The False Gospel Of Adultery

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0:09Good morning. Well, uh, I've been really looking forward, uh, to this morning. Uh, that is as much as you can look forward to preaching a sermon on adultery. In fact, I was looking forward, uh, to this morning until I heard Brian Lichty preach, uh, two weeks back on Proverbs five, where he said, kind of so helpfully and so clearly just about everything there is to say about our subject this morning. In fact, that's what I texted him that afternoon. I, I said, you kind of just want to preach that message again. But that was before I'd really read Proverbs six and seven. Only then after reading it, after kind of pouring into it, did I realize that God says something really fresh to us this morning, something new, something Proverbs five doesn't say.

1:16If you were listening carefully, and I'd kind of be impressed if you notice it, but maybe you did. Proverbs six and seven once more talks about adultery, but for the very first time in Proverbs, we hear from the adulterous herself, don't we? She speaks kids. Welcome. We've got some kiddos in here for the first time all year. So kids, if you are normally not in the service, could you raise your hand and let us see you? Let's look around, raise it. I know they're kind of short arms guys, but kind of get 'em up there. Raise them up. All right. We're glad you've joined us. Pastor Rael has told me you've got a little sheet, you've got a coloring sheet. I hope you, I see one raised up bag there.

2:09Thank you young lady. If you've got that sheet, I'm gonna have you draw two things today. So this is the first thing I'd like you to draw. If your mom and dad say it's okay, I think they'll say it's okay. Here's what I want you to draw. First thing on your sheet, second page, there's a little part that says draw or something like that. I want you to draw a stick figure. It's pretty easy. Hopefully you can do a stick figure with a skirt on. Maybe that's the hardest part. Stick figure with a skirt. So make it a lady and out of this stick figures circle head, I want you to draw a speech bubble. Mom and dad maybe help them know what that is. Um, I got one in my notes, but you can't, that's not helpful to you.

2:54Draw a speech bubble and in the bubble I want you to write a seven. That's I need you to do right now. Stick figure with a skirt. In my notes I say maybe make the skirt a little bit above her knee, but I crossed that out. I didn't wanna say that. Um, that's my Bob Jones background. I want you to draw that stick figure. And in the speech bubble I want you to write a seven and I'm gonna have another thing for you to draw here in a little bit. And afterwards, I'm gonna be up here and I would really like to see your drawings. In fact, we'll compare yours with mine and we'll see who did the better job.

3:31So here in Proverbs six and seven, the adulterous, she doesn't just speak, she preaches and it's a sermon that we're supposed to hear and refute. We're supposed to unmask it. She preaches relentlessly, preaches good news, and God, in his goodness and wisdom wants to expose her message for what it is. It's a counterfeit gospel. She's preaching a false gospel, one that promises life, but friends, it only delivers death. So this morning I want us to have, God wants us to have a listen. My title today is my outline. Here's my title. It's also my outline, the false gospel of adultery. That's my title.

4:22It's also my outline if you like. Full sentences, adultery, preaches of false gospel. That's what Proverbs six and seven are in our bibles to show us. And I'm gonna talk about each word in that title, the false gospel of adultery. I'm gonna talk about each of those words from back to front. So in reverse order, starting with adultery. So first, the false gospel of adultery. We see the word in seven, five. Why don't you look at it? Solomon says, listen to me, listen to wisdom. Verse 5, 7, 5, to keep you from the forbidden woman from the adulterer with her smooth words. Look at 6 24, 6 24. Same thing.

5:20Wisdom 6 24 will preserve you from the evil woman from the smooth tongue of the, what's it say, adulterous adultery. That's the subject of these two chapters, just like it was the subject of chapter five. And if you remember, it was also part of chapter two. There was a little hint in chapter two about adultery as well. And just to kind of warn you, spoiler alert, this isn't the last time Proverbs is gonna talk to us about adultery. Proverbs has something else to say about adultery even after our chapters this morning. Why did you ever wonder that? Why? Why does Proverbs have so much to say about this particular sin? Why this preoccupation with adultery?

