Pornography - Slaying The Dragon

Well, I preached a message on sexual sin about... I had to look back, it was like two and a half years ago. I can't believe time has flown by. Part of me was thinking I should wait maybe another five or six months because we just had a fresh reminder of the danger of sexual sin in our most recent case of discipline. But you know, it's one thing to be jolted about porn's danger and another thing to have our minds saturated with biblical truth enabling us and equipping us to slay what I'm going to call a dragon, the beast of pornography, and it is that. And I'm not going to give you three simple steps here tonight on how to slay the dragon because there are no easy steps. I mean, if you want easy Christianity, it's not your life. You might as well just jump out of the boat right now. God didn't promise easy. In fact, it's war. And the war is for your soul. That's what this is all about. A war for your soul and a war believer in Christ. You must win. You must. You must win it. And you must do so by grace, through faith, laying hold of, looking unto, and fully surrendered to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There's no shortcuts to making it to the end. And let me just say at the outset, because I'm going to say some strong stuff. I'm going to say it because the Bible says it. Yes, a Christian can fall into pornography. It can happen. It has happened. And we wouldn't be having this meeting tonight talking about this if they couldn't. You know, I get it. You know, this is an age of great exposure, unlike when I was most of your ages. It's an age where it's easy access. Trust me, as a pastor, I'm very well aware of that and the extent to which it has impacted people's lives. But I also think there's a tendency for folks who fall into this sin to way too often use the term struggle, when in reality they should be using the word enslaved. And when that happens, that's a scary place to be. It really is. Because we're told in Scripture that sin will have no dominion over you. No. No sin will have dominion over you as God's people. And no one going into this thinks it's going to enslave them. That's the danger of it, you see. You've got this thing, you know, problem. One time, you know, curiosity will go into this. It's just like the heroin addict, right? The first time he sticks the needle in his arm, he doesn't think it's going to lead very shortly to him living under the bridge. None of them do. Not one of them. They didn't wake up one morning and say, I've got an idea, I'm going to go live under the bridge and be homeless. They got there because they didn't take heed to the warning, don't do it. Don't do it. They did it, and it led to them living under the bridge. Led to them an absolute addict, and their lives destroyed. And you see them at stoplights often. They didn't want to get there, but that's where sin took them. That's the danger with pornography. It's power is greater than you. It is. And once you give ground, it takes the ground right out from underneath your feet. It's the greatest problem, really, with humanity, is the ignorance of our own depravity. We underestimate ourselves all the time. And so I'm hoping tonight, by the grace of God, to kind of shake this spell of pornography that may be upon a few of you. I think it's safe to assume that's the case in a room this size. I know some of you have struggled with it. And really, just to awaken you to its demonic delusion. That's exactly what it is. You know, God says He'll put His fear in our hearts. Why? Why does He do that? Anybody know what Scripture says? Well, so we will not turn from Him, right? God puts His fear in us so that we don't turn from Him. See, when we turn to sin, we do turn from Him, right? And turn away from Him. That's the danger. And I'm hoping, by God's grace tonight, He'll instill some fear into you about the massive danger of pornography. Because if God doesn't do it, I mean, this is going to be some short, temporary thing. Oh wow, okay, I'm affected by it for a few days. But you know, that's insufficient. That's powerless. God's got to convince you. Your conscience needs to be held captive by God's Word in this thing. I mean, Peter says, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from passions of the flesh. Not play with them. Not give place to them. Abstain from them. Which do what? Peter says, become innocent little pet peeves that are just expected because we're fallen flesh. Annoyances we just need to learn to deal with. Something we make excuses for in our lives. You know, after all, once saved, always saved. That kind of thing. No, that's not what Peter says. The passions of our flesh, Peter says, what do they do? They wage war against our souls. Peter understands this thing. This is warfare. This is eternal. Eternity's on the line. When you're in a war, there's only two things at play, right? You and an enemy. That's it. When you boil it all down, that's what it comes down to. And it's a fight to the death. And it's either you outwitting your enemy and finding some way to defeat your enemy or the enemy overpowering you and doing you in. That's what happens in war. That's exactly what Peter has in mind when he says those words. This is no walk in the park. There's no zippity-doo-dah, bluebird on my shoulder. This is flat-out warfare for your soul. It's not a video game where you get... I mean, that's another problem. You play so much video games in this culture. It's like you got video games and you think you got multiple lives to live. And there's a reset button to go after, right? This is it. This is real. You only get one crack at this life one time. And it's spiritual D-Day. I mean, there's minefields out there, mortar rounds whizzing by you and past you. You got gunfire and turrets shooting at you and crossfire and hand grenades going off and tanks shooting. There's no safety in this world if you're not in the bunker of Jesus Christ. If you're not cast in and hiding behind and invested in and buried in the sandbags of Jesus Christ's love and His cross and His glory, you're not making it. You won't make it to the end. And that's not just flowery language. That's real. Okay, so there's a number of ways we could... I mean, I got into this. I'm not even fully wanted to touch areas I wanted to get into. But there's just so much scripture to tackle in this subject. So there's a number of different ways we could handle it and go after it. But I want to look at just a few passages because if I fail in my feeble attempt here tonight to impress upon your minds that Jesus Christ is such a glorious and wonderful person, how dare we as Christians assault such a person with such an offensive act as participating in pornography or filling our minds with sexual immorality in any fashion. If I fail in my efforts to drive that home tonight, my hope is that these Scriptures will not fail you. And that by visiting them, the Holy Spirit will bring them freshly to mind when Satan's fiery darts come upon you because Satan's fiery darts will come upon you. And you know that. And so, 1 Corinthians, if you turn there. You know, when I announced this Sunday, I really wasn't even planning. I wasn't even really planning to tackle this passage. This is the one that really captivated my attention. Maybe just because I started here. But 1 Corinthians 10. And if I could get somebody to read the first seven verses, then somebody else read 8-14, that'd be great. Chapter 10. Yeah, we'll look at 6 a little bit. Chapter 10. And all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. And they drank from the spiritual rock, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, but we might not desire evil as they did, to not be idolaters as some of them were, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. We must not indulge in sexual immorality, as some of them did. And 23,000 fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands, take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, weep for my idolatry." You know, an interesting thing when I looked at this passage, it jumped out to me. It was verse 4 there. Jesus was there. He was there with the Israelites. Verse 4, And all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Jesus was present in all their activity. And all those happenings, and those people had no clue whatsoever that Christ was with them. Every step of the way He was with them. And all that they did, and all that they endured, Christ the rock was there. And so the very first thing I want to draw our attention to in the text as it applies to pornography is something very simple, very basic, nothing overly profound, but I'm afraid very much overlooked, easily overlooked, far too easily overlooked. Christian, Jesus is with you. That matters. Jesus is with you. Unlike He was then. It says He followed them. He's in you. Jesus is with you. If you're a Christian, He is. And sadly, Christians who venture into pornography are about as clueless to that reality as the Israelites of old were when they walked through that Red Sea. Spiritual rock? Where? I don't see any spiritual rock. I guess this is open season for complaining and murmuring and sexual deviance. Where's