Let us pray.
We thank you, Lord Jesus, that we have
this opportunity again to meet at your feet.
That we may sit as Mary sat at
your feet.
And help us, Lord, that it may find
place in our hearts, that everything else may
be driven away, that we may truly be
at your feet.
Amen.
We'll read from Proverbs.
Chapter 6.
From verse 27.
Can a man take fire to his bosom
and his clothes not be burned?
Today this question is put to us.
Can you light a fire in your bosom
and your clothes not be burned?
In fact, if you light a fire in
your bosom, not just your clothes will be
burned, but you, your very self will be
burned.
And that illustrates how sin also brings about
death.
I want to speak about sin.
Sin is like a fire.
If you light a fire, you will be
burned.
If you do not light a fire, you
will be burned.
So Solomon, he is teaching us that we
can't take sin and hide it within.
If you hide sin within, it will burn
you and it will bring about death.
In the Hebrew that word sarap means that
you will be burned and it will burn
you in a bad way.
And it is used here in the same
sense as if a house burns down.
In the Old Testament, this word is used
a hundred and twenty times and it speaks
of a fire, but in a negative sense
where this fire will
burn you, it will consume you, finish you
off.
And here Solomon is speaking about a sin
that is hidden in your bosom, it's something
which you are hiding, you're covering up.
It's within you, you're hiding it there, you're
covering it up, you're telling no one about
it.
So here in this text, that fire refers
to sin directly and it's that sin that's
within you which you're hiding, covering up.
And the most dominant sin in this sense,
which you cover up and hide, is the
sin of immorality, which you hide in your
heart.
So Solomon is directing this at young people
about this sin that leads you to the
wrong thing.
And into evil.
So you hide it, it's in your heart,
you think about it, but you tell no
one about it.
Solomon had a good upbringing, he was taught
by his father and his mother and they
warned him against that sin of immorality.
And here in this chapter, from verse 20
to 29, it speaks about it, about the
evil woman.
From verse 20 to 29.
It speaks of that evil woman that's up
to no good.
That type of woman where the eyes of
the men follow her.
Makes herself up and she tries to make
her look in a way that the men
will look at her.
Now listen carefully, don't look at such a
woman.
She's a danger, she'll tempt you to look
at her.
Be very aware of that.
A woman who paints herself, makes herself up
to try and, that she looks in a
way that the men will, the eyes will
follow her.
And the man who speaks about this is
Solomon.
Well one could say he had the right
to speak about a woman because he was
married to 700 princesses.
And over and above that he still had
300 concubines.
And 1 Kings 11 verse 3 you can
read about that.
So in this illustration, in this portion, we
are warned against the sin of immorality.
So he got married to one princess after
another.
And perhaps he thought well, it's his strategy
to form alliances with other nations that they'll
have peace in the nation.
But that's something very risky, it's dangerous.
That sin of immorality is an extreme danger.
And with that sin you will be punished,
you will reap the rewards of it.
And that sin comes in many different ways.
Some even take the wife of their brother.
Or their neighbor's wife.
And that will bring you at loggerheads with
God.
Never forget that your body is God's temple,
the temple of the Holy Spirit.
So here he puts the question, can you
light a fire in your bosom and you
yourself and your clothes not be burned?
And when that fire is within, it starts
burning you, that's when that sin has entered
you.
And it would be better if you lit
a literal fire in your bosom than if
you light this fire of immorality, that fire
from hell, if you light that within you.
And that fire from hell is a million
times worse than a literal fire.
So don't light that fire in your heart.
And if you saw someone lighting a fire
about to burn himself to death, you would
say he's gone of his mind.
And that fire will burn you, it will
finish you off in body, soul, and spirit.
Sin leads to death, and it's not just
normal death, it's eternal death.
I think I've said enough about the sin
of the flesh.
And if this fire gets lit in your
heart, even if you had life, you'll lose
it and you'll end in that bottomless pit.
You will fall and fall for all eternity
in hell.
Now sin doesn't always come to you as
something evil, looking evil.
When the devil presents sin to you, he
can also present it to you as something
that looks very good.
He'll come as an angel of light.
The devil can come to you in a
very subtle and sly way, like underground, where
no one notices him coming.
He can enter through your thoughts, and it's
through your thoughts that he'll start working at
you and eventually destroy your whole life.
Be aware of it.
Take note of what the Bible says, that
you don't end up in hell.
And then there are sins that don't look
dangerous.
They don't look evil.
In fact, they look quite harmless.
You don't realize how harmful that thing is.
Some sins look so nice and so good.
Do you hear a young person?
It looks good, yet it's evil.
Let me just share a story.
There was a family who had a little
python.
A small one, maybe a meter long.
They reared this python as their pet, especially
the eldest son in the family who lived
upstairs, and he looked after that python there.
And he played with this python.
It was his pet, and he enjoyed playing
with it, and he fed it, and it
grew.
Later it was two, three, four meters long.
One day the parents decided to go and
visit a certain place, and they went.
When they returned, they
saw a young man with a snake in
his hand.
So he was very happy after they had
gone for a while, and they came back.