6:14After all, there are other sins, right? I mean, aren't there other sins you say? Yes, you probably just confessed some of them just a second ago. There are other sins. In fact, the first tempter in proverbs is an temptress. It's not an adulterous, it's a dude. Dudes. Actually, that's the Hebrew. This is Proverbs one. Proverbs one says, watch out for men who lie and lie and wait for blood. That's Proverbs one, proverbs. In other words, it begins with warnings, not about breaking the seventh commandment. Don't commit adultery. It begins with warnings about breaking the sixth commandment. Thou shall not kill.

7:05Same for the second tempt in Proverbs also men listen to Proverbs chapter two. Once more men, this is tr Proverbs, chapter two, with their perverse speech are tempting us to forsake the path of uprightness perhaps once more to pursue a life of violence. The point is there are indeed other sins alongside of adultery and apparently worse sins. Maybe you noticed this last week in Pastor Sam's sermon in the list of the seven deadly sins in Proverb six. Do you remember this? Six things. Does the Lord hate ye seven? This is Proverbs six 16 to 19. Did you know in that list of seven duly sins that adultery doesn't even make the list? The seventh commandment doesn't even make the top seven.

8:03I think that's kind of interesting. Lying commandment eight that's on the list. This is what it said. God hates a lying tongue. That's Proverbs six 17 Murder commandment six murder makes the list. Two, God hates hands that shed innocent blood, but adultery doesn't make the list. So if there are other sins and if there are worse sins, we ask that question again. Why all this attention to this one sin? Why all this attention to adultery? For starters, think about who the author of this book is. You know who it is. Why don't you call him out? Who's the author of most of the book Solomon or as he was known growing up King David's son, and not just King David's son, but King David's son with whom?

9:03Beth Shiba Solomon, the author of this book we've been looking at was the son of a dad who took another man's wife as his own. Solomon's dad committed adultery and that sin his dad's sin. It ruined Solomon's life. It's the kind of story you actually hate to read. Even this year as I'm reading through my Bible, I was so invested. Maybe this happens to you. I was so invested in the story of David that when I read Second Samuel 11 in my devotions, the chapter where all this kind of goes south, where be Shiba takes place. It kind of caught me by surprise. Does stuff in the Bible ever do that to you?

9:54You're reading along and you just kind of forget for a moment. Maybe that happens to you in Genesis one and two and then you read Genesis three and think, ah, stink. I forgot about that. Well, I read Second Samuel seven where it talks about David sin with Bathsheba, and that was not my favorite morning of devotions this semester. Solomon's family, his own family was decimated. Was ruined by adultery. That's so much of what the second half of David's story is all about, the effects of his sin with Shiva. So why is adultery so front and center in Proverbs? Well, let's not forget who Solomon's dad was, but I actually think there's an even more important reason.

10:41We can't miss you. You we really can't miss. We can't miss what? Adultery pictures. What Adultery. Uniquely pictures. It uniquely pictures something adultery. This topic at the heart of Proverbs, uniquely pictures sin or to use the language of Proverbs, it uniquely pictures, foolishness, stupidity. After all, what is sin if it's not fundamentally an unfaithful union? Think about that for a little bit. What is sin kind of fundamentally? You are being united with you. You're having intimacy with the wrong partner, aren't you? That's why again and again, the Bible uses adultery as a stand-in a picture, a vivid metaphor of sin or as it's so often called in the Bible of adultery of idolatry.

11:46We were created for union with God fellowship with God in Satan. He's been playing the role of adulterer adulteress right from the start. He's been playing the role of home recorder from the beginning, hasn't he? In fact, one of the best ways you can tell the story of the Bible is to tell it as God's story of wooing wooing us humans back to himself, wooing us back to the partner of our youth. That's why the Bible's story ends right before that ultimate kind of hap happily ever after. The Bible's story ends with a wedding. That's Revelation 21 and 22, or maybe we should better call it a vow renewal ceremony.

