1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 In these days of kindergarten, we were taught to stay within the lines. 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:11,060 Although back in the old days when I went to school, they didn't have kindergarten. 3 00:00:11,060 --> 00:00:13,320 They had first grade. 4 00:00:13,320 --> 00:00:19,220 And there we were taught when we learned to print our letters to stay within the lines. 5 00:00:19,220 --> 00:00:24,360 Some of you boys and girls have been learning that in school this year already. 6 00:00:24,360 --> 00:00:30,440 And then when we progressed to the crayons, we were taught to stay within the lines as 7 00:00:30,440 --> 00:00:35,640 we colored to make the picture look pretty. 8 00:00:35,640 --> 00:00:40,680 Now as you get older, you learn to watch out for the edges too. 9 00:00:40,680 --> 00:00:45,200 As you learn to play golf, you come to realize that the object is to hit the ball down the 10 00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:49,800 middle of that green strip, not beyond the edge. 11 00:00:49,800 --> 00:00:51,040 You need to stay within the lines. 12 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:58,120 As you learn to drive a car, you learn that you have to stay on this side of that line 13 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:01,240 to avoid the edge and the ditch. 14 00:01:01,240 --> 00:01:05,600 It's the extremes that we have to watch out for. 15 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:14,080 Balance, perspective, and proportion are important to those who study art. 16 00:01:14,080 --> 00:01:18,000 But I want to say this morning that it's also important for those of us who are students 17 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:26,760 of theology and the Bible, because truth that is out of balance is heresy. 18 00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:35,600 A right doctrine that is placed in wrong perspective can be misleading. 19 00:01:35,600 --> 00:01:41,360 If there is any area of teaching that has its extremes and its edges where a lot of 20 00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:47,360 people have gone beyond, it's that area of teaching regarding the thing we call the Christian 21 00:01:47,360 --> 00:01:50,280 life. 22 00:01:50,280 --> 00:01:58,240 Some certainly proclaim the gospel of grace, that we are saved by grace alone, but then 23 00:01:58,240 --> 00:02:05,520 go beyond that to add lists of their man-made rules and regulations. 24 00:02:05,520 --> 00:02:10,840 And we are told by them that if we want to prove ourselves spiritual, we must live according 25 00:02:10,840 --> 00:02:15,660 to those lists that they have drawn up for us. 26 00:02:15,660 --> 00:02:20,520 That is an extreme position, that is heresy. 27 00:02:20,520 --> 00:02:23,600 It's called legalism. 28 00:02:23,600 --> 00:02:28,080 On the other hand, there are those who proclaim the same gospel of grace, that we are saved 29 00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:33,880 by grace alone without works, but then they declare that after we're saved, there are 30 00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:40,200 no rules, that we can go out and live any way we want to live. 31 00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:42,880 They call it liberty. 32 00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:53,480 To them, the Christian life has no responsibilities that are integral, no duties, no accountability. 33 00:02:53,480 --> 00:02:59,360 And they tell us that if we say otherwise, we're motivating people by guilt. 34 00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:05,000 And I would say to you that that also is an extreme position. 35 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:10,900 What both of these positions fail to grasp, it seems to me, is the balance that we see 36 00:03:10,900 --> 00:03:17,900 stated for example in Titus 2 verses 11 and 12, which I will paraphrase, that the grace 37 00:03:17,900 --> 00:03:28,320 of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men, and it also instructs us to deny 38 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:36,120 ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in this present 39 00:03:36,120 --> 00:03:40,000 age. 40 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:41,360 There is a balance that is there. 41 00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:47,000 The grace of God that cannot be purchased or deserved or earned by anything that we 42 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:58,680 do is our professor, our teacher, and it seeks to instruct us that as those who are saved 43 00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:03,680 by grace, there are some standards to life. 44 00:04:03,680 --> 00:04:11,000 We are to deny some things and we're to live out other things. 45 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:17,880 I believe that that balance is found in our text today in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. 