Turn your Bibles, please, to Proverbs chapter 5. Proverbs chapter 5. We're going to read the whole chapter. Back in September of 2023, that was a long time ago, we finished looking at Chapter 4, and we've looked at the first four chapters as I've preached through them, and then we stopped and we looked at 35 chapters of Isaiah. And since Isaiah is such a big book, I thought we were at the breaking point, the halfway point, I should say, of Isaiah, that it would be a good time to take a break. And so just for a few weeks, we're going to go back to Proverbs. We're looking at Proverbs 5 through 9 over a few weeks. And so this is why we're back here in chapter 5 for today, for this afternoon. Let's read the Word of God, beginning in verse 1. My son, be attentive to my wisdom. Incline your ear to my understanding, that you may keep discretion and your lips may guard knowledge. For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil. But in the end, she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death. Her steps follow the path to shale. She does not ponder the path of life. Her ways wander, and she does not know it. And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house, lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless. Lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner. And at the end of your life, you groan when your flesh and body are consumed and you say, how I hated discipline and my heart despised reproof. I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors. I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation. Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets, let them be for yourself alone and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely dear, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight. Be intoxicated always in her love. Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman, and embrace the bosom of an adulteress? For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders all his paths. The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. He dies for lack of discipline. And because of his great folly, he is led astray. This is God's holy word. Let's pray again for his help now as we come to study it. God, you tell us in your word that great peace comes to those who love your law and that nothing can make them stumble. We pray, God, that we would love your law, your instruction, your rebuke and correction. We pray that you would use your word to give peace, the peace of conscience and the peace of godly relationships and marriages and peace with you. knowing that we seek to follow and love and obey you. And so God, we pray that you would use this word now, that we would not stumble in disobedience and sin. And so give us your spirit to understand your word. We ask all these things through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Some of you are like me. You grew up in the 90s. Others of you were parents of those who grew up in the 90s. And if you were familiar with the Christian subculture of those days, you will maybe remember some of these references. You might remember what a Jesus freak is. You might remember Bob and Larry, the vegetables. You might have stayed up late devouring left behind novels. Or maybe at church you sang, these are the days of Elijah. You might remember some of those things, but you may also remember something more pertinent to this subject that we're talking about today. Maybe you remember that back in the 90s, in the early 2000s, they had these things called purity rings. Purity rings were these rings that a boy or a girl would wear on the finger of the wedding ring, where the wedding ring would go, and it was to symbolize a commitment to purity. And so on the wedding day, the groom or the wife would remove the purity ring and put on the wedding ring in its place. And so this was a big craze among the teenagers of the day. There were purity rings. There was kissing, dating, goodbye. There was true love waits and there was this thing called promise keepers. But you know, none of those things are really around anymore. And I was thinking about this reality that it doesn't seem like this is really an issue that people really talk about that much anymore. This is an issue, this issue of purity that needs to be taught. It needs to be taught every generation, every crop of children and young people as they grow up. They need to know what the Bible says about this topic. And I'm not advocating that we bring back purity rings or anything like that, but we do need to teach the need for young men and women to have purity in their relationships. What the Bible calls men and women to is this old fashioned word called chastity, to be chaste. And chastity means that you are pure in your relationships. That means that if you're not married, then you are not physically involved with another man or another woman. And if you are married, you are still called to be chaste. You are still called to have that physical relationship only with the person, the spouse that you are married to. And this is an important subject that young people especially need to understand. This is what God calls those who want to live in obedience to him. He calls them to live this life of chastity. And so in this chapter, we chapter five, we have a father warning his son and teaching his