This morning we're going to continue a series that I started two weeks ago, and this is not going to be an expository message, which means we're not going to open up to one particular passage to start with. But we're going to rely upon Justin in the back to put Scripture on the screen for us. What I'd like to do is follow up on what we started two weeks ago. Actually, we started a Three weeks ago, four weeks ago, we started looking at Romans 1. Remember that message from Paul in the book of Romans to the church that was in Rome at the time, really drawing a distinction between the culture of Rome and the culture to which Christians are called to. And what we saw was an incredible contrast, especially in the realm of the sexual ethic of the unbelieving culture of Paul's day and the culture to which Christians were called to. And so they're being called out of that culture to adopt a completely new ethic. And so unlike the unbelieving culture, which suppressed the truth of God in unrighteousness, therefore paving the way for the indulgence in their own passions, including their sexual passions, and especially their sexual passions, because we saw that spiritual rebellion often leads to sexual revolution. And so we saw Paul's writing to Rome and said, our culture is not so different. than that that existed in the New Testament era, and so spiritual rebellion still leads to sexual revolution. And just like Paul was calling the Roman believers out of that culture into a brand new spiritual life and sexual ethic, so too we as believers are being called out of a culture which has given itself over to sexual revolution to a completely new ethic. Then we followed up and we looked at some of the lies of sexual sin. And this is incredibly pertinent, relevant to us, because like I said, our culture is going with a full head of steam down this road of sexual revolution. So we too need to be reminded that we are called out of and we must adopt a completely new sexual ethic. And so when you read the epistles, when you read 1 Corinthians, when you read Ephesians, when you read Paul's other epistles to these Gentile churches, you see a repeated theme over and over again about sexual immorality and a calling out to sexual purity. So that's our mandate this morning. You say, well, I've come to church and this is a couple weeks in a row where we're talking about sex and sexual temptation. Well, we have a biblical mandate to do that because the New Testament is filled with such teaching. This week, We're going to continue, and we're going to take one step further, I think, and to talk about strategies to avoid sexual temptation. Last time we learned that sexual sin lies. Sexual sin offers false promises. We saw that sexual sin offers a false intimacy. Sexual sin offers a false spirituality, a false liberty, and a false ecstasy. And so we oftentimes buy into those lies. This week we want to think about strategies then to avoid sexual sin and sexual temptation. Now, we're not going to get through the whole message. I'll be shocked if we do. But hopefully we can cut it off at a point that makes sense this morning. But we want to look at strategies to avoid sexual sin. And what I want you to do is help What I would like to help you do is to maybe adopt this visual picture or imagery that could maybe provide the context for the rest of the message. What I want you to do is I want you to think about, think about like a English castle. And not so much the castle, but think about like behind that English estate perhaps, there is a walled garden behind the castle. Think about that walled garden that's manicured, that's well taken care of, with a variety of different plants and cobblestone walkways, perhaps. I want you to visualize that, and I want you to think about that as an analogy or a picture of your spiritual life. We're going to use that analogy throughout the message here. These large garden with a myriad of species of plants and flowers and fruit trees perfectly manicured intended. That's what I want you to think about. Now I want you to think about yourself as a gardener in that garden. Your responsibility is to protect that garden, to nurture that garden, and to otherwise maintain it. And then again, think about that as your spiritual life, as your spiritual life. And so we're going to follow that analogy throughout the message. That's not an analogy foreign to scripture, because throughout the New Testament we see even Jesus referring to spiritual life as that of like a gardener producing fruit. He's the vine, we're the branches. His desire for us is that we go forward and produce much fruit. We see the gospel presented as that seed that's put in soil, and that seed germinates and then produces life, and so this is not an analogy foreign to the Bible. So, all that being said, seven strategies for avoiding sexual sin. Seven strategies for avoiding sexual sin. Like we said a couple weeks ago, a lot of my language may be in the masculine form, especially considering Proverbs puts it in the masculine form, but understand this applies to everyone. In our day, more than any other day, women are just as susceptible to sexual temptation, sexual sin, as men. So please understand that. Even though I use masculine language, this applies to everyone. So, the first strategy for avoiding sexual sin. Number one, build your walls. Build your walls for effective protection. Build your walls for effective protection. Think again of that walled garden that has walls surrounding it for the purpose of protection. Boundaries for the garden, protection against animals, might eat the fruit, might eat the plants, might dig up the