Proverbs - Wisdom For Troubled Times

And turn in your bibles to Proverbs chapter 5. We're working our way through Proverbs, and Ben is gonna come and open up chapter 5 in a minute. An amazing chapter. Proverbs chapter 5 Let me pray. Father God, this is your words to us and we We are stupid, we are sinful, we are attracted to the wrong things very often, And we ask you please that you would put in our hearts by your spirit through your word a desire to see that you're greater than we could imagine.

That we would see that vision of Jesus. That whatever the temptation, whatever the things that are drawing us away, you're greater. You are more beautiful, you are more magnificent, you are more worthy of our praise and our adoration and our lives and our service Help us please, not to hear your word and put it aside. Use it now. As we read it, as we hear it opened, for your glory, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Proverbs chapter 5, verse 1. My son. Pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my words of insight. That you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.

For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil. But in the end, She is bitter as gall, sharp as a double edged sword. Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to the grave. She gives no thought to the way of life, her paths wander aimlessly but she does not know it.

Now then my sons listen to me. Do not turn aside from what I say Keep to a path far from her and do not go near the door of her house lest you lose your honor to others and your dignity to 1 who is cruel, lest strangers feast on your wealth and your toil enrich the house of another. At the end of your life, you will groan when your flesh and body are spent, you will say, how I hated discipline, how my heart spurned correction I would not obey my teachers or turn my year to my instructors. And I was soon in serious trouble in the assembly of God's people. Drink water from your own system, running water from your own well.

Should your springs overflow in the streets or your stream of water in the public squares, let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. May your fountain be blessed and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth A loving dough, a graceful deer, may her breasts satisfy you always may you never be intoxicated or ever be intoxicated with her love. Why my son? Being intoxicated with another man's wife. Why embrace the bosom of a wayward woman?

For your ways, are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all your paths. The evil deeds of the wicked and snare them. Cords of their sins will hold them fast. For lack of discipline, they will die. Led astray by their own great folly.

And good morning from me. My name is Ben. I'm a training pastor here at the church. It's lovely to see you if you're new or you're visiting or you're regular. It's lovely to have you here.

In the church building. Still getting used to that. It's nice to be back together. Today is actually Martin Carey's sixth wedding anniversary. Thank you.

It's good because we've got some good friends who got married 2 weeks before us. And so every time I see on Facebook, they're celebrating. I go, okay, right. Time to remember what to do now. And it only seems appropriate to be preaching on rejoicing in the wife of my youth as well, on this day.

And Iron is meant to be the gift that you get on your sixth wedding anniversary. And I I I sort of drew stumps out. I had no idea. The iron cross. The iron cross.

We are playing crazy golf this afternoon. And in golf, you have irons. I learned. So accidentally, we are doing something to do online to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Anyway, Let's pray and ask the Lord to help us learn the lessons he's got for us this morning.

Father, we do thank you so much that you've given us this book of Proverbs. We need wisdom so badly We do not have it, and we need to listen and pay attention that we might receive it. So we pray that you'd help us in Jesus' name, amen. Hello? Amazing.

Maybe it's oh, there we go. No. It's fine. Don't worry. It was good.

It helped my prayer. We had to pay attention and I'm sure everyone was like, I'm trying. I'm desperately trying. Right. So, here we are.

Proverbs chapter 5. We start off in a very similar way to how we've started off almost every other chapter so far, haven't we? I'm pretty sure every chapter in Proverbs has started in this sort of way. Listen my son. To your father's instruction, accept my words.

Do not forget my teaching. Pay attention, and gain understanding, and here we go again in verse 1 of chapter 5. It's the exact same. My son, pay attention to my wisdom, turn your ear to my words of insight. And I think we can't conclude anything, but this is the weight of the message of proverbs for us.

This is the burden that it's trying to impress on us, week after week as we open up what it's trying to tell us. We have to gain wisdom Listen to gain wisdom. We have no wisdom in our bank account to start off with. We start off empty We don't come with any cleverness or wisdom or understanding. The only way we're going to get it is if we listen to the father's instruction, We have to gain wisdom.

But actually, in this morning's passage, we see that more than just gaining wisdom We also have to maintain wisdom, more than just observing knowledge and watching the father and how he lives. We have to preserve knowledge. Look at verse 2. That you may maintain discretion, and your lips may preserve knowledge. So this isn't just about coming to church a few times.

