Audio transcription
Right now's query comes from a global listener named David. “Hi there Pastor John. My ideas maintain coming again to Proverbs 2:19. He says, 'Nobody who has gone to her shall return, nor shall he acquire the methods of life.' Please, I want a deeper clarification on this verse as a result of I’m scared due to a latest expertise. I’m a teenage Christian boy, I’m 17 years previous. Not too long ago, I acquired carried away by my lust and foolishly determined to search for a brief sexual companion by way of a web-based connection. I made contact with two ladies who promised to provide me their our bodies in alternate for cash. I paid them cash on-line however they scammed me and by no means confirmed up.
“I felt actually silly and offended at myself when it occurred. I misplaced about $100. Later I may replicate and see that what I did was flawed and that I deserved to lose. I’m actually grateful to God as a result of I really feel that he allowed the deception to get to me as a result of he was stopping me from dropping my virginity. However I really feel afraid that I’ve come this far within the course of. Although I'm searching for a prostitute, I really feel like I've crossed a line from which I can't come again. Do I’ve?”
My reply may be very easy that I don't know if David crossed the road; I don't know if he has crossed the road of no return. However I can inform him that having intercourse with a prostitute, or intending and paying for it, is just not past God's forgiveness, if there may be true repentance—that’s, an genuine repudiation of the ugliness of this sin, and a turning to Christ for mercy and for the facility of reformation and for the enjoyment of the very Christ as higher pleasure than all such sins.
The purpose of no return
The explanation I say I don't know if David crossed the road is as a result of I imagine there may be such a factor as crossing a line from which we will by no means return. Now I do know it's very scary; it's alleged to be very scary. However the very textual content that teaches that it additionally teaches that true repentance, if it happens, all the time brings God's forgiveness. Right here is the textual content: Hebrews 12:15-17,
Have a look at that. . . that nobody is sexually immoral or ungodly like Esau, who offered his birthright for a single meal. For you realize that afterwards, when he needed to inherit the blessing, he was rejected as a result of he discovered no alternative to repent, regardless that he sought it with tears.
“It’s not the sort of sin that’s unpardonable; it’s the sort of hardness one attains in sinning.'
Now discover: it doesn’t say that he really repented and sought forgiveness, however couldn’t discover it regardless that he repented. That isn’t stated. They are saying he was unable to repent: that's the restrict you may cross. His sin introduced such slavery, deception and distortion into his soul. That is what occurs in sexual sin. Oh my god, it's scary how loopy sexual sin makes folks. It could actually warp the soul and scale back its capability a lot that it’s then inconceivable to really repent; that's the scary factor.
It follows that if he repented, he would obtain the blessing of the inheritance; he can be forgiven.
Trustworthy and righteous to forgive
That is the fixed problem of the New Testomony gospel. First John 1:9,
If we confess our sins, he’s devoted and simply to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
That could be a superb, superb, treasured promise. He doesn't say, “Properly, apart from prostitution” or “apart from adultery” or “apart from rape” or “apart from actually heinous sins.” No, it doesn't say that. If we confess our sins—if we agree with God to the tip that we’re hopeless and he’s merciful and highly effective and worthy and that Christ is sufficient in his dying and resurrection and as a treasure for our lives—confession, he forgives all of it.
Once I say there’s a line we will cross past which God won’t grant us repentance, I don’t imply a sort of sin, a extremely gross sort of sin—as if to say that if that, then you could have crossed the road. That's not a line. It’s not species of the sin that’s unforgivable; it’s a sort of hardness which a person attains in sinning, of which he can’t repent: you can not convey your self to be freed out of your love of sin.
The Bible doesn’t inform us something particular about which sins or what length of sinning or what frequency of sinning crosses this line. It merely says that there’s a line the place we will tearfully search repentance and be unable to search out it. This can be a robust warning to flee from each temptation. Let nobody suppose he can say, “Properly, I'm about ten temptations away from this line.” You don’t have any concept how shut you may be to that line.
'No Come Again'
So on what foundation do I inform David that having intercourse with a prostitute or intending and paying for it’s not past God's forgiveness if there may be true repentance? how am i able to say As a result of he factors to Proverbs 2:19 which appears to say the alternative. In Proverbs 2:17-19 this forbidden girl, this prostitute,
he leaves the companion of his youth
and he forgets the covenant of his God;
for her home sinks to dying
and her journeys to the lifeless;
nobody who goes to her comes again
nor shall they regain the methods of life.
“There’s a lethal drug within the embrace of a prostitute. The expertise of 1000’s is that there isn’t a escape.'
That's a line that scares David to dying, and it ought to; it is a very highly effective language: nobody returns from her mattress to the paths of life. It’s a very robust warning that there’s a lethal drug within the embrace of a prostitute. The expertise of 1000’s is that there isn’t a escape.
However it’s within the nature of proverbs to generalize phrases like this. Proverbs fairly often specific issues in absolute phrases, after we know, and it follows from them, that absoluteness is just not absolute; they’re generalizations reasonably than absolutes with out exception.
Right here is the way in which we all know that is the character of Proverbs. Proverbs 26:4 says, “Don’t reply a idiot in response to his folly, lest you your self be like him.” For those who took this verse by itself, you’ll say, “That is absolute: by no means do it—by no means, by no means, by no means. It’s written, 'Don’t reply a idiot in response to his folly.'” However the subsequent verse says, “Reply a idiot in response to his folly, lest he be smart in his personal eyes” (Proverbs 26:5). And that sounds completely proper. It’s the nature of proverbs to specific basic knowledge with out all the time declaring exceptions.
So when Proverbs 2:19 says, “Nobody who goes to her will return,” the purpose is that this: don't be afraid of the folly of becoming a member of your physique with a prostitute. Folks don't come again; they go over the cliff. It occurs. He doesn't trouble saying “nearly all the time”.
Rejoice with trembling
Right here is proof from the New Testomony that prostitution is just not all the time unforgivable; he’s not above forgiveness. First Corinthians 5:1-5 reads like this. That is Paul confronting immorality within the Corinthian church that’s worse than prostitution. It says this:
Actually, it’s acknowledged that there’s sexual immorality amongst you, which isn’t tolerated even among the many Gentiles, as a result of a person has his father's spouse. And you’re conceited! Shouldn't you reasonably be grieving? Let the one who did this be eliminated out of your midst. . . . You’re to ship this man to Devil for the destruction of the physique, that his spirit could also be saved within the day of the Lord.
“If we repent and confess our sins, God is devoted and can forgive us our sins.”
Right here it’s: “that his spirit could also be saved.” He may be saved. This flagrant offense towards secular and Christian morality may be forgiven. If he’s saved, he’s forgiven. Apparently, the hope is that whenever you ship him to Devil, one thing horrible will occur to him that may destroy his physique and convey his soul to true repentance, as a result of if there may be repentance, there can be forgiveness and salvation – even for sexual sin, which is so . it’s outrageous that the pagan world thinks that is reprehensible.
It’s due to this fact proper for David to tremble at his sin and to pay attention with worry to the warnings of the Scriptures. Additionally it is proper for David to take to coronary heart the gospel's provide that if we repent and confess our sins, God is devoted to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness—even the unrighteousness of unspeakable sexual sin.
