The way to life. Father, I again, I just thank you, not just for your word, but for your Holy Spirit, who gives us the ability to understand your word. Father, this this morning, as we open up this this book, which has much mystery in it, this book of Ecclesiastes, I pray that your spirit would guide us, particularly in this topic, that you would give us your grace and your wisdom and your understanding. And so that once again, we may use your word to become a permanent part of our lives. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Well, we have been looking at God's wisdom in Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon was a person who was wealthier, wiser, and more powerful than any other man of his day. And as such, he was uniquely qualified to view life from a perspective that very few people have ever had. See, his wealth and his power gave him the ability to make all of his fantasies a reality. And his wisdom gave him the ability to put that reality into perspective. And that's what he does in the book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon's first task was to examine what he called pleasure. And to do that, he embraced five different elements of pleasure analytically, sort of with a notebook in hand, jotting down all of his thoughts with his eyes wide open. And this is what he said. This is how he described his task in Ecclesiastes 2, 1 to 3. I said in my heart, come now, I will test you with pleasure, enjoy yourself. But behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, it is mad, and of pleasure, what use is it? I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine, my heart still guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly. till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life." And then down in verse 80 he says this, he says, I amassed silver and gold for myself and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers and a harem as well. The delights of the heart of man. Solomon lists five different areas of pleasure that he is examining analytically. There is laughter, there is whine and folly, amusement, and sex. So far we've looked at four of those five elements. We've seen laughter as cynicism, something that Solomon describes as madness itself. We've seen whine and folly as distractions from real living. And we've seen how amusement steals our communication, our conviction and commitment to God. Well, this morning, we're going to look at the fifth pleasure that Solomon is going to look at, and that is sex. Solomon says this. He says, I acquired men and women, singers and a harem as well. Now, that harem that Solomon is speaking about is what ultimately destroyed his kingdom. You have to remember that Solomon here is writing Ecclesiastes as an old man at the end of his life, and he's looking back with lots and lots of regret to the foolish things that he did in spite of the wisdom he was given. An illicit sexual appetite proved to be Solomon's undoing, and this is how 1 Kings 11, 1-11 describes it. It says this, King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sudonian, and Hittite women from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David, his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, and for Moloch, the abomination of the Ammonites on the mountain east of Jerusalem. So he did for all his foreign wives who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods. And the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord. the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the Lord commanded. Therefore, the Lord said to Solomon, Since this has been your practice, and you have not kept my covenant and my statues that I have commanded you, I will surely tear this kingdom from you, and I will give it to your servants." That's the sad tale of Solomon and what happened with his sexuality. So Solomon had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. Now in Solomon's day, agreements and treaties were sealed by giving a king's daughter in marriage. So every time Solomon secured an ally, he gained another king's daughter in another marriage, and hence he had 700 wives of royal birth. And that was bad enough because God had clearly forbade that. Speaking of kings, God says this in Deuteronomy 17, 16, it says this, "...only he must not acquire many horses for himself, or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, you shall never return that way again, and he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away." Nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold." Well, we know that Solomon did both. We know he acquired enormous numbers of both horses and wives. And that was politically disobedient. But the concubines. See, the concubines were not there for politics. The concubines were there for sex. And it was there that Solomon's life fell apart. Sex became a driving force that led him into places he could have never imagined he would go. As verse 4 says, For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. Now if you doubt sexuality has the power to enslave, just consider what it did to Solomon. It took the wisest man there ever was, a man who sought to honor God by leading Israel in a time of peace and prosperity, while God built His own temple. And it turned him into a pagan animal. Someone willing to offer worship to demonic monsters who demanded the human sacrifice of babies roasted alive. You see, Solomon's wives so changed his heart that he, quote, built a high place for Temas, the abomination of Moab, and for Moloch, the abomination