He wanted to see his pet snake, and
he wanted to play with it.
After a while, the father, the mother, the
other children, they were all sitting at table
ready to start their meal, and they noticed
that the eldest son was missing.
Then the brother remembered that he had run
upstairs on their return to go up to
see his pet and play with the snake.
So the brother ran upstairs and what did
he find?
What had happened, the brother, the eldest one,
had run up and when the snake saw
him, it got hold of him.
And it, like a python does, had strangled
this boy like it would a buck or
even a person and then swallow them.
The brother, of course, got a terrible shock
when he found his eldest brother lying there
dead, had been strangled by the snake.
And he had to go back and in
huge shock tell the rest of the family
that their pet python had killed their brother.
The parents almost fainted.
It was very traumatic, the whole experience, when
they found how their pet snake had wrapped
itself around the brother and crushed him to
death.
This pet snake had been his friend.
He had loved that snake.
He loved its colors.
It was such a nice friend to have.
But this friend killed him, crushed him to
death in his own bedroom.
You see, you boys and you men, remember
this thing that you're hiding in your bosom,
this thing that you love so much, will
bring about your death.
It will burn you like that fire in
your bosom.
I'd like to illustrate it with different illustrations.
There are many ships that have suffered shipwreck.
Probably the most famous shipwreck was the Titanic.
This ship was famous all over, especially for
the fact that it wouldn't sink.
It was built in such a way, someone
even commented and said, not even God could
sink this ship.
This ship was built in such a way
that it wouldn't sink.
This ship was built in such a way
that
it wouldn't
sink.
So at that time it was publicized all
over via radio and newspaper that this ship
would go on its first voyage in April
1912, crossing the oceans, even through ice-packed
seas.
Then the rich and famous put up their
hands, they said, they applied to go on
its maiden voyage.
Then
the
rich and famous put up their hands, they
said, they applied to go on
its
maiden voyage.
And as they were crossing this area with
many icebergs, they struck one of these icebergs.
Because at the time, just at the time
before it happened, there was a lot of
joy on the ship and they were partying
and joking and listening to music.
They had effectively forgotten about God.
This was a historic
moment.
The biggest ship ever built, the smartest, most
beautiful.
No one had experienced anything like this before.
But then after they struck that iceberg, the
ship started tilting.
It started sinking.
And as it started sinking lower and lower,
eventually the captain also realized that he couldn't
save the ship.
As the ship was sinking, the water was
flowing.
The dancing stopped, the joking stopped, the blaspheming
stopped.
Everyone became quiet and still.
And then they started singing hymns.
There was no more laughing.
Remember, if you just laugh things off, the
day will come where you will stop laughing.
And if you just always want to just
enjoy yourself, that will also stop one day.
You just want to enjoy yourself.
You just want to laugh all the time.
But God is warning you, that day will
come where you will stop doing that.
And that ship sank and many died with
it.
It was a huge ship, 900 feet long.
300 feet.
The Titanic was 900 feet.
But then they say it struck an ice
rock and cut the ship 300 feet.
That was the end of the Titanic.
That
was
in April 1912.
In
1985.
In
1985.
For years people wondered what was the actual
cause that the Titanic sank.
And so many years later, in 1985, they
sent divers down into those depths.
Two and a half miles.
They found the wreck two and a half
miles down.
August 1995.
A group, an international
team of scientists and engineers.
They were out to find out the real
cause that the Titanic sank.
Of course, by this time, the wreck was
covered by a lot of mud.
And that prevented them from getting into the
wreck.
And especially they wanted to find out where
that ice had cut into the wreck.
That's how hard ice can get.
And they especially wanted to see where the
ship had been cut.
This 300 feet or approximately 100 meter gash
in the side of the ship.
And they had specialist equipment to see exactly
what the cause was.
And when
they
really started investigating closely, they found that in
fact the problem wasn't across the 300 feet
but only 12 to 13 feet.
Just imagine.
Such a small thing.
Such a small hole.
And they all drowned.
Except for a few that were saved by
the lifeboats.
They were all saved by the lifeboats.
They thought it was 300 feet, a cut
that had caused all this.
All the time it was just about 12
or 13 feet.
You see, that's what sin is like.
Just a small thing.
Only 12 to 13 feet.
It's only 12 feet.
Don't mess around with sin.
Even if you think it's a small thing,
it's a small sin.
You'll end up in hell because of it.
Sin of any size will sink your life.
Will sink you.
Any sin, no matter how small it is,
will sink you forever.
And you're hell bound.
That's where you drown.
Your enjoyment will stop.
You're dancing, you're flirting around with girls.
In an instant, it will be over.
And you'll enter hell with your girlfriend.
Zio Pela Ngumzus.
Putrineshokwin.
And don't comfort yourself and say, well I
don't do any big sin.
I'm careful.
I don't get involved in any big wrong
things.
But remember, it's small things that destroy you.
Many people have been destroyed by those things
which they deemed small.
Small sins.
But they ended on the rocks because of
it.
Just committing small sins.
You say it's so small.
Enjoyable.
You'll wake up with a bump one day
when you try to stop it and you
can't.