the orgy? I'm... let's go. That was the Israelites. And I'm not making that fit my subject. It's right there in the text, verse 8. We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did and 23,000 fell in a single day. You think God's serious about sexual sin? Sounds dead serious to me. He who led them through, preserved them, showed them favor, brought them out of that, they fall into sexual sin, boom, dead. Smote them dead in one day. He's serious enough to kill 23,000 who exalted their glandular release of their sexual organs over obedience to Him. And yes, I'm going to get explicit. We're all adults here, right? And you want to think about the shameful reality of those who watch porn. What it exposes. I mean, if you had someone with you, your brother or your sister or your mother or your father or grandpa or grandma or your pastor, would you even think about watching pornography with them? That wouldn't even cross your mind, would it? It wouldn't even enter into the equation, never. It would never cross your mind. You'd be so ashamed of it and rightly so. That's why you do it alone and that's why you most often do it in the dark because this whole thing is full of darkness. So if I'm going to list reasons why you should never look at porn, besides the obvious one that God condemns sexual immorality and it's an absolute sin before Him, my number one reason is Jesus is with you. I mean, do we even need another reason? I think we do. Paul says, yeah, Daniel made reference to it. Go flip back just a couple of pages. We're coming back to 10. But chapter 6 of this book in verse 15. Verse 15, Paul says, do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? He's like, you know, I'm surprised they don't know that. Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute or a porn star? I think we could throw that in there. Never. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a porn star becomes one with her body? I mean, think about this. Why would you be so comfortable in offending the Lord Jesus with shameful acts and not be so comfortable doing it with some of your relative or friend that you know? It's a pretty searching question, actually. And if you think to say in your mind, well, you know, He's not physically present and they are, that's somewhat obvious. But there's really a theological flaw in thinking that way. Because the presence of Christ is not dependent on the physical realm and the physical manifestation. And whether we sense His presence or not, God's either with His people or not. And Scripture says God is with His people. The Bible says He's in us. We're in Him. And so if you're persuaded He's not with you and you're so bold to move on account of that and live a life of yielding to these types of sins, well, it could very well be He's not with you because you don't know Him. He doesn't know you. Remember, at the end of the day, that is what Jesus says. He turns to the men, many He said, not just a few of them, not just a handful, many. He calls them workers of lawlessness. Depart from me, I never knew you. Workers of pornography. Watchers of pornography. I don't know you. I don't know you. You were caught up with other images. You weren't caught up with mine. Why is it that a Christian can be so easily, can so easily dismiss Jesus sitting right there with them and do this kind of activity, that spiritual rock that's following you? Well, you're supposed to be following Him, by the way, and we're told in the New Testament. You see, He never leads us down a pathway of filth and pornographic images and sexual lust. So how do we get there? How does that happen? He always leads His people down a pathway of righteousness, right? He always leads His people down a pathway of showing and revealing more of the knowledge of the glory of God, right? That's in His own face. That's what Scripture tells us. Not someone else's face or body or body parts. But even as a Christian, without a doubt, that's the kind of garbage we're feeding our mind. We're not going to be sensing God's presence in our life. It just can't happen. I mean, if some of you are bemoaning your spiritual state or you have a lack of peace or lack of assurance or you've got all kinds of besetting sins and you're doing this in your life, you're not going to know God's power. You're not going to know God's grace. You're not going to know the presence of God in your life. That shouldn't be shocking to you. It shouldn't be a mystery. I mean, it's like we've got the dishes out there. If we just left the dishes, just stacked them up for three weeks, and I come downstairs and there's three weeks of dishes stacked up all over the kitchen and there's flies all over the place. And I throw out the question, why are there flies all over the house? And it's kind of evident, right? It's kind of evident why there'd be a fly problem. There's a fly problem because there's a filth problem. It's no different in the spiritual realm. If you're given place to porn in your life and lacking the realities and the evidence of spiritual fruit like joy and peace and self-control, while constantly plagued with the flies of doubt and unbelief and no assurance and depression, and it's got everything to do with you grieving the very one who produces those fruits in your life. And the reason why you're lacking them because you're grieving the very one who gives them to you. The Holy Spirit. In fact, Christ isn't the only one with you, right? We're told in the Bible, the Bible teaches us the Holy Spirit's within us whose temple we've become. Here we are, verse 18. Flee, Paul says, from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body. You know, that's something right there. Every other sin, Paul says, is outside the body. But the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body, Christian, is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God? You are not your own. That's another thing to consider. It's your body, but it's not even yours. It was purchased with the blood of Christ. You were bought with a price, and the price was Jesus' blood. So glorify God in your body, Paul says. I mean, in viewing pornography, the Holy Spirit is being subjected to all that filth and trash. And His person is within you. He's closer than a friend. Your best of friends or a relative. A person that is greatly grieved by such things. We ought to be totally ashamed or embarrassed to subject the Spirit of God to such stuff in our life. I mean, did you hear that? It's Holy Spirit. Not unholy spirit. Not lust-filled spirit. Holy Spirit. Now listen. Yes, passion and sexual desires can be a good thing. I don't want you walking away from here tonight this meeting thinking, ooh, sex, icky. Sex is a gift from God. It is. It's a good gift. It's a gift that God gives, and He gives it for a relationship, a right relationship. I mean, it's not you or nasty. It's the devil that makes it. It's sex. Wow, what a wonderful experience and expression of intimacy pointing to a much greater intimacy. God Himself. Into some intimacy that God brings us into with Himself. Something that all Christians are headed towards in even a greater fashion when this thing all accumulates and the completion of it comes at the resurrection of the just. That's what we're headed for. God gives us these things to foreshadow those realities. There's something in sex that points to the glorious intimacy with God. And so sex is good when sex is right. And that's only in marriage, period. Period. And let me just point out, men, young men, that's not an end in itself. Marriage is not an end to just sexual fulfillment. And that's the reason why I think some of you aren't married right now because you think sex is the primary thing. And you couldn't be more wrong. Listen, women, particularly sisters, are not sex objects. They're not. And you think they are because you've given yourself so much to that smut. That's why. Don't think it doesn't influence your thinking. That's the danger here. Sisters, brothers, and it goes both ways, we're human beings made in the image of God. We do bear that image even though we're fallen. And for women, they're helpers fit for complementing a husband or completing him, not primarily helping them with sexual gratification. Yes, no doubt that's part of the package, but very far from all of it. Very far. And the sooner you learn that reality, the sooner you'll be fit to be a husband. Now, I am thankful. There are a few of you by God's grace if really God's helped you and given you victory in this area of your life. And I think even some women, like I said, this is not just a man issue. Yes, it primarily is. But women have problems with this too. But sadly, some of you are just spiritually spinning your wheels because you just keep giving place to this in your life. And you've convinced yourself and allowed yourself to somehow justify going back to the pile of vomit like a dog again and again, or maybe a little break and then back again, a little bit of break and go back again, thinking it's not really going to impact you beyond the guilt of it. But you can't continuously subject yourself to this kind of stuff and it not affect you spiritually. It just won't happen. And that's