In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of developing the right attitude towards the challenges we face. He acknowledges that we cannot overcome these challenges on our own and that we need the help of God. However, he also reminds us that we are more than conquerors through Christ's love for us. The preacher encourages the congregation to have faith and trust in God's ability to give us victory. He also shares personal experiences and highlights the significance of being grateful for the circumstances that God allows in our lives.

As you're turning in your Bibles, turn with us to the book of Proverbs tonight. Lacey has just joined the puppeteers in our ministry. And on the way home, she was excited and she was in the car and she was saying, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, today I got my first opportunity to perform. And I kindly shared with her that no Christian ever performs. You had your first opportunity to minister, I said, Lacey, not perform. And let's always remember that. The old devil defeats many Christians because they don't think they have the ability to perform. With God, you don't need any ability. You need availability to the Lord. And he takes foolish instruments. And praise the Lord. God just, I've got to share this tonight. The Lord gave me some new light in Scripture. You know how sometimes you just, you study something and something opens up for you? Like it's never opened up before? And I was studying this afternoon and preparing for our lesson, the fourth lesson for our flock meetings. By the way, our flock started two weeks ago. And they're running in conjunction with our Wednesday night. Two weeks ago, we started four flocks and they had 65 in attendance in those four flocks. Our fifth one started this week. And those five flocks had a total attendance this week of 82 in those five flocks. And while they were going on, our attendance in our Wednesday evening service increased here. And we just praise the Lord. And the reports that I'm getting back from those flocks, the ministry and the fellowship that is taking place there. But you remember the verse of Scripture? And I'll just briefly share with you the light that the Lord opened up out of the Word of God. Remember the verse of Scripture that says there that, If you ask, whatsoever you ask, you shall receive. And if you seek, you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. And then verses after that said, If you were a son and your son asked you for a fish, would you give him a stone? Or a serpent, if he asked you for a stone, would you give him a... Or if he asked you for bread, would you give him a stone? The answer is obviously no, I wouldn't do that. And the Bible goes on and says, Then if you, being evil, would give gifts unto your children, how much more will God give unto you the Holy Spirit if you ask Him for that? And that passage, I've taught on that many times, but there's a parable that precedes that passage. And that passage flows out of this parable in Luke. And I've always tried to put the connection together. The parable goes something like this. You remember the parable as we describe it. That there was a friend, or a man who had a friend. And this friend came to him in a midnight hour, hungry for bread. And he didn't have any bread to give to his friend. And so he went to another friend of his. The Bible uses the word, importunity. Meaning that he went and he begged one for bread, that he might in turn give this bread to his friend. And the Bible and the parable says that he received the bread necessary to give to his friend, because he begged for it. Now, pouring out of that parable is this verse. And how much more will your Father give unto you the Holy Spirit for those that ask Him? Now, think of Acts 1.14 when it says, In the hundred and twenty, stayed in the upper room. And with prayer and supplication, the word supplication is a pleading word. And the Lord had told them, Do not go out and be a witness unto Me until you first have received power. Tying the parable and the verse together, I think I see it in a new way. That we are to have such a compassion for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. We are to have such a passion for the lost that we would consider them our friend. And that we would find ourselves in the presence of God, in the presence of the bread of life, begging Him for the Holy Spirit and the bread of God to go and give unto our brothers and sisters and to our lost friends. And so in a fresh and new way, before I entered this service tonight, about 5.30 to about 6, in a fresh and new way, I've always asked for the filling of the Holy Spirit. But with a fresh and a new way, I said, Lord, I have a lot of friends in that service who come tonight wanting bread. And Lord, I don't have any bread to give them. And Lord, I beg You, O God, give me Thy Holy Spirit that not only will illuminate the bread of the Word, but illuminate the message as it goes forth. And I just wanted to share that thought for you that are school teachers and you that are ministers of the Gospel and you that go forth, and all of us who are ministers of reconciliation, that you need to find yourself as the 120 waiting upon God for the bread and the anointing of God that you might truly have something to feed the spirit of your brothers and sisters in Christ. All those of you that sing in the choir, don't ever come to choir on Sunday morning without there being a time that you're on your knees saying, O God, anoint me with Thy Holy Spirit. Those of you that are Sunday school teachers and you go out on visitation or you go to your neighbor, anoint me, O God, with Thy Holy Spirit. This, brothers and sisters, is the difference in men's ministries. Blessed Holy Spirit. Now, that is totally off of the context of the message tonight. I felt like the Lord wanted me to share that with you. Again, a fresh and a new, just to put that in new light. Now, in Proverbs, in chapter 4, this is a sequel to a message that I preached two Sunday nights ago. The message on moral impurity. We spent about an hour in the Word of God, studying, especially if you remember in the book of Proverbs, concerning the subject of moral impurity. We came to the end of the message. And