46 00:04:17,880 --> 00:04:22,640 The full paragraph that I had hoped we might look at is verses 1 through 12, but as I began 47 00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:29,240 preparing this week, I quickly saw that I had overreached myself, and so I have focused 48 00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:34,840 on only the first part of our text, which is verses 1 through 8, and it's that part 49 00:04:34,840 --> 00:04:41,400 of it that we'll read this morning and we'll continue on next week. 50 00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:47,600 He says, finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as 51 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:53,480 you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God, just as 52 00:04:53,480 --> 00:05:00,720 you actually do walk, that you may excel still more, for you know what commandments 53 00:05:00,720 --> 00:05:03,960 we gave you by authority of the Lord Jesus. 54 00:05:03,960 --> 00:05:10,240 For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality, 55 00:05:10,240 --> 00:05:15,440 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in 56 00:05:15,440 --> 00:05:22,880 lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God, and that no man transgress and defraud 57 00:05:22,880 --> 00:05:28,920 his brother in the matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all these things, just as 58 00:05:28,920 --> 00:05:33,160 we also told you before and solemnly warned you. 59 00:05:33,160 --> 00:05:38,200 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. 60 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:48,000 Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man, but the God who gives us his Holy Spirit. 61 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:56,440 Notice that the apostle begins by saying that we ought to walk and to live pleasing to God. 62 00:05:56,440 --> 00:06:01,080 It's not a suggestion, it's a command. 63 00:06:01,080 --> 00:06:03,640 It is an expectation. 64 00:06:03,640 --> 00:06:11,000 He says you ought to do this as a result of clear thinking, as a result of logic in your 65 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:13,880 life, in your mind. 66 00:06:13,880 --> 00:06:19,120 You ought to live to please God. 67 00:06:19,120 --> 00:06:26,600 But he balances that out in verse 2 by saying that we do this by the Lord Jesus. 68 00:06:26,600 --> 00:06:29,160 That's the best understanding, I think, of verse 2. 69 00:06:29,160 --> 00:06:34,880 For you know what commandment we gave you by the Lord Jesus. 70 00:06:34,880 --> 00:06:39,200 The thought here seems to be not only did Jesus give these words to Paul to write to 71 00:06:39,200 --> 00:06:49,000 them, but that Jesus would be in the Thessalonians enabling them to keep these commands. 72 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:56,220 You see, God doesn't say you ought to do this and leave us to our own strength to do it. 73 00:06:56,220 --> 00:07:03,560 But he lives within us in the person of the Holy Spirit to enable us to live like he tells 74 00:07:03,560 --> 00:07:06,920 us we ought to live. 75 00:07:06,920 --> 00:07:11,640 That is a wonderful thing about the Gospel. 76 00:07:11,640 --> 00:07:16,560 We Christians are to live pleasing to God. 77 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:24,780 Our lifestyle choices and patterns ought to be rooted in what delights God. 78 00:07:24,780 --> 00:07:29,720 I want to emphasize again, this is not an option for us to consider, it's not somebody's 79 00:07:29,720 --> 00:07:38,720 opinion for us to evaluate, but what we're talking about here is the expectation of God. 80 00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:46,240 That you and I will be distinct in every respect of our lifestyle from the pagan culture that 81 00:07:46,240 --> 00:07:47,720 is around us. 82 00:07:47,720 --> 00:07:55,200 Dr. David Johnson has written, Christianity does not take its standards from society around 83 00:07:55,200 --> 00:08:04,840 it, but from the God who separates Christians from that society as a testimony to that society. 84 00:08:04,840 --> 00:08:07,200 Well spoken. 85 00:08:07,200 --> 00:08:13,080 God has called us out from the world around us to be different. 86 00:08:13,080 --> 00:08:18,280 And if we're going to be different, it means that we live pleasing to God, and we ought 87 00:08:18,280 --> 00:08:20,680 to do that. 88 00:08:20,680 --> 00:08:24,360 But we ask the question, how must I live pleasing to God? 89 00:08:24,360 --> 00:08:25,360 What does that mean? 90 00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:29,240 How does that flesh out? 91 00:08:29,240 --> 00:08:35,600 Well in our full text, all 12 verses, there are three answers to the question. 92 00:08:35,600 --> 00:08:41,440 If we would live pleasing to God in the first place, it means as God knows me, I must live 93 00:08:41,440 --> 00:08:44,640 purely. 