not to say God can't work in other areas of our lives. He most certainly does. We are a work in progress. Sanctification is a process. But if there is not growth and gaining ground and experiencing the help of God's grace and progressive spiritual victory in our lives, but rather just this continual grieving of the Spirit, living in failure, making excuses, giving place to our lusts, that greatly hinders our spiritual growth which leads to all manner of other sins and difficulties in the Christian life and in some cases indicates there's no life at all. Okay, so back to 1 Corinthians 10. I want you to notice in verse 5 what happened to those who failed and just gave place to their lusts, the lusts of their flesh. What happens? They were overthrown in the wilderness, right? They didn't make it to the promised land. Why didn't they make it to the promised land? What's the text tell us? Yeah, God wasn't pleased with them. God destroyed them. Verse 7, "...Do not be idolaters as some of them were, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did. And 23,000 fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents." How did they put Christ to the test? Well, first, did they even know they were putting Christ to the test? No, they certainly didn't esteem it as such. What did they do that was so bad? Paul's referring here to an incident way back, and we won't have to turn there, back in Numbers 21 where the Israelites grew impatient. They started complaining about God. They started complaining about Moses' leadership. They started complaining about the food, the manor. We're sick and tired of the manor. We're hungry. We want some water. We're thirsty. Oh, Moses, you don't lead right. You're not doing this right. You're not doing that right. And then the Lord just had had it. And that leads into all their sexual immorality going on at the same time. So the Lord sends fiery serpents and kills some of them. And this is shortly followed by the Israelites whoring after the ladies in Moab, the daughters of Moab. That's the occasion where, a few messages back, I was telling you about Phinehas grabbing the spear. And you got the Midianite woman who goes in the tent with the Israelites, and they're in there committing fornication. This was going on all over the place. It was horror. That's the 23,000 we're talking of. See, back at the mount this happened. And Moses interceded on behalf of Israel. Lord, please have mercy. And his wrath was hot. He's burning against them. There they were down in the valley. Aaron's constructing the golden calf, and they're committing all kinds of debauchery. And Moses holds them back. Well, this second time, or at least this time in Numbers 25, Moses, step aside. Boom. 23 are dead. No mercy to be had. Paul actually says, oh, wait, I want you to see this. This event's not irrelevant to us. It's not just, oh, yeah, a nice story about Moses, and, you know, snakes that bit him, and God killed him, and that was really bad. This applies to us. Look at what the Scripture says. How do we know that this applies to us? Verse 6. Somebody please read verse 6 out loud. Now these things take place as example for us that we might not desire evil. Okay, in order to drive this home again, Paul repeats it in 11. Somebody read verse 11. Yeah, example, instruction. That back there is for us right here today. And Paul emphasizes it twice. Two-fold. It's not something that took place that we can look back and we can learn from that. That's not what Paul's saying. Paul's actually saying these two things took place by God's intention of making them an example to us today. Verse 7. Do not be idolaters as some of them were. We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did. You see that? Don't be idolaters like they were. Don't indulge in sexual immorality like they did. Don't do it. That's the takeaway for us. What's the example here the Holy Spirit gives us? You remember, He is the One who dwells in us, right? He is the One who wrote this. What happened to them? What happened to these examples? Did God just kind of dismiss them as carnal Christians? You know, they're a little bit weak in this area. They need some maturing. He just kind of brushed them off as besetting sins. Kind of slowing them down in the race. No, He destroyed them. 23,000 were destroyed. That's the example for us. That should shake us. That's the warning here. You play with sin. You treat sin like it's a light thing. You mock the holiness of God. That's what they were doing. You mock the holiness of God. You end up destroyed. You can either take heed to that and completely stop going back to porn or just be like the dog and go back to the vomit. And you'll be destroyed. That's the lesson here. It's not an empty threat that God's throwing at us. It's very serious. Who we got here? If we want an example that completely obliterates this notion that God somehow transformed Himself from the Old Testament into the New Testament, you get this idea by people, you know, that the God of the Old Testament is somehow different from the God of the New Testament. I mean, look no further than right here, right? Paul's saying back there, that's for us today. Same thing. Same God. Same judgment. Same warning. No change there. God broke loose on those folks. Why? They put Christ to the test. How do they put Christ to the test? By indulging in sexual immorality. Binging on porn. Same thing. Very same thing. You're part of the party whether you're there physically or digitally. Right? You're there. You're part of it. Don't think it's any different. And God was somewhat patient with these folks. Like I said, the last time back at the mount, He held back with Moses. But here, He just unleashes on them. Enough. Moses, get out of the way. No more mercy. Moses steps back and 23 go down. We must not put Christ to the test. And I submit to you, pornography does just that. It puts Jesus Christ to the test. And brethren, listen, they didn't know Christ. They put Christ to the test and didn't know Him. You know Him. If you're a Christian, you know Him. You see, the real issue here is we don't fear God all right. We really don't. That's what porn usage reveals. We don't fear God like we should. It really reveals a lack of properly fearing the thrice holy God who amazingly, unthinkably came to us robed in human flesh in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. Yes, the perfectly good and upright Jesus who willingly was stripped naked, scourged, beaten to death to a bloody pulp, nailed to a tree who's full of glory. Jesus, full of glory, nailed to a tree to suffer your porn watching. Here you are getting off on wicked, fallen, created bodies while the Creator Himself robes Himself in a body that was tortured for such debauchery. And you want to revisit that stuff? Knowing what it cost your Savior? Don't test Him. Don't mock Him. Don't love what God hates. Those who do, they end up destroyed. That's the takeaway from 1 Corinthians 10. Ephesians 5, 3 says, but sexual immorality must not even be named among you as is proper among saints. It's not even proper. It's not fitting. That's the shock of 1 Corinthians 5. Paul's appalled that he has to address this situation. It's not even fitting. It shouldn't even be named among the church. I don't think Paul thought guys gathering together to discuss how much they were falling into this sin of sexual lust, I don't think he thought that was a good idea. Kind of like an AA meeting of drunks discussing their hopelessness of their hopeless episodes of falling into drunkenness. Well, you know, I failed again this week. I saw the Bible. I just couldn't stop. You know, I just kept drinking. I was nothing to do. I woke up on the floor. Oh yeah, it happened to me too. And that's what it becomes, right? A collective voice of failure. No one's really helped by that. It just tends to enable people. It enables you by, in the realm of pornography, it enables you because you know the biggest thing about pornography is your mind's on it. You got to get your mind off it. Not talk about it more. Not think about it more. And secondly, just this coming together and just sharing how you failed this week and last week. And it just can provide this false sense of comfort because, oh, you know, other people are experiencing the same thing, you know. And we don't want to be deluded by that nonsense. Listen, God identified 23,000 people who were justifying doing what they were doing and many were doing it and He killed them. There's no comfort in that. Now, I'm not suggesting you shouldn't bring your sin out to the light. Yes, you should. You shouldn't keep it in the dark. You should bring it out to the light and bring it out to a spiritual leader you trust and can confide in and be helped with it, right? I mean, we do need help in our Christian lives. But confiding in the guy you know who's falling into the same thing doesn't help anybody. You know, way back in the day, I was in a ministry called Setting Captives Free. And I got into it because of some other situation that kind of brought me into it. But a lot of the guys who were mentors, I was one mentor, but most of the mentors were guys that were addicted to it, came out of