in marriage, what would we expect the consequences of premarital sex and cohabitation to be? Those actions should make marriage less likely to work. And that is what the facts show (especially in a recent study reported by Andrew Greeley in his book, Faithful Attraction). The more premarital sex people have, the more likely they are to have affairs in marriage; the less likely they are to have optimal sexual relationships in marriage; and the less likely they are to be satisfied with their marriages. Numerous studies over the decades have shown that people who cohabit before marriage are more likely to divorce. All of the ways we humans foul up God’s design have long-term negative consequences.

If marriage occupies this place in God’s plan, and if sex is so important to God’s plan for marriage, we can see the vital importance of obedience to God’s standards for sexuality. Sex is a gift, but it is a gift we can abuse. God’s intent is that sex be used rightly inside and outside of marriage. Inside of marriage, its proper use is for pleasure, procreation, and as something to be shared lovingly and with gratitude to build up the unity of the couple. Outside of the marriage of a man and woman, the proper use of sex is to honor God by costly obedience in living a chaste life. Through this difficult commitment, we learn to value obedience over gratification and to serve God instead of serving our own lusts.”

B. It fails to depict the love of proper sexual relations (Ep 5:28-32)

Explanation: The entire marriage relationship––including its sexual component––was designed from the beginning to be a living illustration of the relationship between Christ and his Bride, the Church, as is revealed by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:32.

Quotation: “This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” (Ep 5:32).

Quotation: As John MacArthur says in his commentary on these verses, “Love wants only the best for the one it loves, and it cannot bear for a loved one to be corrupted or misled by anything evil or harmful. When a husband’s love for his wife is like Christ’s love for His church, he will continually seek to help purify her from any sort of defilement. He will seek to protect her from the world’s contamination and protect her holiness, virtue, and purity in every way. He will never induce her to do that which is wrong or unwise or expose her to that which is less than good.”

Argumentation: When we take our bodies which for Christians are “the members of Christ” (1 Co 6:15), and we misuse their wonderfully created sexual components for our own puproses, Paul likens this to joining our bodies to a prostitute (1 Co 6:15–18). This is worldly lust in operation, not true love!

Quotation: To operate in the sphere of love, we need to obey the teaching of the Holy Spirit through Paul. “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Co 6:15–20).

II. You Bring Yourself Under the Judgment of a Just, All-Knowing Judge (Pr 5:21)

A. Even if you can hide your sin from every human being outside your illicit relationship, God knows! (Pr 5:21)

Explanation: Although, in our day, people seem to be much more open about their sin, almost flaunting it before public eyes; generally speaking, people try to keep their sins private, especially sexual sin. God shares this truth with us in Job: “The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, Saying, No eye shall see me: And disguiseth his face.” (Job 24:15). Regardless, we know from Old Testament Scripture that “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, Beholding the evil and the good.” (Pr 15:3). And the writer to the Hebrews expressed that truth in the New Testament as well, “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” (Heb 4:13). 

B. God has designed the universe to have a reliable cause and effect relationship (Ga 6:7-8)

Explanation: It has been ordained by the Lord that the seed of sin possesses its own punishment within it. Not only is this made clear later in our text, but the Apostle Paul instructed the Galatians about this truth in the first century. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” (Ga 6:7–8).

C. God faithfully chastens his wayward children to bring them back from their foray into sin (Heb 12:5-11)

Explanation: To choose to sin is to choose to bring upon yourself rebuke from your loving, heavenly Father. “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” (Heb 12:5–11).

III. You Willingly Enter into Slavery (Pr 5:22)

Argumentation: John makes this very clear when he quotes Jesus: “Jesus answered them, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.’” (Jn 8:34)

A. In Christ, you have a choice to serve righteousness (Ro 6:22)

Explanation: When a fallen human being, lost in sin, chooses to perform an action that all by itself seems morally upright, it is not a righteous action! It is filthy rags! Listen to Isaiah’s description of fallen humanity! “But we are all as an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; And we all do fade as a leaf; And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” (Is 64:6). It is only when you are properly related to Christ that your good deeds can be targeted for his purposes and bring him glory and are therefore truly good deeds. To embrace the concept of living a “good” life and performing “good” deeds while rejecting your need of a restored relationship to God through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross is not living an upright life! It is a blasphemy! It is a lie! Insisting on being able to make your own decisions and choose your own actions apart from the God who created you is the very thing that caused the entire physical creation to be subject to the terrible curse that it labors under today. As Paul clearly says, “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” (Ro 8:22).

