The Attitude Behind Adultery, Part 3

Father, we thank you for today and all the things that you do. We think of James and where he is and what you're doing in his life. We pray for salvation. Pray you do a mighty work in his heart. Pray for Harold that you'd strengthen him, lift him. I know he's trying to be there for everyone in his family and the weight that he bears is enormous.

But yet, Lord, you are a great and mighty God. And so we pray that, Lord, you would just do a mighty work in his life, that his testimony would be strong. You'd bring his wife and his son to the saving grace of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Thank you for our time in the Word tonight, Lord. We pray that you'd open our hearts and minds to behold your beauty, that we might truly follow you and honor you. We pray in your name, amen.

Take your Bible and turn to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5, and we're going to finish verses 27 to 30 tonight. And as you're turning there, I want to remind you of what the Bible says in Psalm 99.

Three times it says that God is holy. It says in verse 3 of Psalm 99, let them praise your great and awesome name, holy is he. Verse number 5, it says in Psalm 99, exalt the Lord our God and worship at his footstool, holy is he.

Verse number 9, exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy hill, for holy is the Lord our God. God is holy, holy, holy. That attribute is the most used attribute to describe God in the Bible, more so than sovereign, more so than loving, more so than just, more so than mercy, more so than grace.

God is holy. In fact, it's used in that great trilogy, holy, holy, holy, Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4. So when the angels magnify the name of the Lord in heaven, it's not worthy is the lamb who was slain, and it's not eternal, eternal, eternal, or faithful, faithful, faithful, or wise, wise, wise, it is holy, holy, holy.

It is the one attribute that determines every other attribute and how it functions. Our God is pure, holy, completely and utterly separate from all corruption and his creation. That's what it means to be holy.

God is not a better brand of you and me. God is completely different than either you or me. And he is a holy, holy God.

And a holy God wants his people to be holy. That's what the book of Leviticus is all about. Be holy for the Lord your God is holy. Peter would quote that in 1 Peter chapter 1 because God wants his people to be like him because he is holy, holy, holy.

He wants his people to be holy. He wants his people to be separate from corruption. He wants them to be separate from all other creatures. He wants them uniquely, distinctly different than everything else. And so he causes us to understand the beauty of his name, for holy is his name.

And so when you read the Bible, it's no wonder that God wants us pure like he is pure. Brilliant like he is brilliant in terms of his shining light. Clear and clean as he is clear and clean.

And we'll stop at nothing to make sure that we exemplify that. In fact, the worst blight upon the world is an unholy church. Because it misrepresents the God the world needs to see and understand who is holy.

And so he wants his people to exemplify his holiness. And that's why he, he says that this is the will of God that you abstain from any kind of sexual immorality. 1 Thessalonians 4, verse number 3.

He tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:12, you set yourself up as an example, an example in your life, in your speech, in your faith, your love, and in your purity, you got to be holy and clean. And so as I think about that, I'm always drawn to that great Old Testament man, Job. Because the Bible says in the book of Job, these words, this is how it begins.

There was a man, there was a man in the land of us whose name was Job. And that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil. That statement about Job is remarkable.

In fact, it says in verse number 3, that the man was the greatest of all the men of the East. Greatest. John the Baptist was the greatest of all men born of a woman. Job was the greatest of all the men in the East. Except it says in verse number 8 of Job 1, the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job for there is no one like him on the earth. So not only was he different than everybody in the East, there's nobody on the planet like Job.

And he says, a blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil. Same thing said in chapter 1. And then you go over to chapter 2 and God says to Satan again, have you considered my servant Job for there is no one like him on earth.

A blameless, upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil. Job was one who would continually turn away from that which is evil. He would run from that which was sinful.

He was a God-fearing man. He was an upright man. And the question always comes, how did he get there? Without a Bible. Without a church. Without an accountability group. How did he get there without any books on how to be a holy man, to read? How did he get there without any kind of support system? Any kind of prayer group? How did Job get there? Which is quite remarkable because he becomes the essential biblical leader of all leaders.