it, and they started ministering to other people. But you know what happened? Most of the guys went right back into their sin. Why? Because they spent their whole day talking about pornography and how to get out of it, how not to think about it, and how this step and that step. And it's just like your mind's captivated by it. It just draws you right back into it. That's not the answer. Back to 1 Corinthians 10. I mean, we're still there. Verse 13. Somebody want to read that? He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. You hear that? Say that again. God will... That is a promise you can take to the bank right there. God says that. Go ahead, brother. But with the temptation... He will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. If you're going to memorize a scripture, and I hope you are memorizing a scripture, this one right here is one to memorize. This should be in your arsenal. This is a wonderful, powerful promise. And promises are what you need to go to when you have any kind of sin assaulting your mind. And this thing starts with a wake-up call, right? No temptation has overtaken you that's not common to all of us, right? It's not common to man. Don't think, and this happens, don't think you have some unique situation. This is special. You have this special problem. Somehow you're different from other people. That's a lie. That's not true. Oh, but you don't understand. I was subjected to porn at a very early age. And this has been something that's been part of my life so much. It's impossible for me to weed it out. I had so much exposure to it. That's hogwash. That's a devil's lie. That's not true. Not if you stand in God's grace, it's not true. Now, if you stand in your own strength, that very well could be true. Likely is, but not if you're a child of grace. Listen, I grew up to things my mom didn't know I was exposed to. And I spent time with my cousins out for weeks. And it was bad. I did some bad things. I'm ashamed of. We'd sit there in a room like this and it'd be open. They'd be in the other room playing cards with their friends. Me and my cousin watching porn on the TV. My aunt would cry out, change the channel. If Craig's mom knew he was watching that, she'd be having a fit. You better believe she would. She never found out. Channel never got changed. But the reality is God's word tells us, regardless of what you've been exposed to, no temptation is unique to you. None. I mean, we all get faced with the same temptations. We do. It's a very common experience. If you're overtaken by a temptation, it's not because of something different about you. This temptation somehow differs from others. That's just not the case. And regardless of the type or the strength of the temptation, look at this, listen to this. God is what? Faithful. He will not let you be tempted. That's quite a statement by the Lord. He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. You hear that? Your background's no obstacle to the grace of God. I don't care if your mother or father were porn stars. If God saves you, the promise stands true for you. He is faithful. He won't let you be tempted beyond your ability. Ability to what? Ability to withstand the temptation. I mean, what more do we need than the faithfulness of God to obliterate all the wicked thoughts and desires that rise up in our hearts? And wicked thoughts and desires do rise up in our hearts. None of us are absolved from that. But what are we doing with them? Entertaining them? Letting them stay? God promises that with the temptation, He says, and in the midst of this thing, right in the midst of it, right when the fiery darts are assaulting our minds, your God promises this way of escape. That's what He says. A way of escaping those thoughts and temptations so that you endure it. That is, you don't give place to them. Notice the promise is not to take the temptation away. That's not what the promise says. But the promise is to provide a way of escape so you can endure the temptation. Right? You see, temptations are important tests in our life as Christians. They are. They test the genuineness of your faith, the Bible says. You endure the test? What? You prove reality. You fail the test? What's true? Part of our responsibility as Christians is to control our minds and our thoughts. I mean, self-control, isn't that a fruit of the Spirit? I think I read that somewhere. We're coming up on it, I think, in Galatians, right? Eventually. Paul tells the Colossians, put to death... He recognized it. We're in our flesh. Put to death, therefore, that which is earthly in you. There's something earthly in you. It seeks to raise up with you in the morning, the earthliness, the flesh in us. Put it to death, he says, what's earthly in you. He doesn't question if something might rise up in you. He expects it to. Therefore, he says when it does, put it to death. Just put it to death. That's the first thing he puts on the list. In Colossians, put to death what's earthly in you. Sexual immorality. Very first thing. That's where he starts. And where does that start really? In us. In our mind, right? In our mind. In our heart. When it pops up there, boom, death. The death blow. Don't let it live. Recognize it. Identify it. Kill it. That's it. That's what we're to do as a Christian. Because you know, you that have fallen into porn, you don't wake up in the morning and say, I've got it. I'm going to watch porn today. None of you do. You don't want to. You don't think you want to when you wake up. I trust Christians aren't thinking that way. That's not how it happens. It begins with a thought, right? It's where it begins. That thought doesn't come from God. In 2 Corinthians 10, Paul speaks about waging war against our flesh. Not by our flesh. In the context, he's speaking about bringing down lofty thoughts and opinions raised against the knowledge of God. He's speaking about the enemies of the gospel who argue against and belittle the knowledge of God. He's not talking about himself or Christians in general there. Nevertheless, he does mention that the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh. But they're of such that have divine power to destroy strongholds. He's talking about spiritual strongholds there. Spiritual enemies. Spiritual powers. And we destroy arguments, thoughts, lies, with that divine power. And that certainly includes porn, for sure. But more importantly, it includes everything that leads up to porn. Thoughts. Thoughts take you to porn. Thoughts left unchecked. Thoughts not subjected to Jesus Christ. Thoughts not challenged by God's will. Thoughts not washed by the promises of God. Not held up to the bloody cross whence your Savior was crushed. Thoughts not incinerated by the beauty and majesty of Jesus Christ. Thoughts just lazily left to themselves to grow and fester and swallow you up whole. I stand by this. I found it to be very effective. Piper's rule. Five seconds. And it's not inspired, but I found it to be very effective. You got five seconds. It works. You got five seconds to kill the thought. When you do, it's gone. Generally speaking, I've found that to be very reliable. You get a thought that rises up. Something impure. Something not righteous. Something sinful. Boom. Kill it. Don't play around with it. Don't mess around with it. Kill it in five seconds. Let it go. Thoughts. The mind. That's where this thing starts. If they're lust-filled, leading to debauchery, it starts right from the beginning. It starts with the mind. With the thoughts. And they flow from the realm of demonic strongholds. They do. And we destroy such, Paul teaches us, by divine power. Not human power. Not human arguments. That's why I'm not a fan of apologetics. It relies on human power. It relies on the power of human argumentation. Not God's Word. Not truth. Mere intellect. Relying upon intellect to dismantle wickedness and evil thinking. You can't do that in the flesh. The arm of the flesh cannot succeed in that. You're not going to win the battle of lust by propping up human arguments. Leaning on human accountability. Asserting human willpower. No, it's divine power. Divine power is what's needed if you're in Christ Jesus to have any success. God has given us divine power for this fight. If you're a Christian, you have divine power to take down these strongholds. Divine weapons. And what are the weapons? No secret. God's Word. Right? God's Word, His promises, His Spirit. Grace through His Spirit. Prayer. Crying out to God in the midst of it. Right? When the thought comes, I'm crying out to God. Help me, Lord. I need Your help. I can't do this thing. I need enablement. I need grace. Take this thing away. And listen, God gives grace to the humble. Maybe you haven't found success or you haven't been helped because you've got too much pride. I got this. No problem. I can entertain this thought. It's not going to lead to what you think it's going to lead to, preacher. It does though. Before you know it. That's where it takes you. God gives grace to the humble. And you need to believe that. I think that's a big issue in this. People really don't believe there's grace to overcome this. Falling into porn is really falling into massive unbelief. And God's