And gaining a little bit of wisdom, and then thinking, I've got it now. I can walk I can walk that road for a bit by myself. Or I've, you know, I've heard enough I understand the gospel, I'm just gonna go and do my own thing now. Because that never really happens, does it? I mean, it struck me thinking about this passage this last week.

No matter how many life experiences we have behind us in our history, there's always a situation we're in where we have no idea what to do. How many of us right now know someone, and we just have no idea how to deal with them or help them in the problem that they're going through? All of us are in a situation where we know someone or it's maybe it's happening to us. We're in a situation and no life experience has gone before us, has anything at all to say specifically to the situation that we're in now. We have to learn to live an ongoing life wisely.

How do we apply wisdom to the challenges that are gonna come up tomorrow? That is what Proverbs is trying to teach us. And in Proverbs chapter 5, the challenge that is dealt with is the adulterous woman, through that in verse 3. For the lips of the adulterous woman, drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil. Now for a lot of us here in this very room, that is literally the temptation that is rearing its head.

Daily, that people are fighting. And Proverbs takes you might have noticed, it takes a particularly direct line at adultery. It deals with it very seriously. In fact, chapters 2, 5, 6, and 7 all deal with the adulterous woman. So she is the thing that comes up most frequently in this first block of proverbs that we've been looking at.

And I wonder whether that's because marriage, and faithfulness in our relationships to each other, is 1 of the brightest ways that we reflect what God's like. Isn't it? That's what he's like. He's a covenant God. He's faithful to us.

He's made promises to us. And so it would be just like sin, wouldn't it? To take what is most glorious, and most beautiful, and twist it and pervert it within us. Maybe that's why we struggle with it in the way that we do. But I also want to say that this this passage is not just for married men.

It's not just right everyone else leave, blokes, stay here, we're going to talk about the adulterous woman. This passage is God's very word. It's given to all of us here, so it doesn't matter whether you're young. Whether you're old, whether you're married, whether you're single. Whatever it is.

This message is gonna be for your good this morning, and the Lord is something to show you He wants to take you to the cross. He wants you to see Christ and be taken up with him as we see Jesus. So on the 1 side of the coin of this passage, This is literally about adultery, and that's what we're going to deal with today. Be wear the adulterous woman or beware the adulterous man. Beware the adulterous person.

But on the other side of the coin of this passage, the woman here is is a picture. She represents something And ultimately, she stands for whatever it is that is wooing you away from the lord Jesus. What is it or who is it in your life that is causing you to keep out of step with the spirit. As the spirit says, let's walk. Let's go this way.

Let's praise the Lord Jesus. What is it that's distracting you? And dragging your your gaze away from the Lord Jesus Christ. What is it that's keeping your heart beating in time with the Lord Jesus'? What is it that is getting in the way of you growing and serving in church?

Your relationships with your brothers and sisters here. For some of us here, it might be worldly riches. That might be the adulterous woman. That might be the thing that just drips honey. Worldly riches.

I remember feeling a pang, similar to sort of having like a pang for worldly riches in a meeting I was in In my old job, I used to work in marketing. And there was a marketing consultant who would come in occasionally, got on really well with him. I like the guy a lot. There was 1 meeting where we were looking at apps, and he said, oh, I've got this most fantastic app on my phone. It's really easy to use.

The UX is beautiful, the buttons are the right size, everything, the font, the colors, and we were looking at it going, this is a brilliant app. And it was an invoicing app. And he accidentally showed me the invoice for that very meeting that we were in. I said, hang on a minute. How much are you making right now?

I'm in the same meeting as you. In fact, hang on a minute, I feel like I'm contributing more than you, and that's how much you're getting paid. I was like, oh, I really I want that worldly rich that you're going to get from this meeting. Is it worldly riches for you? Maybe it's an unhealthy relationship that you have with someone.

Maybe that's the adulterous woman in your life. Taking you away from the lord. Is it a fascination with something that you know isn't quite right, but you're just gripped by it? I mean, it might even be alcohol. What is it that is just dripping with honey and smoother than oil for you?

It's an amazing it's an amazingly picture sort of description, isn't it? You can really imagine this woman. She's a bit like a lipstick advert. The lips are just bursting there's slightly a jar. She's whispering things that she wants to tell you.

