(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) When you read the book of Proverbs, you see multiple times, over and over again, it seems like almost in every chapter, at least for the very first half of the book, just this entreating of, my son, listen to me, my son, hear my words, my son, receive my instruction and understanding, and this just in pleading, just, you know, listen and get wisdom. And it's just this heartfelt plea to just please listen. And you know, honestly, this is between a father and a son, I feel that way with my children, but I don't just feel that way with my children physically in my own household. I feel that sometimes as a pastor of the church, trying to lead people and just explain, listen to wisdom, please. Don't ruin your life. Don't make these bad choices. Don't get involved with these sins. This is, this is a real big deal. This is serious business. Please take it from someone who has wisdom. Take it from the Bible itself. Take it from people who have experience. Take it from your elders. Please listen to what the Bible saying here and don't just let it go in one ear and out the other. Don't just blow it off. Don't just think that, Oh yeah, whatever I can deal with it. Okay. Don't have that attitude, please. This is extremely important. That's why he starts off chapter five, saying my son attend unto my wisdom and bow thine ear to my understanding. You know, in order to receive wisdom, in order to receive instruction, you need to be humble. Pride is going to lead you into sin every single time you think, Oh no, that can't happen to me. Oh, I'm too good. I'm too high above that. Let him that stand to take heed, lest he fall. If you're going to receive real instruction from God's word, you need to be humble is why he says, bow your ear. Okay. Lower yourself a little bit and receive some instruction, receive some wisdom and some understanding. The topic I'm preaching on this morning is fornication, fleeing fornication, possess your vessel in honor. We have in the book of Proverbs, lots of wisdom, right? Lots of real basic truths in this life that if you could just memorize and just live by the problems you're going to do very, very well, because it's very simple truths, but you know what you're going to find repeated over and over and over again in the book of Proverbs itself is this subject of adultery, fornication, the strange woman, this is repeated multiple times. In fact, you know, Proverbs is kind of known for having all of these different nuggets of wisdom. You can read chapters and it's just like sometimes seemingly unconnected, just truths, just kind of thrown out there. Every verse, every other verse you're here and all these different things, chapter five in its entirety is just dealing with this one thing. And you know what? It's not even just dedicated in chapter five. It's all over the book of Proverbs. This is an extremely important truth. I cannot stress enough. This is one of the biggest lusts of mankind in general is having this desire to be with other people, to be with another woman. And look, I'm preaching primarily on fornication, but apply this to adultery. Okay. Don't just think as a preacher on fornication was, well, I'm already married. You know? Yeah, it's adultery. No, it's even worse. So everything that I preach on regarding fornication before marriage, it's even worse to do these things after you're married. Now I'll be honest with you. I think that chapter five is primarily referring to adultery, the way that it's written and talking about it. Cause halfway through verse 15, it says, drink waters of thine own sister and in running waters of thine own well, and to be happy with the wife of your youth and let her satisfy you and you know, and, and it's giving the instruction to just say, Hey, just stay with your wife. Okay. You don't need to be going around anyone else, but you know what? This applies also to fornication too, because Hey, if you want to have that relationship, if you want to be physical with someone, then let it be with your wife. And if you're not married, get married first, before you started having this type of a relationship with someone. Cause that's the only right way is to let it be with the wife and not with some stranger and see when it says stranger there, the word stranger can be used to mean, you know, foreigner. But ultimately what it is, it's someone who you don't know, if you think about a foreigner in general, it's just, I mean, they're a visitor, they're coming from somewhere else. You don't really know them as opposed to someone who lives around you. And you know, real well, a stranger is just someone that's not really known unto you. Now if you're married, your husband, your wife, you can know that person. You live with them. You're real in close proximity. That's someone who's well known unto you. Other people is a stranger to you. And see, it doesn't have to be like from another country, right? It doesn't have to be like, oh, it's only talking about people from other countries. It could be strangers, just other people that you don't know. I mean, it could be, you know, your neighbor is a stranger to you in this regard when it comes to having this type of contact with a person. When if I was referring to the strange woman, it's just talking about, unless they're your wife, that's a strange woman unto you. So whether that be adultery or not, fornication, if they're not your wife, that is a stranger to you.