Word holds out so many promises. I mean, I stated the one earlier. For sin will have no dominion. No dominion. Since you're not under law, but under grace. That is an argument to bring before God. If you feel assaulted in your mind, you feel weak and helpless in this area of lust. Lord, you said no dominion or take it away from me. But you see, the porn viewer doesn't believe that. No, they're just settled in. They've bought into, you know, we're all sinners. Nobody's perfect. You know, this is my struggle. This is my besetting sin. And there they go, talking themselves right into the next episode. You leave the door wide open for the next fall. Instead of considering the command to consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God. That is a spiritual reality for Christians, Paul tells us. You are dead to sin and alive to God. Now, that's power right there to overcome sin. Instead of considering that, we're considering the last images we looked at. And that's the other poison of porn. The images that you can't get rid of. Right, Christian? You want those images in your mind? You want your images for your next spouse in your mind? And what you put in your face before? Don't do it. Don't do it. Think about that. And then, oh, I got it. Oh, man, I need a fresh view. I need something new. I need something. Dead to sin. That's got to mean something. Dead to sin. No dominion. That's got to mean something to the Christian. God is able to make all grace abound to you. It's another promise. Yes, it flows out of giving, but it's a wide open promise. Grace that's all sufficient for all things at all times. You may abound in every good work, and it's a good work to kill sin. Right? It's certainly good. And that's either true or God's a liar. That's it. I mean, that's either a true statement or God is just a liar. And God's not a liar. And so when it doesn't prove to be true for you, it's because you just simply don't believe it. There's no sugarcoating this deal. I mean, this is the way it is. You know, I want you to think about something. You know the most common characteristic between pedophiles and child molesters? Their addiction to porn. That's a proven stat. Same thing. You know, the guy who's a violent child molester and watching child porn, he never woke up one morning and said, I think I'm going to do this. That's a great idea. That's not how it happens. It happens as sexual lust begins to control and dominate the mind and it turns to further forms of wickedness and wicked expressions. It happens as people giving way to uncontrolled lusts. You know, it starts out maybe some kind of curiosity. You know, and then pleasure seeking. It quickly turns into this addiction. And soon enough, that's not enough. You've got to raise... That's the thing about this whole... You've got to raise the bar a little. It's got to be a little more wicked, a little more out there, a little more bizarre, a little more... It's just twisted and demonic to the core. And I'm telling you, watching porn is a learned behavior. It is. A compulsive habit. And once you give place to it by choice, it's just easy to go back to. It's not a disease. We're not talking about some disease here. Don't let anybody fool you into that. It's not someone you can push off to blame. We live in an age where we want to push blame on everything else but ourselves. It's a choice. It's your choice. It's your will that takes you there. Your choice as a Christian that takes you in the realm of darkness. It's certainly not God. It's a decision that people make when faced with temptation. And you know what? The decision's this. At least it is for Christians. This is the decision that's made. This is more valuable to me than Jesus Christ. Now, you don't think that's the decision being made, but it is. You would never articulate it in those terms, but that's exactly what it is. Pornography, it's like a drug. It holds this intoxicating feeling of power, a high, a trip, if you will. It's completely delusional fantasy. In pornography, you boil it all down to, ultimately, it's self-worship is what it is. That's what it is. It's notching my pathetic fantasy belt, conquering someone. I'm receiving worship from them, at least in your mind, beyond the selfish instant gratification that drives it. Ultimately, it's an act of self-worship. Not any different from those folks back at Exodus, really. Not. At the base of that mountain, worshiping another God. In this case, it's you. Otherwise, what do you need the images for? You need them because you put yourself in them, right? For your own self-delusive glory. And what a horrific statement that is, when that choice is made. When you choose that over the all-seeing, in light of the all-seeing, precious eyes of Jesus Christ, who spilt His blood for your sorry soul. And here you thought the second commandment had no application in your life, right? Of worshiping other images. The saddest fact about pornography, not only that Jesus is offended by it, His blood is trampled by it. He's disregarded. He's not even in the picture. You're not even thinking about it. Jesus is completely out of your mind. He has to be. His crown is just tossed aside so you can be king for the moment, right? And all the eyes of heaven just have to look at that and just be utterly disgusted by it. And so now back to 1 Corinthians 10, 13. This is a glorious promise. God promises an escape. What's the escape? God promises here a way of escape. What is it? Well, yeah, it does flow from God's faithfulness. I mean, strangely enough, Paul doesn't clearly tell us what it is. But yeah, it flows from God's faithfulness to us. And I think Paul doesn't elaborate on the specifics here of the escape because as a Christian, it should be enough for us to know that God promises us escape, right? And so we can fully trust Him for that. But the answer really shouldn't be a great mystery to us. I mean, what does Jesus say? He says, you shall know... What? You shall know the... And the truth will do what? Yeah, set you free. Freedom, right? Back to this whole freedom bondage thing. By nature, we're in bondage. Bondage to sin and self and death and the devil. Freedom is escaping. Escaping that. Truth is what brings this escape. How do we as Christians find freedom or escape? Christ. His Word. His cross. His Gospel. His grace. That's the escape. It's not ambiguous. The Gospel of God's grace is not some ambiguous thing. I mean, what did Paul tell the Christians here in Rome? They're not under law, but under what? Grace. And grace just isn't some unmerited favor. It is that. But it's inclusive of divine power I was just talking about earlier. To be given grace is to be given divine favor and to be given divine power. And the Lord tells Paul, my grace... Here's Paul in this great trial. This affliction of his flesh. He'd gone through so many things. He's crying out to God three times, take this thing away. And God's answer is, Paul, my grace is sufficient for you. In other words, I'm going to give you power and the ability and enablement to serve me with that affliction. That was a promise to him. My grace is sufficient. Sufficient to enable you to endure this trial that I've laid upon you. And you're going to shine. My grace is going to shine in that. I'm going to give you power to endure it and glorify me. Paul tells the Corinthians back in 1 Corinthians 15, 10, but by the grace of God, I am what I am. And His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that was in me or with me. Do you hear those words of enablement and power? How was it that Paul was able to work harder? How is Paul what he is? God's grace. God's enabling power and grace in Paul's life. Otherwise, Paul had no power to do what God called him to do. John 1, 16, and from His fullness we have all received grace upon grace. You hear that? From His fullness. From His fullness we receive grace. Not just favor, this power to live out our life pleasing Him. A power given to us that enables us to overcome sin. God makes His people overcomers. You look in the book of Revelation, who makes it in the end? It's those who are overcomers, right? Not those who are subdued. Titus 2, 11, For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us, enabling us, to renounce ungodliness and what? Worldly passions. God's grace does that. God's grace enables us, is able to make all grace abound to us. God's grace gives power to do and not do things in our life. I mean, have you experienced that? In your life, something. Some weakness that you know you weren't able to do. You didn't have the strength to do it, the ability to do it, the power to do it, and God's come along and helped you. If you're a Christian, you have to be able to relate to that. There's got to be some reality of that in your life. If God hasn't come and helped you in any way, it doesn't speak well. He doesn't abandon His people. I remember, you know, I remember, most people remember when they're first saved, you know, times God's given me power over things and grace in areas. And I remember specifically Tim, shortly after he was converted, we were going to Bilbo's Pizza on lunch. And this is shortly after Tim was saved. And this convertible goes