She's irresistible is the point. Irresistible. You cannot resist this woman. When you see her. So what is it in your life?

That when you see it, you cannot resist it. Because we're warned that whatever it is, it's not gonna lead where you think it's gonna lead. Look at verse 4, but in the end, She is bitter as gall, sharp as a double edged sword. Yeah, she's not as sweet as she looks this woman. Her feet go down to death, not to the bed, She's calling you to bed, but her feet go down to death, not where she promises, her feet, her steps lead straight to the grave.

There's not even a pit stop or a service station on the way to death where you have an okay time with this lady. It's not like I had a nice time with her. It's a shame about the death part. There is nothing good. Her steps lead straight to the grave, and she gives no thought to the way of life.

Her paths, wonder, aimless, sleep, but she doesn't even know it. She doesn't even know it. I mean, verse 6 is a good summary of this world that we live in, isn't it? I mean, this world constantly tells us what path we should be going down. Constantly.

You should do this if it makes you happy. You should do that. You know, lift yourself a little bit. Enjoy yourself. It's amazing, isn't it?

That people tell you with such confidence to do what makes you happy, without any kind of suspicion or thought that what we think makes us happy will not make us happy ultimately. She wanders aimlessly, but she doesn't even know it. The good news is that, Proverbs does know what it's talking about. Proverbs does know where it's going. This is the word of the lord.

And he says, if we give in and we taste this honey and this oil, then in the end, we're only really tasting death. That's exactly what God told Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, isn't it? Don't eat that fruit? I know it looks good to eat. I know it looks nice to your eyes.

But it will lead to death, and it's the exact same with us. Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. We need to listen to the wisdom of God. So, what can we do then when we can't resist?

Because I think the point problem is trying to tell us and we know this from our own lives, When we see this woman with the dripping honey, we cannot resist. So what on earth do we do in this world with adulterous women and adulterous men and adulterous things everywhere. What remedy is there to fight this temptation? What can we do? Well, the father's got 2 lessons for us today, thankfully.

There are 2 lessons. Reject the woman, and rejoice in the wife. Reject and rejoice. So first of all, reject verse 7. Now then, my sons listened to me, Do not turn aside from what I say.

Here we go again. He starts his his his message with this, and then he adds it in again just in case you dropped off. Does anyone hear off. In the last 8 minutes, we've been speaking about 8 minutes. Is everyone still with me?

Do not turn aside from what I say. Here's the first lesson, verse 8. Keep to a path far from her. Do not go near the door of her house. That is unbelievably practical advice.

That is a practical lesson from our father. In other words, he's saying, completely reject her from your life, have nothing to do with her. So know where she walks, know what path she takes, Think about where are you likely to bump into her accidentally? What are you likely to do that's going to remind you of her or make you think her. What smells will you smell that go, the indulgiest women is suddenly in my life again.

What time of day does she arrive? Who's company is she normally in? Think about those things. What path does she go down? And then walk a path that is far from that path.

Yeah? Pick a path that goes nowhere near it. Because if she's truly irresistible to you, and as we've said it, it's no good trying to avoid her, is it? Because it's too late when you see her. It's too late.

You have to understand that. When you see her, it's too late. So don't go anywhere near her. The last couple of weeks, we've been talking about the sirens, Greek sort of mythology, sirens were these half women, half bird, creatures that sang, and it was irresistible. And so, 1 of the ways to avoid them was to put wax in your ears and not listen to them.

Another way was to sing a greater song, and we'll get to that. But here's another Greek mythological monster for you, medusa. Yeah? You know medusa? Apparently issue was this corgeous, just stunning, the most beautiful female face you've ever seen in your life, but she had venomous snakes for hairs.

And she hated mortal man, so she hates all of you. And if you see her, if you look her in the eyes, you turn to stone. Straight away. Yeah. It's no good trying to run from medusa when you see her.

It's too late. You're already stone. So what on earth do you do when you hear medusas in Kingston? Medusas on the 1 way system, just driving around around trying to stare at people. What the heck do you do then?

Well, you're in Kingston. There's only 1 road. You're stuck. But you pick a road that is far from her. You make sure I'm not walking down the road.

