Remaining In Moral Freedom

“Remaining In Moral Freedom”
Proverbs 7:24,25

INTRODUCTION

  • The word “moral.” What does it mean? The wordal means… 1. manners or customs 2. Good or right in conduct, principles, actions, or thoughts
  • I guess if you want an easier description of the word moral, one could say it means “good behavior in actions, desires and thoughts.”

 

I. Commit Yourself To Moral Purity

  A) Guard each moral thought

  • Proverbs 7:24…Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. 25) Let not thine heart decline to her(harlot) ways, go not astray in her paths.
  • Solomon a wise man says to listen to his words from the lips of experience. He has been there, he has done that… “O ye children” (you babes in Christ) listen to him when he tells you…
  1. “Let not thine heart decline to her(harlot/immorality) ways,” Do not lower your standards and sink to her level. Rise up and take on the armor of Christ.
  2. “..go not astray in her paths.” Do not allow the harlot to entice you to stay with her, continue in immoral behavior, or to do as she does.
  • In the following verses Solomon tells us why…
  1. Verse 26) For she hath cast down many wounded: She (the harlot/immorality) takes advantage of the spiritually weak and then destroys their lives.
  2. “…yea, many strong men have been slain by her.” Strong men in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong thoughts and desires, for the wrong reasons soon are left in a pile of rubble.
  3. Verse 27) Her house is the way to hell, Here the word house means a permanent dwelling. So in essence Solomon means … to stay or continue to have immoral(bad) behavior, thoughts and desires will lead you straight to hell.
  4. “…going down to the chambers of death.” The term here “The chambers of death” is talking about “sheol” the O.T. hell, across the gulf from Paradise. It carries on the meaning of “a point of no return” to your original state.
  • This is why we must guard our every thought and desire.

  B) Obey God’s Word, And Seek His Wisdom

  • Proverbs 7:1-5….
  • My son, keep(obey/store in your heart) my words, meaning here to take his word for it as a voice that speaks from experience.
  • “..and lay up my commandments with thee.” To “lay up” means to store it to memory, carefully guard it by putting it up on a shelf out of reach to someone intending to do you harm.
  • 2)Keep my commandments, and live; One of the keys to a long life is to obey our parents. This includes our heavenly Father too. But Solomon says this and may be a prophetic verse to Ephesians 6:3… when Paul warns children to obey their parents… “That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. Learn from, and obey those who have experience.
  • “..and my law as the apple of thine eye.” The “apple” here meaning the “pupil” of the eye where sight is received. The Word is the sight to sore eyes.
  • 3) Bind them upon thy fingers, “fingers” are a part of the hand which do all the work taking on the meaning as to apply God’s work to all that you do.
  • “…write them upon the table of thine heart.” When you apply God’s word to everything you do, it will be the only thing you “eat,” or the only thing you will accept for nourishment/satisfaction.
  • 4) Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; “sister” here meaning a sibling, a close relationship with blood ties.
  • “…and call understanding thy kinswoman:” The word “kinswoman” here meaning “nearest relative.” Allow yourself to understand everything. Don’t let others influence your thoughts. Let God be the deciding factor.
  • 5) That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words. Let “wisdom and understanding” keep you from being involved with porn, whores, bad thoughts, and evil doings. The word “strange” here needs to be understood as “something that doesn’t belong.” To “flattereth with her words” means that a whore knows how to say what a man wants to hear to entice him to do what she wants to do with him.
  • Wives pay attention… If you are not trying to say the words your husband wants to hear, dress the way he may enjoy seeing you (In the bedroom), pleasing him the way he wishes, holding his hand, kissing him often, flirting with him occasionally… Another woman will do that and lure him away from you causing the marriage to decline, to fall, to go to the gates of hell.

 C) Do Not Spend Time With Immoral People

  • Let us now move to Proverbs 5:8….Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
  • When you read this whole chapter 5, you understand that Solomon is warning his sons to not spend time with an immoral person(a harlot)… WHY?
  1. Look at verse 3) The lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, Her “lips” refers to her speech, and flattery, ways to get you emotionally aroused. The porn sites on the internet can do the same thing.
  2. “… and her mouth is smoother than oil:” Oil is very smooth and slippery. This is descriptive of Satan. He is very tricky and smooth. Immoral people know that most people do not respond to harshness or an “in your face” enticement, but rather respond to a soft approach, a subtle mention of sin or immorality.
  3. Verse 4) But her end is bitter as wormwood, “wormwood” is a very bitter tasting herb. It smells good but after tasting it, you realize it’s bitterness. Much like an immoral person, their words make sense and sound good and fun, but when it is all finished your life is a wreck.
  4. “sharp as a twoedged sword.” Sin engulfs(surrounds/completely buries) you so quickly that you don’t even know that it has entered your body and soul.
  5. Verse 5) Her feet go down to death;” In this metaphor, “her feet go down” means that the path she leads you down. Her ways. The life she has planned out for you never is as good as it seems.
  6. “..her steps take hold on hell.” If a man continues in immorality, it can mean a damnation of the body which is death. Salvation comes to those who repent, not those who continue in sin. 

D) Rejoice In The Spouse That God has Given You

  • Proverbs 5:15) Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. Adam Clark’s Commentary said it very aptly…Be satisfied with thy own wife; and let the wife see that she reverence her husband; and not tempt him by inattention or unkindness to seek elsewhere what he has a right to expect, but cannot find, at home.—Adam Clarke’s Commentary
  • 16) Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. The word “fountains” many times in the bible refers to children, the water from the main stream.
  • 17) Let them be only thine own, and not strangers’ with thee. Let your children come from your wife, not a harlot.
  • 18) Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Let your children be happy by your happiness and satisfaction of your wife.
  • 19) Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love. The image here is affection.
  • 20) And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? So in conclusion here… Solomon asks his sons… Why would risk all this happiness to be with another woman continually. But then Solomon reminds his sons as I remind you this morning….
  • 21) For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings. Lest we forget that God is Omniscient-sees all, Omnipresent- all around us, and finally Omnipotent- all powerful.
  • You want “TRUE” happiness? Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.