by. All you see is a convertible with a top down blonde hair waving kind of thing. I don't know if Tim remembers this, but we were having a conversation and I think it caught him out of the edge of his eye. And he said, I didn't have to look. I didn't have to look. Before he had to. It was an automatic head turn. But God's grace, he was recognizing the grace God had given him to not look. That's something, that's God's grace. That's what God's grace does. It makes a difference in people's lives. I don't have to look. Brother, sister, you don't have to click it. Guess what? You don't have to do it. And really, that's where I'm headed. You've got to come to the place, Christian, where it's not even an option. Pornography, it's not even an option in my life. It's not even on the table. It's not an option. I'm not going there. Not even thinking about it. It's not going to happen. I'm not doing it. God gives me grace. So by God's grace, I'm not. We've got to be vigilant. We've got to be violent. The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, right? The violent take this thing by force. We're not just going to cruise into glory. We're not just going to cruise in rose-colored glasses and just stroll right in. The violent take this by force. And you've got to get violent about this thing. It's those who tenaciously lay hold of God and His grace and His promises. Those are the Christians that make it to the end. Not the ones who make a big splash, got the great personalities, all these wonderful things about them. It's the people that tenaciously lay hold of God and trust Him and cling to Him that make it to the end. And there are many snares and many dangers between here and there. And porn is just one of them. One that can destroy you for sure. Yeah, no options. Christian, you've got to come to a place in your life. Some things you're just determined to do and you're determined not to do. God gives you grace to do that. I'm not going to heal to porn. I'm not going to do it by God's grace. I'm not doing it. Bottom line, I'm just not going to do it. Not going to allow that in my life. And it's really that simple. And why though? The only way it's going to happen is you become convinced that Jesus Christ is worthy. That's why. The man died for me. That He might live in me. He's in me. How can I do that? How can I do that? How dare I subject Him to that? And just going back to my previous comments, this is a choice matter. A decision matter. It's not something that you're not able to resist as a Christian. Get that lie out of your head. You just stupidly choose it because you really don't think it costs you anything. When the cost is very great, when you yield to porn, you're guilty of some really very bad spiritual math or very bad spiritual estimating if I might use the term. That's probably more accurate. Why do I say that? Because if you're so minded to click your way onto a porn site, then you're saying before God and all of heaven, this is worth more than Jesus. In fact, if I were to hack into your computer, there you are in your room getting ready to click on there. You're about to hit the enter button. And I was able to hack into your computer and put a message on there and tell you, I got a gun held to your mom's head. Your friend or your dad or whoever. I'm gonna pull the trigger if you click on it. Probably using an example of that slit in somebody's throat. You're not gonna do it if you really believe that message is real. You're not gonna do it, are you? You won't even think twice about that. Could you think if you think the threat's real? But the problem is you're not convinced that going to porn is costing you anything really. Let me just ask you, why do you esteem Jesus Christ to be of so little value in your life? Why would you assume that such actions do little to nothing, no damage at all for your spiritual welfare? I mean, it could very well be that right now, spiritually speaking, you could be doing, you could be leaps and bounds beyond where you are right now had this not been in your life. You have no idea how much you've hindered your spiritual life at this point. These are the kind of ways you should be thinking as a Christian. Forward. But you really don't believe you're dead to sin. You really don't believe God's grace is greater than your hormonal urges. And so you get a place and you suffer for it. We're not going to have time to go through that. Turn to 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians. I want to look at some more passages and get into Revelation as we close here. Coming up. 1 Thessalonians 4. Somebody read the first eight verses there. Finally then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you receive from us how you ought to walk and please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you know how to fulfill his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles, who do not know God. That no one transgress or wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things. As we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore, whoever disregards this, disregards not man, but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. How does Paul describe those who don't control the passions of their flesh or their lusts? Yeah, they're like Gentiles who what? Who don't know God. How do people that don't know God value God? Yeah, exactly. They pursue sexual immorality. Why are the Gentile heathens filled with lust and all manner of sexual immorality? Because they lack the knowledge of the glory of God. That's why. That only comes by way of beholding Him in the face of Jesus Christ. And by face, I mean His person, His work, His beauty, His worth, His majesty, His glory, and just being undone by it, right? You can't behold that and go to porn. You can't. You can't. Can you imagine Isaiah in Isaiah 6? In that scene, and turning around on his laptop and watching porn. It didn't happen. It won't happen. Not when you see that. Beholding the glory of the Lord. It has transforming power. That's what you need, Christian. We need that daily. Problem is we're way too self-sufficient. We think we don't. Oh, we're all out of bed. We got 10 minutes to go to work. Oh, yeah, well, I should get my... Oh, I got one verse. Okay. Okay, I'm good. You're not beholding God's glory in that. You're not going to be transformed by that. God's word does something. Beholding Christ does something to us. It takes a person from what? And the Bible says it takes a person from one degree of glory to another degree of glory. You know what it does? And when we behold that glory, it incinerates sin in our life. That's what it does. It kills it. It takes a thing like lust, and it's like a snowball thrown into hell. Gone before it gets there. And that's the missing link between impurity and purity. The face of Jesus Christ. It's not a do not list. It's not jumping through rules. Five things to avoid in order to not fail the Lord and not fall again and not visit a porn site and do this. And it's not do this and live, right? That was Moses' command. But it's by beholding, laying hold of, by faith, the Lord Jesus Christ. And how He lived out His life in absolute purity and absolute righteousness. And it's yours through Him. That power is yours through Him. He bought it for you. He died to pay. And He died to pay for all your perverted tendencies. You see, something happens to us in the spiritual realm when we begin to disregard holiness in our lives. As I mentioned, the gift of the Holy Spirit. God's given to us. That person that's at work within us. You know, part of the work of the Holy Spirit is what's making us in the image of Christ. It's a purifying work. He's making us more holy. He's making us more pure. He's given us the sense of freedom and liberty and joy and this union with God. And when we choose to sin against that person by disregarding His holiness, by disregarding purity, that He's seeking to work in us, I mean, that's a massive error. Have you ever seen the cartoon where he takes two steps forward and one back? And it's like he's not making a hole out of ground. I mean, that's what your Christian life's like when you're doing this. You're not going forward. Imagine if you're walking along somebody and you're taking two steps forward. They just keep going. Before you know it, you're long separated from each other. That's what your Christian life looks like. You just give place to sin all the time. You grieve the Holy Spirit who's the giver of all these blessings. Blessings that we stand in great need of as Christians. And suddenly, we find ourselves all guilt-ridden and troubled and cold and hardened. Not able to see God. What's the promise? What does Jesus say in the Sermon on the Mount? Who sees God? The pure in heart. Yes. You mess up purity, you mess up seeing God. And yet, the very thing that we need to do is see Him, right? That's what we need to see Him. When we get up in the morning, we need to see Christ. And throughout our day, we need to see Christ. We open up this Word, we need to see Christ. So that by seeing Him, our hearts are transformed and renewed. In that transforming gaze, all those impurities just kind of melt and wash off and dissolve