94 00:08:44,640 --> 00:08:50,640 It means also as my brother knows me, I must live lovingly. 95 00:08:50,640 --> 00:08:54,920 If the world knows me, I must live honestly. 96 00:08:54,920 --> 00:09:01,120 Purely, lovingly, honestly. 97 00:09:01,120 --> 00:09:07,160 This morning we're going to focus primarily on verses 1 through 8, and the fact that if 98 00:09:07,160 --> 00:09:14,400 I am going to live pleasing to God as he knows me, I must live purely. 99 00:09:14,400 --> 00:09:17,200 To open these verses, I'd like to ask several questions. 100 00:09:17,200 --> 00:09:19,600 The first one is, who? 101 00:09:19,600 --> 00:09:27,980 Who is it that makes this demand of us that we live purely in an impure world? 102 00:09:27,980 --> 00:09:33,080 Is it the preacher who stands at the pulpit and who makes the command? 103 00:09:33,080 --> 00:09:37,320 Is it merely a man who lived 2,000 years ago and was called an apostle? 104 00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:40,520 Is he the one who makes this demand of us? 105 00:09:40,520 --> 00:09:44,080 Is it the one who is discipling me or the Sunday school teacher? 106 00:09:44,080 --> 00:09:45,160 Is that who it is? 107 00:09:45,160 --> 00:09:48,280 The answer is no. 108 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:53,720 The one who makes this demand for pure living is God himself. 109 00:09:53,720 --> 00:10:01,680 It says in verse 3, this is the will of God, your sanctification. 110 00:10:01,680 --> 00:10:07,160 It is specific, it is clear, it is unmistakable. 111 00:10:07,160 --> 00:10:09,040 We don't have to pray about it. 112 00:10:09,040 --> 00:10:11,200 This is the will of God. 113 00:10:11,200 --> 00:10:17,420 This originates with the Lord God himself that we should live holy lives. 114 00:10:17,420 --> 00:10:19,760 This is not a man-made obligation. 115 00:10:19,760 --> 00:10:23,840 This is not a rule that's been attached by some person. 116 00:10:23,840 --> 00:10:30,620 But this is God's expectation of you and of me. 117 00:10:30,620 --> 00:10:35,800 This word sanctification is quite a theological word, isn't it? 118 00:10:35,800 --> 00:10:36,800 It means holiness. 119 00:10:36,800 --> 00:10:39,520 God's will for you and for me is holiness. 120 00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:43,360 But again, that is another big word. 121 00:10:43,360 --> 00:10:46,720 It has a lot of ramifications to it. 122 00:10:46,720 --> 00:10:50,800 But Paul is not thinking broadly. 123 00:10:50,800 --> 00:10:55,920 He mentions the word sanctification and then immediately he brings it right down to the 124 00:10:55,920 --> 00:10:59,880 narrow focus that he wants us to consider. 125 00:10:59,880 --> 00:11:03,360 He says, here's what I mean. 126 00:11:03,360 --> 00:11:10,360 That is that you abstain from sexual immorality. 127 00:11:10,360 --> 00:11:15,120 So he wants us to clearly understand that when he talks about holiness of living being 128 00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:25,240 God's will, he is talking primarily in this context at least about our sexuality. 129 00:11:25,240 --> 00:11:39,120 He says that we are to conduct ourselves sexually in such a way that we can be called pure. 130 00:11:39,120 --> 00:11:41,320 God is specific about this area of life. 131 00:11:41,320 --> 00:11:44,080 Why is that? 132 00:11:44,080 --> 00:11:50,640 Why is God so demanding regarding sexual purity? 133 00:11:50,640 --> 00:11:58,800 One answer to that is because immorality is so destructive. 134 00:11:58,800 --> 00:12:09,680 Immorality never builds a person, a family, or a society. 135 00:12:09,680 --> 00:12:17,440 Immorality always tears down, it always destroys. 136 00:12:17,440 --> 00:12:21,880 That is true whether one is a Christian or a non-Christian. 137 00:12:21,880 --> 00:12:25,000 Immorality is a destroyer. 138 00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:32,120 That is why God so focuses on this important theme about sexual purity. 139 00:12:32,120 --> 00:12:36,300 Because God does not want our lives to be destroyed. 140 00:12:36,300 --> 00:12:39,260 He loves us too much for that. 141 00:12:39,260 --> 00:12:44,680 And so let's try to listen today with our defenses down about this subject. 142 00:12:44,680 --> 00:12:51,240 Let's try to hear what God is saying to us with understanding and determine in our hearts 143 00:12:51,240 --> 00:12:59,700 to do what God wants us to do because that is our best as well as his. 144 00:12:59,700 --> 00:13:07,480 We live in an immoral world and one that is becoming increasingly filthy. 145 00:13:07,480 --> 00:13:17,800 We live in an age that is really insensitive to moral decency for the most part. 146 00:13:17,800 --> 00:13:25,400 Moral decay is swirling around us and it points up to the imminent collapse of the culture 147 00:13:25,400 --> 00:13:29,900 in which we live unless God intervenes. 