Because nobody held Job's hand. Nobody walked him through difficult times. Because true manliness says you don't need anyone else but God.

If you need someone else other than God, God is not sufficient for you. And here was Job, upright, God fearing, turning away from evil. Job was all alone.

No one taught him. He didn't go to seminary. He didn't go to marriage retreats.

He didn't go to conferences. He didn't go to men's retreats because there was nothing like that. Because you see, you really don't need those things.

We might want those things, but you don't need those things. You need God. And that's all you need.

But we live in a society today where we are so needy. We need someone else. We need someone to hold my hand.

We need help. Manliness is not defined by neediness. Please understand that.

That just gripes my gizzard when people are like that. You need to be a man. And Job is that man, upright, God fearing, turning away from evil.

That's the way he was. Why? How? How do you get there? How did he get there? How did he make it? How is it he was able to handle the greatest adversity any man has ever faced in the history of the planet without a church, a small group, a men's accountability group, a book to read, a Bible in his hand? Think about that and think about your life. This is Job.

He weathered the greatest storm a man could ever face. Why? How? The Bible tells you because God tells you. He says it in chapter 1. He says it in chapter 2. He tells Satan, have you considered my servant?

Job was a servant, a slave of the God of the universe. Job knew he served his God. Job knew he was indebted to God. Job knew that God was his everything. And a servant obeys his master.

A servant follows his master. A servant wants to do the right things for his master. And that was Job.

He understood servanthood. He understood that he was not in charge of anything. But his master was.

And Job was a man who turned away from evil. Job was a holy man. So when you come to the Sermon on the Mount, God is saying, I want you to be holy.

That's all. And to be holy, you must hold my truth higher than the traditions of man. Because the traditions of man don't make you holy.

But my truth does. And so the whole emphasis of the Sermon on the Mount is Matthew 5: 48, be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. Be holy as your Father in heaven is holy.

Be like your Father in heaven. If you're a servant of the living God, you are driven to be like him. You are motivated to live for him.

You are motivated to turn away from evil because you want to please your commanding officer. You want to please your master. And so it moves you to live for him.

So important. And this was what Christ wants for his people. That's why we've entitled the series, Living Like a Child of the King.

Because this is about kingdom living. If you're a child of the king, this is how you live. Having said that, let me read verses 27 to 30 one more time for you. And then we'll finish it this evening.

You have heard that it was said, you should not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out, throw it far from you. For it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you. For it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

So last week we looked at the rabbinical tradition. We told you that they focused on what it is they did on the outside, the deed. And they forgot all about the desire on the inside. And we even went to the book of Job to show you in Job 31 how Job knew that sin in the heart is what causes a man to lust after a woman and it would be a heinous crime.

Again, this is Job and Job has no Bible to read. Interesting that Job would know that without anybody ever telling them that in the Bible. But Job understood the depravity of man. It was in the heart of man.

Well, so did the Pharisees. But you see, they tried to dumb down the truth of God's Word and made all these traditions so that they could look righteous and feel righteous, even though they were not righteous. That was the rabbinical tradition.

Then we moved to there from the biblical teaching and we explained to you the passage. It's very interesting. It says that the looking at the woman lustfully does not cause one to commit adultery in his thoughts.

That's very, very important because he already has committed adultery in his heart. The lustful looking doesn't cause the sin in the heart, but the sin in the heart causes one to look lustfully upon someone else. It's in the heart, for out of the heart proceeds fornications, adulteries, murders, slandering.

All evil comes from a depraved heart. So we examined the passage and then we went to explain the process. And we took you to 2 Samuel 11 to help you understand the process in David's life and what took place in King David's life that led him into a situation with Bathsheba that caused an effect upon his life for the rest of his life because the consequences never left his home.