into nothing. And hope's restored. John tells us, everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself just as He is pure. But the big problem you're presented with is getting there after defiling your conscience and mind and compromising, right? Once you've offended and grieved the very one who shows you the face of Jesus Christ, it's hard to get back there, right? It's hard to find Him. Sin does. Brings clouds, brings darkness, brings confusion, brings separation from God. Piper says purity is a prerequisite for seeing God. The impure are neither granted admittance in His presence, nor are they awed by the glory of His holiness, nor are they comforted by His grace. That is sad. You hear that? Nor are they comforted by His grace. God is the one who purifies the heart, and the instrument with which He cleans it is faith. And I would say enduring faith. The faith that lays hold of promises like 1 Corinthians 10 and 13, right? God's faithfulness is going to see me through it. I can trust in God in this temptation. He's going to help me. He's going to give me everything I need to endure the temptation. Well, and lastly, as I alluded to, if you're messing around with porn, you're messing around with something that's completely owned by demonic powers. It really is. It's something far more powerful. You're messing with something far more powerful than yourself. And you may have laid it down at some point in your life, but what's happened since then? Gone back to it? I told you about His controlling power right there, right? Put it down for a season and back up. See, once you allow a spirit of lust into your life, you're opening the door and exposing yourself to spiritual forces that will seek nothing but your destruction. This is real. I want you to listen. Let's turn there. Let's turn to Revelation. We're going to close looking at the book of Revelation. I want you to hear this. Just read this with me. You tell me if you think demons rule porn or not. You know, I know Revelation is primarily figurative language depicting spiritual realities, but just listen to the language the Lord repeatedly uses to describe those realities. Well, we'll come back to it too. Let's go to Revelation 14 and verse 8. Another angel, a second, followed saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. She who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality. All nations drink of it. The passion of her sexual immorality. Chapter 17, verse 1, And then one of the seven angels who had seven bowls came and said to me, Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who's seated on many waters, many nations, again, many people, whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality. And with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk. And he carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names. And it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written the name of mystery, Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations. Chapter 18, verse 2, And he called out with a mighty voice, another angel, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast, for all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living. That doesn't describe the porn industry, I don't know what would. Billion dollar industry. Verse 4, And I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, come out of her, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues, for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities, pay her back as she herself has paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds, and mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed. And she glorified herself and lived in luxury. So give her like a measure of torment and mourning, since in her heart she says, I sit as a queen, I am no widow, and mourning I shall never see. For this reason her plagues will come in a single day, death and mourning and famine, she will be burned up with fire, for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her, and the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning." They'll weep and wail. All those pornographic images and activities that tend to be so appealing to the flesh, can you imagine what they're going to look like under the judgment of God? How hideous and pathetic and ghastly and awful. That's what you need to be thinking about right now. What's that going to look like in hell? It's going to look horrific. Absolutely horrific. And back to Revelation 2. Listen to what Jesus says to one of the churches there. In Thyatira, somebody read verses 19-24. I know your works, your love and faith and service and patience and endurance, and that your later works exceed the first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants, and practices sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. You gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sit-bed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works. And I will strike her children dead, and all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. But to the rest of you in Thyatira who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden." Do you hear that, Jesus? I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. What a mercy. Christian Jesus has given you time to repent. Don't ignore that. Don't take that for granted. He gave this church time to repent. These people are guilty of this, but they didn't take heed. They didn't take heed to it. He gave her time, but she refused. But notice, speaking to this church, He calls out their sexual immorality, and He calls out their sexual immorality, you can't miss this. What does He call it? He calls it the deep things of Satan. That leaves little question as to the demonic origin and purpose behind this whole thing of pornography. In fact, I was just doing some research earlier today online. You've got to be careful with that. But I found an article, Top Occult Leaders Far From Christians, openly, absolutely openly admitting, yeah, porn is demonic through and through. Christians need to wake up. Paul writes the church in Corinth. He addresses idolatry by saying, I don't want you to be participants with demons, he says. Christian, you participate in porn? You're participating with demons. I mean, the greatest enemies of the cross. Should we be provoking God like that? That's just a terrifying thought to me. Christians intimately fellowshipping with demons. Well, time's not going to permit us to cover everything, but there's very clear and sharp statements that are made in Scripture. Make no provision for the flesh. I mean, if that doesn't apply to porn, what does? I mean, I've got to open this thing up. I've got to get in my browser. I've got to actually type in some things to get to where I'm going to go. I got to do several things to get there. Yeah, we're only a few clicks, but you got to do that. Don't do it. Don't make provision for it. Abhor what's evil. We're called to abhor what's evil, right? And not just bark out and tell everybody else it's wrong. Abhor it yourself, right? Abhor it yourself. Resist the devil and he'll flee from you. Leave it in your favorite bookmarks. He's probably not going to leave you. And that's one of the dangers of keeping it in the dark. It's always easy to go back to, right? So it is important to bring out to the light. It's resist the devil. It's not flirt with the devil. It's resist him. It's resist him or you just fall under his spell. I mean, there's a reason why Jesus uses that very graphic and shocking illustration. We all know of it, right? Of gouging out eyes and chopping off hands. And what's the illustration? What's he getting at? Sin, right? Sin in your life. If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off, throw it away. It's better for you to enter life crippled. It's better for you to say, this thing's causing me to sin. Chop it off. And I enter in there with one hand. I made it to glory. Rather than preserving the hand, preserving the sin, get there and hear, depart from me, you worker of lawlessness. You wouldn't let it go. Be better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have two hands and two feet and be thrown into hellfire. If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It's far better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hellfire. I mean, what's more precious to you? Your hand or your soul? Your porn or Jesus? I mean, your decision to declare that reality. And I've said this before, but I think one of the reasons God gave us the gift of sex is to provide a platform for us to demonstrate before God what we value more, the gift or the giver. When you use it in a manner that God intended it, the marriage bet, where we demonstrate we value God over the gift of sex, right? Once we step outside of its rightful use, we demonstrate just like Adam and Eve, we love the gift more than the giver. And I want to close. I said Revelation would be the last, but I just want to read Hebrews 1 through 3. Just consider this briefly. This was in my devotions yesterday, or Wednesday, I guess. Just thinking about Jesus. Just incredible words here. I just can't. Long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom He also created