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You'd open your Bibles with me
this evening please to Proverbs chapter 1. Proverbs chapter 1. Would you please stand together with
me and we will read verse 7. Verse 7. Let us give our attention to
the Word of God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Amen. May the Lord add His blessing
to the reading of His good word. Now let's join our hearts together
in prayer. We thank Thee, O righteous Father.
We bless Thee, O Christ the Son. We magnify Thy Holy Spirit. We come here together tonight
to worship our God. We thank Thee for the precious
time of prayer Thou hast granted us. We thank Thee for bringing
us unity in the Spirit. And now, O Lord, we come to hear
Thy blessed Word, to consider the subject before us with care. I pray that thy mighty spirit
would come and teach us. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. Well, if any book in the Old
Testament connects with the modern idea of worldview, It is certainly
Proverbs. The very first seven verses of
the first chapter introduce us to Solomon's worldview. And as we read through the book,
it is the worldview of all God's people. A worldview, as we have studied
in the past, it's always good to be reminded of these things,
but a worldview is the framework, it's the framework, it's the
set of fundamental beliefs that we use to interpret our world
and our place in it. Every day and every moment, we
are interpreting our world. Everything that comes our way
must be interpreted in some way. We blow it off to our great sorrow
sometimes or we misinterpret various things. But every single
decision that we make, everything that we do, everything that we're
involved in has to do with that fundamental set of beliefs, those
filters. through which we see the world
and how we live in it, who we are. A worldview is not a philosophy
of life. Solomon wants his readers particularly
young men, but certainly all young people, and every one of
his readers to understand that interpreting the world in one's
place and it begins with one thought. The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. It is the beginning of knowledge. He also wants us to understand
the other side of that. Fools despise Fools despise wisdom
and instruction. So, set before us in this blessed
and eternal word is what we have referred to in the past as either
God think or serpent think. God-think or serpent-think. The fear of the Lord, of course,
is God-think. It's the fundamental filter. It is the fundamental belief
by which we understand the world around us. Interpreting reality,
interpreting what we see in this world and our place in it according
to the Word of God. Not by how we feel as such. Our feelings play a part. But the other side of that is foolishness, despising wisdom,
despising instruction. In fact, we can just refer to
it, as we said, as serpent-think. God-think obviously begins with
God. Serpent-think begins with us. God-think begins with God. Serpent-think
begins with us. That's what we were drawn to
in the garden with Adam and Eve. Ye shall be as gods. And that's
the way we come into this world. God-think means that God decides
what is right, what is wrong, what is good for us, and what
is bad for us. And His Word is the final authority
in all matters of life, all matters of doctrine. As Paul wrote to
Timothy, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect,
throughly furnished unto all good works. What we have set
before us in God's holy word is the very foundation of life,
because this is the revelation of Almighty God, who He is, what
He has done, especially what He has done to save sinners through
Jesus Christ, His Holy Son. And we begin as believers to
understand our world properly when we are thinking through
the scriptures, when they become the spectacles by which we look
at this world, take it in, think it through carefully, and then
make our decisions. We have been living for decades. Numerous generations now have
been consumed with living by how they feel. And that is one
of the greatest and most deadly deceptions that human beings
can engage in. We must think. We must think according to the
Word of God, not just feel, thinking and hoping that it is God. God has given His Scriptures
to us that we may evaluate in our lives what brings Him glory and what dishonors Him. and what is destructive to us
as humanity and the danger of our final damnation. We must know the living God and
the only way to know Him is through His Word by the power of His
Spirit. If we truly know our God, if
we are born of God's Spirit, We can then fear God and begin
everything in our life from that foundation. This is the beginning
of knowledge. Now, what we mean by that, ultimately,
is knowledge as God would have us understand it. We're not just
talking about raw data. This is the time in history of
big data. We've got databases everywhere,
information everywhere. The information superhighway
is as broad just about as it can be that the human beings
can attempt to deal with. As a matter of fact, there are
whole books being written about the fact now that there is so
much information coming at us and we can't process it all.