12:34That's how the Bible story ends. The big question the Bible asks again and again and again is who will you be united to? That's what it's asking. Who are you gonna be united to? Who are you gonna be intimately in fellowship with? Who's it gonna be? Will it be the God who wonderfully made you for himself or will it be this home wrecking deceiver who woos and woos? Not because he cares a lick about you, but because he hates God and wants to destroy you. You he wants to destroy you. Who are you gonna be united to? Will it be the fair maiden or will it be this wart covered witch? It's kind of easy when I put it like that, isn't it?

13:22Uh, that's an easy choice. I'll take the fair maiden. But you know as well as I do, the choice doesn't come that easily. It doesn't come like that. That's the problem. The witch is a com cosmetic ninja. She comes dressed as an angel of light or as Proverbs puts it, she comes dressed as a prostitute, proclaiming good news, relentlessly proclaiming good news. So that's who speaks. Let's hear what she says. Second, the false gospel of adultery. Let's look at this false gospel she preaches. In fact, let's begin by noticing that she preaches. Don't miss this. The adulteresses enticements are primarily verbal. Yes, I know they're not entirely verbal.

14:17Look at 6 25. Sol Solomon says, don't desire her beauty. Don't let her capture you with her eyelashes. She is not, how shall we put this? She's not ugly, at least superficially. But Solomon wants us to know it's not her appearance that plays the central role in her temptation. It's her words. Look at 7 21. It's her 7 21. It's her seductive speech that she uses to persuade or still in 7 21, it's her smooth talk that she uses to compel seven 13. Let's keep looking at these. Notice she she, she seizes him. This is seven 13 and kisses him and with a bold face, she says to him, or look at seven five, wisdom is designed to keep us from the adulterous with her smooth words.

15:27Same thing in 6 24. She's preaching and in fact she's kind of in a word battle. We might say with wisdom, a battle of words with God. After all, wisdom woos with words too. Look at six 20, my son God through Solomon's mom and dad says, my son, keep your father's commandments six 20 again, your keep your mom's teaching 6 22. When you awake, they that teaching those commandments, 6 22, they will, they'll talk to you. Seven, one, my son, keep my words still in seven, one, treasure up my commandments. Same thing at the end of proverb seven. And next week, Proverbs eight, Dr. Nannie Nelli is gonna show us that wisdom preaches a big old sermon, all of chapter eight.

16:32She's gonna woo with words in the entirety of chapter eight. So kids, this is your second drawing. Hopefully you finish that first one by now. Hopefully you're not asleep. Mom and dad, maybe little elbow would be a nice right. Now. Second drawing, you've got a stick figure with a skirt on skirt and then a speech bubble that says seven in it. Why don't you draw one facing that one on the other side, put it on the right side that something feels right about that. Put it on the right side. Another stick figure with a skirt and a speech bubble. And out of this one, put the number eight inside. So we've got Fu folly at the adulterer. She's speaking, she's preaching, she's proclaiming chapter seven.

17:18And then we've got wisdom and we'll see it next week. Wisdom's got his own message to preach. Everybody believes the gospel. We all hear good news all the time. And we've got two people preaching at us. And the big question is who? Who are you gonna listen to? Who is it? There's a word battle going on, a good news battle in the world today. And here in the middle of Proverbs seven, we hear the adulteress stump speech, her proposal, her e evangelical appeal. And it is a sermon full of good news. And like any good preacher, she's got three points. Look at seven, 14 and 15, 7, 14 and 15. Let's listen to what she says.

18:06Seven, 14 and 15, I had to offer sacrifices. And today I have paid my vowels. So now I come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly. And I have found you. That is the first desire she promises to meet. Do you hear what she says? She says, I found you. I found you. I have made specific plans and spent energy to find you. Why does she say that? Why does she start there? The the devil knows something very profound about human being. He knows that everybody, everybody wants to be found. You wants to be found. Listen, I want to be found that person sitting next to you, they want to be found. Your neighbor on your block, they want to be found to be desired.

