Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Straight Talk about Moral Purity │ Msg 612 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Since I first delivered this message on moral purity, internet
- 0:05Speaker 1: pornography has begun eating away at our country and within
- 0:09Speaker 1: our congregations. Men and women alike, from adolescence all the
- 0:15Speaker 1: way to senior citizens from all walks of life have
- 0:19Speaker 1: succumbed or they are at risk, and more are becoming
- 0:24Speaker 1: infested every single day without our knowing it. This problem
- 0:31Speaker 1: could be eating our churches alive. And the scariest thing
- 0:36Speaker 1: is this we may not even realize the extensive damage
- 0:41Speaker 1: it's causing. The most recent studies suggest that one out
- 0:46Speaker 1: of every two people now do the math quickly. Fifty
- 0:51Speaker 1: percent of the people sitting in our pews are looking
- 0:56Speaker 1: at and or could be addicted to Internet. How serious
- 1:02Speaker 1: is that the struggle is going on among those who
- 1:05Speaker 1: volunteer in our churches. Chances are good that some of
- 1:10Speaker 1: our full time staff members, even some who faithfully serve
- 1:15Speaker 1: on our boards, could be losing this secret battle. And
- 1:20Speaker 1: while I'm listing these grim statistics and possibilities, let's not
- 1:24Speaker 1: overlook our young adults, married and single, who provide instruction
- 1:30Speaker 1: among our junior and senior high school youth. Truth be
- 1:34Speaker 1: told that statistic could even be higher. Forget the red
- 1:39Speaker 1: light district or the adult bookstore. Pornography has entered homes
- 1:45Speaker 1: via the Internet more pervasively and subtly than any store
- 1:49Speaker 1: or strip club ever could. The irony is that if
- 1:54Speaker 1: an X rated store were being established across the street
- 1:58Speaker 1: from where you live or where where you worship, why
- 2:01Speaker 1: you'd have a committee assembled to fight it immediately. Yet
- 2:05Speaker 1: they've set up shop in the homes of millions of
- 2:08Speaker 1: our friends in the church, while most remain mute and passive.
- 2:15Speaker 1: Stop and imagine the ugly but very real possibility of
- 2:18Speaker 1: some of your own elders or deacons leaving your meetings
- 2:24Speaker 1: then going home to surf porn. Think about youth leaders
- 2:28Speaker 1: viewing it at one minute and then leading a small
- 2:31Speaker 1: group with your kids thirty minutes later. It's ruining marriages,
- 2:37Speaker 1: it's destroying relationships. It's harming and hurting the minds of
- 2:42Speaker 1: the youth and the body of Christ at large. You
- 2:46Speaker 1: hardly need to be reminded that fallen pastors and priests
- 2:51Speaker 1: did not suddenly fall. More often than not, pornography played
- 2:55Speaker 1: a role in their downward spiral. It's time to do
- 3:00Speaker 1: something about this, friends. In fact, we need to start
- 3:04Speaker 1: today making a difference requires action and insight for living
- 3:10Speaker 1: is prepared to help you. You may visit our website
- 3:14Speaker 1: for more information, but the most important place to begin
- 3:19Speaker 1: is with your own moral decision. Frederic Beatner has penned
- 3:24Speaker 1: perhaps the most accurate definition of lust I've ever read.
- 3:29Speaker 1: Lust is the craving for salt of a man who
- 3:33Speaker 1: is dying of thirst. Isn't that the truth? Is there
- 3:38Speaker 1: a salt you have been craving, possibly even tasting. Maybe
- 3:44Speaker 1: it is the forbidden delights in the pages of romance novels,
- 3:49Speaker 1: or the airbrushed allure of pornography. Or perhaps your salt
- 3:55Speaker 1: comes in the form of intriguing fantasies played out on
- 3:59Speaker 1: daytime television. Maybe it is the heart pounding passion of
- 4:04Speaker 1: a secret rendezvous you've been involved in. It could be
- 4:10Speaker 1: so intimate that we dare not ask you to write
- 4:12Speaker 1: it down. It's too personal even for a diary. First
- 4:19Speaker 1: Corinthians six eighteen tells us to flee immorality, and then
- 4:25Speaker 1: adds every other sin that a man commits is outside
- 4:28Speaker 1: the body, but the immoral man sinds against his own body.
- 4:36Speaker 1: Here's the way I picture it. I am to flee,
- 4:39Speaker 1: I am to run from immorality and pursue that is,
- 4:44Speaker 1: run toward a holy life. Holiness. Now there's an interesting word.
- 4:52Speaker 1: It conjures up so many pictures in our minds, and
- 4:55Speaker 1: we tend to cloister holiness in the hushed chambers of
- 5:00Speaker 1: monasteries and cathedrals where saints, hooded monks, and mystics reside
- 5:07Speaker 1: in silence. God, however, wants to unlock the wooden doors
- 5:12Speaker 1: and open the stained glass windows of our thinking so
- 5:15Speaker 1: His holiness can walk freely through every room of our lives.
- 5:21Speaker 1: He longs for us to be holy, that is pure
- 5:25Speaker 1: as He is holy. Yes, ordinary garden variety people like you,
- 5:31Speaker 1: and be every day. God calls us to be beacons
- 5:34Speaker 1: of purity so that hope will pierce through to those
- 5:38Speaker 1: who are stumbling in the world's moral fog, a fog
- 5:42Speaker 1: that seems to get only thicker with the passing of time. Today,
- 5:49Speaker 1: this is exactly what we want to talk about, and
- 5:52Speaker 1: our passage in scripture is found in First Thessalonians, chapter four.
- 5:57Speaker 1: I'm referring to the first eight verses. Turn in your
- 6:00Speaker 1: bibles to this passage and follow along as are read
- 6:04Speaker 1: it for you. I hope you'll begin to refer to
- 6:07Speaker 1: these verses over and over again in your efforts to
- 6:11Speaker 1: flee immorality as you pursue a life of holiness. First,
- 6:16Speaker 1: Thessalonians four, verse one begins. Finally, then, brethren, we request
- 6:23Speaker 1: and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you
- 6:26Speaker 1: received from us instruction as to how you ought to
- 6:29Speaker 1: walk and please God, just as you actually do walk,
- 6:33Speaker 1: that you excel still more. For you know what commandments
- 6:38Speaker 1: we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
- 6:41Speaker 1: For this is the will of God your sanctification, that is,
- 6:45Speaker 1: that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you
- 6:50Speaker 1: know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,
- 6:56Speaker 1: not in lustful passion like the gentiles who do not
- 6:59Speaker 1: know God. And that no man transgress and defraud his
- 7:03Speaker 1: brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger
- 7:06Speaker 1: in all these things, just as we also told you
- 7:10Speaker 1: before and solemnly warned you. For God has not called
- 7:14Speaker 1: us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. So
- 7:20Speaker 1: he who rejects this is not rejecting man, but the
- 7:24Speaker 1: God who gives his Holy Spirit to you. Holiness sounds scary,
- 7:32Speaker 1: to the average American. I am sure it appears to
- 7:35Speaker 1: be the kind of thing that would never find its
- 7:37Speaker 1: way into a salesperson's office, certainly not that of an
- 7:43Speaker 1: aggressive and successful athletic coach. A mother of small children
- 7:50Speaker 1: certainly wouldn't be that concerned about holiness, or a teenager
- 7:56Speaker 1: that is involved in life in the junior high or
- 7:59Speaker 1: senior high school, to say nothing of the young adult
- 8:03Speaker 1: in college that's pursuing some fabulous career with his or
- 8:08Speaker 1: her eyes on some great financial goal. I mean, holiness
- 8:14Speaker 1: is something for the cloister. It certainly doesn't seem like
- 8:20Speaker 1: what you would have if you were living in the
- 8:23Speaker 1: twentieth century. Author John White seems to agree with that.