But we can process it properly when we begin with the fear of
God. That's knowledge. We have the
same information as those who believe in evolution. We have
the same information as scientists, but we come to different conclusions
because we have a different worldview. We have a different beginning,
start button, different place. So Proverbs 1-7 is a vital passage
for us, and it's important to us this evening. A prayerful
and careful study of Proverbs reveals to us what our worldview
really is. If you take this book and read
it through carefully, and we spent over a year looking at
the first nine chapters, it's been a great deal here, mining
the wonderful wisdom, the gold, the silver, the pearls, the diamonds,
the sapphires, the rubies, the emeralds of God's blessed treasure
here in this word, in this blessed word. And we, I trust, saw the
vital place of a worldview that begins with Almighty God, the
Sovereign who created the heavens and the earth, the All-Knowing,
the All-Wise God. What each of us must grasp is
that no other options exist regarding our worldview. You begin with
God or you do not. It's that simple. Some things
in life are extremely complex. But this is simple. You begin with God. As He has
revealed Himself in His Word. Or you don't. So. You say, well, what does that
have to do with pornography and men and purity? Well, it has
everything to do with it. Because unless we understand
our lives in the presence of Almighty God, we will very often
settle for lists and trusting in human beings to help us work
out our problems. Now there's a place for our community
as believers to work together, hold one another accountable,
exhort one another. That's all important. But the
final work comes down to this. You will be delivered from your
sin, whether it be pornography or any others, by faith in Jesus
Christ alone and by his grace obeying His Word. Let me give you just a quick
definition of the fear of the Lord. We can say that it's the
reverent and loving worship and obedience of God according to
His Word. The reverent and loving worship
and obedience to the God of Scripture according to His Word. That's
where ultimately dealing with any sin begins. With who He is
and then who we are in the light of that. Now, with that as our foundational
thought, let me give you a quote From Hugh Hefner, some of you
will know that name. He said not too long ago, well,
I think I've lived long enough to see the world change, and
I do believe in a real way that we live in a playboy world now. I think you see that reflected
in all the men's magazines, but you see it in the world in general
in terms of fashion and pop culture. When I started Playboy, I really
wasn't trying to start a sex magazine. I was trying to incorporate
sex in a total lifestyle package. That's a worldview. It's not
God's. I was the guy that tried to give
sex a good name. False. But that is what he believes. And it is what a great deal of
the world believes. Everybody talked about sex, but
I was trying to give it a good name. In other words, he wanted
a world in which people could do what they wanted to do when
it comes to this subject. Now let me ask you, as you evaluate
the world around you, do you see a world, especially our culture,
that magnifies, exalts, and appreciates purity, virginity, holiness? Or do you see a world that is
given to virtually worshiping physical relationships between
men, women, or anyone or anything else. Whose worldview do you think
is predominating right now? Whose worldview do you think
is reflected in fashion? Whose worldview do you think
is reflected in the media? Do we hear from The media. Well, tomorrow, ladies and gentlemen,
as we look at the weather here, we don't know what our sovereign
God's going to do, but it appears that it might rain. He might
send the rain, He might not. If He does, we're going to praise
Him. And if He doesn't, we're going
to praise Him. How about this? Well, tonight
in the news, We see another extraordinary providence of the Most High God. As we see what is taking place
in the nations. This is all fantasy. I mean,
this is pure fantasy. Whose worldview is dominating? You can't go to any news source
that is not running some story about sexuality. It is impossible. Even most of the Christian sites
are trying to keep up with and discuss what's going on with
whether it's fornication or adultery or homosexuality or any number
of the perversions that we find in scripture. Whose worldview
is dominating? It's the air we breathe that
is Mr. Hefner's, which is simply Satan's. He did not give that blessed
act a good name. He dragged it into the filth
of men's perverse and darkened hearts. He went to that which
is most fundamental about us. And He touched the hearts of
one generation after another. with lust and unbridled sensuality. They speak of his publishing
outfit and his media as his empire. And so it is. The tragedy is that the empire
is Satan's. It is his doctrine. It is nothing
but a return to pagan sexuality. You will find nothing in either
his work or pornography in general that is not directly tied to
things forbidden all through the Old Testament and in the
New. There is pagan sexuality which arises from a particular
worldview. And then there is the fear of
the Lord that arises from the revelation of Almighty God in
His Word through the power of the Holy Spirit in His people. I would say to you that one of
the reasons we see the plague of pornography in the professing
churches of Jesus Christ today is because we have become so
enamored in what we call our liberty. That we have sucked
up the cesspool of this world and we cannot see nor think right.