son about the importance of purity or about chastity. So before we get into going through the chapter, one general application that I just want to mention before we get into it is how this applies to women. Because this is a father talking to his son. Well, I think it was pretty easy on one hand as a woman, you can just translate it into your situation. There is also the application for a woman to not be with a man that is forbidden. And so just like the son is being warned, the warning also goes to daughter. So I think you can make that application as we go through. I'm not gonna say every time, by the way, this applies to women too. I think you understand that. But another general application for women is to think of this chapter and think, I don't want to be the woman that a father has to warn his son about. I don't want to be that kind of woman. A woman's call is to be modest. Men are commended to be modest too, but it's given especially to women. Women are commanded to be modest. Modest in the way that they dress, but also in their behavior, in the way that they interact with men, in the situations that they might put themselves in. Women are not to be forward and fawning over guys and going after them and surrounding them, but they are to be discreet and modest. This is what the Bible calls women to be. So as you go through this chapter, as a woman, think, I don't want to be the kind of woman that a father has to warn his son to not be around. Well, now let's go through the chapter. And in three parts, we see that he, the father, gives the danger of the forbidden woman. and then some defenses for his son, and then he gives him the destiny. He warns him of his destiny. So first, the danger for the son, and that's in the first six verses. In the first two verses, the father says, my son, be attentive to my wisdom. Incline your ear to my understanding that you may keep discretion and your lips may guard knowledge. So again, we see here a father saying, my son. Right away, I want to draw out this application that sons need to be taught these things. Children need to be taught these things from their parents, especially the older they get as they approach the teenage years. They need to be taught the need for purity. They need to be taught about marriage and relationships and that God designed marriage and that it's good. We don't want our children asking Siri what certain things mean, or looking it up on the internet. And so we, as parents, we have to be proactive. We have to teach. And so the father knows this is his responsibility. I need to warn my son about the dangers. And this is especially true for sons. Men need to understand the need to be pure. And so as parents, we have the opportunity to shape their view of relationships and marriage as something that is good and given by God. So he calls on his son to listen to him. And he says, incline your ear to my understanding. He uses these four words in the first two verses that are all the time coming up in Proverbs about wisdom. but I want to focus on understanding, because young people, as teenagers, they will often say something like, Dad, you don't understand. These old fogies, they just don't understand. You don't understand how young people are today. You don't understand how the world works, and they will say this about this issue. But Dad, you don't understand, he loves me. He's such a godly man. He's so kind to me. He goes to a Reformed Baptist church, Dad. What could be wrong with our relationship? What could be wrong with what we're doing since he loves me so much? Young people, incline your ear to your parents and your pastors and your teachers' understanding. They understand very well what's going on. You're the ones who don't understand. That's why you as young people, you need to listen to those who have true understanding. So from there, he begins then to warn his son. He warns him about the temptation in verse three of the woman, the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey. Her speech is smoother than oil. This is a temptation. It's going to be a temptation for young people and for young men. Her lips drip honey. He doesn't use broccoli as a metaphor. That's not what's going to be appealing. No, it's honey. It's going to draw the man to her. It's going to provide a temptation. And he's saying, son, you need to be aware that this day is going to come. but then he warns him of the danger. Yes, it will seem like honey and smoother than oil, but verse four, the end is bitter as wormwood and sharp as a two-edged sword. There's danger, there's death up ahead. Wormwood, it's a poison and it's bitter. What appears sweet is actually gonna turn out bitter. and her lips are compared to a sword. And he uses this image because he's using the word for lips. A sword has two lips. Those are the two edges. And so you think the lips are sweet as honey, but they're gonna kill you. They're gonna destroy you. So she's the forbidden woman. The forbidden woman is literally the strange woman. And there could be, I think there is a reference to how this is a woman from outside of the covenant people. She's not claiming to be a worshiper of God. She's going to lead the man astray to worship idols. I think that's part of what's going on here is that the Proverbs is warning the sons and the young people from