bulbs, might otherwise destroy the garden, shielding the garden from wind and from harsh weather. What we're going to learn is that actually one of the reasons there's walls around gardens in such a situation is that it actually helps alter the climate within the garden, producing an environment conducive to growth. If we are to avoid sexual sin, we must first establish boundaries, boundaries of protection. must deliberately decide to erect walls of protection. When walling off a garden, you decide what's going to be inside the garden, what's going to be outside the garden. These are the boundaries. I determine what's going to be on the inside, what's outside. That could just be the Wild West out there. But I'm concerned about what's on the inside. So let me ask you. What boundaries have you established in your life? What limits have you put on yourself to avoid sexual temptation and sexual sin? We know, biblically, that we are told that sexual immorality should not even be named among unbelievers. So, what boundaries have you erected? What have you decided is absolutely off-limits for Christians based upon Scripture? There ought to be a number of deliberate and proactive decisions that each of us make as believers in order to protect our spiritual life. Proverbs 25 or 28 says this, a man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. It's a free-for-all. Just whatever influence wants to influence influences. Whatever passion he wants to indulge, that's what he indulges. He's got no self-control, and it's just like, again, that city with no walls. The man or woman who finds themselves out of control likely has no walls of protection. And so what does that tell us? I'm going to say young men, take some deliberate action to determine that you're going to protect yourself from sexual temptation. Like how practical do we want to get this morning? If you find yourself continually drawn away to sexual sin, let's not be naive. Now, if you're a visitor here this morning, we are not one of those churches that kind of erects or teaches some standard of holiness that nobody meets but we all pretend we do? Hey, how you doing this week? Oh, I'm doing just fine. Meanwhile, you're struggling all week with your sin and temptation. Listen, we're realists, saved by the grace of God, given his Holy Spirit, but still prone to sin and temptation. And so let's be honest and vulnerable and open without judgmentalism and criticism and create an environment in which we can actually deal with those situations. So we're going to be real. What have you allowed in your garden? What walls have you allowed to be left unbuilt? We need to refuse to allow ourselves to maybe be in a situation where certain people tempt us to sexual temptation. We need to refuse to allow ourselves, perhaps, to be scrolling on the social media when we shouldn't be. Like I said a couple weeks ago, young men, just get off your phone after midnight, okay? Nothing good happens on your phone after midnight, okay? If you're tired, don't be scrolling on your phone. If you're bored, don't be scrolling on your phone. Like, use some common sense. Maybe you found yourself carrying on a private conversation with somebody you shouldn't be, somebody who's not your spouse, somebody that is unhealthy for you. Maybe you've allowed yourself to be watching media with sexual content. I know we're not going to get through this because I'm already thinking about rabbit trails, so here we go. Do you know that when I was younger, when you were younger, you would have television, just like over-the-air TV, right? And over-the-air TV is controlled by the government because that's considered a public trust, and so there are standards as to what could be aired. And so as a parent, you had some assurance that if your child was watching television, you know there's certain things they wouldn't see. Certain words they wouldn't hear, right? Well, what's happened now with our digital revolution is that the main way in which we consume media is not over the airwaves, which is a public trust, but through private subscriptions. And so if you have Netflix, if you have Amazon Prime, if you have any of these other things, there are no such standards. And so television programs which are now targeted towards teenagers are oftentimes very explicit. And so this is a new generation with new challenges. And so it's as if you have that sewage pipe that's piped right into your home that you have no control over. And so it is a different situation than what we faced in the past. And so what media do you expose yourselves to? What friendships do you allow yourself to engage in? In some of those areas, you see that there's a need for walls to be erected in order to protect the purity of your mind and your actions. So potentially, maybe, as we're going to see, Jesus encourages us if we are tempted, if there are avenues by which we know that temptation is coming, that radical action might need to be taken. And so he says, if your hands offends you, cut it off. Not literally, please, but the idea being sometimes radical action is necessary. Cut off the relationship, uninstall the app, raise the standard of the media you consume, subscribe to an internet filter, set up some walls of protection. That's the idea. So how do you decide where to build those walls? How do you decide what standards to have in your life? Now, we're going to talk about legalism in a little bit, so if your mind's already going toward legalism, please don't go there. We're going to balance this out in just a minute. Most people, when erecting boundaries in their lives and saying, okay, this is off limits for me, and