Some people know what day it is by what television show or
what they're going to watch on the Internet is. That they couldn't
find Habakkuk in the scriptures if you held a gun on them. I'm
talking about people that can confess that they're Christians. They can tell you starlets and
celebrities, but they couldn't tell you names of people in the
scriptures. We have been deceived and the
tragedy has been, it's pretty much been a willful deception. So we want to go back to some
fundamental thoughts as we consider this issue of worldviews. There is a glorious worldview and it begins with Jesus Christ. When we truly understand that
through the revelation of Scripture, we can begin to make headway
in our battle against sin. So let's reaffirm some basic and foundational things. Some of these are so elemental
that you would think, well, Pastor, this is almost like a corporate
duh moment. We all know this. But the fact
is, how do we live this? That's the difference, right?
We can hear about it. We can talk about it. But are
we living these things? Number one, male plus female
is good. foundational the holy and pure
God who made the heavens and the earth made man male and female
both are in the image of God male and female are the very
image of almighty God the sovereign creator the great and thrice
holy sovereign now With that in mind, I want to set three
things before you. First, physical intimacy is for
the unity of a one flesh relationship. We have that said before us in
Scripture. Genesis chapter 2 says this. Verse 18, And the Lord God said,
It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him and
help meet for him. Praise the Lord. He created man,
or the male, Adam, and now he's creating the female. Together
they will be mankind. The Lord put Adam to sleep, took
a rib, or at least part of his side. There's a beautiful picture
here. The Lord takes the man who He
has created, a glorious creature, the crown of creation, and He
has taken a part of him to make the woman. And then He's going
to Having divided the man, bring him back together, male and female,
but each in a glorious relationship to the other. Now that's what
God intended. In Genesis 2, 24 says, Therefore
shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave
unto his wife, and they too shall be, or they shall be one flesh. This is good. Everything that
God has made is good. We read that in chapter 1, verse
31. And the glory and beauty of this
is that God has made out of man, male and female, to be mankind. It's good. To be a male means
that is the sex of the male. To be female means to be the
feminine. part of that great union. Now
that's good. That's very good. We're not ashamed
of that. I won't do this but we could
have all the women stand and at least in this congregation
we could all look and know that the women indeed are women. And
we could have them sit and then the men could stand and we could
tell that all the men are indeed males. We see this. It is plain. We have attempted to set our
minds according to the word of God and live in ways that clearly
magnify that we are male and female and that this brings glory
to God. It's very good. So this physical intimacy is
for the unity of the one flesh relationship. Pornography wars
directly against that. It cannot build this one flesh
relationship. It destroys it. Let me say to
the young men who are not married, you're destroying your marriage
before you get there. At least let me put it this way.
You are at least damaging it. There's always the possibility
that you could destroy it. That is why this is crucial.