of the Ammonites on the mountain east of Jerusalem. This was human sacrifice. Jeremiah 32-35 describes this type of worship. It says, they built the high places of Baal in the valley of the son of Hinnom to offer up their sons and daughters to Moloch. Though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind that they should do this abomination. to cause Judah to sin. So you ask yourself, how could you go from seeking to worship God and rule with great wisdom to offering up live babies as human sacrifice? Well, today we use the term sexual addiction. Back then, God was a lot more blunt. He simply said in verse 4, For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods. You see, as we read the Old Testament accounts, we need to remember the context. In Ecclesiastes, Solomon is reflecting backwards. He's reflecting on a life of vanity and emptiness. And by God's grace, he has come back from this emptiness that had gripped him from the madness that left him where he was. But he's back. But he's permanently scarred. Now he's already told us how empty laughter and wine and folly and amusement were, and now he is telling us, he's telling us something extraordinary. He's telling us that what seems like many a young man's fantasy just does not deliver on what it promises. Now think about this for a second. How many human beings, how many people can actually say, quote, I denied myself nothing, nothing, my eyes desired. Solomon was one of the few people who actually realized that fantasy. And it failed him miserably. He says this in Ecclesiastes 1.8. He says, All things are full of weariness. A man cannot utter it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. What has been is what will be. And what has been done is what will be done, and there's nothing new under the sun. This morning I want to look with Solomon at the empty promise of illicit sex. Whether it's premarital, extramarital, or something Solomon could have never imagined, and that is internet pornography. You see, in Solomon's case, we can't even discuss whether it was premarital or extramarital sex. that defeated him because Solomon's marital status was such a train wreck that there's really no point of reference. You see, we can't accuse Solomon of extramarital affairs because every woman he wanted, he simply married. 700 of them. And yet he tells us that the experience was as meaningless as chasing after the wind. See, Solomon, for all of his wisdom, could not see God's boundaries around sex. And yet, He knew them. He knew them all. They've been established long, long ago in the Garden of Eden, even before the fall. In Genesis 2.24, it says this, it says, Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. That was the law that God had laid down. There was to be one husband and one wife equaling one flesh. That's what it was supposed to be. Solomon missed that mark by a factor of 700. But he was a part of a long line of Old Testament patriarchs, all of whom missed the mark when it came to marrying but one woman. And that brings up a pretty normative question. People look at the Old Testament and they say, why does the Old Testament seem to condone multiple wives? I mean, after all, Abraham had two. He had Sarah and Hagar, and Jacob had two, Rachel and Leah. David had many, many wives, and Solomon had even more. So what is up with that? Why is it that it appears that the Old Testament seems to allow it? Well, first of all, there is a profound, profound difference between condoning something and supporting it. You know, the United States government condones the sale and use of tobacco. And yet one can hardly say, if you've seen the commercials, the warnings and the regulations against it, that they support it. They simply recognize that making tobacco illegal would only make a bad situation worse. God sometimes, for mercy's sake, allows something that He truly, truly hates in order to accomplish a greater good. God hated having to watch us murder His Son. But he allowed the cross, knowing that it was our only hope. And in Malachi 2.16, God says, I hate divorce. However, in the New Testament, in Matthew 19.8, he says, because of the hardness of your heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. You see, God hates divorce. But he permitted the hard-hearted Israelites to divorce their wives because the alternative was far worse. It was to kill them. And it was of God's mercy that he allowed it. But it was not what God desired. God tolerated multiple marriages as a mercy to a culture who treated unmarried females worse than cattle. And to be unmarried in that society was to be adrift with no safety net whatsoever. To have no husband or no father was to have no protector and no provider. And slavery, prostitution, and servitude was often that woman's fate. And so God, again, for mercy's sake, was willing to tolerate the protection that even multiple marriages provided. He condoned it, but he never supported it. In addition, you could also argue that the Old Testament patriarchs are always portrayed honestly, warts and all. There's never an attempt to cover up their sins, which included the sin of polygamy. I mean, after all, Moses committed murder, Abraham was a serial liar, Jacob was a deceiver, David was an adulterer. They're all presented openly and honestly in scripture as broken vessels whom God chooses to use. Solomon with his many wives was no exception. It's been pointed out that there are only two figures in the entire Old Testament whom God calls blameless. They are Noah and Job. And what do you know, both