And it all began because he was careless with the law of God, according to Deuteronomy chapter 17. And that carelessness led to his idleness, and that idleness led to his laziness, and that laziness led to his mindlessness, and that mindlessness led to his feeble-mindedness, which led to his lustfulness, and it just went downhill from there. And that was all last week.

If you weren't here, I would encourage you to go back and download that sermon and listen to it just so that you're caught abreast as to where we are. So let's move on and let's move to the next point, which is exposing the problem. That's in verse number 29, exposing the problem.

If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out, throw it far from you. For it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you. For it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

Which, if you were astute, you would think, now wait a minute. Just hold on one brief moment. Didn't the Lord say the problem was in the heart? If it's in the heart, it would seem incongruous for us to deal with heart issues by external means. Plucking out the eye and cutting off the hand. And at the outset, you would think that, but that's not what Christ is saying.

You must understand that the right eye and the right hand represented that which was the most precious vessel a man had. Very important. The right eye and the right hand.

It's the sign of strength. Remember, it's the Lord who sits at the right hand of the throne of God. The prominent hand.

The powerful hand. The best hand. The highest hand.

And so when Christ says this about the eye and the hand, he's talking about that which represents the best faculties a man possesses. Jesus is simply saying that there is nothing too precious to eliminate from your life if it's going to cause your heart to pander adulterous thoughts. In other words, it means getting rid of that which is most important to you if necessary.

Now, getting rid of those things doesn't mean your heart is right, but just as your heart is evil and it represents itself by doing things externally, so too, getting rid of those things externally indicates that the heart is moving in the right direction to honor and glorify the name of God. That's important to see. Jesus is saying, look, is there something so precious to you that you will not give up in order to maintain a holy and pure lifestyle? What is it that's so valuable to you that you hold on to? Maybe it's an impure relationship and you believe that you're in love with this individual and this individual is in love with you, and yet it's a relationship built around immorality.

Are you willing to cut it off, get rid of it, deal with it loudly? What is it that's causing you to do things that allow you to set fire to the inner part of your life that caused you to lust even all the more? You know, in modern technology with social media and everything at your fingertips on your phone and computer, you have to be extremely careful. But is there anybody willing to give up their iPhone for an old flippy-up phone, right? That doesn't have the internet, that doesn't have all those things. Are you willing to do that to spare your inner man? See, that's the point.

What are you willing to give up so that you can maintain a pure and holy lifestyle? So, the Lord exposes the problem that man is unwilling to do what's necessary in order to maintain a holy lifestyle, to be absolutely separate from corruption and separate from creation because that's what holiness is all about. One Puritan writer, Benjamin Needler, said, we must not part with sin as with a friend with a purpose to see it again and to have the same familiarity with it as before or possibly greater. We must shake our hands of it as Paul did shake the viper off his hand into the fire.

So many times we want to say, goodbye to our sin as if it's a long-lost friend hoping to one day see it again. Can't do that. That's not repentance. That's not turning from your sin. Christ is saying, whatever you have to do radically, emphatically, immediately, effectively to get rid of anything in your life that's causing you to sin, do it without hesitation. Are you willing to do that? That's the question.

Sometimes we have to be careful who we hang out with, don't we? I love what Solomon says in the book of Proverbs when he says this, Proverbs 1 verse number 10, my son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. Don't do that. Verse 15, my son, do not walk in the way of the evil man.

Keep your feet from their path. You know, as parents, we have a huge responsibility to help our children understand true biblical friendship. As parents, we have a huge responsibility to help our children choose their friends wisely.

Because you choose the bad friend, the wrong friend, the one that entices you to sin, it will bring great harm to that son or daughter and to your family. As parents, we must be able to safeguard our children to make sure that they are hanging out with the right kind of people. And if anytime you detect that it's a wrong kind of relationship, you need to be able to cut it off.