marrying outside of the covenant, marrying outside of the people of God. But that's not all there is to it. We can say the forbidden woman is what the Bible teaches anyone you're not married to. And so again, if you're single, if you're not married, you're not to have this kind of physical relationship with anyone. And if you are married, you're to have that relationship only with your spouse. Anyone else is a forbidden woman. So the father puts up the warning signs here. He warns of the danger, like those signs on the road when there's a sharp turn coming up, those yellow signs with the black triangles, the chevrons, and there are about 10 of them coming up. And they're meant to point you to where the turn is coming so that you will actually turn the wheel of your car. That's what the father is doing for his son. You would be a fool if you just said, well, yeah, I see all those yellow signs with those black arrows, but you know what? I just want to see what happens. What if I don't turn the wheel? What if there's a big pot of honey on the other side of those signs and that honey is just so sweet and I would really like it. So I'm just going to go crashing through those signs just to see if I can get that honey. You're a fool. Don't ignore the warning signs. Don't ignore the danger that is being put before you. Yet this is what happens in our day. Many people today ignore the warnings, don't see the danger. Even people, young people who grow up in Christian homes, grow up in the church, They grow up and then they go and they have these types of relationships. And they have lives of impurity. And we all know it's very common in our day. It really is. Sometimes we just shrug and we say, oh, well, that's just the way things are. I saw one statistic that said that 60% of adults in America have cohabited. And so you can imagine there's even far greater than 60% who have been immoral in their relationships. But just that number of cohabitation, 60% of our country, that means people who don't do it are in a big minority. And so this is the world that you young people live in, you grow up in. This immorality is normal to the world. And so you have to understand even more so that this is a dangerous life, that it's dangerous to sin in this way. Just because something is common doesn't mean it's any less foolish or less dangerous. Imagine a scenario of Christmas dinner, and all the families getting together at Christmas dinner. And you have a cousin from Massachusetts, a young lady is your cousin, and she shows up at Christmas dinner, and she's got her third boyfriend in tow. And you find out that your cousin has a hobby of crashing cars. She just loves to crash cars into walls. and breaks her legs, ruins the cars, but she just keeps crashing cars into the wall, and she does this with her boyfriend. And she talks about her past relationships, and she's had two boyfriends before, and they went car crashing together, and her body got all broken and beat up, and then one day they just said, well, I don't like you anymore. So the boyfriend left her. boyfriend walked out. So she did this once, she did this with a second boyfriend, and now she's here at Christmas dinner with her third boyfriend. And there she is at Christmas dinner with casts and bruises all over her, and everybody's supposed to just not talk about it and pretend she's okay. But you, as a Christian, you're concerned for her. So after dinner, you talk to her privately and you say, what are you doing? Why are you being so stupid to just go crash cars into walls? And why are you doing this with your boyfriend? And she says, well, you know, yeah, I know that it breaks my bones and everything, but I like doing that. And secondly, I save a lot of money doing this. My boyfriend will pay half my rent. And then, you know, third, everybody does it. Everybody I know, all my friends, we all just go crashing cars into walls. And we all know that it hurts. Now we don't really get satisfaction and joy out of it, but this is just what everybody does. Does that make the young girl wise? Because she does what everybody else does? No. It's still just as foolish and just as dangerous and just as harmful, even though we all know plenty of people. who are living this kind of life. And so this is what we want for young people, to not join the crowd of fools, to not join the rest of the world in harming yourself and ruining your life and your own soul. This is what the father wants for his son. So he warns them of the danger. Well, next he gives him some defenses. This is in verses seven through 20. So, son, what do you do to avoid this danger? First, stay away, and then stay close. Stay away from the forbidden woman, he says first. Verse seven, and now, oh sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house." Notice, first of all, that he uses the plural in verse 7 of sons, and so he's broadening this instruction to, we could say, all of his sons or to all young men. It's not just for this one particular son, but he wants all of his sons to listen to these defenses. And the first one is, keep your way far from her. He compared her to a sword. If you stay away from a sword, you're guaranteed to not get stabbed. If you're on the other side of a room of a sword, the sword will not cut you. Now, somebody might come chasing after you with a sword