at that point, we dealt very little with, after presenting the consequences of moral impurity and presenting how moral impurity will enter into your life, or the strange woman which is adultery come calling at your door, whether it be male or female. We did not spend a lot of time on practical thoughts on how to overcome moral impurity in your life. I don't think that any of us, including myself tonight, have any real conception of the devastation that moral impurity has upon our lives. We live in a society today that is so infested with immorality and immoral things and adulterous things and impure things. We are confronted with it and bombarded with it on a day-to-day basis. And I think much of the lack of us experiencing joy in our Christian lives and fellowship with God stems around this one sin, this grievous sin, moral impurity. In the context of moral impurity, we're defining it as all that that comes around the sexual sins, evil thoughts, compunscuity as the Bible would say it, lustful thoughts, lasciviousness, all that is involved with that. My generation of men, which I can speak of, I don't know other generations, we grew up seeing things on TV. We grew up with pornography. We grew up with a society that this was the major discussion. And one of the major difficulties that we find in our lives today is the bombardment with evil thoughts. My heart grieves again this week. As the story always keeps coming, it seems week and week after week, another story that came this week of another dear brother, godly man in America that's fallen into the sin of immorality. And my heart grieves. This was a man who fell into this sin twice, this being the third time now in his ministry, and the second time became a public thing, and he seemingly dealt with it, and now a year or so later he falls again into the same sin. So tonight I want to give you, as one who has struggled with this personally, one who has sought God for wisdom and counsel and instruction out of the Word of God, and one who can say tonight, by God's grace and praise the Lord, I am experiencing some consistent victory, even in my thought life, just that it might give you hope. None of these things are going to be any deep theology tonight. Some of you are sitting here and you're saying, oh, tonight we're going to find the secret. That's our society, isn't it? Instantaneous, snap your fingers, victory, glorious victory. Well, I don't have any instantaneous answer tonight, but I have some thoughts out of the Word of God. Here again, let's read the verse that we stopped with in our last message two Sunday nights ago. If you weren't here then, I would encourage you to get that tape and that message. Probably one of the most... I think Brother Mike would say we've probably had more requests for that tape than almost any message that I've preached in months here. I would encourage you to get that tape. I think it was two Sunday nights ago that we preached that message. Proverbs 4.23 says this, Keep thine heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Now the difficulty again, in summation with this sin of moral impurity and evil thoughts, that it is an intense sin inwardly that is so destructive to the soul. If you remember, we showed out of the book of Proverbs how this sin itself destroys the emotions, the mental capacities inwardly of a person. It destroys inwardly the very soul of Christians. It is a very destructive sin. So the Bible says here, Keep thy heart with all diligence. Now tonight I want to give you ten guidelines that I feel like would sort of break down this expression of keep thy heart with all diligence. Before we move into these, the word diligent, and you must understand this, the word diligent means consistent hard labor. That's the reason why tonight there is no simple solution. There is no instantaneous victory because God says to keep your heart pure and to keep your heart holy, it's going to take sober, intense, consistent, hard labor. I like the expression, so that you'll not misunderstand the way God says it in the book of Hebrews. He that hath entered into his rest has ceased from his own labors as God did from His. Now we're not talking about you obtaining victory when we use the word labor or diligence here. But the next verse turns right around and it says labor, or therefore labor to enter into the rest. It says don't labor what it is speaking about. Not the labor of your own hands. Cease from your own labors, but labor, that means that you diligently labor to constantly be under the control of the Spirit of God. That's your responsibility. As I understand your responsibility with God is to moment by moment labor to make a choice. Your life was filled today with a thousand choices. You labor to make the right. All you need to do is make the right choice. It is God who will carry it out through you. You just make the right decision. He will carry the work out. Now let's begin tonight, point one. If you would, 1 Corinthians. We're going to be moving through the Scriptures at different places, so be ready immediately to take notes. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 12. Point one, recognize your potential for moral failure. If you're going to have victory, if you're going to keep your heart with diligence, you must first recognize your potential for moral failure. 