19:17They want to be longed for, searched, for accepted, valued. They want to be loved. This is how one Christian put it in his spiritual autobiography. Augustine says, the single desire, listen to what he says, the single desire that dominated my search for delight and by the light he's talking about sexual experiences. The single desire that dominated my search for delight was simply to be to love and to be loved. Everybody. Everybody wants to be loved. We wanna belong. How much of our lives are spent desperately trying to meet that God given desire? Think of all the ways that desire manifests itself in our world today.

20:16It is an incredibly powerful one. And the temptress, she knows it. So she proclaims the good news. I have found you. And she goes on. Look at verses 16, 17 and 18, 16, 17 and 18, chapter seven. Listen to what she says next. I have spread my couch with coverings, colored linens from Egyptian linen. I have perfumed my bed with mer aloes and cinnamon Come let us take our fill of love till mourning. Let us delight ourselves with love. That's the second desire she promises to fulfill. She knows, she knows everybody wants to be found, but she also knows everybody. Everybody wants to be full. We want to be full. So she says, verse 18, let us take our fulfill of love.

21:31She's talking about sexual fulfillment, which is a powerful kind of fulfillment, but that is just one of the desires she promises to fulfill. She knows the tempts knows about our appetites. She knows we are sensual beings. She goes to great links to show us how she'll satisfy us. Sights, smells, touch colors, cinnamon, luxurious fabrics in all of this. Verse 18, all of it, all night long till morning you've got desires. God given desires, God-given appetites, God gave you senses, fantastic that he gave us senses. The smell, one of my favorite smells. Sun warmed pine needles. Don't you love that smell? You know what that smell, you know what I'm talking about, or the feel of a summer breeze after an interminable winter or the beauty of a sunrise.

22:54The dazzling colors God made us to. When to see and smell and feel those things and to love them, to take delight in them. And the temptress, she knows all of this. She was there when God gave you those senses. She knows we were created with central desires and she promises that she'll meet them, but her sermon doesn't end there. Look at verses 19 and 20, her third point verses 19 and 20, chapter seven, she says, for my husband is not at home. He has gone on a long journey. He took a bag of money with him at Full Moon. He will come home. My husband is not at home. That is her final enticement.

23:54Not only does everybody want to be found and filled, but friends, everybody, everybody wants to be free. We want to be free. We wanna experience fulfillment, free of pain, don't you? Free, free of negative consequences, free of worry, free of sorrow. You want those good experiences without sort of thinking about the receipt you're gonna have to pay when it's done. So she says it's dark out tonight. Verse nine. It's dark out tonight. And my husband, verse 20, isn't gonna be home until the moon is full and bright. That's what verse 20 says. I did. I kind of re researched my moon phases again. It's been a while since fourth grade. She's promising if I've, if I've paid attention, done my research right, she's promising safe and secure pleasures for at least two weeks.

24:54The moon's dark doesn't exist. It will be full about 15 days. Let's go. Let's fill ourself with love until then you belong. You'll be filled, you're free. She preaches, come to me, all who want to be found and filled and freed. And take a look at verse 21. That's just what the young man does. She is a persuasive evangelist. Her sermon ends and he walks the aisle like a big dumb ox. That's my paraphrase of verse 22, like a big old dumb.

25:41But that's not the end of the story is it? This chapter isn't about the gospel of adultery. It's about the false gospel of adultery. So third, third part of our summary, let's talk about the falsehood of her speech. How should I think about her proposal? How should I respond? Should call her bluff. That's what you should do. You should call her bluff. Unmask. The temptress after all her gospel is false. She knows it. You know it. God knows it. Look at seven 13. This was fresh insight for me this week. In fact, I wrote in my moka notebook on Monday morning. Here's what I wrote. I wrote, does Satan believe his own lies? It's an interesting question, isn't it? Does he believe his own lies? The answer is no.