And God dams you forever.
And maybe
you'll
say, well I didn't do anything harmful to
her.
I didn't rape her.
We were just chatting.
But it's those small things that will lead
you to hell.
And it all begins with a few impure
thoughts.
But it will grow.
That small thing grows and grows.
Eventually you die in your sin.
Now excuse me.
I did say I want to use different
illustrations.
In 1982.
They had a painting competition.
And when one of the artists, when one
of the artist's paintings was presented, it was
a chair and there was a big gun.
And someone sitting there looking down the barrel
of the gun.
And so many people came to look at
this painting of this man sitting on the
chair looking down the barrel of the gun.
Well that's like gambling where you can get
away with it sometimes.
Or gambling where you can win something some
of the time but you lose most of
the time.
And so it is when you sit there
looking down the barrel of a gun.
And then they said well this gun only
fires once in a hundred years.
So it's quite safe.
If only once in a hundred years that
thing can explode.
Now you may say well what's the chance
then?
Once in a hundred years.
But it could be that day or the
next day as you're looking down the barrel.
You can live for another hundred years.
Woe to you.
They are full of bullets inside.
And that thing can shoot at any time.
Another artist in his painting tried to depict
temptation.
And so his painting was around temptation where
someone was tempted by sin by the world.
Tempted by money.
Trying to do something to make lots of
money.
And the Bible teaches that temptation is when
something is presented to you and you fall
for that temptation.
You may say oh it's God who tempted
me.
You are not tempted by God.
He doesn't tempt anybody.
You are tempted by your own flesh.
Your lusts they draw you in.
Drag you into it.
It's your own desires.
Those desires, your own desires that lure you
and attract you to the things of the
devil.
So beware.
Because sin can look so attractive it draws
you.
But if you give in to the lusts
of the flesh that will result in death.
And remember never to say God has tempted
you.
It's your own desires that have caused you
to sin.
And that's the path of the wicked.
These lusts of the flesh, that fire within
will make you fall into gross sin.
And that you will leave the righteous way,
the right way.
That's the demographic rule.
If you're driving on a road, stay on
the right side.
Not the right side like overseas.
But here on the left side.
That's the right side.
If you leave the right side, woe to
you.
You'll die.
That's what sin is like.
No matter how sweet.
How precious.
Maybe something you just love doing.
You enjoy doing it.
That won't just bring about your death here
in this world.
But even in the world to come.
Every day we must test and prove ourselves.
Whether it's all right inside.
Whether there is not some strange fire that
caught into me.
If you don't do this, it will become
your pet sin.
And eventually it will kill you.
Woe to you if you just take sin
lightly.
Because even that sin which you regard as
something small.
That sin, if you don't deal with it,
it will kill you.
No matter how sweet.
Sin may appeal to you.
It may look so sweet.
Never defend it.
Because in the end, it will kill you.
James says, Every man is tempted when he
is drawn away of his own lust and
enticed.
And never say like some people do.
That it's God who has tempted them.
God doesn't tempt you.
It's that evil within you that's tempting you.
I don't know why it happened.
It came so unexpectedly.
I don't know why it happened.
I didn't see any danger in it.
But it's because of your own lust.
It's because of that hellish fire that's within
you.
That's burning within, as Solomon said.
Sin never will bring life to you.
It will always bring death.
You as are near to hear, let him
hear.
Sin, that which is wrong, will bring life
to you, but only bring death.
And you watch and pray, lest that death
is not just the death of a person
here, but eternal death.
In Kumbulu Chakope, 1 verse 14, Remember
James 1 verse 14, that if you are
tempted, you are tempted and drawn by your
own evil desires.
And then that temptation brings birth to sin.
And you end in death.
If you are tempted and you give in
to that temptation, that bears sin in your
life.
Before Solomon died, he realized how he had
fallen as a result of these women.
He had 700 wives, plus 300 concubines.
But at the end of his life, he
realized the vanity of what he had done,
that it had been in vain.
I don't know whether you understand, you boys,
you men, you girls, you women, do you
understand?
But if you can't hear, you'll regret it
in heaven.
You can't go to heaven if you don't
keep God's words and listen to it and
do what he tells you.
Rather cry out to God, that he may
forgive you, and that you say, Oh Lord,
forgive me for my sin, for I've heard
that the wages of sin is death.
If you don't repent, you'll regret it for
all eternity.
You're not going to heaven, you're going to
hell.
No sin leads you to heaven, it leads
you to hell.
No matter how sweet that sin looks and
how harmless it looks, you'll regret it if
you persevere with it.
Let us stand and pray together.
That's just for those who can stand.
If you can't, you can remain seated.
Oh God, we pray that these words will
not be in vain to us.
That we will not go out here and
light that fire in our bosom that will
burn not just our clothing but our very
selves.
That even if a girl comes and makes
herself up to catch our attention, help us
that our eyes will not follow her.
Help us, Lord, that the lusts of the
flesh will not rule in our lives, in
fact, find no place in our lives.
Grant us, Lord, a spirit of repentance, of
godly sorrow that will call out to you
to help us.
Amen.