of them were married to one wife. See, that's what God designed and that is what He blesses. And God also designed sexuality. But you and I both know that His design for that has been under a withering attack in the last century. The attack, by and large, has been led by two men and their followers. One is Charles Darwin, and the other is Hugh Hefner. Together, they have managed to recreate sexuality in the very same mold that Solomon experienced it, as uncommitted, semi-autonomous coupling primarily intended for pleasure itself. Now I'll be the very first one to tell you that this works great for dogs and cats and rabbits and the like. Because God designed their pleasure seeking to result in more and varied dogs, cats and rabbits. But it works miserably for people because we are not designed that way. You see, Darwin's theory of evolution has convinced millions that a dog, a cat, a rabbit, a person, they're all just bags of chemicals blindly assembled by time and chance, answerable to no one. And according to Darwin's theory, the only value that truly matters is survival. And that goes to the fittest as defined by your species out reproducing your competitors. Now, according to Darwinian logic, the more females I impregnate, the greater my fitness. Because my genes go forward and my gene pool's survival increases. Again, great, great for animals. For people, not so great. Just the other day, I saw Dennis Rodman's Hall of Fame induction speech. Now, if you don't know who Dennis Rodman is, He's a professional basketball player, very famous for his flamboyant lifestyle, his deeply troubled lifestyle. And it was interesting to hear his induction speech into the Basketball Hall of Fame because he gave a brutally honest speech where he talked about his absentee father as the source of all of his pain in his adult life. And in the course of that speech, he mentioned that his father had fathered 46 other siblings in addition to himself, and that his father had never even bothered to say hello. Now, Mr. Rodman Sr. has done a spectacular job of making himself more fit than most according to the logic of evolution. I mean, after all, his genes now reside in 47 children. His species, well, it's prospering and advancing. His children are not. Like I said, it works well for dogs and cats and rabbits, but why not for people? Well, ask Dennis Rodman or ask any one of his 46 siblings. You see, Darwin's view of sexuality and how it works is perfectly appropriate if you are an animal. If, however, you are a totally unique creature created by God to bear his image, you are far, far more than that. And sexuality developed within the context of a loving family is the model that God designed for us. And it is a model that our culture is trying to deconstruct by trying to redefine the rules. And if you are taking your cues about sexuality from our culture, then you are stuck. You are stuck right in the middle. You see, we are a culture that has rejected God's view, but still can't quite bring ourselves to fully embrace Darwin's. And so we muddle about somewhere in the middle. We're not prudes, but we're not libertines. In fact, we really don't know what we are. We know that unbridled, unfettered sexuality absolutely leads to disaster, but we can't really bring ourselves to impose any real restrictions on what we now accept as an inalienable right to pleasure. See, the link that is missing, the link that makes this all make sense, the link that makes sexuality make sense, is God. Absent a transcendent authority, that is a God who rules, then what possible reason can the world give for not engaging in premarital or extramarital sex? You might get a disease. Okay. We've got prescriptions, we've got drugs, we've got means of taking care of that. I mean, after all, we've had years and years and years now of, quote, safe sex instruction. Well, you might get pregnant. Oh, that should be a Darwinian blessing, shouldn't it? But even so, we have pills, we have devices, we have abortion, which again, if you're nothing but a bag of randomly produced chemicals is no big deal. You see, if you are a committed evolutionist and your son or daughter says, you tell me why I shouldn't have sex, what do you say? You say what most people say. You say, because it's wrong. But how do you say why? You see, in years past, society and culture used to do the heavy lifting when it came to these moral issues. And you could say simply because it's wrong. And that was understood. But today it is very, very different. See, today our culture absolutely refuses to say that because we no longer believe that. Because the religion of Darwinian evolution renders chastity as meaningless. Animals don't practice chastity. I am an animal, why should I practice it? I mean, that's the logic. You couple that logic with the only imperative, the only moral imperative that our culture still really believes in, and that is thou shalt claim no moral imperatives, and you have a recipe for disaster. Now if there's any rule that cuts across every single segment of our society today, it's the rule that no one has the right to tell anyone that anything whatsoever having to do with sexuality is wrong. The best you could hope for is not the word wrong, it's the word risky. Sexual promiscuity is no longer ever identified as such. It is now called risky behavior. Okay. What if you eliminate the risk? Are you going to tell me then it's still wrong? When all the rules of sexuality come down to biological risk, you've already lost the battle. So you don't realize we're