and you might have to do a little more work to stay away from the sword, but as long as you stay away from a sword, you can be safe. And so as far as the actions go, this is not about your thoughts, so you have to control your thoughts too, but as far as the things that you do, if you stay far away from a forbidden woman, you will never do something inappropriate with that woman. You will never sin in this way. So sin likes to hide. Sin wants to be hidden. What you need to do to defend yourself from this is be open. Be out in the open. Stay away from this woman. A lot of you know, I'm sure, that Billy Graham had a principle that he would not be alone with another woman who wasn't his wife. So it's called the BGR, the Billy Graham Rule. And a few years ago, when Mike Pence was vice president, for some reason he said in the news that this was also his policy. He would not be alone with a woman who's not his wife. And the world was stunned and aghast. Who would do such a strange thing? But it's common sense. It's what verse 8 says. If you keep away from a forbidden woman, you will not sin in this way. So if you're not married, then your interactions with the opposite sex, you need to either be in public, and that's at the very least that you're interacting with someone else in public with other people around, out in the open. even better if you're with someone that you know, someone who knows you. This is how you can guard yourself from impurity in your relationships. So if you are pursuing a relationship, if you're looking for a spouse, then don't spend time with that spouse in a private place, but out in the open, out in public, out where people can see and preferably even better with people who know you. And if you're married, the same rule applies, to not be alone, but to be out in public. And I would say that even this extra step of being with someone who knows you, because you could be with a woman and you're in a public place like Starbucks, but who else goes to Starbucks? Couples do. Couples go on dates to Starbucks. And so you can be at Starbucks, a man and a woman, and be developing an emotional attachment or a relational attachment that can lead to things that are inappropriate. So when you're interacting with the opposite sex, not only should you be out in the open, in public, but best if there's someone there who knows you, so there's accountability for your interactions. Now, people find all these things controversial, but I find it very simple, common sense. A very simple, easy way to avoid ever putting yourself in a dangerous situation, in a compromising situation. not to mention keeping yourself free from accusations. So we need to apply this in relationships. We should apply this also in our day to the digital world. Stay far away from the forbidden woman, from the apps, from the website. Get rid of your smartphone. Get rid of your smartphone if you have to. Better to not have a smartphone than to destroy your soul. Better to get rid of it or never have it or not have a computer than to destroy your soul in this way. Young men or men in general, they can have these problems with sin And then they'll say, well, I don't, I don't need to go that far. I can handle it. But then they don't. And if they don't, if they can't, they need to get rid of it. It's like Jesus says to cut off your hand or pluck out your eye. That's, that's how to apply that in our day. People will think it's so extreme to have a dumb phone instead of a smartphone. Jesus says, yeah, it's worth going through something that you think is so extreme than for your soul to be destroyed in hell. Stay far away from these temptations. So as he then keeps going with this defense mechanism, he goes now into the consequences. If you don't do this, he says in verse nine. Verse nine and 10, this will lead you to enslavement. If you're not keeping up these defenses and you fall in this way, you will be enslaved. He says, lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless. Lest strangers take their fill of your strength and your labors go to the house of a foreigner. So he's using language about being a slave. Men can become slaves. Men especially, women too, but men especially and young men can become slaves to lust. Especially with the phone or the internet. They become slaves and addicted to these things. And you know what happens? It ruins relationships. It ruins marriages. I would never tell a woman to marry a man who's having these problems. He needs to slay these sins. He needs to kill these problems before he's ready to get married. And so look what he's doing. He's giving away his years of youth when he could be starting a family and getting ready for marriage. He's giving it away for these stupid things. on the internet or with the physical relationships, things like cohabitation. Cohabitation is like a form of slavery. You're not married to each other and yet you have this relationship and then you feel like, oh, well, I'm like, I'm like sort of committed to this person. But I'm not really committed. We're not married. And so I feel like really bad breaking something off since we're living together. And so what do you do? You waste years of your youth in these types of relationships. When you build a house, the house is built on a foundation of concrete. And then you put the lumber up