148 00:13:29,900 --> 00:13:43,080 No culture can continue to exist and to imbibe itself on immorality as ours does. 149 00:13:43,080 --> 00:13:50,160 God wants you and me, whether we are grandparents or we are teenagers, God wants us to live 150 00:13:50,160 --> 00:13:58,120 separately from the mainstream culture by our distinguishing lifestyle as the children 151 00:13:58,120 --> 00:14:05,400 of God by our living purely in an impure world. 152 00:14:05,400 --> 00:14:09,000 It's God who establishes this expectation. 153 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:11,480 But what does it entail? 154 00:14:11,480 --> 00:14:18,000 What does this mean that we are to live morally pure? 155 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:24,740 Well there are three answers to that question in our text today. 156 00:14:24,740 --> 00:14:33,080 In the first place it means to abstain from immorality, from sexual impurity. 157 00:14:33,080 --> 00:14:34,520 To abstain from that. 158 00:14:34,520 --> 00:14:38,800 Literally it means to hold yourself away from it. 159 00:14:38,800 --> 00:14:41,920 To get even close to it. 160 00:14:41,920 --> 00:14:45,000 Not even close enough to shake its hand. 161 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:51,720 Stay away from sexual immorality, he says. 162 00:14:51,720 --> 00:14:56,440 God's plan is to make you holy, says the Phillips translation. 163 00:14:56,440 --> 00:15:03,480 And that entails first of all a clean cut with sexual immorality. 164 00:15:03,480 --> 00:15:06,960 Now it was important for the Thessalonians to hear this because their whole life had 165 00:15:06,960 --> 00:15:12,320 been wrapped up in religious immorality. 166 00:15:12,320 --> 00:15:18,600 You see in the temples where they went to worship their gods there was ritualistic prostitution 167 00:15:18,600 --> 00:15:23,400 both male and female. 168 00:15:23,400 --> 00:15:28,200 Thessalonians was awash with immorality. 169 00:15:28,200 --> 00:15:31,000 These people had been saved out of that by God. 170 00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:38,600 Now Paul wants them to know, God wants them to know through Paul, that it is his will 171 00:15:38,600 --> 00:15:45,780 that they hold themselves away from what they had been involved in before their salvation. 172 00:15:45,780 --> 00:15:53,280 When he says that we are to abstain from sexual immorality, he uses a broad word. 173 00:15:53,280 --> 00:15:59,800 It refers to any kind of sexual relationship outside of the bonds of marriage. 174 00:15:59,800 --> 00:16:14,400 Adultery, bigamy, homosexuality, sodomy, prostitution, bestiality, premarital and extramarital sex. 175 00:16:14,400 --> 00:16:22,800 God sets them all outside the boundary of what moral purity is. 176 00:16:22,800 --> 00:16:32,280 They are all beyond the edge of what God's will for us is. 177 00:16:32,280 --> 00:16:37,760 Now why is that? 178 00:16:37,760 --> 00:16:42,360 Well it's not merely because those things are dangerous and that kind of living has 179 00:16:42,360 --> 00:16:46,840 never been more dangerous than it is today. 180 00:16:46,840 --> 00:16:52,120 It is tragic that in our school systems many of our young people are being taught that 181 00:16:52,120 --> 00:16:59,920 there is such a thing as safe sex outside of monogamous marriage that is a lie. 182 00:16:59,920 --> 00:17:10,200 I could go into detail on that but I don't choose to because of children here this morning. 183 00:17:10,200 --> 00:17:17,600 There is not such a thing as safe sex outside of monogamous marriage, particularly in our 184 00:17:17,600 --> 00:17:25,360 world today with the AIDS virus and with the STDs that are running rampant and exploding 185 00:17:25,360 --> 00:17:28,960 in the United States today. 186 00:17:28,960 --> 00:17:34,600 But that's not the primary reason God says stay away from that. 187 00:17:34,600 --> 00:17:44,000 Nor is it primarily because that kind of immorality is indiscreet, although it is. 188 00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:51,760 But the reason that God lays down the line and draws it distinctly and clearly is because 189 00:17:51,760 --> 00:18:07,160 that kind of activity described as immorality violates His holy nature and His holy will 190 00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:12,120 for all of humanity. 191 00:18:12,120 --> 00:18:16,080 That's why God says stay away from it. 192 00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:23,880 Because it is a violation of who God is and who He has made us to be. 193 00:18:23,880 --> 00:18:33,280 He says abstain, stay completely away from any kind of sexual immorality. 194 00:18:33,280 --> 00:18:44,680 If you and I want to live purely in an impure world, here's what God says to do. 195 00:18:44,680 --> 00:18:47,000 This is not gray. 196 00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:48,840 There are no shadows here. 197 00:18:48,840 --> 00:18:54,920 It's black and white. 198 00:18:54,920 --> 00:18:59,840 If we want to live purely in an impure world, it means secondly, and He tells us, verse 199 00:18:59,840 --> 00:19:05,040 4, to possess our own vessels. 