dealing with an enemy that's far, far more clever than we are. And the enemy can simply just invent ways to degrade us sexually without any biological risk whatsoever. Case in point, this is dated two days ago, this is from Fox News. It says this, it isn't grades, sports teams, or bullying that have parents worried this back to school season. According to a recent survey, parents' top concern for their children this school year is sexting. The practice of sending racy and inappropriate text and picture messages via cell phone. No biological risk whatsoever. This is not biologically risky behavior. It goes on to say nearly half of the parents polled, 49%, listed their top concern as sexting, followed by text messaging at 33%. In addition, 49% of respondents said their child had received an inappropriate text message or picture, and 21% reported their child had received a sext. You see what happens if you don't believe in a transcendent authority? If you don't believe in a transcendent authority, if you don't believe in someone or something bigger than yourself, who actually defines what is right and what is wrong, instead of letting risk define the behavioral boundaries, then I can tell you that the argument for chastity dies right then and there. And there is no cogent reason for not having sex, or for sexting in that matter. But if you do believe that we are answerable to a God bigger than we are, I can tell you, God forbid that I should say it, but I can tell you why it's wrong. And it's wrong because God, a transcendent authority, forbids it. 1 Corinthians 6.18 says this. It says, flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price, so glorify God in your body. Do you see the difference of God's approach here? God is not saying, gee, this is risky behavior. No, He is calling it what it is. forgive me for saying so, but it is sin and God forbids it. Now, for a huge segment of society living sexual lives just like Solomon did, such a commandment seems almost ludicrous. It seems like a throwback to ancient times that folks say, hey, it's my body. I say, says who? I mean, just how did you get here? And what did you have to do with it? Did you choose how long you are going to live or when you're going to exit this mortal plane? You and I control virtually none of those answers, yet somehow we still claim authorship and sovereignty over our lives. We have nothing to say about who we are, where we are, or how we even got here, and yet we have plenty to say about our rights once we find ourselves conscious of who we are. And spiritually speaking, that is ludicrous. See, God says He owns our bodies because He created us. And that gives Him certain rights that we don't think He's entitled to. And what if He forbids fornication? Bad word. A word you never hear today. And what if he forbids it? Not because he's a cosmic killjoy, but because he knows far more than us about what we think we know. What if he knows that sexual sins are like radioactivity? That you can be exposed to them over and over and over again and think you experience no negative consequences. That you can ignore the warnings and come away from them thinking they were all a bluff. Because it is damage that buries itself sometimes for years. It's damage that does not show itself like a cut or a burn or an abrasion. As Pastor Tim Keller says, sin is a force that always has consequences. And as he puts it, when you do sin, sin does you. We just don't believe that when it comes to sexual sin. And when it comes to issues such as premarital sex, our culture has thoroughly abandoned the romantic notion that it is just plain wrong. That doesn't work for us anymore. What is just plain wrong today is saying something or anything is just plain wrong. That is judgmental. And that is the only sin that our culture still views with horror. You know, many years ago, Francis Schaeffer pointed out how it is that societies lose their moral bearings. He pointed out that at one time, most folks knew their God because they knew their Bibles. And over time, as less and less people knew scripture, They ceased to know the where's and the wherefore's of how God operates. But they still clung to understandings that had been passed on to them by their parents. They had what Schaeffer called romantic notions of what right and wrong really was. They knew something was wrong because they were told it. They had been taught that it was wrong, but they didn't really know why. And when that generation met a younger generation that demanded to know more than just, quote, it's just plain wrong, they were oftentimes at a loss for words. They didn't know what to say. That's where this generation is today. They have been failed by our generation because they don't even know why out-of-bound sex is wrong. The result is we have an entire culture that's on the very same sexual binge that Solomon was on. So why is premarital sex wrong? What do you say when your kid asks you that? Well, the number one answer is because God, a transcendent authority bigger than you or me, says so in no uncertain terms. But we also know some practical reasons why as well. We can still frame the issue in terms of the damage that we know it does. For example, dating in courtship is a time to get to know a potential life partner. Again, that is no simple task. See, we are complex creatures with a need to know and be known in body and soul and spirit. And of those three, despite what sex ed classes try to teach, the body is by far the easiest to learn. Birds do it. Bees do it. So do dogs and