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Now, here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. Hi, this is Robert Jeffers and I'm glad to study God's Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program. On today's edition of Pathway to Victory, it's time that we start telling the truth. about sexual immorality of any kind. The truth is It's appealing.
It's exhilarating. It's pleasurable only for a season. What appears to be honey. will turn out to be as bitter as one would. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr.
Robert Jeffers. In movies and TV shows, adulterous affairs are often depicted as glamorous and appealing. But while infidelity might look exciting on screen, a real-life affair only leads to heartache and destruction. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress explains why God's design for marriage is the only path to true fulfillment in relationships.
But first, let's take a moment to hear some important ministry updates. Thanks, David, and welcome to this Tuesday edition of Pathway to Victory. Perhaps you've heard that Amy and I are inviting you to join us for a refreshing vacation next year. And if you've been thinking about joining us on the Pathway to Victory Journeys of Paul Mediterranean Cruise, I want to encourage you to take that next step sooner rather than later. May 14th through the 23rd, 2027, we're sailing to iconic locations and worshiping on the open sea.
We've planned the perfect balance of meaningful sightseeing and genuine relaxation so that you come home spiritually refreshed and renewed. I know 2027 feels like a way off, but here's the thing. The premier cabins go first, and right now, you have the best selection available.
So reserve your spot today at ptv.org.
Well, today we're going to address an adult-sized issue. If you happen to have little children within earshot, you might want to listen to this message later online. No marriage is impervious. No couple is completely immune from temptation. And so, today we're looking at Proverbs chapter 5, where King Solomon provides timeless wisdom for guarding your household from danger.
This is one of the 10 relevant subjects I've addressed in my book called The Solomon Secrets. If you haven't requested your copy yet, I'll invite you to do that right now. It's yours when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. All right, let's get started with a message we started on Monday's program. I titled my message, Graze in Your Own Pasture.
Today, as we continue our series on the book of Proverbs, we're going to look at one of those stop signs that God has put into effect for our benefit. And the stop sign is very clear. It's very simple. God's Word says, no sex. outside of marriage.
That boundary, that stop sign, has been put into effect for our benefit, yet, when we ignore it, We're putting our emotional our spiritual and even our financial well-being at risk. Instead of Ignoring that stop sign.
Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, learned the hard way. That the best way to experience emotional and sexual fulfillment in life. is to follow God's guideline. which is simply to graze in your own pasture. And today, for the few minutes that we have, we're going to look at what I call five fatal fallacies found in the book of Proverbs.
Five fatal fallacies in our thinking that lead to sexual immorality and especially adultery. Let's jot those down today. Number one. What's the fallacy, the error that leads us into sexual immorality? It's the thought that it could never happen to me.
Some of you are already starting to feel a little self-righteous right now. He said, Well, Pastor, I could never fall into doing that. Don't fool yourself. The fact is, any one of us here today is Capable of falling into sexual immorality. I'm capable of falling into sexual immorality.
And the reason is twofold. First of all, because we have all inherited a corrupt nature. But there's a second reason we're all susceptible to this sin, and that is because we have an active opponent. Our active opponent, Satan himself, whom we all have. Means not one of us here today is exempt from the possibility of sexual immorality.
Fallacy number two that leads to immorality and destruction. We are only friends. You know, most affairs. begins as a friendship. That is Set to meet some great emotional need that we have.
How can you know if a friendship you have with somebody of the opposite sex? Is wrong, is dangerous. Dr. Dennis Ramey has given eight warning signs. of a friendship that can quickly turn into something else.
Number one, you've got a need you feel your mate isn't meeting. For attention, approval, affection, and that this other person begins meeting that need. Number two, you find it easier to unwind with someone other than your mate. by dissecting the day's difficulties over lunch, coffee. or during a ride home.
Number three, you begin to talk about problems you are having with your mate. Number four, you rationalize the relationship by saying that truly it must be God's will to talk so openly and honestly. with a fellow Christian. Number five, you become defensive about the relationship and protective of it. Number six, you look forward to being with this person.
more than with your own mate. Number seven. You wonder what you would do if you didn't have this friend to talk to. Number eight. You hide the relationship from your mate.
Those are all warning signs. that this friendship you think is so innocent. is about to turn into something explosive. Be careful of relationships with those people outside of your mate. Fallacy number three.
that leads people to immorality, especially adultery. If it feels so good, it can't be so bad.