- 8:29Speaker 1: Have you ever gone fishing in a polluted river? He writes,
- 8:33Speaker 1: and hauled out an old shoe, a tea kettle, or
- 8:38Speaker 1: a rusty can I get a similar sort of catch
- 8:45Speaker 1: if I cast as a bait the word holiness into
- 8:49Speaker 1: the murky depths of my mind, to my dismay, I
- 8:54Speaker 1: come up with such associations as thinness, hollow eyed, gauntiness,
- 9:01Speaker 1: beards and sandals, long robes, stone cells, no jokes, hair shirts,
- 9:11Speaker 1: frequent cold baths, fasting, hours of prayer, wild rocky deserts,
- 9:18Speaker 1: getting up at four in the morning, clean fingernails, stained glass,
- 9:25Speaker 1: self humiliation. Is that the picture you get in mind
- 9:31Speaker 1: when you think of holiness. Most do. It's almost as
- 9:41Speaker 1: though holiness is the private preserve of an austere group
- 9:47Speaker 1: of monks and missionaries, mystics and martyrs. Nothing could be
- 9:58Speaker 1: further from the truth, if you please, Holiness does belong
- 10:07Speaker 1: in the life of the teenager. Holiness does fit the
- 10:11Speaker 1: office of the salesperson. It is indeed appropriate outside the monastery.
- 10:22Speaker 1: There is every reason in the world for the up
- 10:25Speaker 1: to date, aggressive, even successful individual in some academic pursuit
- 10:36Speaker 1: to pursue holiness as well. I couldn't agree more with
- 10:43Speaker 1: Chuck Colson, who writes, holiness is the everyday business of
- 10:48Speaker 1: every Christian. It evidences itself in the decisions we make
- 10:53Speaker 1: and the things we do, hour by hour, day by day. Now,
- 10:59Speaker 1: before I get any d into that, give me a
- 11:02Speaker 1: few minutes to analyze the fog. The fog, or if
- 11:08Speaker 1: it would fit us better, the smog. Turn over to
- 11:14Speaker 1: the dusty old ancient writings of a sixth century prophet
- 11:20Speaker 1: named Habaccock. His name looks like a misprint, doesn't it.
- 11:27Speaker 1: I doubt that more than a half dozen in this
- 11:30Speaker 1: entire group of twenty five hundred people could, on the
- 11:34Speaker 1: spur of a moment, give someone else an outline of
- 11:37Speaker 1: the book of Habaccoc. We're not familiar with him, but
- 11:42Speaker 1: we surely are with his times. He's a man who
- 11:47Speaker 1: lived in the fog. His book is an ancient call
- 11:53Speaker 1: to repentance. It is a It is a cry to
- 11:58Speaker 1: God who is holy, for some intervention. It's not just
- 12:03Speaker 1: a cry, it's a scream, he says, he long, Oh Lord, well,
- 12:08Speaker 1: I cry for help, and you will not hear. I
- 12:13Speaker 1: cry out to the violence, and yet you don't deliver.
- 12:21Speaker 1: Why those questions sound familiar? How long? Why the heavens
- 12:30Speaker 1: are brass? Why don't you come through? Why don't you
- 12:34Speaker 1: unfold your arms and get with it in this old,
- 12:42Speaker 1: polluted world of ours? Why don't you say? Why do
- 12:48Speaker 1: you make me see iniquity and cause me to look
- 12:51Speaker 1: on wickedness? Yet destruction and violence are before me, Strife exists,
- 12:57Speaker 1: and contentions arise. Therefore the law is ignored, justice is
- 13:05Speaker 1: never upheld. The wicked surround the righteous. Therefore justice comes
- 13:11Speaker 1: out perverted Verse twelve I thought you were holy? Aren't
- 13:20Speaker 1: you holy? Scholar Kyle Yeates is right. Habaka could not
- 13:28Speaker 1: reconcile a bad world with a holy God. How bad
- 13:32Speaker 1: was his world? Take a look? It was a world
- 13:36Speaker 1: of brutal violence verse two, So severe, the prophet screamed
- 13:40Speaker 1: out in prayer. It was a world of personal iniquity
- 13:44Speaker 1: and wickedness verse thirteen of verse three, Why dost thou
- 13:48Speaker 1: make me see iniquity? The word means lying, vanity, and idolatry.
- 13:54Speaker 1: It would include that, why do you cause me to
- 13:57Speaker 1: look on wickedness? The term encompasses oh, pressure and robbery
- 14:01Speaker 1: and assault. There are homicidal deeds going on in the
- 14:06Speaker 1: streets of your people. God. Aren't you Jehovah of Judah?
- 14:10Speaker 1: Aren't you the god of this nation? Where are you? God? Theirs? Strife?
- 14:17Speaker 1: Verse three relational wrangling. There are fights and homes, and
- 14:24Speaker 1: there are fights between parents and kids. There are fights
- 14:28Speaker 1: between mates. There is wrangling between bosses and employees. Verse four.
- 14:34Speaker 1: The law isn't upheld, and when it is, it's compromised.
- 14:39Speaker 1: There's legal compromise, brutal violence, personal iniquity, relational wrangling, legal compromise.
- 14:47Speaker 1: That sound familiar does that sound familiar to anybody else?
- 14:52Speaker 1: I laughed when I listened to Ray Stedman, the rather
- 14:54Speaker 1: well known Bible expositor, wherey and I were together ministering,
- 14:58Speaker 1: and he said he'd just done some digging back into
- 15:01Speaker 1: the fourth, fifth and sixth century BC, And he said,
- 15:05Speaker 1: I was interested to discover what they wrestled with back then.
- 15:08Speaker 1: There were five issues that concerned the people. Number one
- 15:13Speaker 1: imminent outbreak of international hostility. Number two, the breakup of Holmes,
- 15:18Speaker 1: weakening marriages. Number three rebellion of youth, no respect for
- 15:23Speaker 1: parents or for those getting older. Number four corruption in politics,
- 15:28Speaker 1: integrity was undermine and number five chug holds in the
- 15:32Speaker 1: public roads. That sounds familiar, sounded like something you could
- 15:39Speaker 1: identify with. That's the kind of thing Habakuk is naming.