cats. And they don't require instruction manuals. Somehow they manage. You see, for centuries, the lessons learned in knowing the body began on the wedding nights. And the time before that, the time that was spent in courtship was supposed to be time getting to know and to be known not in body, but in soul and spirit. Courting men, finding out who your partner is as a person, and who you are as a child of God relating to that person. Now, if you leapfrog learning to know your partner's soul and spirit because your time is spent instead just getting to know each other's bodies, you may well find out that when the honeymoon is over, you've married a complete stranger. Someone you do not know at all. That is because the physical, that is the body, easily overwhelms the soul and the spirit. And when the physical defines the parameters of a premarital relationship, much of the growth and insight you get into your partner's soul and spirit just ends. It gets overwhelmed by the physical. Think of Solomon. Solomon had literally 1,000 sexual partners that he engaged in risky behavior with. Is that a silly word or what? Risky. The women he bedded were the same complex creatures of body, soul, and spirit that all human beings are. But they were reduced by Solomon to one-dimensional pieces of meat whose sole purpose was to satisfy him sexually. Now once again, I'll be the first one to say that works fine. If you're breeding cats and dogs and rabbits because they don't function in body, soul, and spirit. And they don't need to because they are animals. But we are not animals. And we're called to a different standard by a God that evolution seeks to eliminate. Again, absent God and His authority, many people have chosen to live according to Darwin's worldview. Now they have cast off these puritanical restraints and they gleefully embrace radioactivity. They have proclaimed proudly that the Bible and God are only bluffing and they have a champion. Their champion for the last 50 years now has been a man named Hugh Hefner. His playboy philosophy championed recreational sex. as something completely new, completely different, a revolutionary approach to human sexuality. I doubt he's ever read Ecclesiastes. At least he would have known what Solomon said over and over and over again. This is what he said. He said, all things are full of weariness. A man cannot utter it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done. And there is nothing new under the sun. Is there such a thing of which it is said, see, this is new. It's already been done in the ages before us. You see, Solomon embraced the playboy philosophy thousands and thousands of years before you ever thought of it. And it was Solomon who said that it was wearisome, it was empty, it was meaningless. But he also said something else in that text that is the key to Hugh Hefner's empire and the monster that he has unleashed on us. Solomon said, quote, the eye never has enough of seeing. Those words have made Hugh Hefner a wealthy man. He made pornography palatable and popular. It's the internet that's now made it ubiquitous. It is literally everywhere. You know, just trying to get some statistics for this message is a dangerous task. If you Google internet porn, you got to kind of tiptoe through a swamp just to get some statistics. Here's what CNN said, quote, gone are the furtive visits to seedy theaters and the fear of being outed as some perverted purchaser of porn. Now all you need to indulge anonymously in the new triple X world is your trusty personal computer and a good connection to the Internet. They go on to say, quote, it's an enormous business. There's lots of money to be made, said Sean Caldor, an analyst with Nielsen Net Ratings, which estimated that 34 million visit porn sites in August. About one in four Internet users in the United States. The average user is looking at 121 pages going back six times and spending an hour and seven minutes every month looking at adult related material Caldor said all that browsing has caused the number of pornography web pages to soar during the past years with over 1.3 million sites serving up about 260 million pages of erotic content according to a study released in September by the Seattle, Washington-based web filtering company N2H2. That was back in 2003. Today, technology has done the same for pornography as it has done for amusement. We talked about that last time out. Last time out, I said the average person today has more choices for amusement than Solomon, with all of his wealth and power, could have ever imagined. That same person today now has the virtual version of what Solomon had. Uncommitted, semi-autonomous, pleasure-only relationships with one-dimensional fantasies of what Solomon actually experienced. Now for Solomon, it was empty and meaningless. But for millions today, it is not only empty, it is costly, it is destructive, and it is highly addictive. Because Solomon was right. He's the one who said the eye never does have enough of seeing. And that's especially true when it comes to pornography. You see, like alcohol and other drugs, the amount of pornography needed to produce the high is always growing. And so, too, the images have to grow progressively more degrading and debasing to get the same high. By the time that happens, many folks are hooked, as in addicted. Wired Magazine was reporting on a Senate subcommittee hearing and it said, quote, Internet pornography is the new crack cocaine. Now I understand, this is not the church speaking. This is the secular world commenting