Quotation: As John MacArthur writes about this verse, “Freed from sin does not mean that a believer is no longer capable of sinning but that he is no longer enslaved to sin, no longer its helpless subject. The freedom from sin about which Paul is speaking here is not a long-range objective or an ultimate ideal but an already accomplished fact. Without exception, every person who trusts in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord is freed from sin and enslaved to God. Obviously some believers are more faithful and obedient than others, but Christians are equally freed from bondage to sin and equally enslaved to God, equally granted sanctification and equally granted eternal life.”

Application: Only as a Christian, can you serve righteousness. And that is precisely what the father of Proverbs is urging us to do! Enter in to a submissive and affectionate relationship with Jesus Christ, and follow the wise path that his word teaches us.

B. In Christ, if you serve sin, you do it by choice (Ro 6:16-18)

Explanation: As Paul pens these verses, I have no doubt that he is choosing his illustration carefully, so his Roman audience would clearly understand it. Since this situation is not common in our culture, let me further elaborate. Among the Romans, an owner could free a slave outright, or the slave could purchase his freedom by paying his owner. Freedom could also be arranged if ownership was transferred to a god. The slave could then receive his freedom in return for contracting his services. He would continue with his master, but now as a free man. Perhaps Paul had that sort of arrangement in mind when he described the moral choice of which master one would obey—sin or righteousness (Ro 6:16). For as believers, we have been freed from sin, and in fact are now owned by God. We are now free to serve God. Yet we still have a choice to serve either sin or God.

Exhortation: The resulting picture that is in our mind here should be devastating and pitiful. It is like a pig who once had no choice but to be a pig and wallow in the mud and dirt, making a complete mess of itself. The pig undergoes a complete mind transplant, having its natural mind replaced with that of a cat––cats being famous for their cleanliness and fastidious grooming habits. The expectation is that the pig will now stay out of the mud, but instead it goes out and jumps into the nearest mud bog that it can find. So is a child of God who falls prey to the deceptive ways of sin: he does it by choice.

IV. You Invite Death (Pr 5:23)

A. Continued disobedience can cause death for the believer (1 Co 11:29-31; Ga 6:7-8)

Explanation: There were some in the church at Corinth who apparently thought they could get away with their sin, as Paul notes: “For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” (1 Co 11:29–31).

Quotation: Charles Spurgeon once gave the following illustration on our passage in Proverbs 5. “You read, sometimes, a dreadful story of a man being entangled in machinery. Perhaps it was only one cog of a wheel that caught a corner of his coat, but it gradually drew him in between the works, and rent him limb from limb till he was utterly destroyed. If only that piece of cloth could but have given way, so that the man’s life might have been spared! But it did not, and though he was only held by the tiniest part of his garment, that was sufficient to drag him in where the death-dealing wheels revolved. And it is just so with sin. You cannot get in between the wheels of iniquity and say, “I shall go just so far, but no further.” No; if you once get in there, you will be ground to pieces as certainly as you are now alive! There is no way of escape but to turn yourself right away from the evil thing that God hates.”

Exhortation: I can’t say it any better than Paul said it, for it really doesn’t matter whether you are a Christian or not: the immutable principle is that sin leads to death. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” (Ga 6:7–8).

B. Continued disobedience can reveal a lack of being in Christ resulting in eternal death (1 Co 6:9a; Ga 5:21; Re 21:8)

Explanation: A person who constantly gives themselves over to sin must surely take the following statements of Scripture very seriously:

Quotation: “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?” (1 Co 6:9a).

Quotation: “Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Ga 5:21).

Quotation: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” (Re 21:8).

Conclusion:

Mga kapatid, it is vital for you to realize what happens to you when you don’t avoid the deceptive ways of sexual temptation! All the way along in our study of Proverbs, the Scriptures have mentioned over and over again that living a wise life requires following a certain path. We cannot find that path on our own, so we need a guide. The only guide who can help us find that path is Jesus Christ. One of the most prevalent ways in which the world, the flesh, and the Devil will try to get us to deviate from Christ’s path is sexual temptation. Proverbs chapter 5 is very clear in its exhortations to follow biblical teaching about sex. No human encouragement will ever suffice to get you to successfully vow in your heart to follow these vital teachings, so I leave you with the words of the Apostle Paul from Ephesians 5:1–8: “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:”