200 00:19:05,040 --> 00:19:13,640 The word vessel refers to our physical bodies with their appetites and their desires. 201 00:19:13,640 --> 00:19:18,080 But understand that the appetites and desires that God has given us in our bodies are not 202 00:19:18,080 --> 00:19:22,400 wrong. 203 00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:33,360 The appetite for relaxation, the desire for food, the appetite for sexual fulfillment, 204 00:19:33,360 --> 00:19:36,720 those are righteous and holy desires that God gives us. 205 00:19:36,720 --> 00:19:44,800 But what He says is that we must possess our vessel with their appetites. 206 00:19:44,800 --> 00:19:54,880 That is, we must have self-mastery to control the appetites that are part of our physical 207 00:19:54,880 --> 00:19:57,360 being. 208 00:19:57,360 --> 00:20:07,440 Because you see, sin that dwells within us seeks to use those appetites for its own expression. 209 00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:16,200 It seeks to cause us to fulfill those appetites in a way that does not please God. 210 00:20:16,200 --> 00:20:23,780 And so He says, if you want to live pure in the 1990s, you must learn how to have mastery 211 00:20:23,780 --> 00:20:27,820 over the appetites of your body. 212 00:20:27,820 --> 00:20:33,080 That stands in contrast to everything we're taught in our pagan culture. 213 00:20:33,080 --> 00:20:36,780 We are told that anything goes today. 214 00:20:36,780 --> 00:20:48,720 That kind of philosophy is brought right into our living rooms where the television sits. 215 00:20:48,720 --> 00:21:01,200 We live in a society where bodies are dishonored, where personal purity is thought nothing of, 216 00:21:01,200 --> 00:21:07,680 and where degrading passions are eagerly fulfilled. 217 00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:20,960 And all of that said to be in the name of liberty, when in fact it is absolute bondage. 218 00:21:20,960 --> 00:21:30,760 Indecent activities are promoted and encouraged, and all of it flows from the mind, minds that 219 00:21:30,760 --> 00:21:36,860 are controlled by sin. 220 00:21:36,860 --> 00:21:43,520 If we are going to have mastery over our bodies, how in the world do we do that? 221 00:21:43,520 --> 00:21:51,120 For we live in a sexually stimulated culture, where when we drive down the freeway, we watch 222 00:21:51,120 --> 00:22:00,360 our televisions, we read a magazine, constantly we are bombarded by sexual stimuli. 223 00:22:00,360 --> 00:22:11,760 How can we control our appetites and possess our vessels in a world like this? 224 00:22:11,760 --> 00:22:15,880 I can't give a full answer to that this morning, but I do want to give three answers to that 225 00:22:15,880 --> 00:22:18,000 question very quickly. 226 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:27,280 In the first place, we possess our vessels by renewing our minds with the Word of God. 227 00:22:27,280 --> 00:22:35,480 Listen with me please to Psalm 119, familiar verses worth looking at again. 228 00:22:35,480 --> 00:22:42,120 Psalm 119, verses 9 and 11. 229 00:22:42,120 --> 00:22:45,420 How can a young man keep his way pure? 230 00:22:45,420 --> 00:22:48,480 That is the question, isn't it? 231 00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:55,720 How does a young man on the high school campus today keep himself pure? 232 00:22:55,720 --> 00:23:00,800 How does a single adult keep herself pure with the pressures that are upon her if she 233 00:23:00,800 --> 00:23:06,520 wants to have a social life? 234 00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:11,720 How does that person in the office keep his or her way pure when there are all kinds of 235 00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:18,240 opportunities presenting themselves among the co-workers? 236 00:23:18,240 --> 00:23:19,640 How do we keep our way pure? 237 00:23:19,640 --> 00:23:26,760 He says, by keeping it according to thy word. 238 00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:30,440 There's the answer, the Word of God. 239 00:23:30,440 --> 00:23:38,160 He says further in verse 11, thy word I have treasured in my heart that I may not sin against 240 00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:39,160 thee. 241 00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:45,320 When I was newly a Christian, someone gave me the sentence that was probably given to 242 00:23:45,320 --> 00:23:46,320 you. 243 00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:48,900 I wrote it in my Bible like many of you wrote it in your Bible. 244 00:23:48,900 --> 00:23:51,840 If you've never written it in your Bible, maybe it's time to do it. 245 00:23:51,840 --> 00:23:58,360 It simply says, this book will keep me from sin or what? 246 00:23:58,360 --> 00:23:59,360 Sin. 247 00:23:59,360 --> 00:24:04,240 Many of you know, sin will keep me from this book. 248 00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:07,040 It's not that the Bible is magic. 249 00:24:07,040 --> 00:24:08,040 That's not the point. 