on pornography. To quote Wired Magazine, it says this, Says Mary Ann Layden, co-director of the Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Cognitive Therapy, called porn, quote, the most concerning thing to psychological health that I know of existing today. Quote, the internet is a perfect drug delivery system because you are anonymous, aroused, and have role models for these behaviors, Layden said. To have a drug pumped into your house 24-7 free and children know how to use it better than grown-ups know how to use it. It is a perfect delivery system if we want to have a whole generation of young addicts who will never have the drug out of their mind. Pornography addicts had a more difficult time recovering from their addiction than cocaine addicts. Since coke users can get the drug out of their system but pornographic images stay in the brain forever Leighton said. Again, this is the voice of the secular, psychological community, not the church. This is the world commenting on this. And those who avoid addiction, they still have the devastating effects that porn can have on their marriages. You see, Solomon had the pick of all the women in his kingdom. And if he tired of one, there was always another. I mean, they were real, they were beautiful, and only a king could have them. We know that the Internet is far more egalitarian. And now anyone with a computer and a modem can have airbrushed, pixelated perfection with the click of a mouse. But you know, human beings are not pixelated, airbrushed, or perfect. And real life and real marriage cannot compete with virtual sexual perfection. As feminist writer Naomi Wolf writes, quote, how can a real woman possibly compete with a cyber vision of perfection, downloadable and extinguishable at will, who comes, so to speak, utterly submissive and tailored to the consumer's least specification? Well, the fact is she can't. She can't, and countless marriages are dissolving because she can't. See, the amazing thing is that even the non-Christian world is aware that internet porn is a monster. I mean, Naomi Wolf is no friend of conservative Christians, but she's someone who sees it. Even the secular news services see it. CNN said this, quote, The recent article in New York Magazine contained interviews with men who said they were hooked on internet porn. Quote, dude, all my friends are so obsessed with internet porn that they can't sleep with their girlfriends unless they act like porn stars. A 26-year-old businessman told the article's author. So that's freedom. That's sexual liberation. You see, the enemy of our souls is an equal opportunity in slavery. And Christian and non-Christian alike are all welcome to surrender their lives, their wills, their money, and their marriages to this new altar and its virtual goddesses. Because Solomon's got nothing on us. Remember Solomon, he had Chemosh and Moloch that he offered live babies to. We have Darwin and Hefner. And make no mistake about it, we too offer human sacrifice as well. We just do it at an abortuary rather than at a temple. And Solomon's guilt and Solomon's emptiness is now ours for the taking. The question is, so what do we do? What do we do about it? How do we avoid the pitfalls that so many have fallen in? And if we have fallen in, how do we get out? Once again, we go back to Scripture. We can start with Romans 13, 12-14, which says this, The night is far gone. the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires." Make no provision for the flesh. In other words, don't make it easy to fall. If you're young and if you are dating, make no provision for your flesh. Enjoy getting to know your partner's spirit and soul in public places and avoid alone time in private places. That's not rocket science. That's common sense. It's been around for thousands of years. You know, when we counsel folks dealing with these issues, we often speak of what we call firewalls. That's obviously just what it says. It's a wall you build to keep from catching on fire. You know, oftentimes folks say, well, I got caught up in the heat of the moment. I just did not have the strength to resist. And we say, okay, let's find a place where you do have the strength and let's right there build a firewall. Now, I've mentioned this before, my own personal experience with pornography. I was in college, when I was in college in those days, pornography was Playboy and Penthouse. And I was in a house, a group house with a bunch of guys that lived in there. We had subscriptions to both Playboy and Penthouse. I found that when I was saved, I just could not get those images that had poured into my brain in those years. I couldn't get them out of my head. I'd go to worship, I would go to pray, I would go to communion, and there would be those images. Do you think God was conjuring those up? Or do you think the enemy was conjuring those up? I prayed and I prayed and I sought God's grace, and in time those images disappeared. That's how I learned about firewalls. I remember years ago, I'd walk into a store, and I've said this before, if it had Playboy or Penthouse in aisle four, I wouldn't go to aisle five through six just to stay far enough away from that stuff that I considered radioactive. For me, that was a firewall. Now, I've met with lots of folks about issues like this, folks who are losing the battle to internet porn. The first thing that I tell them is that sins like this flourish in the darkness, but they die when they're brought into the light. That's why Romans 13, 12 says, put on the armor of light. You know, if