and you put the lumber together with nails and things like this. And the foundation for marriage, that's the concrete of the house, the foundation for the relationship is marriage. It's the covenant commitment. It's the commitment to each other. And then the physical relationship is like the structure on top of the house that is meant to help the couple love each other and brings joy to the marriage. But the physical part is not the foundation of the marriage. But that's what people today are doing. And that's what cohabitation is doing. It's building a relationship on physical things. And what happens when you build a house with lumber as your foundation? Well, in a few years, your house starts to rot. And so that's what happens. Three years into the relationship, the relationship is starting to rot because it wasn't built on the right foundation of a covenant and of love and marriage. I don't think I've used this phrase before in public, but this is one of the phrases that I use, and so you'll probably hear it over time, over and over again. I heard this from another pastor, that if you go slow, you go fast. And if you go fast, you go slow. If you go slow, you go fast. If you go fast, you go slow. And that applies to a lot of things, but one thing it applies to is relationships. If you go fast in your relationships, you end up going slow. Because a fast emotional and physical attachment to another person is going to blow up the relationship. And as you blow up relationships, you got to keep finding new ones and you find a new one over and over and over again. Because you're building the relationship on these emotional and physical attachments instead of going slow. If you go slow at the beginning, if you build on a good foundation, you get to know each other, you build it especially on spiritual things and you build it on truth and godliness, well it might feel really slow, but it's a healthy relationship. And then that relationship begins to grow. So let's do some math. One times three is lesser than five times one. One times three is lesser than five times one. One relationship that takes three years to develop is faster than five relationships that last a year each. I'm not advocating Don't get mad at me. Some of you might think three years, that's really fast. Or some of you think, oh, that's really slow. I'm not advocating for the number of years. I'm just saying that going slow in one relationship, most likely in the providence of God, will actually get you to marriage faster than going through five because they only last a year. And they last a year because you're building on the wrong foundation. So this is what verses 9 and 10 are about. Don't waste your years of youth with bad relationships. And then the second consequence is, starting in verse 11, is deep regret. Verse 11, at the end of your life, you groan when your flesh and body are consumed, and you say, how I hated discipline. and my heart despised reproof. I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors. I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation. Like a Christmas carol, Ebenezer Scrooge is taken by the ghost of Christmas future. The father takes his son. So let's go to your future. Look at you on your deathbed. Look at you on your deathbed, groaning, filled with regret. Why? Because you say, I hated discipline. I didn't listen to my teachers. I knew what was right. I knew what the Bible said. I knew what my parents said. I know when my pastor was preaching that Proverbs 5 sermon that I needed to listen to him, but I didn't listen. And he told me, he told me that it was stupid to ignore the Chevron warning signs. And I thought, oh, that's a good idea. I want to go ignore those signs. I didn't listen to him. And now I'm 80 years old and I am filled with shame and regret. Notice also in verse 14, he even talks about the congregation and how he's ruined in the eyes of the congregation. And this is talking about the religious congregation. Your actions affect society. Our society is the way it is because one reason is because marriage has so little value in our society. But what is society? It's a bunch of people. It's because a bunch of individuals decided that marriage wasn't important to them, that they made their decisions, and now they're ruining society. Their actions have an effect on society. And so, in the days of the Old Testament, they would stone people to death. That's how they handled immorality, because they knew the dangerous effects of a society that doesn't value purity and marriage. That's society, but then there's also the religious society. And you need to understand as a young person that this kind of immorality, 1 Corinthians 6 says, those who are sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom of God. And a chapter earlier, Paul told the church to remove this man who was with his father's wife because a church cannot tolerate immorality without people's repentance. We can't give approval to that kind of life. You need to understand this. To live this life of sin. To live in unrepentance. Is a sign that you're not a Christian. and that you're rejecting Christ and his gospel and his ways. If one day you come and say that you want to be baptized and you're living in this life of immorality, this church won't baptize you. A faithful church won't baptize