- 15:43Speaker 1: I thought you were, Holy God? Where are you? How
- 15:48Speaker 1: could you allow this to happen? There was a moral
- 15:50Speaker 1: pollution that comes from the smog, and I'm tired of
- 15:54Speaker 1: sucking it in. I'm tired of its diseased impact on
- 15:59Speaker 1: my body. I'm I'm tired of talking about a holy
- 16:05Speaker 1: god in a world of unholy people. Habacca screamed, but
- 16:13Speaker 1: Jeremiah just quietly sobbed. Go back if you will, you'll
- 16:18Speaker 1: go back in your bible to Jeremiah six. But we're
- 16:21Speaker 1: really going a few years ahead in time. He lived
- 16:25Speaker 1: a little later than Habacca, though not by much. Jeremiah
- 16:29Speaker 1: lived to see the end of an era. He saw
- 16:32Speaker 1: the nation fall. That's why he wrote lamentations. It's another
- 16:37Speaker 1: name for weeping. He's called the weeping prophet. He doesn't scream,
- 16:44Speaker 1: he doesn't fight, he doesn't even argue. He just sobs.
- 16:51Speaker 1: He writes his prophecy in tears. Verse eight. Be warned,
- 16:58Speaker 1: oh Jerusalem, Jeremiah six', eight be, warned LEST i be
- 17:05Speaker 1: alienated from, you LEST i make you a, desolation a
- 17:07Speaker 1: land not. Inhabited verse. Ten to whom SHALL i speak
- 17:13Speaker 1: and give a warning that they may? Hear, behold their
- 17:16Speaker 1: ears are. Closed see that's the result of living in the.
- 17:19Speaker 1: Fog that's the result of sucking up the. Smog your
- 17:22Speaker 1: ears get, stopped and you can't hear the spiritual message
- 17:27Speaker 1: That god is. Giving they cannot. Listen see the way
- 17:30Speaker 1: he puts, it the word of The lord has become
- 17:33Speaker 1: a reproach to. Them they have no delight in. It,
- 17:36Speaker 1: Ah get off that, Stuff get up with the times.
- 17:40Speaker 1: Man that's the sign of the. Smog verse. Eleven i'm
- 17:45Speaker 1: full of the wrath of The. Lord i'm weary of
- 17:48Speaker 1: holding it. In i'm, Boiling i'm Churning verse. Thirteen from
- 17:55Speaker 1: the least of, them even to the greatest of, them
- 17:58Speaker 1: everyone is greedy for. Gain does that sound. Familiar that's
- 18:02Speaker 1: living in the. Flog that's part of the. Smug we're
- 18:06Speaker 1: fighting for. Gain there's a competition to get, more more
- 18:11Speaker 1: and to make matters. Worse from the prophet even to the,
- 18:14Speaker 1: priest everyone deals. FALSELY i, mean it's bad enough that
- 18:18Speaker 1: it's in the law, courts but it's now in the Pulpits.
- 18:22Speaker 1: Jehovah it's it's to the place WHERE i can't trust
- 18:27Speaker 1: the one who wears a. COLLAR i can't be sure
- 18:31Speaker 1: that those who are robed with the mantle Of god
- 18:35Speaker 1: tell me the truth. Anymore what do they tell? Me,
- 18:38Speaker 1: well they deal. Falsely they have healed the wound of
- 18:41Speaker 1: your people just. Slightly look at what he. Says they keep,
- 18:45Speaker 1: Saying shallom. Shalom when there is no, shallom there isn't any.
- 18:50Speaker 1: Peace but they keep, saying don't don't don't, worry don't.
- 18:56Speaker 1: Worry it's it's gonna be okay when it's not gonna be.
- 19:02Speaker 1: Okay and if you don't think that's, bad look at
- 19:12Speaker 1: the next verse. Fifteen were they ashamed because of the
- 19:17Speaker 1: abomination they've? Done, nope they were not even ashamed at.
- 19:24Speaker 1: All they did not even know how to. Blush ever
- 19:29Speaker 1: seen that in The? Bible Before Lord. God WHEN i
- 19:36Speaker 1: minister to your People, judah AND i see them come
- 19:44Speaker 1: with all the, POLLUTION i Notice god that there are
- 19:48Speaker 1: no more red. Faces no one seems shocked. Anymore it's
- 19:58Speaker 1: what we shall call. Compensating in order to handle the
- 20:12Speaker 1: shock of our, day we compensate by remaining free of.
- 20:19Speaker 1: Shock that's part of living in the. Fog just. Listen Carl, meninger,
- 20:30Speaker 1: psychiatrist several years, ago wrote whatever became Of? Sin in?
- 20:35Speaker 1: It he, said in a discussion of, lust we have
- 20:39Speaker 1: to allow for a considerable shift in the social code
- 20:43Speaker 1: during the past. Century it has been called a. Revolution
- 20:47Speaker 1: perhaps it. Is many forms of sexual, activity which for
- 20:51Speaker 1: centuries were considered, reprehensible, immoral and sinful, anywhere and their
- 20:58Speaker 1: public exhibitions simply, anathema are now talked and written about
- 21:03Speaker 1: and exhibited on the stage and. Screen from, honesty, morality
- 21:10Speaker 1: and conscience By Jerry. WHITE i find. Quote we live
- 21:14Speaker 1: in the day of freedom of expression and freedom of.
- 21:17Speaker 1: LIFESTYLE x rated movies and magazines are available in every.
- 21:22Speaker 1: City legislation to control pornography has failed in most. Places
- 21:28Speaker 1: the sexual fiction of yesterday is the reality of. Today
- 21:32Speaker 1: magazines displayed in supermarkets present articles featuring unmarried couples living.
- 21:38Speaker 1: Together sex manuals advocate extramarital. Affairs fewer and fewer teenagers
- 21:44Speaker 1: leave high school as. Virgins prime time television flaunts homosexuality and.
- 21:51Speaker 1: Infidelity peter Im, sorokin formerly professor of sociology At Harvard, harvard,
- 22:02Speaker 1: writes there has been a growing preoccupation of our writers
- 22:07Speaker 1: with the social. Sewers the broken homes of disloyal parents
- 22:11Speaker 1: and unloved, children the bedroom of the, prostitute a cannery rowe,
- 22:15Speaker 1: brothel a den of, criminals award of the, insane a
- 22:19Speaker 1: club of dishonest, politicians a street corner gang of teenage,
- 22:23Speaker 1: delinquents a hate laden, prison a crime ridden, waterfront the
- 22:29Speaker 1: courtroom of a dishonest, judge the sex adventures of urbanized
- 22:33Speaker 1: cavemen and, rapists the loves of adulterers and fornicators of, masochists, sadists, prostitutes, mistresses,
- 22:43Speaker 1: playboys juicy love, IDs, orgasms and libidos are seductively prepared
- 22:52Speaker 1: and served with all the. Trimmings AND i, add nobody blushes.
- 22:58Speaker 1: Anymore it's part of the. Pollution it's part of the.