Pornography is attractive because it's about men and women. And
that is fundamentally what we are. Pornography does not build this
one flesh relationship. That's what God ordained, one
flesh, male and female, no one else entering into that relationship
sexually. Number two, physical intimacy
is for procreation. It's not only for building that
one flesh relationship, but it is for physical, it is for procreation. Pornography is not about that. In other words, what we need
to understand is that the idea of sexuality with pornography
and with marriage are two entirely different things. Entirely different
things. Pornography is not about having
babies, which is the way the scriptures began our worldview. He made them male and female. Why? To be fruitful and multiply. I mean,
this is so clear. The first two chapters of the
scriptures, it could not be plainer. But we have been hijacked in
our thinking by a pornified culture. We think of the relationship
between a man and woman as an end to itself. It's simply about
my pleasure. When it is about glorifying God,
building a relationship and having babies. Pornography wars against
this. Thirdly. Physical intimacy is
for sexual purity. It actually advances purity. More about that in just a few
moments. But this is vital. Marriage is God's institution. It is a holy institution when
we do it His way. And within the relationship,
even though we are sinful people, within the proper marriage relationship, a healthy intimacy between men
and women is a good thing and it is a pure thing. There are
some people who have become so defiled by our culture, they
cannot think of this as anything but ugly, wicked, filthy, dirty,
et cetera. No, no, no. fornication, adultery,
homosexuality. These things are ugly, wicked,
destructive. The relationship between a husband
and a wife before God is purity and therefore should be protected. There should be a fence around
that beautiful relationship. Pornography directly undermines
this. The very notion of it takes you
out of the protective circle of purity into mental filthiness,
mental heart lust with someone with whom you are not married.
You never know when the people you're looking at are married
or not. You're either involved in fornication or adultery. But these are serious matters.
These things damage men and women. They especially damage women
in ways that men do not understand. So physical intimacy is a gift
from God to build unity in a one flesh relationship with the goal
of procreation to the glory of the Lord. And it is a wonderful
field, a wide open field of purity for those who enter into it God's
way and who walk in it God's way. And I will say this, no
matter how far you've fallen, A relationship between a husband
and wife can become wonderfully pure in Christ Jesus. Now, male and female then equals
good. And that's part of a biblical
worldview. That's where it comes from. Secondly,
the physical relationship between a husband and a wife is good.
It is good. Physical intimacy between a husband
and wife is inherently good because the good God created it. It is holy because the holy God
created it. God's command to be fruitful
and multiply is obviously good. This was of course given before
Adam and Eve sinned. Physical intimacy has a power
to unite in ways that nothing else does. It's not all. It's certainly not even the highest.
The most glorious unifier is the power of the Holy Spirit
working in our hearts through our beloved Lord Jesus Christ.
But it is a powerful and it is a primary power that unites men
and women in a way that nothing else does. When you understand this, that
intimacy has the power to unite two people in ways that nothing
else does, you will understand why intimacy is meant to be enjoyed
only between a husband and a wife. It unites them emotionally, physically,
And it bonds them in a way that simply nothing else can. This
is good. God intended that. I've had to
counsel people who pursued sexual immorality before they were married. And I've had to sit and deal
with the wreckage. And that is always heartbreaking.
I knew of one couple that I loved very dearly, very fine, young
man and young woman who were converted while they were living
together. He moved out. Later, they got
married once they were converted. But literally for years and years
and years, they had very deep trouble. Because she could never
see, she could never relate the notion of their relationship
as anything but wickedness. What should have been beautiful
and pure and delightful in uniting them was something that she could
never get out of her mind as something filthy and wicked. These are tragic things, brethren.
They should not happen. But it doesn't simply have to
happen in the flesh. Pornography has the same stultifying
and damaging effect. It can keep men and women from
thinking, seeing, and even acting as they should. Why? Because
they've bought the lie of a satanic worldview. They've sucked up all this stuff
around us that says, oh, do what you want, be with whom you want.