this is tolerable, most people do it by asking this question, what is sin? I mean, if the Bible explicitly says something's wrong, that's where I'm going to establish a wall. But I'm going to suggest to you that spiritual maturity and just plain old prudence and wisdom is going to ask a different question. Not just what is sinful, but we want to ask the question, what is most helpful? What is most helpful? We understand that when setting limitations on ourselves, we do well not just to avoid sin, but that which I know leads me to sin. And that's a personal decision. And so I say this is not legalism, because what I'm about to say is for you to decide in your own heart and not for me to impose upon you as a rule, okay? That's the difference between a Pharisaic hypocrite who wants to put up those walls of rules and then treat them as if they're as binding as the law of God, And the person who just wants to grow and says, what do I need to do in my personal life to protect myself? Okay, there's a world of difference. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6, 12, he said, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything. So his standard was, okay, what I'm going to allow in my life, is not just what I can justify as saying, well, it's not sinful. That wasn't his standard. His standard was, is it helpful? And does it have the potential to enslave me? So let's make this very practical. What is it in your life that has the potential to enslave you? What is it in your life that tends to lead you to addiction? Again, I'm just going to address young men directly. Listen, if you are dabbling in pornography, that should have no place in the life of a Christian, right? We're called to a completely different ethic than the culture. And although the culture is mainstreaming pornography, so it's not that big of a deal, it has no place in the life of a follower of Jesus Christ. So what is it in your life that you find is enslaving or leading to addiction? It has no place in your life. And that was Paul's standard. Not just what is sin, but what's not helpful and what might enslave me. And so that's where we draw the line, right? We are notoriously inept when it comes to exercising moderation, aren't we? And so you may have to build that wall where I don't have to build that wall. Maybe I need to build that wall where you don't have to build the wall. Because personally, I know what might lead me to sin, even though what starts as not being sinful could certainly drive me to it. So we must have deliberate, proactive standards which keep us from things which lead to temptation. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 23, he says again, all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. And so then he takes the standard a bit further and says, sometimes the walls that we build are walls not just thinking about ourselves, but about others. And so maybe there's some things that I shouldn't partake in, because when I do, it's going to encourage a weaker brother to do the same thing, and then he is going to be led into enslavement, whereas I might not be. So there's some little tips on how or where we should build those walls. In the book of Proverbs, we see in Proverbs 5, verse 8, again, counsel to the young man when it comes to avoiding sexual sin. Keep your way. far from her, do not go near the door of her house. OK, so how do we make that relevant and practical for us? Well, if this was not a Sunday morning service, I would ask for your feedback. But I'm wondering, maybe in a digital realm, what would be the equivalent of not going near her? What is it that ultimately leads you to looking at those things you shouldn't look at? Well, avoid that. Don't go anywhere near it. Don't keep your way far from it. And again, that's just establishing practical walls of protection. Proverbs 6.27, can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? Again, that's in the context of sexual temptation. The idea being that, come on, use some common sense here. You find yourself now into sexual sin, lust, and so on, and then you look at the steps that led you there. You take a step back and say, well, of course. Like, what was I thinking? Like, of course that was going to lead to that. That's the idea. Now, the balance that I often try to make here when we start talking about rules, and these are personal rules that you decide on yourself, not that I impose upon you. Understand that the walls of a garden are there, yes, to set up the boundaries, to keep things out, so that you have complete control as to what is on the inside. Those walls are there ultimately to create an environment in which the garden can grow. Rules in your life and in my life and these borders of protection are there in order to create an environment in which we can grow spiritually. That's an important distinction to avoid legalism. Because some people think that if I just put rigid rules in my life, then I'm going to be okay. If I just try to impose restrictions from the outside, then that's going to change my heart. It doesn't work that way. That's the lesson of the law, right? The law was that outward compulsion of rules and regulations on the outside, and we know that that absolutely and utterly failed, so that there came a need for a brand new covenant that was an inward compulsion, driving us with a sincere desire to obey instead of the outward pressure. So why do we try to recreate that type of legalistic situation where we put rules in our life thinking that's going to change our hearts? It doesn't work that way. The borders, the walls, the standards of protection in our lives are there simply to