Proverbs 5:14 (Mini Sermon)

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14. Pro 5:14 - "I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly." A. The punishment of the fornicator or adulterer isn't limited to social (Pro 5:9), financial (Pro 5:10), physical (Pro 5:11), and mental suffering (Pro 5:12). B. It also extends to spiritual suffering as well as this verse makes clear. C. He was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. i. Congregation n. - 1. The action of congregating or collecting in one body or mass. ii. Assembly n. - I. The action or fact of assembling, the state of being assembled. 1. a. Gathering together, meeting; the state of being collected or gathered; = assemblage 1. iii. Congregation and assembly are both synonyms of a church (Heb 2:12 c/w Psa 22:22; Jam 2:2; Heb 10:25). iv. The Old Testament church (which the man in Proverbs 5 would have been a part of) was called the congregation (Act 7:38 c/w Exo 16:2). v. He was in the midst of the church when he was suffering this judgment. a. Midst n. - 1. The middle point or part; the centre, middle. 2. The position of being in the interior of, involved or enveloped in, or surrounded by (something, or a number of things or persons, specified or implied). Now almost exclusively in the phrase in the midst of (formerly also †among the midst of), chiefly in the senses: Among, amid, surrounded by (a number of things or persons); while fully engaged with, ‘in the thick of’ (occupations, troubles, etc.); during the continuance of (an action or condition). b. He was assembling with the church surrounded by believers while he was in the middle of a sinful relationship with a strange woman. c. The member of the church of Corinth who had his father's wife was in the same position (1Co 5:1). d. He was living the life of a hypocrite and enduring the condemnation in his conscience for it (Rom 2:15). D. He was almost in all evil... i. This man was almost entirely swallowed up in sin. a. Evil n. - 1. a. In the widest sense: That which is the reverse of good; whatever is censurable, mischievous, or undesirable. Also with adj.: moral, physical evil. b. What is morally evil; sin, wickedness. c. What is mischievous, painful, or disastrous. b. Almost adv. - 1. Mostly all, nearly all; for the most part. c. All adj. - 1. With n. sing. The entire or unabated amount or quantity of; the whole extent, substance, or compass of; the whole. ii. To an outsider, this man would have looked like a worshipper of God assembling with the saints, but inside he was almost completely consumed with sin. iii. Sin left unchecked can work all manner of concupiscence in us (Rom 7:8). iv. A man who has started down the path of sexual sin better repent before it's too late when his conscience gets seared and becomes past feeling, and he is given over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness (Eph 4:19). v. What starts out as fornication can lead to more wicked sexual sin such as sodomy if God gives a man over to it (Rom 1:24-27).