- 23:07Speaker 1: Fog now you, can with a turn of the dial
- 23:13Speaker 1: or the punch of a few buttons on your, telephone
- 23:16Speaker 1: bring right into your, home thanks to, specialized specialized cable
- 23:21Speaker 1: television explicit sex for whoever to watch that knows how
- 23:29Speaker 1: to push the right channel and turn the right, knobs
- 23:35Speaker 1: and nobody. Blushes you don't even have to go into
- 23:42Speaker 1: a quote adult bookstore stupid name anymore to find, pornography
- 23:52Speaker 1: or you can find it in most of the larger.
- 23:54Speaker 1: Supermarkets it's. There you may have to look a, little
- 23:58Speaker 1: but it's, there and some of the places will make
- 24:01Speaker 1: it available because it's behind the counter if you want.
- 24:05Speaker 1: It and nobody. Blushes AND i scream With, habecca AND
- 24:18Speaker 1: i cry With. Jeremiah and it would be bad enough
- 24:24Speaker 1: if it were just in my, world WHERE i am
- 24:26Speaker 1: forced to rear four precious children who carry into their
- 24:33Speaker 1: homes a lifestyle and they build upon our foundation in
- 24:41Speaker 1: a world that's increasingly more. Polluted the ultimate telltale sign
- 24:47Speaker 1: of a lack of holiness is that we no longer
- 24:50Speaker 1: blush when we find. Wrong we make jokes about. It
- 25:03Speaker 1: it's it's. Funny and if you don't, laugh you're a,
- 25:09Speaker 1: prude you're you're you're, weird you're kind of, crotchety you're getting.
- 25:17Speaker 1: Older MAYBE i don't like to laugh about that much
- 25:25Speaker 1: anymore Because i'm ideal always with the consequences of. It,
- 25:33Speaker 1: see the people don't come to me and our staff
- 25:36Speaker 1: talking about the joys of illicit. Sex they come with
- 25:40Speaker 1: the horror stories of what do they do about, now
- 25:46Speaker 1: about their, family or what do they do about this,
- 25:49Speaker 1: disease or what do they do with this incestuous relationship
- 25:54Speaker 1: that has torn the place? Apart what do they do
- 25:59Speaker 1: with this information that's going to blow the thing out
- 26:02Speaker 1: of the water now that she's, Pregnant what are they
- 26:07Speaker 1: going to? Do it would be bad enough in the,
- 26:13Speaker 1: world but it is now in the, church even this.
- 26:18Speaker 1: Church and so WHEN i see In First thessalonians chapter
- 26:24Speaker 1: four straight talk about moral, PURITY i AM i am
- 26:31Speaker 1: grateful That god talks that way about. It i'm grateful
- 26:35Speaker 1: he doesn't. Stutter i'm even more grateful that he doesn't.
- 26:40Speaker 1: Laugh he tells me straight what to do about, it
- 26:44Speaker 1: and he leaves me with a, choice because, actually if
- 26:48Speaker 1: you boil holiness down to its basic, sense you come to,
- 26:52Speaker 1: obedience don't. You as the nineteenth Century scottish Theologian John brown,
- 27:01Speaker 1: said holiness does not consist in mystic, speculations enthusiastic, fervors
- 27:08Speaker 1: or uncommanded. Austerities it consists in thinking As god, thinks
- 27:12Speaker 1: and willing As god. Wills that's what the apostle is
- 27:18Speaker 1: asking of the reader in chapter four Of First. Thessalonians
- 27:24Speaker 1: he got his foot in the door by that last
- 27:26Speaker 1: part of chapter three when he gave us some guidelines
- 27:29Speaker 1: on how to really. Live remember that last, Time remember
- 27:32Speaker 1: those comments he gave, Us and it just thrilled, us
- 27:35Speaker 1: especially as he got to the, end and he said
- 27:37Speaker 1: verse thirteen That god may establish your hearts unblameable in.
- 27:43Speaker 1: Holiness what a great way to, live unblameable in. Holiness
- 27:48Speaker 1: confidence is being. UNBLAMEABLE i mean it's better than having
- 27:56Speaker 1: the answers to all the questions on the. Test there's
- 28:02Speaker 1: no security like being free to. Blame That god may
- 28:07Speaker 1: establish your hearts unblameable in, holiness so that you can
- 28:11Speaker 1: smile at. Life you can take it in all of its.
- 28:14Speaker 1: Pleasures and when marriage comes and you enjoy the partnership
- 28:18Speaker 1: of that opposite, sex you have the joys of sexual,
- 28:23Speaker 1: delights the likes of which would Cause god to. Laugh
- 28:28Speaker 1: he's pleased with. That he applauds that he invented, it
- 28:33Speaker 1: he created. It he, said it will be in that
- 28:36Speaker 1: context that it will reach its. Fulfillment AND i honor
- 28:40Speaker 1: that the marriage bid is, undefiled free to, blame but
- 28:46Speaker 1: you take it out of its original, context and blame
- 28:49Speaker 1: associates itself with it and all the miseries in. Accompaniment So,
- 28:57Speaker 1: paul since he lived In, corinth which was so much
- 28:59Speaker 1: like one of our cities In. California not exclusive To,
- 29:03Speaker 1: california but it seems as though we have cultivated the
- 29:10Speaker 1: notorious reputation for fast living out. Here it isn't, exclusive
- 29:19Speaker 1: but it seems as though we are the byword for
- 29:22Speaker 1: corinthianizing in our. Day and he lived In corinth when
- 29:27Speaker 1: he wrote this. Letter he could have been looking out
- 29:31Speaker 1: of his window one morning and prompted by something that
- 29:35Speaker 1: had happened in the night, before as he saw the
- 29:38Speaker 1: same street with the people, there and he knew The
- 29:42Speaker 1: thessalonians lived in a city that had its. Temptations and
- 29:46Speaker 1: so he, said, finally, brethren we request and we exhort
- 29:50Speaker 1: you in The Lord, jesus that as you received from
- 29:55Speaker 1: us instruction as to how you ought to walk and Please,
- 29:57Speaker 1: god just as you actually do you, walk that you
- 30:01Speaker 1: excel still. More underline, that excel still. More we have
- 30:07Speaker 1: words for that. Today go for, it give it your best.
- 30:11Speaker 1: Shot don't just, drift pursue be a gimper, or as
- 30:20Speaker 1: my father would often, say get with. It get with,
- 30:24Speaker 1: It paul says to the, reader just as we have written,
- 30:28Speaker 1: you and just as we told you when we were with,
- 30:30Speaker 1: you to really, walk get with. It make something happen
- 30:36Speaker 1: in your. Life don't just drift along in the fog of. Mediocrity,
- 30:41Speaker 1: excel go the second, mile go beyond the. Expected if
- 30:49Speaker 1: you're A c, student try your best for a. Bee
- 30:55Speaker 1: if in life you tend to be rather laid, back
- 30:58Speaker 1: remember as your work and as you're to give yourself to,
- 31:01Speaker 1: it give yourself to. Diligence overcome that tendency toward. Laziness
- 31:06Speaker 1: that's all involved in the. Excelling the Reason i'm landing
- 31:09Speaker 1: on it and massaging it in a little bit is
- 31:13Speaker 1: that the passage that follows is a direct out working
- 31:19Speaker 1: of that excelling. Lifestyle you know the commandments we gave
- 31:24Speaker 1: you with the authority of The Lord. Jesus excel in
- 31:26Speaker 1: that now In verses three to. Six in the realm of,
- 31:30Speaker 1: morality abstain from immorality verse. Three this is the will
- 31:42Speaker 1: Of god your, Sanctification that is that you abstain from sexual.