Sounds like a country western song, doesn't it? If it feels so good, how could it be so wrong? You see, the power of a temptation lies in the pleasure of the temptation. The reason Solomon is so stridently in the book of Proverbs warning against sexual immorality is not because it doesn't taste good. is because it tastes great.
That's why he warns us about it.
Now it's time to start telling the truth about sin, especially the truth about sexual immorality. Sexual immorality is fun. It's stimulating. It's exhilarating. For a season.
Listen to what Solomon said in Proverbs 5, verses 3 and 4. For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, and smoother than oil is her speech, but in the end. She is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Solomon is saying that bait that looks so appealing and so attractive. And don't forget. There is a hook in the middle of it. that will cost you your life. Fallacy number four.
leads people into sexual immorality. Sir Ron thought that, well, I can stop any time I want. I can stop any time I want. You see, the problem with sexual immorality and any kind of sin is not only is it pleasurable, it is also addictive. Sexual immorality is very addictive.
But Satan doesn't want you to know that. In fact, since the beginning of time, Satan has been dangling this lie in front of us that says. Sin leads to freedom. Isn't that the line he tried on Eve in the garden and it worked? He said, Eve, this tree that God has told you you can't eat of.
He said, You can eat of any other tree except this one. The reason God doesn't want you to eat of this tree is because He doesn't want you to experience the exhilaration, the happiness that you deserve. If you will simply disobey God in this area, you can have the freedom you deserve. Ladies and gentlemen, sin never leads to freedom. It leads to slavery.
The reason we fall into sin, first of all, is because of the wrong thoughts we have about God. We think God is some cosmic killjoy who doesn't want us to have a good time. And so we fall for the line of Satan that says: if you really want to experience exhilaration, disobey the stop sign, this boundary that God has put into effect. But what we find is That sin, it doesn't lead to freedom, it leads to slavery. The fact is, you cannot sin just a little bit and stop.
When you sin once, you sin again and again and again. Peter said it this way in 2 Peter 2, verse 19. by what a man is overcome. By this he is enslaved. There are some of you right now, you're engaged in sexual immorality and you think you are free.
You're experiencing great freedom. No. The Bible says. If you want to know. What you're a slave to in life, just ask yourself this question: What is it I cannot stop doing?
What is it no matter how hard I stop? I can't stop doing it. What addiction in your life has overtaken your life? Whatever it is, you cannot stop doing. That's your master in life.
That's what you're a slave to. By what a man is overcome, by this he is. enslaved. I remember one time in my last church, I was trying to illustrate this. point about sin becoming addictive and becoming our slave master.
And I illustrated it. With a story about my own habits, I said that one thing that I enjoyed every night, every Sunday night when I came home after preaching all day, was a half a pint of Haagen-Das Vanilla ice cream. And that's how I rewarded myself on Sunday. I came home and had a half a pint of ice cream on Sunday night. Every week I would do that.
Well, one Monday afternoon, I was driving home from the church, and I said, You know, most pastors don't even go into work on Mondays. But I do. I work every Monday, so I need to give myself a little treat. And so I pulled into the Albertsons grocery store and bought another pint of vanilla ice cream. Took it home that evening.
I enjoyed it. And so what had turned into a one-day a week habit turned into a two-day a week habit. Then one Friday I was coming home from church. And I said, you know, a lot of men are, you know, going home and. On the way home, stopping off at the liquor store and buying a fifth of Jack Daniels, you know, to go home and consume, or they're going out and partying and all of this.
And I'm going home to my family that I love so much. I need to reward myself a little bit for not engaging in that sinful behavior that all these other pagans are doing.
So I stopped in the Albertson's grocery store there and bought another pint of Hagendas vanilla ice cream.
So, what had started out as a Sunday night behavior now became Sunday night, Monday night, and Friday night. Pretty soon I had found a reason to have Haagen-Das ice cream every night of the week. I'd become addicted to it.
Well, I was telling this story in my last church. I swear this is absolutely the truth. Closed the service, gave the invitation. People started coming forward to make their decisions for Christ, and this girl came down to the front. I recognized that girl, but I couldn't place her.
And this was back in the days before I wised up when I gave the microphone to her. And I said, No, I know you from somewhere. Where do I know you? She said, I'm the clerk at Albertson's that sells you your ice cream every week. I lost control of the service at that point.