hold temptation at bay so that there can be an environment of which I can nurture my spiritual life without those immediate pressures. That's the idea. Like I said earlier, the walls of such a walled garden are there really to keep out the wind, even to change the climate within the garden so that it's conducive to growth, the same thing with our walls of protection. The purpose of boundaries that we establish for ourselves to avoid sexual sin, they're not the be-all and end-all. Those boundaries simply, again, create a situation where now we can say, oh, I can breathe. That temptation is not knocking at my door. It's not right in front of my face. I can do that self-examination and now tend to the means of grace. That seems basic, but many people have gotten that wrong. Spend your whole life just erecting walls and rules. Okay, I got to take this out of my life. I got to take this out of my life. I got to stop this. I got to stop that. Well, some of that stuff you could actually do in moderation if you had some self-control, but you just keep taking everything out of your life because you think that that next rule is actually going to help me grow spiritually. It doesn't work that way. So, those walls are up, hopefully keeping the allure of the world on the outside. But what happens if we only focus on the walls and don't recognize it simply created an environment to grow the garden on the inside, is that the world remains alluring, but what's on the inside of those walls is just barren, unattractive, unfulfilling dirt. Well, if you're not tending to your spiritual life and experiencing joy and satisfaction in Jesus Christ, and all you have are rules in your life and barren dirt on the inside and the world calling to you on the outside, what do you think is going to happen? You're going to be scaling those walls and trying to get out of that garden. Yeah. we must build walls for effective protection. So do some self-examination. Where is it that you've just allowed influences into your life that keep drawing you away into sin and temptation? Build some walls. Number two, let's see, 20 minutes for one point. There's five points. Build your walls for effective protection. Number two, work your ground through hard discipline. Work your ground through hard discipline. When Adam and Eve were in the garden and Adam was called to tend the garden, we understand that that was going to take labor. If you're going to bring forth flowers and fruit trees and so on, that was going to take sweat, especially after sin entered into the world, thorns and thistles and so on. That's hard work if you're going to produce fruits. There's an analogy there to our spiritual lives. If you're going to grow and develop spiritual fruit, become more like Christ and not just continually, you know, rebuilding the foundation of your spiritual life because you just keep sinning and repenting and sinning and repenting. If you want to make spiritual progress, it's going to, Take some deliberate labor, some deliberate labor. We gotta work the ground. You picture your garden at all, when you start working that ground, you stick your hands in the soil and you start working it up. And what are you looking for? You're looking for impurities. You're looking for rocks. You're looking for old shards of pottery. You're looking for anything in there that's an impurity that could keep things from growing. We do the same thing when we exercise self-examination. Look into my heart and say, okay, what is it? What are those impure desires? What is it that's leading me astray into temptation? What must be removed? that's looking for those sinful attitudes and affections and actions which hinder spiritual growth. The writer of Hebrews said in Hebrews chapter 12, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. What he's saying is, is spiritual life like a race? You're not racing against other people. You're just trying to accomplish a personal best, right? You're running against yourself and your own limitations. He says, but before we run that race, he says, let us lay aside every weight. and sin which clings so closely. What is it that's weighing you down? What is it that's keeping you from obedience to Christ? What is it that's keeping you from thriving spiritually? Self-examination reveals what that sin is, and then the writer of Hebrews says, lay that sin aside so that you can run. And then he says, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted." He's saying this is hard work, this takes discipline, this takes self-examination, so that you then make yourself fit to run the race to accomplish your spiritual goals. A willingness to discover and then lay aside everything that hinders us spiritually. So question, are you willing to do that kind of self-examination? Having erected walls of protection and having created a climate in which the plants can grow, now we have to do serious self-examination. The boundaries are in place. You're no longer stuck in the cycle of sin and shame and regret. Your spiritual life is no longer simply putting out the fires of lust and dealing with the shame and regret, which inevitably follows. but you now have the ability to search your own heart and discover what attitudes and habits and rebellion and affections might be the source of your continuing sin. If you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, if you're here and you're a young man and you're not a Christian, Listen, you don't have the same inward compulsion to obey God. You don't have the same drive towards holiness. And I just want to give you a warning because even as a non-Christian, listen, sexual sin is enslaving. Sexual sin is addicting. And if you're partaking in sexual sin and pornography and so on, you don't have that inward conviction. or sense of I'm living in disobedience to God, but that's going to be equally destructive in your life. It's going to enslave you. It's going to alter your view of women. It's going to handicap you when it comes to a healthy marriage in the future. It's just not a right path to go down. So let me encourage you that way. If we're going to avoid sexual sin, we must be willing to plunge our hands into the soil of our heart and do self-examination, looking for impurities. What is it that keeps us from growing spiritually? What is it that we must rid ourselves of? We should have the attitude of the psalmist in Psalm 139, verse 23. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. So listen. Take the app off your phone. Unsubscribe from whatever that thing is. Break the pattern that you have. And then having put those standards in your life, do some serious meditation, self-examination, heart searching, so that you can begin to grow spiritually. Sometimes that might mean hard conversations. Like I said, Jesus says that if our hand offends us, cut it off. If your hand or your foot cause you to sin, cut it off, throw it away, Matthew 18, it's better for you to enter a life crippled or lame than with two hands and two feet to be thrown in the eternal fire. He's talking about radical action. Is there radical action that's necessary in your life to avoid sexual sin? Hard conversations you might have to have with somebody else, relationships that you might have to break off, and so on. We must be willing to take those steps. So here's an exercise for you. If you find yourself struggling with sexual sin, and I'm going to say just sin in general, a habitual sin, some type of cycle, here's a practice for you. Get a piece of paper and make two columns in that piece of paper, kind of like a journal. And then record how you use your day. Record what your routine looks like. And in those two columns, add one that says flesh and another one that says spirits. And then record, what am I doing during my day that actually feeds the flesh? And what am I doing during my day that feeds the spirit? And you may find that your lifestyle, your habits, the patterns that you have are continually feeding fleshly passions, but never feeding spirits. Do that for a week or so, look at the column, and then recognize that maybe there's some things that you need to confess. Confess them to God with openness and vulnerability. Ask Him to remove those things from your heart that you're continually using to feed your passions and then to focus on spiritual things, as we're going to see in a moment. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9, verse 24, Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. Now, if you're a Christian here this morning and you have any theological knowledge, you know that Paul here is not talking about, like, oh, I'm a Christian, but if I don't get my act together, I might not make it into eternity. That's not the idea. But he as an apostle who's being used of God to build the church, he says, listen, there's a lot at stake. If I don't keep my body under control, then I'm going to render myself a hypocrite, and I'm going to be useless to the influencing of others, and I'm not going to produce any spiritual fruit whatsoever. The same is true for our spiritual lives. He's saying this is hard work, it's like an athlete, and it requires self-discipline. So, there's hard work there. Not to earn salvation, but flowing out of salvation. Build your walls for effective protection. Work your ground through hard discipline. Number three, nurture your plants with consistent attention. Remember that wall building idea, the working of the soil. All of that is for the purpose of producing fruit, vibrant growth. In our spiritual lives, we set boundaries and we practice self-examination so that we can grow. We're never content as believers to simply stop doing certain things, right? That's the difference between reformation and transformation. We're not a church just calling people to change outward actions. It's not a matter of just stopping things. Our desire is actually to go on to produce spiritual fruit. That's Jesus' expectation. John 15, verse 8, he says, By this my Father has glorified that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. Some of us this morning are so prone to sin and temptation that your spiritual life is not a matter of vibrant or vitality producing spiritual fruit. Instead, what it is, is it seems like it's just constantly working up the same dirt and trying to plant seeds, right? I mean, you're just there at that base level, laying a foundation and never really growing because you're stuck in that cycle of sin. But Jesus says, by this my Father has glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. Just as plants in a garden need nurture and need attention in order to grow, so our spiritual lives do as well. Now, what do plants need to grow? Admittedly, I do know quite a bit about the Bible, but I know very little about gardening and plants. My wife knows less because she is She is the plant killer. Now, I shouldn't say that. She had a very productive garden this year. But plants that are inside, that's where they go to die. But what is it that we need? What do we use as means to help plants grow? Water, fertilizer, sunlight, proper size pot, whatever it is. Likewise, God has given us in our lives means to use in order to see spiritual growth and spiritual fruit. So, walls being built, setting up the boundaries of the garden, setting a