Make sure it doesn't continue for the sake of your child's future, for the sake of your child's heart to protect them from that which is potentially evil. God entrusts you to them so that you can guide them and lead them in the way of righteousness. Which leads us to point number four, executing a pact or a pledge.

And that is to flee, to run. Flee youthful lust, 2 Timothy 2:22. Job 31:1, I have made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a woman. There's a pledge that we need to make to ourselves that says, I am going to run when it's time to run.

When Joseph knew it was time to run, he said, I shall not do this evil against my God. I cannot sin against my Lord because Joseph knew he was a servant of the Lord like Job knew he was a servant of the Lord so he could turn away from evil. Remaining blameless and living an upright life, fearing his God.

Which leads us to our last main point, your personal transformation. I'm going to give you seven words that will help you in the transformation process that you might live a clean and pure and holy life. Seven words are listed in your outline.

The first one is deliverance. Deliverance. In other words, you must be delivered.

You must be saved. You must be born again. You must be delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of God's dear son, as Paul says in the book of Colossians.

You must be delivered from the penalty of sin. You must be delivered from the power of sin or there's no chance for you to live a holy life. One day you'll be delivered from the presence of sin when you go home to be with the Lord.

But when you are delivered from the power of sin and delivered from the effects of sin upon your life because you were born in sin, you are well on your way to living a holy and pure life. Over in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, Paul says this, verse number 9, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God. You were this way, but you were delivered. You were once a fornicator, but you were once an adulterer, but you were once an effeminate person, but you were washed, but you were set apart, you were sanctified, you were made holy.

God did this. God saved you. Paul is reminding those in Corinth that what God did was deliver you from all that.

And so there needs to be a deliverance, and this is where God wants the Pharisees who are there on the northern slope of the Sea of Galilee to understand, look, we can't rid ourselves of lustful thoughts. We can't rid ourselves of murderous thoughts. We can't do that.

They're in our heart, and that's where Christ wants us to be, crying out in need of him. He is the one who can wash us clean. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

He's the only one who can do that. He just wants them to cry out to him. That's it.

Say, I can't do this. There's no way I can make my heart clean, and you can. That's why the Bible says, come, let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they will be made as wool, Isaiah chapter 1, verse number 18.

Christ says, come, let us reason together. Let me cleanse you from your sin. And that's where the Lord wants Israel to come to. He wants them to be his holy people.

The Lord was forcing them to see they need a new nature, a new heart, a pure heart. Isn't that what the new covenant is? Ezekiel 36, I will sprinkle clean water on you. I will wash you. I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart. I will put my spirit within you so that you want to keep my statutes.

That's the whole promise of the new covenant. That's what God came to do. There needs to be, number one, a deliverance.

You see, if you haven't been delivered from your sin, then there's no way you're ever going to conquer the sinful thoughts of your heart. That's so important to realize that. But when you're saved, the Bible calls you a new creature.

You've crucified the flesh. Christ lives in you. You're a new man.

You're a new woman. There's been a transformation. But without the deliverance from your sin, there is no transformation.

There are a lot of people today in the church who cannot overcome their sinful habits. They can't. But just because they're in the church doesn't mean they've been delivered from their sin.

You know, I've talked to people over the years who cannot rid themselves of that which you're doing. And I've used my father as an example so many times because my father was a huge smoker. He smoked several packs a day.

But when he got saved, all that was done. He was an alcoholic. When he got saved, it was done.

No alcoholics anonymous. Very important. Why? Because when there's been a transformation, you're a new creature.

And you're changed from the inside out. And so many times we live dependent upon those external things. Because like I said earlier, we are so needy.

But once you have the Lord and you recognize you need Him, then you're able to overcome those things by the blood of the Lamb who's cleansed you from the inside out. When people come to you and they say, I just can't stop doing this. I just can't stop doing that.

You're going to ask them, are you truly a new creature in Christ? Have you been delivered from your sin? Are you born again? Do you know Christ? That's the essence of it. There needs to be a deliverance. Just don't think that you're going to help somebody through a problem they're having, whether it's a pornographic problem, or whether it's an alcoholic problem, or whatever the problem might be, just because they go to your church.