26:44He does not believe his own lies. He does not believe them. He's not only a deceiver friends, but he knows he's a deceiver. Two, two summers back, my family and I, we flew to Arizona, probably my top, uh, my Mount Rushmore Voca uh, vacations. This is up there. We flew to Arizona. It didn't start that way, which you're about to hear. We flew out to Arizona and when we landed my in-laws asked us, kind of an easy job, would you pick up the renter rental car that we've reserved? And I said, easy peasy. I absolutely I'll take care of that. Wrong. It was not easy. The company where they rented the car from, promised the shuttle to pick you up at the airport since they were located some distance from the airport. But at the airport when I called, they said, the shuttle isn't working today.

27:38So they promised to spot me for an Uber first sign of trouble that I missed. After a 15 minute Uber, we arrived at what I can best describe as a geriatric home for cars. Specifically a place where a econo line vans go to die. That's where all the youth groups in Americas in their vans, second sign of trouble that I missed and all this was before I went inside and was told I would not be reimbursed for my Uber. And worse, the price my father-in-law had negotiated, never existed. That's what they said. Your father-in-law made it up. That particularly upset one of my kids to hear only a price several hundred dollars more had ever existed.

28:37Hundred dollars more for vans, as I've said that looked like they were not long for this world. Third sign of trouble. And that's when things went bonkers. We were all five comptons, all five of us. I got kids. All of us were yelled at, sworn at blamed and summarily kicked out of the company and onto the curb with all our bags and no car in a rough part of town. Miles from the airport under the scorching Phoenix sun. Thankfully I had a friend who came to our rescue. That's another story. But while we waited for this friend and kind of calmed down, as dad kind of calmed down, we decided to look up the company's website and leave a do not ever use this company in your life review.

29:41And that's when we discovered something really interesting. That review had already been written about a dozen times. So many just like us, had been lured to this den of thieves by the same false promises we had been lied to. And so had dozens of other customers. The company had made false promises to us and they knew it. So said the dozen reviews that were on the website that we hadn't read in advance. Let that be a subtle application for you this morning. So friends, friends, like the Phoenix Rental Car Company, that's its name. Don't ever use it. Okay? A thousand reviews were just written like the Phoenix Rental Car Company, the adulterous.

30:39She's lying to you and she knows it. That is a big point for you to remember. She's lying to you. She's making promises to you. And she knows she can't fulfill those promises. Look at verse 13. She seizes seven 13, she seizes him and kisses him. And with a bold face says to him her little sermon that we talked about with bold face, she preaches her gospel all the while. Look at 7 27, all the while knowing that her house is the way to Shao going down to the chambers of death. Friends, she's got a ton of really bad reviews. She's got a skeleton collection in her basement that she's not gonna tell you about, but she fully plans to add you to.

31:40She knows, she knows she's seducing you to death. She knows it. But so do we. I love this about Proverbs. We, we know this already. I love this about Proverbs. This attention to reality should be no surprise to us. That adultery isn't all it's cracked up to be. That should not surprise you, that cheating, disloyalty, breaking trust with somebody you've made promises to. We should know that that kind of activity isn't all it's cracked up to be. That's why we're not surprised when Solomon tells us in 6 29 that none who touches her, that's the neighbor's wife, none who touches her will go unpunished. That's no surprise to us.

32:36We're not surprised by the consequences that Solomon describes in such vivid detail in these two chapters. Most of us, most of us have enough since we've, we've seen enough of the world to say, yep, that's right. Adulterers are in for trouble. You don't have to be a divorce attorney to know that. You don't have to be chased all around town by a jealous husband to know this friends you. You just have to be paying attention. You just have to be watching the world that God has made. God in his goodness has designed the world to show us that sin doesn't work. There's a grain to the world like, like a piece of wood. There's a grain to the world.

33:28And if you go against it, what are you gonna get? You're gonna get splinters and they're gonna hurt God's designed things this way, not because he wants to take away your fun. It's not why he just designed it that way. It's not designed. It just so you couldn't go both ways on. His grain of wood doesn't just, he's not trying to take away your fun. He's trying to keep you from ending up as a pile of bones and the seductresses basement. Proverbs is saying, don't be a fool. Learn. Learn from what you've seen. Learn from the skeletons in her basement. Read the reviews.