the world. He, Jesus, is the radiance of the glory of God. Brethren, this is the One that saved you. He is the radiance of the... I mean, God's glory is like the apex of His being. And the Bible is telling us Jesus is the radiance of it. And this Jesus is in you. He's bought you with His blood. He's made you one with Himself. He's the radiance of God's glory. That should impact us. It should change something about us. It should change something about our life. You have the radiance of the glory of God with you, Christian. The exact imprint of His nature. Not a copy. The exact imprint. You've seen me. You've seen the Father. And He upholds the universe by the Word of His power. Now you tell me, can the radiance of the glory of God, who's the exact imprint of God, He upholds the universe by the Word of His power? The universe, mind you. Not just the earth. Not just our galaxy, the Milky Way, the sun turning, our seven little planets, just a little flick in space. Amongst the trillions of other galaxies, He's upholding them all by the Word of His power. You think such a God can uphold you in the face of sexual temptation? I mean, it's almost a ridiculous question, isn't it? It is. He upholds the universe by the Word of His power. He can uphold His people in any kind of temptation. We've got to believe that. We've got to trust Him for it. And the challenge is, you've got demonic powers who are trying to convince you otherwise. You're giving place to demonic powers who are trying to destroy your soul every time you give place to that. Think about that. That's playing with fire. I want to get there. And I don't want to make... I mean, I think about it. I think about this particular sin. You know, I can get in a conversation with somebody if my heart's not right and I didn't start my day right and I haven't beheld the glory of God and maybe some anger or pride comes out. Usually it just comes out in a conversation, right? It's an impulsive thing. It's just a reaction. This is not that. You don't get here until your thoughts are allowed to take you there. That's not good, right? That's what's unique about this sin. It's developed. Deal with it in the five seconds. Deal with it. With all your might. With all your soul. You've got to make it to the end. That's the key to slaying the dragon of pornography is to fill your mind and keep it filled with this one right here. This radiance of the glory of God. The exact imprint of His nature. The One who upholds the universe by the Word of His power. Keep your mind filled with His preciousness, His power, this image of Jesus Christ. I mean, set your mind on things above. Set your mind upon Him and Him only. Because when it gets on the earth, and Paul tells us that's the things we've got to put to death, right? So why drovel around in the earth? Why plummet in there? Why rake in the mud here? Keep it up there. Keep it on Christ. Keep it on the glorious One. The One who transforms. The One who changes. The One who gives power. You ain't going to find it down here. You won't. What you're going to find is a pit that leads to destruction. It leads to distance from God. It leads to failure. That's all I've got. So, anybody got any questions? Or any thoughts? I guess, how would you couple imperials, basically, in my mind, like warning scriptures, like 2 Thessalonians 2, where it talks about being sent with a strong illusion of a Roman sign, where it's like God gave them up to their passions. Basically, being turned over to your sin. Those kind of warning scriptures. I just want to get your input on those regarding like the Christian or people who struggle with insurance and things like that. Well, like I said earlier, if you don't overcome sin, you prove not to be real. I mean, we have the parable of the four soils, right? Now, all those are religious people. They've heard the gospel. Some never, you know, it's hardened. The birds take it away. Some of them respond with joy. Some of them, it seemed like they got some kind of plant for a while. They get choked out by the cares of the world. There's only one soil that's real. And that soil bears fruit. And the fruit are the kind of fruits we find in scripture, the Holy Spirit. Love, joy, peace, righteousness, self-control. That's the fruit of the Christian. We're constantly in bondage to sin. When Scripture points the picture, that's what Christ came to destroy, the works of the devil. I mean, we can get into the doctrine of perseverance of the saints, but the reality is God's people that are really His people, they make it to the end. But yeah, there's these tensions in Scripture, these realities that get tested. And Paul says to the Colossians, He saved us. Once you were alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds, but now He's reconciled us in His body of flesh by His death in order to present us. Why? Why did He reconcile us? Why did He make us Christians? To make us holy and blameless before Him and above reproach before Him. If indeed, listen to this clause, the if clause here. If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the Gospel that you heard. Well, what's the indication there? What's the implication there? I mean, some can look like they're going and going to make it. If indeed you continue, there's some that aren't going to continue. The demis didn't continue, did he? He went back to the world. That message, I don't know, a couple Sundays ago, James and I kind of had similar messages. Those letters to Timothy reveal a number of men that were in the race at one point. I mean, it looked like they were, but they swerved. They made shipwreck. They played around with... I mean, they didn't have porn in that day when they had the real thing, I think. I think the Christians in Corinth had to really struggle with living in a city of that kind of stuff. And it was seeping into the church. We see it there. Well, there's no doubt that sin hardens the heart. And if we've got sin unrepentant in our life, we're justifying it. We're not even recognizing it. I mean, we're just there in Hebrews 3. Take care, brothers. Why? Lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. You don't wake up and just fall away from the living God. It's like the boiling frog. It's like he sits in the water and before you know it, it heats up and eventually he's dead. That's the way it is with sin. You let it fester. You let it grow. You justify it. You keep it hidden. You give place to it. Yes, that hardens the heart and certainly opens up the door for more sin in your life. I mean, it doesn't really matter. I mean, we're dealing with porn tonight, but any sin. I mean, we're going to get there in Ephesians 5. Paul lists a whole host of sins. And at the end of the list, those people don't inherit the Kingdom of God. I mean, it comes back to John's words here which are very startling words. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared to take away sins and in Him there is no sin. One who abides in Him keeps on sinning. No one keeps on sinning has either seen Him or known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as He is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. So we shouldn't be playing with the works of the devil, right? If we're Christians. If Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. Seems a bit... Yeah, I mean, this is a wonderful tool. It can be used for righteousness and a lot of... I'm thankful for my phone. I can talk to my co-elders and I got Scripture I can go to. I got memorization apps. I got... There's a lot of good things you can do. I mean, it's what you do with it, right? What are you going to use this for? I mean, it's everything in life. I mean, yeah, I can turn the TV on and find all kinds of wicked stuff. Maybe I'd probably not be out there very much then, right? I mean, what are we doing with our lives? I mean, when we're beholding this One who's the radiance of the glory of God that just kind of adjusts our bearings to what we're living for and what we're going to pursue what we're not going to pursue what we're going to do what we're going to allow in our life we're not going to... we're not going to make provision for the flesh we're going to make provision for things that glorify God, right? Yeah, I mean, then you get, you know people want to ask the question at what point are you practicing sin? You start asking those kind of questions it's like, why? I don't even want to be close to being able to identify where that line is, right? Do you? Do you want to live your life as close as you can to practicing? Okay, okay, I'm not practicing. Whoops, I am, I got it right there. You're living that kind of Christian life? I fear for you. I want to be in the arms of Jesus and I want to follow Him. I want to stay on that. It is a narrow gate, He said. And there's a reason why few there be that find it because you got to come empty-handed you got to be strict with self and wide's the gate that's acceptable. Everybody's on that way. That wide gate leads you right to destruction. There's a cliff you're not ready for. But narrow he sees the way because you know why it's narrow? Because there's only one there whose name is Jesus. Isn't wide to fit all your other things in?