Or just because they might read a Bible verse or two, or they look like a Christian, or talk like a Christian. You got to go back to the very, very beginning, to the grassroots. Do you know the Lord? And how do you know for certain that if you died tonight, you'd go to heaven? How do you know that? What guarantee do you have that Jesus Christ is in you? That's very, very important, because it begins with a deliverance.

That's number one. Next, a discernment. You need to be discerning.

You cannot be discerning unless you've been delivered. But you need to be wise as serpents and homeless as doves. But you've got to be wise.

Peter says it this way in 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2, verse number 11. Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. There's a battle going on.

The war is in your soul. That's where the battle is. So many times we look at things from an external perspective, but the major problem with man is not on the outside, it's on the inside.

And there are lustful attitudes and aspirations in our heart that are waging war against our soul. And Peter says you need to abstain from those fleshy lusts which wage war against the soul by keeping your behavior excellent among the Gentiles so that in the thing in which they stand to you as evildoers, they may, because of your good deeds, as they observed and glorified God in the day of visitation, in order to make an impact among those around you that they might see the glory of the Lord, you need to abstain from that which the world engages in.

So Paul says over in Ephesians chapter 5, these words, verse 3, but immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you as is proper among the saints. Don't even name the immoral thing among you.

And there must be no filthiness and silly talk or coarse jesting which are not fitting but rather giving thanks for this you know with certainty that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them for you were formerly darkness but now you are light in the Lord.

Walk as children of light for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. The writer of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 5, verse number 14 says that the mature have their senses trained to discern between good and evil.

That's why you need meat and not milk, solid foods and not milk. Why? Because you need your senses trained. You need to be able to pick up things, discern things. That which is good versus that which is evil.

So many times and MacArthur has said this for years that the biggest problem in the church is the lack of discernment. And that is just so true. Christians who can't discern between right and wrong. That which is good, that which is evil. And that's because their senses have become dull by society's influence in their lives.

Instead of having the scripture dominate their lives, society influences them to think the wrong way. So thinking biblically, thinking theologically, they might be able to, as Paul says in Philippians 4, verse number 8, think in the things that are pure. Think in the things that are true.

Think in the things that are lovely. Think in the things that are from above, not from below. But so easily we get sidetracked and think of everything that's wrong.

Once there's been a deliverance, there needs to be discernment. That discernment comes because number three, discipline. Discipline.

Discipline is a very, very hard word. We don't like discipline. We just don't like it.

But the problem is we can discipline ourselves. For instance, some of you are very disciplined about what you eat and don't eat. Right? You're disciplined about the foods you take into your body.

Some of you are very disciplined about the pills you take every single day. Take them on time every day. Some of you are disciplined to go to the gym at the same time, three days a week, four days a week, maybe five or six days a week, but you're very disciplined.

But are we disciplined in the things that matter? That's why Paul says, discipline yourself in the godliness. Why? Because bodily exercise profits little. It doesn't say it doesn't profit at all.

It just says it profits little, because it only affects this life. And really, it only affects a short time in this life because you're not going to be that disciplined for the next 50 years going to the gym. So it only affects a little bit in this life, but discipline yourself in the godliness because it affects not only this life, but the next life, the life to come.

But to discipline yourself under godliness, I mean, that's not easy. But God has given us a spirit of discipline, 2 Timothy 1 verse number 7. So we have the spirit of discipline within us, so we can discipline ourselves. We can do that because of what God has already given to us when we have been born again.

That's why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9, I beat my body to this objection daily, lest I be disqualified from the ministry. Paul knew what it meant to discipline his own body. Didn't want to be disqualified from any part of the ministry.