34:11Let the design of God's kind of cause effect world help you see through the temptresses lies. God has designed the world to call her bluff. Solomon is saying, don't miss it. God is saying, don't miss it. She knows she's lying. We know she's lying. And finally, and no surprise to us, God knows she's lying. That's the takeaway from the fact that we're reading about all this in God's book. That's why wisdom has so much to say in proverb six and seven. God so badly wants to tell you where the good life is and where it isn't. That's why he talks so much in Proverbs. That's why he says that what he says, he's so badly wants to tell you where is the good life and where isn't it? He wants you to know so badly wants you to know. So he says, look at six 20, my son, 6 27 1, my son twice, but that's not it. Look at 7 24.

35:26My sons three times can, can you hear the urgency of our good Father? Listen to me. He's saying, sons and daughters creatures made in my image. Listen please. Friends, this book in our laps is such a gift. God's given it to you not to ruin your fun. He wants to save your life. All right, let me end with this. God is so interested in saving our lives, so interested in showing us how to live the good life that he exposes. The devil's lies again and again and again. He woos and he warns because he loves us. That's why he does it. I think that is an incredible truth. God woos and he warns. He loves you.

36:34He loves us. He's given us this book. He's designed his world so that we don't sin and end up in a union will regret. Friends, the adulterous is lying to you. Sin is lying to you. How good is it of God to tell you that? Isn't that a gift? You're being lied to. Don't listen. It's not gonna end well. Ruin and misery are on that path. You've seen it. Don't go that way. God says again and again and again. He tells us what, what an act of love that is. But it's even better than that, isn't it? My sons, my daughters, God says, don't sins. Proverbs six and seven, sons and daughters in this room, north church. God is telling you, he's looking at you from these words in the book.

37:35Imagine his face looking up from the text at you. He's saying, don't sin. Don't sin, but, and this one kind of blows the socks off the devil's enticements. The devil has no enticement that can match this one. God says, don't sin, but if you do, when you do, when you sin my son Jesus, the righteous one, I've given him to take away your sins. I've given him to you. I've given to you what is most precious to me, to wipe your slate clean. He will cleanse you. That's why cinnamon to the world don't sin. But friends, when you do, God says, that's why I've gifted you my son, the Lord Jesus. And if you'll confess your sins, confess your need to be cleansed, God is faithful and he is just, and he will forgive you your sins.

38:49I like this last part. I like the front part too, but I like this last part. And he will cleanse you from com. All righteousness, all unrighteousness. Does it say some unrighteousness, just a little bit of unrighteousness. One or two unrighteousness. Friends. The devil can't promise you that, but God does. He loves you. He loves you. He'll cleanse you from every illicit union. And some of you need to hear this today. That includes adultery. He'll cleanse you, he'll wash you, clean all unrighteousness forever, gloriously taken away sins. Good news just can't match that. Can't hold a candle to that.

39:39That is the truest and best news you're ever gonna hear today or tomorrow. Listen to it, friends. Treasure that news. Treasure it for God's glory. Embrace it. Love it for your good. Let me pray for us. Lord, thank you for this good word. You've given us a good word from a strange place, from the mouth of the adulterous. You've shown us in a sparkling way the glorious goodness of the true news, the true good news. Forgive us for being duped, seduced, for believing her lies.

40:32We are sorry you are the best spouse we could ever hope for. Why would we want to be united with anyone else? Forgive us. We don't wanna listen to her lies. We want to unmask them. We want, we want to disrobe them and show her for what she is. We do not wanna be disloyal to you. God. You have been too good to us. So we thank you. Thank you for warning and wooing again and again and again. We want to love you. Would you help us love you and treasure the best and greatest news that you have given to us in the Lord Jesus. In His name we pray. Amen.

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