Just medusa's walking down. I'm not going to go anywhere near her at all, because if I see her, it's too late. And for some of us, that literally might mean changing the route we walked home from work. Which roads are we going to go down to avoid going down that road, seeing that thing, or that person, or that front door? For some of us, it's changed how we access information, for smartphones causing us issues.

Pick another path to go down to get information. Matthew Henry says this, it will come up. Matthew Henry's a bible commentator. He says, our corrupt nature is such a tinderbox that it is sheer madness for any reason whatsoever to come near it with sparks. We're so flammable.

Why would you even dare going near a spark? Verse, keep to a path far from her. So what does that mean for you? What part of you gotta avoid going near? Similarly, do not go near the door of her house.

Now, This is a mistake that Alexander Hamilton made. You might know Alexander Hamilton, he's a musical, Hamilton, about him. Fantastic musical. He's 1 of the founding fathers of America, and to be honest, all my history of American history is now purely based on that musical. So if it's inaccurate, then I'm totally inaccurate as well.

But there's a scene in this musical, Hamilton's wife is upstate on holiday without him. And it's summer in the city. He's working hard. He's lonely. He's feeling a bit vulnerable.

He's missing his wife. And then suddenly, A woman knocks at his door. She's heard that he's a nice man, a kind man, and she's asking for his help. She says that my husband's been mistreating me, beating me, cheating me, telling me, how song goes. And he gives her a bit cash, and he wants to help her.

He's not immediately blown away by this woman. It's not like, hey, come in. Let me take you to bed. He's like, he's in control, he understands what's going on. He says, yeah, he's not seduced by hair at this point, so he gives her a bit of cash.

But he's a gentleman, so he offers to walk her home. It's only a block away. He wants to make sure that her husband's not gonna do anything when he gets home. So he walks at home. And along the way, he's welcomed.

He's not overcome with lust for her. He's thinking, oh, I'm going to her house now. I could take her to bed. He's not thinking those kind of thoughts. And even at her front door, he says, well, I should walk back home now.

But she says 1 word to him at that front door, and it's at that point that he is in deep, deep trouble. She says, stay. And the chorus will come up on the screen. It goes like this. Lord, show me how to say no to this.

I don't know how to say no to this, but my God, she looks so helpless and her body saying, hell, Yes. So if she, this woman had tried this at his front door, he would go, I'm like, what are you doing? I don't know you. I'm a married man. Get off my get off my doorstep.

He would know how to say no to that. She had tried this on the on the way to her house. He would he would say, what are you doing? This is inappropriate. This is public indecency.

Get off me. He would know how to say no to that. But he let himself be taken to the door of her house where he doesn't know how to say no to it there. He let himself be taken from where he could say no to where he couldn't say no, and we Can't make the same mistake as him. We mustn't let ourselves get to that same point.

So we have to learn to say no to the things that we can say no to. And sometimes that's annoying, because it means you can't do certain things. Oh, no. Sorry. I can't walk you home.

I'm sorry. Not by myself. I know it's ridiculous, but I'm going to say I'm going to learn to say no now because I know further down the line, I won't be able to. No. I can't have a whatever.

I can't do this. I can't do that. I can't be with those people by myself alone because I know what happens. So no sorry, I can't come out. We need to reject the temptation by saying no, where we can say no.

And actually, the next few verses in Proverbs, they catalog what happens to someone who is the sort of gives in to adultery. And it's amazing how how much of this happens to Hamilton. You know the story. So in verse 10, it says lest strangers feast on your wealth and your toil enrich the house of another. Now, this woman that Hamilton ends up sleeping with, her husband finds out what's been going on, and writes this letter to Hamilton says, well, unless you want me to tell your wife, mate, and tell everyone in government what you've done, you're gonna have to pay me 1300 dollars, which was a third of his annual income.

And so he's blackmailed. And this stranger who he's never met is suddenly feasting on his wealth, on the money that he's toiled for, it's enriching the house of another because he gave in. To this woman. And actually, what this means is now there's some dodgy financial activity in his accounts, and some people get wind of this. And they go, wow, it looks like he's embezzling money or doing something which now becomes like a felony and he's in government, so he wants to keep his position.

And so in order clear his name financially. He writes a 95 page pamphlet explaining his affair to get out of that. But what's the outcome of that? Verse 9, lest you lose honor to others, and your dignity to 1 who is cruel. So he loses honor, amongst his friends and his colleagues, his wife burns every letter he ever wrote to her, purging him out of her life, And then verse 11, at the end of your life, you will groan with regret.