Now look. Other than an expanding waistline, there's not a lot of harm in Hagen-Dice ice cream. But there's other sin. That is destructive. The Bible says when you engage in sexual immorality, The first time you do it leads to the second time.
The second time leads to the third time. And before you know it, you're enslaved. Proverbs 5, verse 22, Solomon says, His own iniquities will capture the wicked, and he will be held with the cords of his own sin. There are some of you right now who are engaged in pornography. You're engaged in premarital sex.
You're engaged in an adulterous relationship, and you say, Well, I can stop anytime I want. Really? Then why aren't you stopping now? The fact is Sin never leads to freedom. It always leads to slavery by what a man is overcome.
By this he is enslaved. Fallacy number five that leads to immorality and destruction. Nobody is getting hurt. Nobody's getting hurt.
Some people say, well, no, I understand the Ten Commandments. I understand the commandment against murder and theft. But sexual immorality, that's a victimless crime. Really? There are a lot of victims when it comes to adultery.
The victims include the innocent mate. The children. Perhaps the greatest victim of adultery is the adulterer himself. There's no such thing as victimless sin. Sin always destroys people around the sinner, but sin also destroys the sinner himself.
Listen to what Solomon said in Proverbs 6, verse 32. The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense. He who would destroy himself Does it? How is it that sexual immorality Especially adultery destroys a person. Consider, first of all, the physical cost of sexual immorality.
The physical cost. You know, there are some people, and in our culture, sometimes we portray the adulterer as the victor. But most of the time, he is the victim. Listen to Proverbs 7, verses 21 to 23. This is the anatomy of a seduction, how it happens.
With her many persuasions, the adulteress entices him. With her flattering lips, she seduces him. Suddenly, he follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter. Or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool, until an arrow pierces through his liver as a bird hastens to the snare, the trap.
So he, the adulterer, does not know it will cost him his life.
Sometimes that's literally. Sexual immorality sometimes costs a person his physical life. Do you know how to protect yourself against sexually transmitted disease? All this talk today about safe sex, you cannot safely sin against Almighty God without consequence. The Bible says the only way to truly engage in safe sex is to obey that boundary that God has put into effect: no sex outside the marriage relationship.
But that's not the only way sexual immorality destroys our lives. There's not only a physical cost, there's a financial cost. The fact is, immorality can be very painful to the pocketbook. Listen to Proverbs 6, verse 26: For on account of a harlot, one is reduced to a loaf of bread, and an adulteress hunts for the precious life. If you engage in sexual immorality, it's going to cost you.
It's going to cost you financially. Divorce can be financially costly. But thirdly, consider the emotional cost of sexual immorality. You know, there are some people who say, you know, I know it's dangerous, I know it can be financially costly. But I am so desperate to love somebody and be loved by somebody who understands me, I'm willing to take that risk.
That promise of sexual and emotional fulfillment outside of marriage that is dangling in front of you is only an illusion. It's only a mirage. You are not going to experience permanent emotional and sexual fulfillment outside of the marriage relationship. One study of men conducted 10 years after their divorces found that 33% of them were intensely angry. 50% would end up divorced again.
80% experience the same or a lower quality of life. 50% under age 50 were unhappily remarried. 66% over the age of 50 were unhappily remarried. and many saw their kids emotionally damaged. I read a study once in Cosmopolitan Magazine.
Don't ask me what I was doing reading Cosmopolitan Magazine. I don't remember. But I came across this study in Cosmopolitan Magazine that said 80% of men who divorced their wives and remarried again. Said if given the chance, they would remarry their first mate.
Now that is an amazing statistic. 80% of these respondents to a survey. Who had left their wives in order to marry somebody else who promised them emotional and sexual fulfillment? 80% of them said. If given the chance.
I would undo that mistake and go back and remarry my first mate. It's time that we start telling the truth. about sexual immorality of any kind. The truth is It's appealing. It's exhilarating.
It's pleasurable only for a season. What appears to be honey. will turn out to be as bitter as wormwood. What's the key to experiencing sexual and emotional fulfillment in our life that we all desire.
Solomon gave us the prescription for that kind of fulfillment in Proverbs 5, verses 18 to 21. Instead of looking outside of marriage, For that fulfillment? Look for it within the marriage relationship that God has created.