you. A faithful church would tell you that you should not be taking the Lord's Supper. You should not be claiming the name of Christ if you're gonna live this kind of life of unrepentant sin. You have to choose, Christ or your sin. And so your sin, that maybe you think is hidden and private, it will affect even the congregation. And the way the congregation then has to interact with you and deal with you, it affects your claim to be a Christian. So verses seven through 14 are his warning to stay away from the forbidden woman. Next, he then says, the next defense is to stay close. Stay close to your wife. stay close to your wife, to have a marriage of love and joy. And so I believe that the father is talking to his unmarried son and he's telling him that he needs to remain pure for the future, for the future when he will be married and he needs to be pure for the sake of his future wife. And for men who are already married, this is a call here to remain pure still. Be pure in your eyes, your mind, and in your body. So you do this by staying close to your wife. So you stay close to your wife, first of all, geographically. Proverbs 27 verse 8 says, like a bird that strays from its nest, is a man who strays from his home. Minimize the times when you have to stray from your home. Even in this society, it was the women who would tend to stay at home, and they would not have many reasons to go out very much, Um, they might go to the market or something, but it was the men who would go on trips. They would travel and they would buy and sell and do all their business. And yes, they're, they're making money and they're earning a living. But the proverb is saying it's not good to stray often unnecessarily from home. A man might be tempted to not want to be home. Every time I come home, my children just drive me crazy. They're so annoying. They're always wanting to wrestle with me. They're always asking me for things, or they always want my money. I just stay at work, and I stay at work and make lots of money working, and I have to come home, and I'm not making money. And my wife, she's got this long list of all these things in the house I gotta work on, all these things I gotta fix. I can just be at work making money. So there are men who, They find it easier to stay away from home. But Proverbs is saying, it's like the danger of a bird straying from its nest. Men, you should love being at home. Love being with your family. Love being around your wife. Being with your wife, you spend time together. That's how your relationship develops and your relationship deepens and you have an emotional connection of living life together and having memories and remembering things. And then you're, you're 80 years old and you remember all these wonderful experiences that you had together. That's what creates a loving and good marriage relationship. That relationship with your wife is without price. There is no money that you can go earn that would be worth the cost of your marriage relationship. So you should want to be geographically at home close to your wife, but not just to be close to her, but to delight in her. And we see here in verses 15 to 19, this relationship, a physical relationship of love and delight and joy that marriage is supposed to bring. So I said at the beginning that there are applications that women can apply them to, but it is important in this case, in these verses, that it's a command to men. It's a command to men to be attracted to their wives. and to delight in their wives. The man can't say, well, there was that forbidden woman and her lips were just sweet as honey. I just couldn't resist. It's the forbidden woman's fault. The man can't say, well, my wife, you know, we've been together a long time and she, I just, I'm just kind of tired of her. No, you see here that in these verses, there's a command to the husband, to the man, you must delight in your wife. No excuses. It doesn't say, well, unless she really annoys you or unless you're not attracted to her anymore. No, the command to you, always is to delight in your wife. If you're not attracted to your wife, if you don't delight in your wife, that's not her problem. That's your problem as a man. If you're 60 years old and you're married to a woman who, let's say she's 60 years old, and you look at her, And she has perhaps carried in her womb one, nine, 11 of your children. She's carried those children in her womb. She's raised them. Maybe she homeschooled them. She's made dinner practically every night. She's done the laundry. She's taken care of your home. And now she's 60 years old. And you should look at her and you should say, that is the most beautiful woman. in the world. And if you can't say that, you have a problem. That's your problem. God says, delight in your wife. And he uses the word intoxicated. And it's an important word because he uses it three times at the end of verse 19 to be intoxicated with your wife. Verse 20, he says, why should you be intoxicated with a forbidden woman? And then he uses it a third time, but it's not translated the same way. It's the last word of the chapter, led astray. By his great folly, he has led astray. The literal word is to stagger. And so translated as intoxicated because intoxicated people stagger. And so he says, your wife should make you stagger. She should stun