His son dies defending his honor because of what he's done. Spoiler, sorry. But at the end of his life, he groans. His wealth is affected, his health is affected, everything in his life. And maybe look, maybe you know this to be true in your own life.

Maybe you recognize some of these things. Actually, yeah, the dripping honey led to some dishonour in my life. It led to loss of dignity. I mean, was your health spent? Were you consumed with regret?

Are you not the same person you were a few years ago because you're bent down with the burden of this of this this guilt, has your wealth gone into the pockets of cruel people? And ultimately, verse 14, and I was soon in serious trouble in the assembly of God's people. Has it brought you trouble here in this church? Has it gotten in the way of your fellowship with your brothers and sisters here and you're grown? Have you spurned correction?

Are you that person that's regretting not listening to the teaching that's being given to you? Week in, week out. We have to reject this adulterous woman, keep to a path far from her. Yeah. Hope you've got that.

That's the first lesson. Are you still paying attention? I'm gonna do a problem here. Listen. Are you listening?

That's the first lesson. Learn to say no where you can say no. The second lesson, rejoice. Rejoice. So again, with with the sirens, I said earlier, there are 2 ways to defeat them.

1 is you pick a course far from them and you plug your ears up, The other way was to play a song more beautiful. So you're just taken up with this other song, and you listen to the sirens, and they actually sound like a siren. And you're like, go away. I wanna listen to this more beautiful song. And the lesson for us, as we'll see, is if we do that when the adulterous woman is around, we're gonna have no desire at all to go to her.

Look at verse 15. Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own will. Should your springs overflow in the streets? Your streams of water in the public squares? Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.

So in other words, drink from what you already have. Be satisfied in the well that you have of running water. It is sufficient for you. Don't fantasize about drinking from another man's world, or someone else's world, or that world down there. And look, treasure what you have.

Treasure what you have. Keep it private. Keep the deep waters of intimacy, your own. If you're married, keep it in your marriage. If you're single, keep it to yourself.

Don't share them with strangers. Don't let the waters run into the public square, where just anyone can have a bit of it. Let them be precious to you, verse 18, may your fountain be blessed? Consider what you have blessed. And may you rejoice in the wife of your youth?

Rejoice rejoice in the wife of your youth. So Literally, blokes who've been married here a long time, I've been married 6 years today. It's not that long. Some of us here have been married much much longer Rejoice in the wife of your youth. Yeah?

That doesn't mean close your eyes and imagine her when she was younger. Okay? That isn't what this passage means. In fact, that isn't rejoicing in the wife of you. That's fantasizing about something else.

What this means is be so faithful and so committed to your wife, that when you're an old man, and she's an old woman, and you've had a whole life behind you, you're still rejoicing in that same woman you married when you were young. She is the wife of your youth because you've been faithful to her, and you're still with her. You haven't left her you're still rejoicing in her. And that's what we have to do. We have to celebrate wedding anniversaries like their gold medals.

Carrie, I'm on a podium. 6 years. You know, at birthday, yeah, big deal. You lived another year. A wedding anniversary, you stayed faithful another year.

That's amazing. And look at the language used when you're rejoicing in the wife of your youth. First 19, she's a loving doe. She's a graceful deer. It's a bit of an odd compliment nowadays.

It's not the best line to pick someone up at a pub. But In Bible's language, that was how you expressed something that was beautiful, and graceful, and delightful, and powerful, A loving doe, a graceful deer. Basically, speak highly of your spouse. It's It's kind of like, it's kind of a fashionable joke, isn't it, to roll your eyes and be a bit annoyed by your spouse? What they like?

Baina my life. Constantly having to pick up their socks or whatever. But actually, we should rejoice in our spouses. And if we change our language, then our affections will be stirred. For them.

And then here we go, Dean said he was gutted to miss this sermon for this reason. May her breasts satisfy you always? Says the passage. Now, this I think is the same message as drawing from your own will. But it's with a different picture.

It's about being satisfied in the portion that you have, but it's a different picture. And look, the emphasis isn't as much on the breast as it is on the person. Who are we talking about? There are bosoms everywhere. Yeah?