Doesn't matter. Hear it in the music. Oh, it's
my liberty to listen to this wonderful gutter stuff that talks
about fornication all the time. It's my liberty. I can catechize
myself. I can fill my brain with satanic
worldview, and it's perfectly okay. That's my liberty. And then they wonder why their
views of purity and morality begin to diminish. The things they watch, the things
they hear, ultimately the things that they pursue often do not
arise from a biblical worldview. One that begins with the fear
of the Lord that is instilled in the heart through the regenerating
power of the Holy Spirit. in the exaltation of Jesus Christ
the Lord. Well, God's design is for marital intimacy. In our first study, we define
sexual purity as keeping one's sexual behavior in harmony with
God's revealed character and will. In other words, This book
tells us that man plus woman is good. That the relationship
between a man and woman is good, done God's way. And that God designed this in
a way to bring Him glory. Listen, your sexuality is not
about you. It's about God. The God who made
you a man or a woman. And you are to bring Him glory
as a man or a woman. Magnify and glorify Him. He gave us something which He
wrapped up with physical pleasure, emotional satisfaction, psychological
fulfillment, and spiritual meaning into one complex and extraordinary
relationship. Pornography. Absolutely. invades, damages, and even destroys
that. Because it's outside of the model. It's outside of what God designed. Marital intimacy does not include
5, 10, 15, 20, 100, or thousands of women that you don't know. We've also observed that God's
character and will are revealed in the Holy Scripture. So it's
crucial for us to have a worldview, a biblical worldview, when it
comes to this subject. First, God is the absolute and
only source of moral authority. I mean, I grew up hearing songs
like, if loving you is wrong, I don't want to be right. It's
about adultery. Country music is filled with
this stuff. Don't think that gets you off the hook. I don't
listen to that heavy rock stuff. I just listen to booze and women. This stuff gives you an alien
worldview. And it takes you away from the
idea that you are not the authority about your sexuality. Excuse
me. It instills in you the notion
that you are the authority about the source of moral authority.
It is God, though, the God that made you and the God who has
revealed himself in the scriptures who is the absolute and only
and final source of moral authority. If his book says it's okay, it's
good. If he forbids it, it's forbidden.
It is sin. It is damnable. Second, God is
holy. His Word reveals this from beginning
to end. Isaiah saw Him. And he heard
the angels saying, Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty. John
saw Him in Revelation at the end of the Scriptures. And the
angels are still saying the same thing. Holy, holy, holy. The command in Leviticus is,
Be ye holy, for I am holy. Peter takes that and applies
it to new covenant Christians. Be ye holy, for I am holy. God is holy and morality must
reflect His character. I will offer at this point, just
as a footnote, the churches of Jesus Christ have been so bad
about teaching true morality. Other than just, I don't do this. That we virtually have given
our children to Satan. Here, I'm not gonna tell my children
anything about this. You tell them. And we turn them
over to the television, and we turn them over to the rock and
roll musicians, and we turn them over to whatever is out there. when they should be fortified
from the time their children about the wonderful goodness
of being a boy or a girl, being a male, being a female. And someday
you're going to grow up and you're going to marry a young man, a
young woman. You're going to honor the Lord
and you're going to have babies. That's a glorious thing. Well, thirdly, everything that
God created was very good. Everything that God created was
very good. It has been a great. Tragic blight upon the churches
of Jesus Christ to speak of these matters as if somehow there was
something ultimately wrong with it. And children are curious,
they're going to find out if you don't do your job well, one
of their cousins will. You know, or aunt or uncle or
grandma or grandpa. They'll find out down at Barnes
and Nobles. You better be at work giving
them the right worldview and telling them what destroys manhood
and womanhood. God made man and woman in his
image and made them sexual beings. Male. Female. That's all. There aren't any other categories.
And it is quite obvious by the way that they're made that God
intended more than simply a platonic relationship. Women are made
to bear children. Their bodies scream it. And that's a good thing. And
men. are made to be leaders, providers,
protectors in their home. That's why they've been given
strength and authority. When men and women get a hold
of these things, It's wonderful. One of the greatest tragedies
of going down to the abortion clinic to plead with people to
let their babies live are the sorry men that come walking in
behind the women that they've probably impregnated to get rid
of that baby. That is one of the most perverse
things in human existence. When they were given authority,
to provide for and to protect children. They irresponsibly impregnate
someone and they do everything they can to get rid of the fruit
of their pleasure. This is evil beyond words. We are beings able to reproduce
and bring into life the most astonishing thing, another human
being made in the image of God. And it's so wonderful. I mean,
when I see art, I used to be in a church where when it was
announced that someone was going to have a baby, they'd go another
one. It is delightful to be in a place where everyone goes,
yes, oh, wonderful, great. We'll be praying for you all
nine months. What can we do? It's delightful. This is thrilling. We've gone from 11 members here,
11 years ago, to a congregation where we have been fruitful and
multiplied. It doesn't stop there. We're
to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. That's
another message. That's another series. But it
is glorious, is it not? We are delighted beyond words.