In a few weeks, we'll come to John chapter 2, maybe a few months. We'll come to John chapter 2. We've been 16 weeks in John 1, and we're not done with that yet. So by the time we get to John chapter 2, and you come to the cleansing of the temple, why did Christ cleanse the temple? Because they were using the temple for something it wasn't supposed to be used for.

You've made my father's house a den of thieves. Well, 1 Corinthians 6 says that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. And sometimes I think it's good for the Lord to come and get a whip and start turning things over on the inside of our temple to make sure that we are disciplined enough to realize that this is to be a holy place.

Like the temple was a holy place, our lives are to be a holy place, because that's where God dwells. And because he dwells there, he doesn't want there to be sin that erupts and lives within you. That's why the Bible says in Hebrews 12, despise not the chastening of the Lord.

For whom the Lord loves, he chastens. That's very, very important. Second Timothy 2:22 says we are to flee youthful lust.

That's a discipline. You're to run. Run away.

Don't pray, run. Don't meditate, run. Don't stop, think, run.

Flee youthful lusts. That's all you've got to do, run. Nothing to pray about, nothing to think about, nothing to meditate upon, just run.

Go. Flee. It's a discipline.

You've got to run the other way. One man said, run from temptation and never leave a forwarding address. That's good.

But sometimes we like to leave a forwarding address, simply because we kind of like our sin and hope it comes back every once in a while to visit. But there needs to be discipline.

So there needs to be a deliverance, that's number one. There needs to be discernment, number two. There needs to be discipline, number three. And number four, there needs to be dependency.

Dependency upon that spirit of discipline. Oswald Chambers wrote, if Jesus Christ cannot deliver us from sin, if he cannot adjust us perfectly to God as he says he can, if he cannot fill us with the Holy Ghost until there is nothing that can ever appeal again in sin or of the world or the flesh, then God has misled his people.

God doesn't do that. God doesn't mislead us. He gives us everything we need to live a holy and godly life. That's why he gave us his spirit.

I will give them my spirit. I will walk in them and they will want to keep my statutes. Because he knows that we don't want to necessarily keep his statutes without being dependent upon the spirit of God to move us in that direction.

That's the promise of the new covenant. In Romans chapter 8, verse number 13, Paul says these words, verse 12, he says, so then brethren, we are under obligation not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you are living according to the flesh, you will die.

But if by the spirit, you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. You will live. Why? Because the spirit of God is within you.

So Paul would say in Galatians 5, you need to walk in the spirit so you don't fulfill the lusts of the flesh. That is every step you take, you step dependent upon the spirit of God. Right? Every step you take, you take dependent upon the spirit of God.

Every moment of every day is a moment of dependency. We trust in the Lord with each step we take. We walk in the spirit as if we walk normally, physically in life, one step at a time.

That means that every avenue of life, every day, every moment of every day, you are walking dependent upon the spirit of God to lead you, to guide you, to move you that you might put off the old man and put on the new man and live for the glory of the living God. And the only way that happens is because God has delivered you. And through that deliverance, he gives you a spirit that allows you to live dependently upon the spirit of God.

That is just so important. From dependency comes dedication. Dedication to the word of God and to the wife that God has given to you.

First Corinthians 7, we read to you just two weeks ago that God has designed sexual intimacy and marriage for a protection for you. You must be dedicated to your wife. You must be dedicated to your husband.

So much so that, as Paul says, your body is not your own, but it's your wife's. And for the wife, her body is not her own, but the husband's, right? Because Paul knows that if you refrain from sexual intimacy, Satan will come in the door and use that as an opportunity to draw you away into sin. So Paul says, if you're not going to engage in sexual intimacy, only do it for one reason and one reason only, and that is to be devoted to prayer, but only for a very, very short time.

Because God has designed marriage, not just for procreation, not just for pleasure, not just for a picture of Christ's love for the church, he's designed it as protection for the marriage couple, that they might refrain from any kind of outside influences that would draw them away from one another. You must be dedicated to your wife because you are dedicated to God.