- 31:51Speaker 1: Immorality you want to excel in your, walk then you'll
- 32:02Speaker 1: have to come to terms quickly with your lust. Battle
- 32:07Speaker 1: and it will be that and it won't stop when
- 32:11Speaker 1: you turn. Fifty and it won't be over just because
- 32:15Speaker 1: you lost a. Mate and it won't end because your geography,
- 32:20Speaker 1: changes or because you happen to be a, woman or
- 32:25Speaker 1: because you are well, educated or because you live behind
- 32:32Speaker 1: the walls of a prison or a, monastery or are
- 32:41Speaker 1: led to remain. Single this is the will Of. God
- 32:47Speaker 1: very seldom will you find such straight talk in. Scripture
- 32:50Speaker 1: you don't even have to pray about. It you know his.
- 32:53Speaker 1: Will this is the will Of god that you abstain
- 32:58Speaker 1: from Poor. Naya we get our word pornography or pornographic from.
- 33:03Speaker 1: It abstain means abstain outside. Marriage have nothing to do
- 33:11Speaker 1: with sexual involvement with. Others that's what it. Means, now
- 33:19Speaker 1: in the fog of horizontal, standards you will be left
- 33:23Speaker 1: with any number of. Options you will be counseled to be,
- 33:26Speaker 1: discreet but not. ABSTAIN i, mean let's don't be silly about.
- 33:30Speaker 1: This you will be told it would be dangerous for
- 33:33Speaker 1: you to play around with somebody else's, mate so don't do.
- 33:36Speaker 1: That watch out for. Disease it's unwise for you to
- 33:42Speaker 1: cohabit with a partner in your. Family that's, incest that's,
- 33:47Speaker 1: scandalous it's. Illegal if you're a, teacher you shouldn't be
- 33:53Speaker 1: intimate with your. Student that's not professionally, wise so don't do.
- 33:58Speaker 1: That some would caution how relieving it is to know
- 34:05Speaker 1: exactly where you stand with the Living Holy. God if
- 34:08Speaker 1: you are not, married you have no business being involved
- 34:11Speaker 1: sexually with any other. Person that's what it. Says that
- 34:17Speaker 1: is what it. Says that is for our, good that
- 34:22Speaker 1: is For god's. Glory, now he doesn't leave us with
- 34:28Speaker 1: simply a stark. Command he follows it up with some
- 34:31Speaker 1: counsel verse, four that each of you know how to
- 34:37Speaker 1: possess his own vessel in sanctification and. Honor this is
- 34:41Speaker 1: the will Of god that you know how to do.
- 34:43Speaker 1: That so you must become a student of yourself in
- 34:48Speaker 1: order to know how to handle. Yourself, right you know
- 34:53Speaker 1: what kind of student you. Are, academically in order to
- 34:56Speaker 1: pass the, course you have to apply what you know
- 34:59Speaker 1: will work in order to pass the test and accomplish
- 35:03Speaker 1: the course and get the degree or the. Diploma, now
- 35:07Speaker 1: in the realm of your intimate, life each of you
- 35:10Speaker 1: is to know how to possess his own. Vessel there
- 35:12Speaker 1: is a bit of disagreement as to the interpretation of
- 35:14Speaker 1: one's own. Vessel some have taught that it meant for
- 35:17Speaker 1: the man his. WIFE i rather think it has reference
- 35:21Speaker 1: to one's, body because it is used more than just
- 35:26Speaker 1: a time or two in The New, testament this word
- 35:28Speaker 1: vessel for the. Body we have this treasure in earthen.
- 35:32Speaker 1: Vessels remember that out Of Tecod corinthians, four we are
- 35:36Speaker 1: to know how to possess our own, drive how to
- 35:40Speaker 1: gain mastery over, it how to sustain ourselves in a
- 35:44Speaker 1: life of, purity not in lustful. Passion let me amplify.
- 35:53Speaker 1: That let me talk really straight with you about. It
- 35:57Speaker 1: within the, media there are certain things that we cannot.
- 36:00Speaker 1: Handle and you know, yourself as an adult or as
- 36:05Speaker 1: a young adult well enough to know that weakens, me
- 36:09Speaker 1: then you are wrong to traffic in. It there are
- 36:13Speaker 1: certain films and pictures and magazines that you AND i cannot.
- 36:17Speaker 1: Handle there are certain television programs we have no business tuning.
- 36:24Speaker 1: Into there are certain conversations that stimulate us from certain
- 36:31Speaker 1: people who weaken, us and to traffic with those people
- 36:35Speaker 1: and to run with them as friends or even quasi,
- 36:38Speaker 1: friends is. Foolish it gives us temptations we cannot. Control
- 36:49Speaker 1: and there are certain activities that stimulate certain, parties certain,
- 36:54Speaker 1: places certain seductive pastimes that weaken, us and we are
- 37:04Speaker 1: fools to play with. It just as a person trying
- 37:08Speaker 1: to recover and get on his or her feet from
- 37:11Speaker 1: alcoholism chooses not to live on the second floor above a, bar, stupid,
- 37:19Speaker 1: foolish and it will lead to. Failure the same kind
- 37:26Speaker 1: of thing is true here verse. Six some would get
- 37:33Speaker 1: around it by, saying, well what we could do is
- 37:37Speaker 1: just keep this within the. Family but he corners us
- 37:40Speaker 1: here and says that no one transgress and defraud his
- 37:44Speaker 1: brother in the. Matter because The lord is the avenger
- 37:48Speaker 1: in all these. Things i'll deal with that in a.
- 37:50Speaker 1: Moment this would have reference not only to in general
- 37:55Speaker 1: the family Of, god but family, members the indecent practices
- 38:00Speaker 1: of relating to one's daughter in, law son in, law, mother, stepmother,
- 38:07Speaker 1: stepfather and on and, on and the whole realm of incest.
- 38:13Speaker 2: That.
- 38:14Speaker 1: Defrauds the defrauding not only occurs with the person that
- 38:18Speaker 1: one takes advantage, of even if it's done, voluntarily but
- 38:23Speaker 1: the defrauding occurs since it's, secret and there are many
- 38:26Speaker 1: who know nothing of, it and when they find, out
- 38:30Speaker 1: they are damaged as. Well, now to put it very,
- 38:36Speaker 1: Straight god stands clearly against extramarital, sex homosexual, sex sex
- 38:47Speaker 1: with individuals outside of, marriage under any. Situation any, Situation he,
- 38:54Speaker 1: says abstain from.