Pornography attacks this. Pornography says, no, this is
all about you and your experience. Babies, no, no, no, no, no, no.
That slows things up. That messes a woman's figure. God commanded men and women to
have children and fill up the earth. So the relationship between
them is good, it's blessed of God, and it is holy. If done
God's way, that's a good thing. Every young man, every young
woman, every person here ought to understand that this is good. This is great. This is something
to be pursued with joy and thanksgiving. And it is something that needs
to be wisely and biblically pursued. So that makes clear for us then
that marriage has three primary purposes, as we have alluded
companionship, procreation and purity. Men. You will never reach
biblical purity without a biblical worldview. And of course, ultimately,
to have a biblical worldview is to be someone born of God's
Spirit, alive in God's Spirit, filled with his power and able
to walk with him. Now, we only have a few moments
left. Let me say quickly here, There
are three important biblical ideas regarding marriage, and
that is chastity, abstinence, and fidelity. To be chaste means
to be sexually pure. Pornography damages this if it
doesn't utterly destroy it. abstinence. This is one of the
ways we fence ourselves up for purity, to give ourselves to
someone in purity. Yes, I know, it is hard to find
anyone that believes in virginity even in churches. I'm reading
articles day in and day out that are breaking my heart about the
fact that, like in some seminary campuses and some Bible college
campuses, they have to lock the chapel building so that students don't go and
use them for fornication at night. This is Christian campuses, or
at least in name. Now abstinence, we wait on the
living God. We wait for the one whom we will
pursue. But there's also a purity. There's
a wonderful purity in marriage. To pursue the relationship between
a man and woman, according to God's word, is purity. It's even chastity. It is wonderful. Couples that are faithful to
each other in marriage are as chaste as unmarried virgins before
God. That's hard for people to get
a hold of. If that was surprising to you, I would say that your
worldview is off a little bit. We need to get our minds in harmony
with the Word of God. And finally, fidelity. Fidelity
is another form of purity. Fidelity is faithfulness to one's
spouse, and that's what keeps purity within the relationship. Pornography, by default, is a
violation of that. So what are you going to say,
Pastor? After all that, I'm gonna say
there's deliverance in Jesus Christ if there is a problem
for you in these ways. Number one, first and foremost,
if you are not a believer, your heart is the problem. That's
the whole issue when it comes to pornography and sexuality.
If you're not converted, your heart is the issue. If you're
a believer, Your flesh and its remaining indwelling sin is the
problem. But don't take that lightly for
one moment. You can have a new heart and
be overcome by your flesh if you don't know how to fight the
battle. Your heart needs to be made new. If you are lost and if you are
a Christian, you need it to be cleansed by the blood of Christ. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. Number two, Jesus saves sinners
and gives them a new heart. It's part of the glories of the
promises set forth before us in scripture. Jesus saves us
from the penalty of sin, having died upon Calvary's cross. The
eternal son of God took humanity to himself. He became the God-man
who walked in this world for the purpose of keeping the law
of Almighty God, which no other man has done. He died upon Calvary's
cross bearing the penalty for our sins that we might have then
a positive righteousness. It isn't just that our sins are
paid for, but we are righteous in Christ because He has kept
the law in our place. And we are in union with him. He saves us from the power of
sin because he gives us a new heart. He gives us the power
of the Holy Spirit. He gives us the glorious revelation
of himself and of his ways in the word. And he wonderfully
intercedes for us. He saves us from the pleasure
of sin. Let me tell you, Christians cannot sin like the world. Don't
misunderstand me. They can do anything the world
does. Tragically, they do sometimes. But if the Spirit of God dwells
within them, they cannot live going on in that sin. Holy living from the heart, not
simple behavior management is the issue. We need Christ. We need the Lord Jesus Christ. We need His mighty eschatological
power, the very power of the world to come living in our hearts. The life of God, as Henry Schugel
said, the life of God in the soul of man. This is what we
need. And when we understand that,
we go past simple behavior management. Lost people, and there are tons
of books out there being written for lost people. Listen, businesses
everywhere are losing millions of dollars for the amount of
time their employees are spending on pornography. I mean, they're
trying to get people off this stuff. They're doing what they
can to filter these things. But you see, you can get behavior
management and still have a cold, dead heart. You need to be alive
in Christ Jesus. Your stopping pornography must
arise from a greater love than the love for yourself, the love of your pleasure, the
love of your sin. And what is that? It is in the
God who loved us first. To know Him and to know His love
in Christ. To know His mercy. To know His
grace. Not just know about. You can
go straight to hell knowing all about God and Jesus. You need
to know Jesus Christ. Here in His life. That they might
know Thee. The only true God. And Jesus
Christ whom Thou hast sent. Life. Eternal life. So. Well, there's more that we could
say, but we're going to stop. There's certainly a great deal
more, but we're going to stop that here. Let me close by saying,
I said this in our first message, and I'll say this in our last
one here on this subject. There are three nevers to remember.