So whose are you meant to be satisfied in? Till he's gone. And look, the passage says, may you be satisfied in her? The wife of your youth that's who you're meant to be satisfied in. Rejoice in her, all of her so that you don't go looking everywhere else.

And look at the the mirror imagery and these 4 lines here. So may her breath satisfy you always, may you ever be intoxicated with her love? And then here's the mirror. Why my son be intoxicated with another man's wife? Why embrace the bosom of a wayward woman.

You see that? You you have a wife to be intoxicated in. Why would you go anywhere else? Why would you embrace a wayward woman when you have a wife to rejoice in. It's just madness, Maybe we think that the grass is a bit greener.

Maybe we think, well, you know? My wife's not what she used to be. And it's hard work. Maybe it'd be easier if I went somewhere else, but actually in chapter 2 verse 17, it will it will come up on the screen. This is what it says the adulteress woman has done.

It says she has left the partner of her youth. That's what the adulteress woman does. Yeah. She drips with honey. She's got smoother than oil speech.

She's promising you the world, but she's flaky. She doesn't actually care about you at all. And when she's done, she'll spit you out and she'll leave you. In fact, that word partner, she leaves the partner of her youth, is actually can be translated as cattle. So she leaves the cattle of her youth.

That's all you are to her. She spits you out when she's done, you're just livestock. Compare that with what we're meant to do. Yeah? We're not meant to leave, we're meant to rejoice.

We are not meant to have cattle. We're meant to have a wife, covenant relationship. Faithful, lifelong fidelity, not cattle. That's who we're meant to delight in. And when you're rejoicing in your wife, when you compare her your graceful dough to the 1 that's just dripping with honey over there, You won't wanna go anywhere near.

Will you? You would love your wife. You rejoice in her. Why would you be tempted to go? Be so taken up in the wife of your youth that there's nobody you'd leave her for.

That's the second lesson. And now some of you are saying, well, Ben, you made me pay attention 10 minutes ago, but I'm not married. So why the heck did I have to listen to that? And that's because there is a greater 1 that we should be rejoicing in, all of us here. And when we see how beautiful Jesus is, how great his love for us is, then we should gladly give up all adulteries.

For him, shouldn't we? Because there is really, there's no sin more attractive than Christ. There isn't. And every sin that we go after is really just a misplaced desire for Christ. He's what we want.

And we get this sort of shadow of it pop up and we go, oh, yeah, that's what I want. I want that. But it never satisfies because it's never the real deal. And look, if you've never seen the beauty of Jesus before or you just need a refresher, then we have it here, which is amazing. Look at verse 21.

Just consider this verse. For your ways are in full view of the lord, and he examines all your paths. That's quite a frightening verse, really, isn't it? Everything that we do and think and say, Everything that we hide successfully from other people, what we search for, what we desire, what we even despise, he knows it all. And he's got a magnifying glass out.

He's examining our paths. So here we go. Given honest reflection to yourself, of what you think God should think of you, given what he knows about you. The things your hands have done. The words your tongue has spoken, the thoughts that you've entertained in your mind.

How many times in our lives have we given in to this adulterous woman? How many times have we tasted that deathly honey? And that rotten oil. Verse 22, the evil deeds of the wicked ensnared and the cords of their sins hold them fast. Do you feel ensnared?

By sins, you entangled in wickedness? What should God think of you? It's no accident that the word the Bible uses to describe the church in the in the bible is the bride of Christ. That isn't an accident. That's deliberate.

And though the bride of Christ has been adulterous, that's us, though we've defiled ourselves, we've left the groom, We've desired a divorce from him. We filed for divorce. He has never once failed to rejoice in the wife of his youth. Which is us. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2 says for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, so he so rejoiced in his wife, us, that he bled and died upon the cross.

He was the perfect son of God, spotless, righteous, and he took the place of scorning in order to cleanse us. From our sins, and wash us, and remove every stain, remove every impurity, remove every time we've gone for the honey. And the oil, removed all of that from us, so that we can be with him forever. So Cornerstone Church, you are Christ's loving dough and graceful deer. He is intoxicated with love for you.

Did you know that? He could do nothing else, but come and save you. He had the choice. Did God have to come and die on the cross for you? Of course, he didn't.