- 38:55Speaker 2: It.
- 38:58Speaker 1: Now WHEN i say, THIS i am not the only,
- 39:03Speaker 1: voice But i'm a lonely voice in our, day certainly
- 39:06Speaker 1: among public. Figures and because all illustrations can lead to unfortunate,
- 39:16Speaker 1: RESULTS i choose not to use anyone else but myself
- 39:20Speaker 1: as an, example And i'll tell you my. Story WHILE
- 39:25Speaker 1: i was early married in nineteen fifty, FIVE i finished
- 39:30Speaker 1: my schooling and decided THAT i needed to deal with
- 39:33Speaker 1: my military. Deferment in those, days the military was an
- 39:38Speaker 1: obligation that was to be, fulfilled AND i chose an
- 39:43Speaker 1: outfit not known for. PURITY i chose The Marine, corps
- 39:54Speaker 1: and part of the REASON i did is BECAUSE i
- 39:58Speaker 1: received the promise from The corps that IF i, JOINED
- 40:01Speaker 1: i would not have to do duty. Overseas and SINCE
- 40:04Speaker 1: i was, married and when one in The marines goes
- 40:08Speaker 1: overseas cannot take his, mate that certainly was appealing to
- 40:11Speaker 1: me BECAUSE i was enjoying life with my bride in
- 40:15Speaker 1: our early, years AS i really wanted to be with.
- 40:18Speaker 1: Her but as is sometime true with the, military they,
- 40:21Speaker 1: lied AND i wound up eight thousand miles from home
- 40:29Speaker 1: and suddenly faced with temptation THAT i had never known.
- 40:34Speaker 1: Before NOW i have a little fun with that, story
- 40:37Speaker 1: but the fun stops right. Now BEFORE i ever dropped
- 40:41Speaker 1: the sea bag off my, SHOULDER i was faced with
- 40:44Speaker 1: the DECISION i was going to live in the barracks
- 40:47Speaker 1: that was full of godless life style over ninety percent
- 40:54Speaker 1: headhead or at the time had venereal. Disease living in
- 40:58Speaker 1: the village was as common as breathing smog in Southern.
- 41:03Speaker 1: California if you lived In, okinawa you had a naisson
- 41:08Speaker 1: on the, side and the chaplain who was to talk
- 41:12Speaker 1: to you about purity really joked his way through telling
- 41:14Speaker 1: you where to find. Penicillin AND i, realized SINCE i
- 41:20Speaker 1: had known the joys of, marriage that temptation would be
- 41:23Speaker 1: incredibly strong LIKE i have never known it. Since surrounded
- 41:30Speaker 1: by men who couldn't have cared less about the things Of.
- 41:33Speaker 1: God away from my home and wife and my family
- 41:38Speaker 1: and all of my, ACCOUNTABILITY i was just a nameless
- 41:42Speaker 1: face on the streets Of. Okinawa but the grace Of,
- 41:47Speaker 1: god the decision THAT i, made allowed me to speak
- 41:54Speaker 1: today with. Confidence HAD i not been by the grace Of,
- 41:59Speaker 1: God god preserved from, UNFAITHFULNESS i would have to pass
- 42:03Speaker 1: rather hurriedly and embarrassingly over this passage of. Scripture BUT
- 42:07Speaker 1: i want you to know it. Works it. Works BUT
- 42:14Speaker 1: i had to be. TOUGH i had to be tough on.
- 42:16Speaker 1: MYSELF i had to make some tough, decisions unpopular. Decisions
- 42:20Speaker 1: not to preach to everyone, else but to preach to.
- 42:22Speaker 1: Myself god showed me it wasn't my job to clean
- 42:26Speaker 1: up the goldfish. Bowl it was my job to. Fish
- 42:29Speaker 1: it was my job to live, clean whether anybody else
- 42:32Speaker 1: did or whether no one else. DID i was to live.
- 42:36Speaker 1: CLEAN i was not to put my hands on someone
- 42:38Speaker 1: who wasn't my. WIFE i wasn't even to talk about.
- 42:43Speaker 1: It and this was an atmosphere where there was a constant.
- 42:48Speaker 1: BARRAGE i would say eighteen of the twenty four hours
- 42:52Speaker 1: in which the subject was usually that which had to
- 42:55Speaker 1: do with life below the, belt from men who could
- 42:59Speaker 1: just describe it and trafficked in it to the point
- 43:04Speaker 1: of even embarrassing other. Men it was. Unbelievable And god
- 43:13Speaker 1: made it clear to me that IF i would abstain
- 43:15Speaker 1: from sexual, immorality he would honor. That and his spirit
- 43:21Speaker 1: came to my rescue time and, again AND i praise
- 43:25Speaker 1: him FOR i had no corner on. STRENGTH i was
- 43:32Speaker 1: as red blooded An american boy as anyone hearing these
- 43:37Speaker 1: words right. Now very, strong, drive very lonely days away from.
- 43:44Speaker 1: Home for almost eighteen, MONTHS i involved myself in things
- 43:50Speaker 1: that were, wholesome things that paid, off things that were.
- 43:53Speaker 1: GOOD i cultivated my. MUSIC i became much more proficient
- 43:58Speaker 1: in several. Instruments involved in an aggressive athletic. PROGRAM i
- 44:04Speaker 1: ran with men that were good for. ME i stayed
- 44:07Speaker 1: away from the. VILLAGE i didn't even get a coke
- 44:10Speaker 1: in the PLACES i couldn't handle. It some, COULD i
- 44:13Speaker 1: could not even handle. IT i looked straight ahead WHEN
- 44:17Speaker 1: i got off the bus was to make its way
- 44:20Speaker 1: to the MEETING i was going. To that little island
- 44:24Speaker 1: had over five thousand places of, prostitution and the women were.
- 44:28Speaker 1: KNOCKOUTS i never handled, them BUT i sure did see,
- 44:34Speaker 1: them And i'll tell you they were. Appealing AND i
- 44:39Speaker 1: knew ONCE i, Broke ONCE i stepped into that, WORLD
- 44:43Speaker 1: i would not. STOP i knew myself well. ENOUGH i
- 44:47Speaker 1: knew the vessel that was inside me couldn't handle it
- 44:51Speaker 1: BECAUSE i had, yielded AND i probably would not have
- 44:55Speaker 1: even wanted. To it's like breaking with a. Diet once you,
- 44:58Speaker 1: do it's just you know who. Cares once you've eaten
- 45:02Speaker 1: a big piece of chocolate, cake whether that night you
- 45:05Speaker 1: finish it off with half a. Pie you, know once you're,
- 45:09Speaker 1: in you're. In AND i spent time with friends that
- 45:18Speaker 1: strengthened my walk and understood it and Praise. God you, say,
- 45:25Speaker 1: oh that just mocks, me because my lifestyle isn't. There
- 45:28Speaker 1: it can be. There it can be. There it's your
- 45:31Speaker 1: telling yourself it won't be there that keeps you from.