Isn't it interesting that in the midst of the book of Proverbs, in the midst of a time of talking about sex outside of marriage, Solomon says in verse 15 of chapter 5, drink water from your own cistern and fresh water from your own well.

Should your springs be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be yours alone and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth as a loving hind and graceful doe. Let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be exhilarated always with her love, always, which leads from dedication to delight.

That's number six. Delight yourself in God's provision.

He who finds a wife, Proverbs 18:22, finds a good thing. If you're married, God provided you a wife. God provided you a husband.

And we are to delight ourselves in the wife of our youth. We'd always be exhilarated with her love. In some ways, you say, well, but yeah, I'm not there.

Listen, if you're dedicated to your wife because you're dedicated to God, the delight will always come. The reason there's not delight in your marriage is because you're not dedicated to God or to your spouse. You're dedicated to only yourself.

But once you're dedicated to God, you will be dedicated to your wife. And that duty of dedication will always lead to delight in your wife, in your husband. It just does.

It's like discipline, right? I mean, no one likes to go to the gym and sweat and smell and have to go home and take a shower and do the same thing over and over again every single day. Who likes that? And you go to the gym and you're trying to lose weight, but you can't. You're trying to build muscle, but you can't because it's not happening.

Well, you've only given it a day, or two or three or four, but give it two or three or four or five weeks and months and then watch and see what happens. There's a transformation of the outer body. Things have changed.

You look better. You feel better. You smell better.

Everything's good. Why? Because you were disciplined to get there. Same as true in your marriage.

You're dedicated. You're disciplined. And as you stick with it because you're committed to God and to your wife, all of a sudden there is great delight as to what's happening.

And you will be exhilarated always with her love. Which leads to the last point, and that is devour. Devour nothing but the Word.

Eat it up. Jeremiah 15:16, thy words were found and I did eat them, said Jeremiah. Oh, by the way, just to bring it full circle, what Job said in Job 23:12, I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.

Why was Job an upright, God-fearing man who turned away from evil? He devoured everything God said. He had to wait for God to speak. You don't have to do that.

God has spoken to you in His Word. Just open it up. God speaks.

And he treasured the words of God's mouth more than his necessary food. Jeremiah did the same thing. And when you begin to devour the truth, eat it every day.

This is the bread of life. This is the fountain of life. This is the water of life.

Devour it. Eat it up. Drink it in daily, always.

And all of a sudden, you realize, how can a young man keep his way pure, but by taking heed to the Word of God? Psalm 119, Thy Word I have treasured in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee. May God give us the grace and the strength, the discipline and discernment, because we've been delivered by the power of the living God to live for the glory and honor of His precious name. Let's pray together.

Father God, we thank You for tonight and the great truth of Your Word. Our prayer, Father, is that we would truly live for You.

We realize, Lord, that Satan is alive and well on planet earth and he goes around seeking whom he may devour. We get that. And we know, Lord, that the war is on the inside, not the outside. So we're to abstain from fleshy lusts which are waging war against our soul.

But God, You've equipped us. You've given us Your Word. You've given us Your Spirit.

You've given us Your commands to walk in the light of Your Word. And You enable us to do so. We're not left on the island by ourself with no one to help us.

We have You, Your Spirit. You are our guide. You are our God.

Jesus is all we need. But as the one man said, Jesus is never all you need until Jesus is all you've got.

Lord, may You be all that we have. Strip us from those things that somehow take up precedence in our heart that we believe are more valuable to us than You. That we might truly live dependently upon our God.

If there's someone here tonight who's not been delivered from their sin, may tonight be that night. May they recognize that they're still in their sin and they face the penalty of sin because they are under the power of sin because of the presence of sin. And yet, they can be cleansed, washed. As Paul says, but you were washed, but you were sanctified because you've been born again.

I pray, Father, for that person tonight, you'd save them from their sin. I pray in Jesus' name, amen.