He's so intoxicated with love for you that he gladly for the joy set before him did it. Satan even tried to lure Christ away from the cross, didn't he? He was the dripping oil for and the dripping honey for Jesus. You don't have to go to the cross. You don't have to die.

And what did Jesus say to Satan? Get behind me, Satan. You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. The things of God are to save you and to cleanse you and to die for you. So even in gethsemane, when Jesus is sweating droplets like blood because he knows what's coming ahead of him.

Unbearable pain, sorrow to the point of death, death itself, the immortal God is about to face death. He's so faithful to his wife that he sets his face like Flint. Because that's what he wants to go through for you. Pfhesians chapter 5, says, husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church, and gave himself up for her to make her holy cleansing her by the washing with water through the word and to present her to himself as a radiant church with stain, or wrinkle, or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. So look, we aren't wholly and blameless.

But that's why Christ came to make us holy and blameless. We stumble, we fool, we go after the adulterous woman, but Christ washes us with the word. He presents us ultimately radiant. Blameless. That is the beauty of Jesus and his gospel.

That is what we all need to hear, isn't it? We've all gone after the adulterous woman. We're all filthy and stained, Christ loves the wife of his youth, us, and pays the price to win us back. And when we're taken up with him, when we see him, we see what he's done, how on earth could we go to the adulterous woman? Why would we ever leave Christ?

For her. So today's lessons from the father, are you paying attention still, even now, right at the end? Reject the adulterous woman, rejoice in Jesus who rejoices in you. Take just a few moments now to reflect on those lessons, perhaps apply them to yourselves and then in a few moments Pete is going to come up and pray. Father God, we thank you for the honesty, the reality, the vividness, the clarity of your word.

We thank you. There can't be mistakes. We thank you. You speak plainly truthfully to us. We thank you for the warnings, loving kind warnings.

To us. We thank you that you're the God that loves to communicate not only to our minds but to our hearts to place your word within our hearts, to cause us to be people that rejoice in following you love to be transformed by you, can come back to you again and again and seek your purity because of the cross. We pray for ourselves, please, help us to reject, help us to be rejected, help us to say no. But help us to say yes and we know when we say yes to the lord Jesus we're saying no to everything else. Help us to be taken up with this 1.

We pray please that we would be taken up with him as he has taken up with us that there would be an intoxication that people would see that we love the Lord Jesus Christ We know you as our father. We know the spirit as our guide. Please we pray in a world that chuck sinner so easily in words that are so easily decided and preached to young people to children on our TVs on on music, all around us, the advertising around us on on buses and billboards and everywhere in our computers and I pads and phones and even even on our watches there's these things constantly beaming us all the time, help us to say yes to the Lord Jesus, help us to resist the lies and the dripping honey that leads to death of a world that doesn't care about us but pretends to. That wants to give us stuff but actually only costs us. Help us to come to the water of life.

Help us to drink from that wonderful bridegroom we pray. We pray for those in our congregation that are suffering that are perhaps even isolating and I've got to be careful Bless them. Keep their eyes lord in this season on you. Pray for those of us that are prosperous and are doing well and feeling healthy, help us to keep our eyes on you. We pray.

Pay for us as a church that you'd encourage us to encourage each other about the things of God that we would delight to serve you and serve each other. Help us please. Change your hearts there. Make them big and generous and grand in promoting the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for those on holiday and we pray they wouldn't just relax when it comes to following you.

We pray that they would read things and love you and perhaps meet up with other brothers and sisters and rejoice in those things. Father we pray for our world, we think of our brothers and sisters in Belarus tough times, hard times that Trinity Church and other churches are going through help them pleased to look to you. Keep them even in their worry and their persecution and they're looking over their shoulder keep them close to you, looking at you, loving you, serving you. That they may know what it is to be blessed even in persecution. We pray for Afghanistan and we think of any Christians that might be there Oh lord, please give them terrific wisdom and great boldness.

Help them in in scary times to look to you, may they even have opportunities to open their mouths to say the Lord Jesus. We pray for wisdom from our secular powers in dealing with these things and other areas in this world. Please humble us cause us not to be wise in our own eyes, but seek your wisdom we pray. So help us we pray. Help us today, help us tomorrow, help us in the middle of difficulties when there's people with honey mouths coming towards us, help us to see Jesus and not to look at medusa and not to die in our sin, but live with the lord Jesus Christ we pray in his name.