Solomon said it this way in Proverbs 5, verse 18. Let your fountain be blest. And rejoice. and the wife of your youth. As a loving hind and a graceful doe, let her breast satisfy you at all times.
Be exhilarated. Always. with her love. For why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress, and embrace the bosom of a foreigner? For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord.
And he watches over all of his pants. Perhaps that last sentence. is the strongest argument. for abstaining from sexual immorality. There's some of you right now.
Some of you watching, listening to this message. You're engaged in sexual immorality. You think nobody knows what you're up to. That may or may not be the truth. I think of a Church leader, I know.
who had been carrying on an affair for a year. He thought nobody knew. What he didn't know was. The elders of his church had hired a private investigator. They were following him.
They were camped outside of the home of the woman he was carrying on with. And on a day that began like any other day in his work career, he was called in and summarily dismissed from his position. The fact is, you may think nobody knows what you're doing. That may or may not be the case, but God knows. He's watching.
He's judging. and eventually he will act. And what I would say to some of you who are engaged in sexual immorality, whether it's fornication, adultery, homosexuality, pornography. Don't confuse. God's patience.
with God's tolerance for your sin. That's the mistake that King David made. He was engaged in this. Open relationship with Bathsheba. Day after day went, no consequence.
Month after month passed, no consequence. And David began to think to himself.
Well, maybe I'm special. Maybe I operate under a different set of laws because, after all, I'm a friend of God, I'm the king. Maybe God doesn't care about my sexual immorality. Maybe God doesn't even really exist. But on a day that begins like any other day.
The prophet Nathan came into the court of David. He pointed his finger in front of David and said, Thou art the man. And that was the day. of judgment for David. That day is coming for you as well.
Don't confuse God's patience with God's tolerance. The only reason He hasn't intervened yet in your life. It's perhaps because he's given you one last chance to repent. For the ways of a man or before the eyes of the Lord. And he watches.
over all of his paths. Whenever we touch on the sensitive topic of marital fidelity, it stirs up all kinds of emotions for husbands and wives. If you're prepared to learn more from Proverbs chapter 5 and discover how this passage applies to your marriage, be sure to request a copy of my book. It's called The Solomon Secrets. And my book includes an entire chapter on the subject we address today.
We'd be happy to send you a copy when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Before we go, let me express a big word of thanks to those who give generously to Pathway to Victory. I want to encourage you with a remarkable comment I received from a listener named Charles. He said, Pastor Jeffress, for the past 42 months, I've been incarcerated in federal prison. I listen to your teaching on radio every morning during my exercise time.
Prior to prison, I was depressed and Felt like my life had become a complete waste. Your teaching helped me understand and accept that God is not done with me despite all of my mistakes and humiliation. Through God's amazing grace, my marriage has been healed and my relationship with my sons has flourished. And then he proceeds to tell me about his plans to return home after completing his sentence as a spiritually renewed man. Isn't that great?
Impacting listeners like Charles is possible because of your generous gifts. Remember, when you give today, I'd like to say thank you by sending my book, The Solomon's Secrets. Here's David with all the details. When you get in touch with the Ministry of Pathway to Victory and give a generous gift, you're invited to request a copy of Dr. Jeffers' best-selling book, The Solomon Secrets.
Just call 866-999-2965, visit ptv.org, or text ptv to 78800. And when your gift is $75 or more, we'll also send you this month's teaching series, also called The Solomon Secrets, on DVD video and MP3 format audio disc. One more time, call 866-999-2965. or make your request online at ptv.org. If you'd prefer to write, here's that mailing address: P.O.
Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. That's P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. Most people think that the surest way to achieve success is by promoting yourself. But in reality, The exact opposite is true.
Join us again Wednesday when Dr. Jeffers shares a counterintuitive lesson called, The Way Up is Down, right here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here.
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Oh, and one last thing before we go: don't forget to reserve your spot on the 2027 Journeys of Paul Mediterranean Cruise. You've heard me and Dr. Jeffers talk about it, and cabins are going quickly. Just picture yourself aboard the beautiful celebrity Infinity sailing round trip from Athens, standing where the Apostle Paul stood in Ephesus, and taking in the breathtaking Greek islands. Nine unforgettable nights with stops in Mykonos, Rhodes, Santorini, and more.
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