you find yourself in this situation, just talk to us. Talk to any of the elders, the deacons in this church. Bring it into the light and out of the darkness. You will find sin's power diminishing. We will not condemn you because Christ doesn't condemn anyone who is willing to confess his sin. 1 John 1.9, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And there is one thing that I can guarantee you, I absolutely guarantee you, I've been at this for many, many years, you can't shock us. There's nothing that you can say to me that's going to shock me, I guarantee you. I've pretty much heard it all. Now one very potent way to build a firewall, to make no provision for the flesh, is through the simple act of accountability. Letting someone else know of your struggle. Someone that you are accountable to. If internet porn has captured you, back up to where you have strength. Make the firewall there. It might mean getting rid of the computer. And you have to ask yourself, is freedom from slavery worth that? For others, it may be as simple as just moving the computer to a more public place. Maybe enlisting the aid of an internet filter or an accountability website such as CovenantEyes.com. This is a website that for a small fee, it will hold you accountable to someone else. And it does that by sending them monthly reports of what it is you are viewing. And your accountability partner will receive a monthly breakdown of the sites you visited, rated by their sexual content. That's accountability. And CovenantEyes.com has a lot of testimonials from folks who said, just knowing I was accountable gave me the strength to defeat it. Again, make no provision for the flesh. You know, a number of years ago I was discussing this with one of my sons, and he was protesting and he said, but you don't trust me. I looked at him and I said, you're absolutely right, I don't trust you. I said, you have absolutely no idea how powerful a monster is outside there waiting to have you. I said, guess what? I don't trust myself. Why should I trust you? I pointed out that when I counsel members of the opposite sex, I always make sure someone else is present. I make no provision for the flesh. Then why shouldn't you, son? So how about you this morning? Are you feeling what Solomon felt when he embraced the pleasure of illicit sex. Thanks to the technology of amusement, what was a pitfall that only kings like Solomon could fall into is now virtually available to anyone with access to the Internet. Solomon had it all. He had it all and he said it was empty, meaningless, a chasing after the winds. He found that sexual pleasure, like all other pleasures, when we move from God as the source of pleasure, they become like cotton candy. If you've ever had cotton candy, you go to the amusement park, and you get that, and you get this stuff, and it looks like it's got substance, and you take a bite of it, and as you take a bite of it, it just literally disappears inside your mouth. So you grab for another bite of it, and that too disappears. And that's exactly what sexual sins are like. They appear to give pleasure. They appear to have substance. The more you grab them, the more they just evaporate. The more they say, no, no, you need more. You need more. And it doesn't stop. Now, if you have been sucked into the cotton candy, God still will provide for you a way out. See, God left heaven And he came to earth as a man just like us. And then he lived the life we were supposed to live, the difference being he lived his life flawlessly. When it came to sexuality, flawlessly, he lived his life. And then he went to the cross to lay that life down as a perfect payment, his righteousness for my sin. And having done all that for us, he is not about to leave us in this battle with no resources. If you feel helpless to fight because the monster is just too big and too strong, God says you are mistaken. This is what he says in scripture in 1 Corinthians 10, 13. He says, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, He will also provide a way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. If you hear God speaking to you in that scripture, speak to me afterwards. Speak to any of the deacons, speak to any of the elders. God promises you. He will help you find a way out. He will provide a way of escape. Let us help you find it. Let's pray. Father God, I do thank you for this book that you've given us. I thank you for this man that you've given us, this man who entered into all kinds of terrible, terrible circumstances and situations. The wisest man in the world allowed himself to become an animal, allowed himself to actually participate and help in the production of human sacrifice. All because of sexuality. Father, I just know that every one of us in this room, every one of us has access to an internet that is filled with all kinds of pitfalls. And that it's so easy to fall, it's so easy to go in the direction that Solomon went. Especially when the culture doesn't have any answers as to why you shouldn't. Father, I pray that you would give us the grace the wisdom and the ability to reach out, to ask someone for help. I pray that your spirit would convict each and every one of us in this, and I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, if you'd all stand, let me give you God's blessing. This is from Ephesians 3. Once again, it speaks of the power that God will give us. It says, Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us. To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. And God's people said, Amen.