distinction between the world and our spiritual lives. We have those standards set. We are doing self-examination now, keeping out the pressure of that sin and temptation. Now we're looking at our own hearts. And so now I want to grow, so what do I use? Well, this is going to be very basic, so we'll go fast through it, but use the Word of God. Be in the Word and read. The psalmist says in Psalm 119, verse 9, how can a young man keep his way pure? Don't you love just such direct questions? How can a young man keep his way pure? by guarding it according to your word." Well, that sounds a lot like walls of protection. With my whole heart I seek you. And that's that reminder that it's not just about walls. It's about that internal sincere desire to grow. With my whole heart I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. Now listen, I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. And so there's a means of protection. Be in the Word of God. Learn to study. Learn to grow. Listen, young men, take spiritual life seriously. Nominal Christianity doesn't cut it. I mean, this is a whole life devotion to Christ, so get in the Word of God and start learning it. Make it your life calling to learn more about God through the Scripture. Learn how to study. Learn what inductive study is, right? I mean, be serious about reading, not just cursory glancing. Why? Because you want the Word in your heart, right? Not just the mind, but in the heart. So, learn how to study the Scriptures. I can help you with that. Learn how to study the Scriptures. Why? Because when the Word is in your heart and is stored up there, it protects us from sin. How? Well, number one, it puts your mind on the things of God, but number two, when sin and temptation comes, you can call out the lie. You can answer back to sin and temptation with what you know from the Word of God, but if you're not storing it up and the storehouse is empty, you've got nothing. So, get in the Word. Sanctify them in the truth, Jesus says. Your Word is truth. Sanctify means to set apart for holiness. Make them more holy in the truth, He says. Your Word is truth. So get in the Word, be a praying person, regular prayer, varied prayer, vulnerable prayer, intimate prayer, confess sin, adore Christ, offer thanksgiving to Him, rejoice always. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. You have the Word, you have prayer, you have fellow believers. Hebrews 10, verse 24 says, let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, all the more as you see the day drawing near." What does that tell us? The church is a means of God's grace in order to provoke us to love and to good works. Not neglecting to meet together, right? You don't take a vacation from church. You don't come every other Sunday, but you don't neglect it. And so you come every week. Why? Because you know you have a task to do. So we fight against a consumeristic mentality when it comes to church. You're not here just to get, but you're here to give. And so your attendance and your presence is an encouragement to others who are here. So the writer of Hebrews says, don't neglect to meet together. Some people do that, but don't do that, but encourage one another. And all the more, as you see the day drawing near, avail yourself to the fellowship, avail yourself to church, avail yourself to good spiritually encouraging relationships, the Word, prayer, the fellowship of believers in the church, the Lord's Table, the confession and self-examination that takes place as we participate together in the Lord's Supper, the Lord's Table. By the way, next week, we're going to be partaking in the Lord's Table, appropriate considering Thanksgiving. When we partake in the Lord's table, what are we doing as a congregation? With baptism, we are affirming one's profession of faith when we baptize. When we take part in the Lord's table, what are we doing? We are continually affirming the ongoing evidence of genuine salvation in one's life. So when we together take part of the bread and the juice, what we are saying is that we recognize one another as part of the covenant family of God. And so in that way, the congregation has a role. the Lord's Table, prayer, fellow believers, the Word, even psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, theologically sound music, singing, memorizing, turning to those things when temptation comes. All these are what we call the means of grace. The means of grace. So God has given us tools to use to produce spiritual fruit. Don't neglect those things. That's why I say, if you make that journal, and you say, how am I feeding my flesh and how am I feeding the Spirit? If you're not seeing in this column the Word, and prayer, and fellowship, and spiritually encouraging relationships, and participating in the Lord's table, and psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and encouraging, if that's not all here in this column, well, there's your red flag, right? As you saturate yourself with the Word of God, reading, studying, memorizing, you begin to think God's thoughts after Him. You're going to begin to espouse God's values and develop a biblical worldview. Continually exposing yourself to God's holiness in the Word and speaking to Him through prayer will cause you to increasingly despise those things which violate His holiness. After spending a lot of time with fellow believers who are growing in the faith, by the way, it's not enough just to be together with fellow believers. but connect with believers who are growing in the faith, who are growing in the faith. That's going to help you grow spiritually. It's going to help you experience a