- 45:34Speaker 1: It stop living like. That this is for the child Of.
- 45:40Speaker 1: God the passage is addressed to, brethren see verse. One, finally, then,
- 45:44Speaker 1: brethren this is for the child Of. God no one
- 45:46Speaker 1: else has the. Power it's beyond me how an unsafe
- 45:49Speaker 1: person can stay out of someone else's. Life it's beyond.
- 45:52Speaker 1: Me and only by the power of The Living. Christ
- 45:57Speaker 1: only by the spirit Of god verse, eight who has
- 46:00Speaker 1: been given to us can this kind of life be carried.
- 46:04Speaker 1: OUT i knew myself well. ENOUGH i wasn't, old BUT
- 46:08Speaker 1: i was old enough to know the kind of STUFF
- 46:10Speaker 1: i couldn't, handle the kind of MAGAZINES i couldn't stick
- 46:14Speaker 1: under my, mattress the kind of FILMS i couldn't look.
- 46:18Speaker 1: AT i knew, that AND i know it to this.
- 46:23Speaker 1: Day AND i knew that certain conversations would lead in
- 46:27Speaker 1: the other. Direction AND i knew IF i got them,
- 46:30Speaker 1: started it would be too satisfying to stop. Them SO
- 46:33Speaker 1: i wouldn't get them. Started at TIMES i was even
- 46:36Speaker 1: rude to the opposite. Sex but that's the PRICE i.
- 46:40Speaker 1: Paid it's worth it because WHEN i got, HOME i
- 46:46Speaker 1: was not at all rude to my. WIFE i was
- 46:49Speaker 1: very warm and very. Affectionate and to this, day it's absolutely.
- 46:55Speaker 1: Delightful you know yourself well enough to know when it's
- 47:02Speaker 1: going too. FAR i can't clean up my. WORLD i
- 47:09Speaker 1: can model the. LIFE i do my best at. THAT
- 47:12Speaker 1: i don't always. SUCCEED i work at, that BUT i
- 47:14Speaker 1: don't always. Succeed BUT i can talk to this family
- 47:19Speaker 1: called our, church and it grieves me that some of
- 47:22Speaker 1: you live sexually. Impure stop, it stop. It you're part
- 47:34Speaker 1: of the reason we can't get through to some of
- 47:38Speaker 1: the lost because they watch your lifestyle and they, say
- 47:44Speaker 1: you're telling me that that's WHAT i. NEED i already
- 47:47Speaker 1: live like. That you're telling me that's How christ changes a.
- 47:52Speaker 1: Life waste your. Time some of you young husbands are
- 47:59Speaker 1: forming habits regarding your. Home how careful are you with?
- 48:02Speaker 1: Holiness how? Careful how tough are you on? Yourself you're
- 48:06Speaker 1: not going to have the standard come out of the.
- 48:08Speaker 1: Office your standard is the one that's going to keep you.
- 48:11Speaker 1: Pure why do you play with? It some of you single.
- 48:16Speaker 1: Parents some of, you young career, women attractive and capable,
- 48:19Speaker 1: people begun to compromise your life because it's so pleasurable
- 48:24Speaker 1: and you're so, lonely and it's so, accessible and it's so,
- 48:28Speaker 1: secret and it isn't. Secret see what it says in verse.
- 48:37Speaker 1: Six it's not often that the lord calls himself, this
- 48:40Speaker 1: but he. Does in this, case he calls himself an.
- 48:42Speaker 1: Avenger you're not going to like. This the meaning is
- 48:47Speaker 1: one who satisfies justice by punishing or disciplining the. Wrongdoer
- 48:55Speaker 1: not all of that avenging will wait until the judgment.
- 48:58Speaker 1: Day some of it happens, Now by the. Way One
- 49:03Speaker 1: corinthians six eighteen is a pretty significant. Verse it, says
- 49:06Speaker 1: all other sins are outside the. Body this one is
- 49:09Speaker 1: a sin against the. Body now you work on that
- 49:11Speaker 1: one for a. While now WHAT i think it Means
- 49:15Speaker 1: the other sins can pretty well be managed. Objectively this
- 49:20Speaker 1: one comes in on. You it's an inside. Job no
- 49:25Speaker 1: one ever said it better Than Billy. Graham in every
- 49:29Speaker 1: area of our social, life we see operating the inevitable
- 49:32Speaker 1: law of diminishing. Returns in our obsession with, sex many
- 49:37Speaker 1: do something for a, thrill only to find the next,
- 49:41Speaker 1: time they must increase the dose to produce the same.
- 49:45Speaker 1: Thrill as the kick wears, off they are driven to
- 49:48Speaker 1: look for new, means for different experiences to produce a comparable.
- 49:52Speaker 1: Kick the sex glutton is tormented by feelings of guilt and.
- 49:57Speaker 1: Remorse his mode of living is he's saturated with intense,
- 50:02Speaker 1: strain unnatural, emotions and inner. Conflicts his personality is thwarted
- 50:07Speaker 1: in its search for. Development his passions are out of,
- 50:11Speaker 1: control and the end result is. Frustration in his defiance
- 50:15Speaker 1: Of god's, law he puts a death dealing tension on his.
- 50:19Speaker 1: Soul his search for new, thrills new, kicks exciting experiences
- 50:24Speaker 1: keeps him in the grip of, fear, insecurity, doubt and.
- 50:27Speaker 1: Futility the weakened, physical, emotional and spiritual condition of the
- 50:32Speaker 1: sex glutton occasionally makes him unable of resisting the accompanying,
- 50:38Speaker 1: pressures and he eventually cracks under their. Weight he often
- 50:42Speaker 1: ends by becoming a, psychoaneurotic or a. Suicide that's the,
- 50:46Speaker 1: truth that's part of the. Avenging you sow a, thought
- 50:54Speaker 1: you reap an. Act you sow an, act you reap a.
- 50:57Speaker 1: Habit you sow your, Habit you reap a. Character you
- 51:00Speaker 1: sow your, character you reap a. Destiny learn that from
- 51:03Speaker 1: my daddy WHEN i was only eleven years. Old what great.
- 51:07Speaker 1: COUNSEL i keep waiting to get too old for the.
- 51:14Speaker 1: Problem it hasn't happened. YET i heard of a man
- 51:20Speaker 1: who interviewed a missionary that was in her, eighties and he,
- 51:23Speaker 1: said tell, me when did you get beyond the problem with?
- 51:26Speaker 1: Lust she, said it hasn't happened. Yet you will not
- 51:30Speaker 1: outgrow it in all of your reasoning reason with verses
- 51:38Speaker 1: seven and, Eight god hasn't called us for the purpose of,
- 51:41Speaker 1: impurity but in the sphere of sanctification he'd used. It
- 51:46Speaker 1: now for the third, time it has reference to the
- 51:48Speaker 1: spiritual progress from earth to, heaven the growth. Pattern god
- 51:53Speaker 1: has called us to be in a spiritual growth. Pattern,
- 51:56Speaker 1: yes sometimes, up, yes sometimes. Down, yes time more victorious
- 52:01Speaker 1: than other. Times but the progress is a movement forward and.