you. Why would you stagger for a forbidden woman? And if you do, verse 23 says, it will lead you to staggering. It will lead you to falling into death and destruction in the pit of hell. The solution to not stagger into the pit of death through this adultery and immorality is that you are staggered by your wife. Now you're intoxicated by her. And this is one of the ways that men are to keep from lust. This image of intoxication is a good image because what happens when a man is drunk? When a man is drunk, he doesn't notice the things that are around him. And so it should be for the married man. You should, first of all, try to avoid situations where inappropriate things might come up. But if there is some inappropriate image on a billboard or something flashes up on a screen on an advertisement or maybe on a computer or there's a woman walking by and she's not dressed appropriately, what do you do? You should not turn your head or turn your eyes or keep your gaze. No, you should be like a drunk man who doesn't even notice that these women are around. because you have such a love and delight in your wife. She's the only one who catches your eye. She's the only one that you notice you are intoxicated with her. And so verse 20 says, son, God gives you marriage and it's a great thing. Why would you throw it all away? What sense would it make to throw that all away for a forbidden woman? And then finally, he gets to the destiny in verses 21 to 23. He says, a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord and he ponders all his paths. The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly, he is led astray. So he ties the chapter together with the word ponder. The woman in verse six does not ponder the path of life, but verse 21, the Lord ponders the path of the young man. The Lord is watching. And so, young people, he ends by saying, you need to ponder your life. You're young. And your decisions now are setting the track that you're gonna go on for your life. What path are you gonna take? Ponder your path. And as you ponder, you should ponder that the Lord ponders your path. The Lord sees you. The Lord sees what you're doing. The Lord sees what you click on. He sees the houses that you go into. He sees the people that you're around. There is nothing hidden and secret from the Lord. Ponder this as you ponder what steps to take in your life. And this is why, as we come to the end, you need Christ. Young people, the first thing you need is salvation in Christ. Because what he's doing as he ends is first of all saying that you need to be a young person who seeks to please the Lord. And you want a life that pleases the Lord. But you can't do that. without the Holy Spirit, without the Spirit giving you a new heart. You have to understand the sinfulness of your own heart, the sinfulness of your nature that you already have. You have to understand the pressures of the world and how this world and the devil are pulling at you and they want you to live a life of sin and immorality. It's not very likely that as a young person you will be able to be pure without the Holy Spirit. in the Victorian era because it was socially unacceptable. Maybe people could do it. But in our day, purity means you're going to have to depend on the help of the Holy Spirit. You need God to come and to change you. Call out to God and say, God, make me pure within. And you do this not to be a good person and to do the right thing, but because you love Christ and you know Christ as your God and your Savior. You know Christ as the one who died on the cross to forgive you of your sins. And so you want to follow him. You call upon God to save you and make you clean and give you a new heart. Ponder your path before the eyes of the Lord. But in verse 23, he ends with the wicked man. As a final warning, the wicked man is caught in his own snares. He's caught by his own sin. Notice the end of his life. It says he's held fast by his own sin. There's no blaming the woman here. There's no blaming the forbidden woman for being so tempting. No, the only person to blame is you and your sin. The reason you're held fast in the cords of sin is because of the decisions that you made, you as a wicked person. And so he ends in verse 23 with the wicked person dying. for lack of discipline. Lack of discipline. He didn't die because of her. He didn't die because his parents never told him. He didn't die because the pastors never preached Proverbs 5 to them. No, the wicked man knows all the right things to do. but he still ends up in death because he can't control himself to do what he knows is right. The father is pleading with his son. I don't want you to die. Take to heart my warnings. Discipline yourself for godliness. Follow the Lord. so that you don't die. That's what we say to you. That's what we want for all of you young people. Let's pray. Our God, we do thank you that your word tells us our true needs our true dangers and instructs us on our defenses that we might have. Lord, we come before you and we ask for your grace. Give us grace that we might live these things out. Lord, we pray that those who are younger might ponder their path and that each one would choose the path of life. May you save them and give them new hearts and keep them from these paths that lead to destruction. We pray through Jesus Christ. Amen.