250 00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:12,080 It's not that the Bible is like a rabbit's foot. 251 00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:17,720 If you just go to it and read a verse or two, sin's going to just disappear, no temptation 252 00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:18,720 anymore. 253 00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:24,560 The point is that the battleground for sin is our minds. 254 00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:28,040 That's where it starts. 255 00:24:28,040 --> 00:24:34,200 Whether the thought comes to us from the outside, external, through something visual or audio 256 00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:43,240 that we have picked up, or it comes internally from our own nature, the flesh that is in 257 00:24:43,240 --> 00:24:45,520 us. 258 00:24:45,520 --> 00:24:50,240 Wherever it comes from, it begins in the mind. 259 00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:53,080 What we do with that thought is the important thing. 260 00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:59,320 It arises there in the first place as merely a temptation, but it's what we do with that 261 00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:00,800 that counts. 262 00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:06,040 If we continue to have that thought and to embellish it and to enlarge it and let it 263 00:25:06,040 --> 00:25:12,320 grow, it will fulfill itself in some way. 264 00:25:12,320 --> 00:25:22,800 If on the other hand we attack that tempting thought with the Word of God, it will be removed. 265 00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:31,880 If you were told this morning that you had a brain tumor, you would go see a doctor this 266 00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:36,440 week to see how fast you could get that thing out of your head, wouldn't you? 267 00:25:36,440 --> 00:25:44,400 Because you know that a brain tumor grows and eventually kills you. 268 00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:50,160 A thought toward immorality is like a tumor. 269 00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:54,920 If you do not cut that thought out with the Word of God and allow the Word of God to renew 270 00:25:54,920 --> 00:26:03,160 your mind, the chances are great that that thought is going to continue to grow until 271 00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:11,000 it controls you and fulfills itself in some way. 272 00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:13,600 Your Word have I treasured in my heart. 273 00:26:13,600 --> 00:26:20,120 The idea is to receive it not just in the mind, but to take it deeply into the storehouse 274 00:26:20,120 --> 00:26:32,800 of the Spirit where we lay it up and we come back to it and we'll meditate upon it so that 275 00:26:32,800 --> 00:26:42,400 the Word of God is able to snip out of our thoughts the tumorous temptations that come 276 00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:50,240 and it's able to renew that spot in our minds to make us healthy again. 277 00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:58,880 You and I can only possess our vessels in this culture if we begin here by daily renewing 278 00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:01,520 our minds with the Word of God. 279 00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:07,520 Secondly, by yielding our wills to the Holy Spirit. 280 00:27:07,520 --> 00:27:12,240 You see, it begins in the mind, but it quickly transfers to the will part of us. 281 00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:15,200 What am I going to do with this? 282 00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:22,880 Do I choose to turn it over to God or do I choose to go my own way and have some fun 283 00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:28,560 with this thought? 284 00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:32,880 So we need our wills to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. 285 00:27:32,880 --> 00:27:43,960 Turn please to Romans chapter 8 and verse 13 where we find, I think, a helpful insight. 286 00:27:43,960 --> 00:27:49,440 Backing up to verse 12 he says, so then brethren we are under obligation not to the flesh 287 00:27:49,440 --> 00:27:52,160 to live according to the flesh. 288 00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:56,040 Now the flesh here is more than our physical bodies of flesh and blood. 289 00:27:56,040 --> 00:28:03,360 He's talking about that pattern of thought and activity that is still within us left 290 00:28:03,360 --> 00:28:09,960 over from what we were before we were saved. 291 00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:16,320 We have a new nature now, but we still have printed upon our minds and our wills that 292 00:28:16,320 --> 00:28:22,720 old pattern of the sinful man that we were. 293 00:28:22,720 --> 00:28:27,960 But he says we're no longer under obligation to that pattern like we were before. 294 00:28:27,960 --> 00:28:33,480 He says if you're living according to the flesh you must die, but if by the Spirit you 295 00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:40,360 are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 296 00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:46,960 You and I are not left to put to death our temptations by ourselves. 297 00:28:46,960 --> 00:28:53,040 It is by the Spirit that we must will to do this. 298 00:28:53,040 --> 00:28:59,760 If by the Spirit, he says, you're putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 299 00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:05,680 This ties together, I think, with Galatians chapter 5 where we were told if we walk by 300 00:29:05,680 --> 00:29:15,720 the aid of the Holy Spirit we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. 301 00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:20,000 The Holy Spirit must control our wills. 302 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:28,440 If he doesn't, frankly, a lot of the times we're going to choose to go after sin. 303 00:29:28,440 --> 00:29:35,680 If we would be pure, in this culture we must possess our bodies, and if we would possess 304 00:29:35,680 --> 00:29:41,600 our bodies we must renew our minds with the Word, we must yield our wills to the Spirit, 305 00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:46,440 and finally we must avoid the situations of temptation. 306 00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:58,120 That's why Timothy is told by Paul, flee youthful lusts, get away from them, don't go near them. 307 00:29:58,120 --> 00:30:04,640 Chuck Swindoll in writing about this says, there are films, television programs, and 308 00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:12,680 magazines that weaken us morally because they beckon us toward an immoral lifestyle. 309 00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:18,120 Certain conversations carried on by certain people have the same detrimental effect. 310 00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:25,600 Specific types of parties, places, and seductive pastimes have a lure toward impurity that 311 00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:29,920 we should avoid, regardless of the pressures to attend. 312 00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:36,240 We are foolish to think we can play around with these things without getting hurt. 313 00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:42,840 We must stop tantalizing ourselves with sin. 314 00:30:42,840 --> 00:30:49,400 Our abstinence and avoidance will be for our own good and God's splendid glory. 315 00:30:49,400 --> 00:30:56,400 How often we put ourselves in the way of temptation. 316 00:30:56,400 --> 00:31:03,640 We know where those places are, we know what those sources are, where temptation easily 317 00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:12,080 has come in our lives before, and we walk as close to the edge as possible. 318 00:31:12,080 --> 00:31:16,600 That's foolish. 319 00:31:16,600 --> 00:31:24,720 If we would have mastery over our bodies we must avoid situations of temptation. 320 00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:33,400 That is true young men and young women when you are dating. 321 00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:38,800 How do you handle it when you go see a movie where the two of you are sitting there and 322 00:31:38,800 --> 00:31:51,400 what you are seeing come off that screen is moral garbage? 323 00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:55,880 What do you do with that in your relationship to one another? 324 00:31:55,880 --> 00:32:01,920 Does that present any kind of temptation to you to act out what you have seen? 325 00:32:01,920 --> 00:32:02,920 Not me. 326 00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:11,740 You are a fool if you think you can't be tempted by that. 327 00:32:11,740 --> 00:32:20,400 Why do some of us allow those kind of movies in our homes? 328 00:32:20,400 --> 00:32:26,440 Why do we go to certain places and do certain activities when we know when we go there that 329 00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:32,500 we are opening ourselves to sexual temptation? 330 00:32:32,500 --> 00:32:45,600 You see if we are serious about living purely it involves having mastery over our bodies 331 00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:57,320 and having mastery over our bodies means that we must avoid places and people and situations 332 00:32:57,320 --> 00:33:02,160 where temptation is rampant. 333 00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:11,680 The kind of message that I have barely started this morning is a heavy message because it 334 00:33:11,680 --> 00:33:20,360 can produce all kinds of guilt and shame that people have to deal with. 335 00:33:20,360 --> 00:33:25,320 If it does you need to thank God because you see guilt and shame are God's ways of throwing 336 00:33:25,320 --> 00:33:31,760 up red flags in our lives and saying you are going in the wrong direction. 