- 52:05Speaker 1: Higher And he hasn't called us for the purpose of,
- 52:11Speaker 1: impurity even though we live in a. Fog, consequently he
- 52:18Speaker 1: who rejects this is not rejecting, man but The god
- 52:22Speaker 1: who gives His Holy spirit to. You second thing to
- 52:24Speaker 1: remember is if you reject, it you're Rejecting god's. Will
- 52:36Speaker 1: it's no. Secret, now now we have a. Choice we
- 52:44Speaker 1: always have that. Choice you can choose to live your
- 52:50Speaker 1: life horizontally and it will look very, different hardly different
- 52:57Speaker 1: from the. Unsaved you can choose to live like that
- 53:00Speaker 1: open up a door misery for. Yourself Or, second you
- 53:04Speaker 1: can choose to live. Vertically every day you awake and
- 53:08Speaker 1: you can. Choose you make that choice through the hours
- 53:11Speaker 1: of that. Day you make that. Choice, now let's say
- 53:17Speaker 1: you choose. Horizontal couple of THINGS i want to tell.
- 53:21Speaker 1: You Number, one you will drift in a fog of moral.
- 53:24Speaker 1: Uncertainty you will drift in a fog of maral. Uncertainty
- 53:30Speaker 1: you'll play a. God you'll play at, Church you'll play
- 53:33Speaker 1: at this. Book you'll toss around a few religious. Words
- 53:36Speaker 1: you'll be in a. Fog your lifestyle will match the
- 53:40Speaker 1: smog around. You you'll no longer tear, up your conscience
- 53:45Speaker 1: will no longer, Sting your heart won't beat faster for.
- 53:50Speaker 1: Long you'll even stop. Blushing, second your disobedience will result
- 53:59Speaker 1: in increasing guilt and. Grief the avenger will go to.
- 54:04Speaker 1: Work god doesn't let his children play in the traffic
- 54:11Speaker 1: without getting. Hurt your disobedience will result in increasing guilt and.
- 54:19Speaker 1: Grief but how much better? VERTICAL i think you want the.
- 54:24Speaker 1: VERTICAL i think if you set through this this long
- 54:27Speaker 1: your it's your way of SAYING i want what's, right
- 54:33Speaker 1: then first you will honor The god of moral, absolutes
- 54:39Speaker 1: and your obedience will result in greater confidence and habits of.
- 54:44Speaker 1: Holiness it'll begin to come. Supernaturally you'll find yourself stronger
- 54:54Speaker 1: and able in saying, no, thanks or you don't even
- 54:58Speaker 1: have to add. Thanks. No you Know god's built us
- 55:05Speaker 1: with all the right lights on our, dashboard hasn't? He
- 55:09Speaker 1: he's given us just the right. LIGHTS i don't know
- 55:12Speaker 1: of anybody, that as soon as they buy a new
- 55:14Speaker 1: car with all of the lights on the, dashboard also
- 55:16Speaker 1: buys a little. Hammer and as he's driving along the
- 55:21Speaker 1: light starts flashing. Red he says to his Friend handy
- 55:23Speaker 1: that little hammer in the glove. Compartment, okay, good thanks,
- 55:30Speaker 1: There now we got rid of that. Light smoke is
- 55:35Speaker 1: coming out of the. Hood, why how. Foolish but you,
- 55:42Speaker 1: see you can find people who will hand out, hammers
- 55:46Speaker 1: and they will, say, oh that's needless, guilt that's necessary.
- 55:51Speaker 1: Guilt god help you when you don't have. It it's
- 55:57Speaker 1: the conscience that bites into, you stings like an. Adder
- 56:03Speaker 1: when you flirt with somebody outside of. Marriage supposed to,
- 56:10Speaker 1: hurt it's supposed to be. Miserable that's the light. Flashing Jonathan,
- 56:22Speaker 1: edwards one of the great preachers of Early american, history
- 56:25Speaker 1: used to make. Resolutions this was one of. Them resolved
- 56:30Speaker 1: never to do anything WHICH i would be afraid to
- 56:32Speaker 1: do if it were the last hour of my. Life
- 56:38Speaker 1: maybe a bow. Together you have available to you the
- 56:47Speaker 1: power that's necessary to solve the. Problem he Is Jesus,
- 56:53Speaker 1: christ and if you have The, savior he is The Holy.
- 56:57Speaker 1: Spirit come, alongside not to, mock but to. Help not
- 57:04Speaker 1: simply to cry with you over how strong the temptation,
- 57:07Speaker 1: is but to empower. You you can do all things
- 57:10Speaker 1: Through him who keeps on pouring his power into, you
- 57:14Speaker 1: even if you have never done it in your. Life
- 57:18Speaker 1: you can begin today a life of. Power there's no,
- 57:24Speaker 1: checklist there's no probation, period there's no long list of
- 57:30Speaker 1: responsibilities that you must fulfill Before god will give you the.
- 57:34Speaker 1: Power if you Know, christ you've got the. Power live in.
- 57:38Speaker 1: It if you have, defrauded deal with. It if you have,
- 57:44Speaker 1: compromised face, it call it what it. Is god is
- 57:50Speaker 1: honored when we deal directly with, sin call it. Sin
- 57:58Speaker 1: if it has hurt another and you need to deal with,
- 58:00Speaker 1: that deal with. It tell the. Truth start. Today if
- 58:11Speaker 1: you've never met The, savior holiness begins at the. Cross
- 58:18Speaker 1: take him. Now thank, You father for the incisive way
- 58:25Speaker 1: that you cut through the. Fog thank you for penetrating our.
- 58:31Speaker 1: World show us again that your standard does not, change
- 58:39Speaker 1: that your expectations remain for us full of hope and
- 58:45Speaker 1: love and power and. Encouragement thank you for giving to
- 58:52Speaker 1: those who struggle intensely with this the willingness to, hear
- 58:59Speaker 1: and now the strength to do what must be. Done for,
- 59:07Speaker 1: some it will be a long journey, back AND i
- 59:09Speaker 1: pray for you to give them. Perseverance for some it
- 59:14Speaker 1: will be honesty for the first time in. YEARS i
- 59:19Speaker 1: pray for you to give them, integrity moral, courage AND i,
- 59:27Speaker 1: pray as a, result your church will again be holy
- 59:33Speaker 1: even as you, are for the sake of The. Savior.
- 59:40Speaker 2: Amen the preceding, Message Straight talk About Moral, purity was
- 59:46Speaker 2: copyrighted in nineteen eighty, four nineteen eighty, five nineteen ninety,
- 59:50Speaker 2: three two thousand and, three and twenty twenty, four and
- 59:53Speaker 2: the sound recording was copyrighted in twenty twenty four By
- 59:56Speaker 2: Charles Rswindahl. Incorporated all rights are reserved. Worldwide duplication of
- 1:00:01Speaker 2: copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited