Proverbs 7:21-23 — A blind man asked a soldier one question with his pencil: is one night worth twenty years in a wheelchair? Solomon asked young men the same question 3,000 years earlier.

⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • August 16, 2026.

This teaching addresses one of the most urgent topics facing young men today: the true cost of sexual temptation and the false advertising sin uses to sell it. If you're a young man facing temptation, a parent trying to warn your son, or someone who has already walked through that door and is wondering if there's still a way forward, this message from Proverbs 7:21-23 was preached for you.

Solomon paints a young man walking toward a woman's house in the dark, sold on four promises: her husband is gone, the trip is long, there won't be any interruptions, and no one will ever know. Every word she tells him is true — but she leaves out everything that matters. She never mentions the slaughtered ox, the public stocks, or the dart waiting for his liver. Sin never advertises itself honestly.

This message walks verse by verse through Proverbs 7:21-23, using three pictures — the ox, the fool in the stocks, and the bird hasting to the snare — to show how temptation moves from flattery to bondage without ever announcing what it's really costing. It closes with real hope for anyone who has already walked through that door: God completely forgives, even on the nights the body is still paying for what the soul no longer owes.

This teaching covers:

- Why sin never advertises itself honestly — it shows the front end, never the back end

- The ox that walks calmly to slaughter, content instead of afraid

- The public shame of "the stocks" and why private correction now beats public correction later

- The bird with wings and no wisdom, hasting full-speed into its own trap

- Why the dart strikes the liver — the seat of appetite and desire

- The blind pencil-seller's arithmetic: one night versus twenty years

- The difference between godly correction and abusive shaming

- Hope and forgiveness for anyone who has already walked through that door

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