I will never, you will never be free from sexual sin unless
you're honest about it. As long as you keep it a secret
sin, you're not gonna quit. You'll stop for a while, you'll
go right back to it. This does not get better because
it's touching what you are as a human being and you've begun
to train yourself that this is how you respond to this stimuli. So then when you as a male or
a female are beginning to grow and your hormones are aging and
you're all ready to be married to someone and have children,
it's been hijacked and it's running down that alley. You've got to be honest about
it. Number two, you will never be a slave of sexual sin if you
confess, repent, and believe on Jesus Christ. His precious
blood makes the foulest clean. But you must look to Him, trust
Him, and believe gospel truth. And you will never be a sexual
slave if you know who you are in Christ. It's not only about
knowing who Christ is and what he's done to save you. You must
know who you are in union with Christ. That in itself is a series
of messages. So I close with these thoughts.
God has put up boundaries. His worldview. Gives us this
to consider one, his boundaries are for his glory. Whatsoever
you do in word or deed, do all of the glory of God. Through
Jesus Christ, giving thanks through him, God's boundaries, which
the world hates. Bring him glory and they do us
good. Secondly, God's boundaries rightly
observed do not inhibit freedom, they enhance it. They enhance
freedom. There's nothing more wonderful
than to be free in Jesus Christ, free from the condemnation of
God, free from the condemnation of the law, walking in the beauty
of his grace and the cleansing blood of Christ. Oh, it's wonderful. to be free. One of the reasons
some people have no success, this is just some, this is not
to be condemning itself. One of the reasons some people
have no liberty is because they've just never been born again. To be born of Christ, to learn
to walk with him is freedom, not inhibition. Finally, God's
boundaries preserve us from slavery and bondage. What the world calls
freedom are chains, bonds, STDs, destruction of a biblical worldview
and of the life. May we know Jesus Christ and
the living God through his word, know his grace, and walk in it. Oh, my Father in heaven, help
us in these things to do thy will. Lord, I pray for those
that hear this that may be in bondage. I pray that thou would
set them free, but show them what it means. Grant them repentance,
faith in Thee, and teach them how to walk in the battle. Father,
I do pray for those who are free. Oh, may they not take it for
granted. May they thank Thee every day. And God of mercy and
heaven, I pray that they would flee to Thee and flee to Thy
grace every moment. We love Thee, Lord. And finally,
I pray that Thou would strays up out of this congregation and
out of all Thy congregations in this world. men and women,
young people with a biblical worldview to understand this
subject as thou has said it before us, that we might see glory to
thy name and great good to thy people and the advancement of
thy kingdom. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, brethren, please stand
with me and we'll close for this evening. And the Lord make you to increase
and abound in love one toward another and toward all men, even
as we do toward you to the end. He may establish your hearts
unblameable in holiness before God, even our father at the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. Amen. Let's go
in the name of the Lord.
Pornography and Deliverance
Series Men & Purity
| Sermon ID | 919138931 |
| Duration | 57:10 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | Proverbs 1:7 |
| Language | English |
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