positive accountability. All those things are given by God for us to grow. So Galatians chapter 5, verse 22, It says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law, and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. That's what you want to produce through the utilizing of the means of grace. So, sexual temptation, pornography, that enslavement to that type of darkness, over against what? If you use the means of grace, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, all that's a product of the Spirit through His means. So we build our walls for effective protection. We work our ground through hard discipline. We nurture our plants by consistent attention. Number four, we're going to end with number four. Expel your enemies. without hesitation. So the other day, my wife opened up our cabinet that has all the ingredients for baking. And on the bottom shelf, she found something that shouldn't be there. It was evidence, you can fill in the blanks, it was evidence that we had a mouse. And we're trying to figure out what the mouse was eating. My wife found a bag of oats, like oatmeal. Apparently, that's what mice like, so that's what the mouse was eating. And so she set a couple traps. Peanut butter. And the two traps, the mouse came and ate the peanut butter off of one, emboldened, went to the second one, and that was the last peanut butter the mouse ever ate. Why did we set traps? Because mice don't belong in our kitchen. That's why. Did we wait a week and say, it's all right, we can coexist for a while. No big deal. You know what? We can share some of our food. It's just fine. No. We said, that mouse doesn't belong here. It was not invited. It is not healthy. We want it out. And so we took immediate action. Expel your enemies without hesitation. You've got the walls built. The expectation then is that there's going to provide some protection. But sometimes things get over the wall. Sometimes we leave the gate open. If we're going to be diligent in all of this, we say, you know what? There's some things I've allowed to creep into my life, and they don't belong. There's some things that I cannot tolerate in my lifestyle. And so when they rear their head, we say, nope. What does that look like? Well, sometimes that looks like changing our lifestyle. Other times it simply looks like immediate confession. The Bible says in 1 John 1, verse 9, that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's a promise we have if you're a believer, right? So, what do we do when we find sin has crept in, there it is, it doesn't belong, got over the wall, got through the gate, will we confess immediately? Immediately. Don't play the legalism game. I just don't feel like he's going to... You have a promise. Because of Jesus Christ, confess your sins and he will forgive. Expel the enemy immediately. The Bible indicates there are three main enemies to the believer. Ephesians 2, verse 1 says, you are dead in your trespasses and sins. That's the spiritual condition of everyone born into this world. You were dead in your trespasses and sins. in which you once walked following the course of this world. That's enemy number one. The world is not the enemy in that we are looking at people out there and saying that those individuals are enemies, okay? That's not what this is saying. If you're here this morning, you're not a Christian, you're kind of new to being in church, maybe you've been exposed to this culture war type of mentality where it's the church against the culture. That's not what this is saying. But what it is saying is that there are the philosophies and values of the culture which have no place in the Christian life. And so in that way, then, we could say the world is an enemy of our spiritual lives, not the individuals and the culture to which we go against in cultural battle. following the course of the world, following the prince of the power of the air." Now that's a description of demonic forces or of Satan. The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived, we used to live this way, in the passions of our flesh. And so you have the culture all around us, Right? Which is a different value system, different priorities, different values. Then you have the prince of the power of the air, so you actually have spiritual influences in the demonic realm. And then you actually have the passions of our own flesh. All three of those things are enemies of everything we've already prioritized this morning. The world, the flesh, and the devil. Now those things can sometimes penetrate those walls, come in the open gate, and then we've got to deal with them. 1 John 2, verse 15 says, do not love the world. or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride in possessions is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever." There's quite a distinction. Saying, hey, listen, Christian, don't be worldly. Don't be so immersed in the culture that you're constantly influenced by the culture. You shouldn't love the same things that the world loves. That's the idea. So that's enemy number one. Number two, he says, the prince of the power of the air. Well, those are those demonic influences. There is spiritual warfare that happens. There are spiritual realities all around us. 1 Peter 5.8 says, be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. And so there is spiritual warfare, as we talked about a few weeks ago. So be alert, be watchful. And then he says that the passions of our flesh are an ever-present temptation and enemy. We're going to end with this, but Galatians chapter five, I quoted to you the fruit of the spirit. And I said, if you use the means of grace, get into the word of God, I mean serious about the word of God, hiding it in your heart, storing it up. If you're a praying person, dealing with temptation through prayer, strengthening yourself through prayer, you're part of the fellowship of the church and all that. If you're using the means of grace, you produce the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, and so on. If you neglect those things, What happens? The same passage in Galatians 5. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit. And you go back to that passage, and you see a list of the fruit of the flesh. The point of Galatians 5 is that you've got to choose. Are you going to neglect the Spirit, or are you going to feed the Spirit? Because if you walk by the Spirit, he says, you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. So you're here this morning, and you're saying, I'm just struggling with this sin. It's like a cycle. I sin, and then I feel guilty and shame, and then I repent, but then I go back to it. And you say, well, how can I stop feeding my flesh? Well, he tells us, plain as day. Walk by the Spirit, you'll not gratify the desires of the flesh. Well, that sounds like work. Again, taking up the means, as we've already seen. So we're going to stop here. Build your walls for effective protection. Come on, take some practical steps. What is it you've allowed into your life that shouldn't be there? Make some radical choices. Set some standards. Work your ground through hard discipline. Self-examination. Look for impurities in your hard attitudes, your actions, your values, and so on. And do the hard work of confessing those things. Nurture your plants by consistent attention. Use the means of grace that God has graciously given us. You don't just automatically grow spiritually as a believer. The Holy Spirit's there, but you've got to use means to grow. Expel your enemies without hesitation. Don't tolerate sin. Don't tolerate temptation. Deal with it immediately when it rears its head. And all those things are going to put us on a track towards spiritual growth. Well, we got three more, and we'll deal with those next week. If you're here this morning and you are struggling with sexual sin and temptation, I hope you can find a fellow brother or sister in Christ that you can talk to about it, right? Because you are suffering in silence, and that silence and not talking to others about it perpetuates that secret shame, which then you deal with by continuing in further sin. Right? That's not healthy. And so as I said a couple of weeks ago, let's create a culture at Calvary where one, you feel you can address somebody and talk to these things about. If you're somebody who's not struggling with those, be willing to accept that type of conversation from someone else, right? Without judgmentalism, without criticism, without being harsh, but understanding that we're all sinners and we're all sufferers and to seek to be a help to those individuals. And so in closing, Don't anybody leave here thinking that I'm preaching legalistic rules, that if all you do is set these standards in your life, then you're good to go and you're going to avoid sexual sin. The goal here is spiritual growth, right? Spiritual growth and maturity through the means of grace. All right, let's pray. Dear Father, I thank you for your word. And Lord, this message this morning is a bit different. I pray they'd be helpful. As we look at principles in your word, help us to make the application. We exist in a culture that has become sex-crazed, pornography-laden, mainstreaming sexual perversion. And as much as it may be awkward to talk about these things, this is the reality all around us, and we see a similar situation facing the New Testament church. And so we know you've given us these instructions for a reason. So we pray you'd help us to not shy away from such conversations. We pray this morning for those who are here who are Christians. They've given their lives to Jesus. They have been transformed by your Holy Spirit, yet there's still a struggle with sin. I pray that you would help these individuals who may be struggling with sexual temptation to do the hard work of self-assessment, self-examination, to make radical choices and decisions in their lives to protect themselves from such temptation, but then to follow that up with diligence in applying your means of grace so that they can grow spiritually. Help them to find others in the church that could be maybe helpful when it comes to accountability and encouragement, and I just pray that you will Help us to have a pure congregation embracing a new sexual ethic completely different from that of the culture. I pray this morning for those who at this moment may not be struggling with such sin knowing that help them to understand that they're susceptible to the very same struggles and help them to be willing to come alongside and be an encouragement to those who are struggling. And then lastly, we just pray for those who are not yet Christians. I pray that they would feel loved and welcomed here this morning. I pray that they would eventually come to the place where they see their own need for Christ. They'd recognize that you have provided your son to free us from sin, to welcome us into a life of spiritual vitality and growth and satisfaction in you. So I pray that you just do that work in hearts and that you continue to change lives. Lord, we thank you for this and help us as believers to just be a continual encouragement to one another as we pursue Christ in holiness and look to be found before him without fault at his return. Lord, we thank you for all of this in his name. Amen.