337 00:33:31,760 --> 00:33:34,240 Thank God for guilt. 338 00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:37,600 Thank God for shame that you still can be ashamed. 339 00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:44,440 There are some people who have gotten beyond that point. 340 00:33:44,440 --> 00:33:49,680 When you see those red flags of God in your life it means turn around and get back the 341 00:33:49,680 --> 00:33:50,680 other direction. 342 00:33:50,680 --> 00:33:52,680 You are too close to the edge. 343 00:33:52,680 --> 00:33:56,320 It means you are in danger. 344 00:33:56,320 --> 00:34:05,280 It is time to repent before God and confess your sin and to take steps to correct where 345 00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:09,000 you have gotten off the path. 346 00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:15,480 I am thankful that the God who holds up this standard of moral purity is a God who also 347 00:34:15,480 --> 00:34:23,680 offers forgiveness for those who have failed and who are repentant and acknowledge their 348 00:34:23,680 --> 00:34:25,940 failure. 349 00:34:25,940 --> 00:34:32,020 I am thankful that this God cannot only forgive but he can deliver people from bondage of 350 00:34:32,020 --> 00:34:36,400 uncleanness and patterns of shame in their lives. 351 00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:41,800 He can do that through the power of Jesus Christ. 352 00:34:41,800 --> 00:34:45,400 It is useless for us to try to clean up ourselves. 353 00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:51,120 We cannot do it, but he can do it if we give ourselves to him. 354 00:34:51,120 --> 00:34:54,480 That is my plea this morning. 355 00:34:54,480 --> 00:34:57,320 God says we ought to live to please him. 356 00:34:57,320 --> 00:35:01,480 To do that we must live purely. 357 00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:11,360 Wherein we have been impure in an impure world, may God today call us back to his way, the 358 00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:15,840 way of holiness that we might walk in it. 359 00:35:15,840 --> 00:35:18,680 Let's pray. 360 00:35:18,680 --> 00:35:29,200 With our heads bowed and as God alone knows our hearts and searches us, right where you 361 00:35:29,200 --> 00:35:36,920 are seated, what does your response need to be today, right now, to spare you any more 362 00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:41,440 damage? 363 00:35:41,440 --> 00:35:50,520 Will you make confession to the Lord and repent if that needs to be done? 364 00:35:50,520 --> 00:35:54,400 Will you ask him to empower your will? 365 00:35:54,400 --> 00:35:59,600 Will you commit yourself to go to his word daily to renew your mind? 366 00:35:59,600 --> 00:36:10,160 Do you promise to treasure it in your heart? 367 00:36:10,160 --> 00:36:14,640 Lord I pray that we will not only be hearers but doers of the word and that each of us 368 00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:24,800 will respond and understand how you want us to live pleasing to you and follow through 369 00:36:24,800 --> 00:36:31,000 and act that out by the power of your spirit in our lives. 370 00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:39,200 We acknowledge before you the battle is tough in this world. 371 00:36:39,200 --> 00:36:46,680 We acknowledge before you that we have flesh that desires to fulfill itself and its lusts. 372 00:36:46,680 --> 00:36:53,640 We thank you that you have an answer for us through your grace that we might live above 373 00:36:53,640 --> 00:36:55,080 that. 374 00:36:55,080 --> 00:36:59,520 May that be our experience this week. 375 00:36:59,520 --> 00:37:03,320 For Jesus' sake, Amen. 376 00:37:03,320 --> 00:37:07,800 Would you stand with me please? 377 00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:14,920 I recognize that this kind of a message can cause some people to almost be in despair 378 00:37:14,920 --> 00:37:19,320 because of battles that they have been struggling with sometimes for years. 379 00:37:19,320 --> 00:37:24,280 I want you to know that my office is open to you, our other pastors are available to 380 00:37:24,280 --> 00:37:30,360 you and if we have touched on an area of life this morning where you are having deep problems, 381 00:37:30,360 --> 00:37:31,920 please come. 382 00:37:31,920 --> 00:37:38,560 Let us pray with you and point you in a direction that will help bring health and wholeness 383 00:37:38,560 --> 00:37:40,560 and holiness to your life. 384 00:37:40,560 --> 00:37:47,960 For that's what God wants and God knows that's for our best as well as for His glory. 385 00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:49,360 We'll continue on next week. 386 00:37:49,360 --> 00:37:50,360 God bless you. 387 00:37:50,360 --> 00:38:20,240 Be dismissed.