2 Corinthians 10 and 12, or 1 Corinthians, excuse me, chapter 10 and verse 12 says this, Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as common to man. But God is faithful. It is not you that is faithful, but it is God that is faithful who will not suffer or allow you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it. But brothers and sisters, you'll never find the way of escape of temptation until you first acknowledge that it is possible for you to yield to that temptation. David and Samson, no one would have ever thought that either of those great men of God would have fallen victim to this sin. And each of them did. And I think it comes, if you're studying a time in their life, it comes when they were thinking they stood. If you're studying David's life, David had warred and God had allowed him to slay the lion and the bear and then Goliath and then kill his ten thousands. And now God had elevated him over as the king of the nation of Israel. And the nation was in harmony under him and they would won battle after battle and they had built and established a great kingdom. And David, the Bible says, left the war and came home. Throwing back his shoes in a sense and saying, I will never do that. I have made it. And in that very time, he fell. I think, first of all, I would say to you, if you're going to live a morally pure life, you're going to have to understand that you have the potential to fail in any moral area possible. Don't ever say, I will never do that. You know why I can't be condemning of the homosexuals? Because I know. You know, I could stand here tonight and say, oh, that never happened to me. But I know, according to Romans 1, there's a pathway that leadeth unto that lifestyle. And it doesn't start there, but there's a pathway that leadeth. And if the Bible is true, every man and woman in this building is capable of that. You have that potential. Take heed, lest when you think you stand, you fall. Generally what happens in one's life is that they begin to think they stand and they become less diligent and less cautious. And then Satan realizes that and he traps them and tempts them. And there they find themselves in that place of sin. Point two. 1 Corinthians 15 and 57. 1 Corinthians 15 and 57. Recognize that you do not have to give in to moral sins. Recognize. First of all, recognize that it is your potential. And we're simply dealing here now with one's attitude and one's understanding about himself and about God. First of all, this is one of our basic teachings here and we're simply sharing that now. One of our basic teachings is that if you're going to grow, you're going to have to grow to know more about yourself that you may know more about God. And as you grow to know more about Him, you will learn to know more about yourself. And the natural process in one's life is that it's taking place. He is increasing in your eyes and you are decreasing in your eyes. And so as you are growing, you become more and more, you realize the potential within you of all sin. And Paul says, Why think ye something when you know you're nothing? Even Jesus said of himself twice in John chapter 5, I can do nothing of myself, Jesus said. So secondly here, you must recognize your potential for failure, but in the same seriousness and understanding, you must not become discouraged. You must recognize that you do not have to be given over to these sins. That there is victory. Verse 57, But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 8.37 says this, We are now made more than conquerors through Him that saved us. You might want to turn there. Romans 8.37 Again, Nay, in all these things we are made more than conquerors through Him that loved us. I don't walk around with fear. When the Bible teaches us, Take heed lest when you think ye stand, ye fall. It's not trying to put a fear in us, but rather it's trying to put a need and a reverence in us. But I don't walk around with fear because the Bible says that I can be made more than a conqueror through Him that loved me. Point three, and I'm moving rapidly. Resolve. Now here's your part. First of all, the first two points is simply dealing with you developing the right attitude toward this. I cannot do it on my own. I know I'll fail without the help of God. But point two, praise God. I am more than a conqueror through Him that loved me. But thanks be unto God that giveth, keeps on giving us the victory in Jesus Christ. Point three, resolve to be pure. I think there has to come a time in every person's life that he makes that commitment necessary. I am going to be pure. Daniel 1.8 if you would. You know, sometimes we preach the messages, especially in our preaching, and I think it's so important now. We're beginning to present the men of God today. We used to present them as perfect. And thus it made everything unattainable for the Christian and they gave up. And now we're showing both sides of David's life and we're teaching both sides of Solomon's life and both sides of Noah their weaknesses and their failures, that we might understand that they were not great men, but they simply served a great God. But you know, if there's one man in the Bible, I would ask you to search the Scriptures and find anywhere in the Word of God that there is something negative to be presented about the character of Daniel. I think God presents us a human being, one in the old Daniel and one in the new Paul, who wasn't constantly falling as Abraham was, that we might know that there can be. You know, we teach here that we will fall and we will make mistakes. And sometimes I think that that sort of eases people's conscience on, well, I'll just sort of live up and down. What I want to say to you, I don't want... Romans 6 is that message there and that's what it's trying to say in Romans 6. In verse 1, as it starts out there, well, I can't even think of it now. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God what? Forbid. You misunderstand, Paul says, God has given grace that you might have victory over sin. And then in 2 Corinthians 6, Paul says to his co-labors, I pray that you take not the grace of God in vain. And I'm saying to you, brothers and sisters, you don't have to fall into moral sins. Young people, you don't have to be given over to these in your Christian life. It doesn't have to be an up and down. And it doesn't have to be a thing of you destroying your testimony and then trying to build it back up. There is with Christ continuous victory and a consistent walk with God. But I think that the basis of Daniel's life is given to us in that he made a certain commitment and resolution in his life. And that resolution was one of purity in Daniel 1.8. But Daniel purposed in his heart. Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. And as a result, now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. And you can read the story. But Daniel purposed in his heart, by God's grace, I want to be pure. And oh brothers and sisters, I think if you took just those first three on a daily basis and you came to God and you said, Oh God, I'm going to fall if you don't help me. But Lord, I praise You and thank You that there's victory. And God, I purpose in my heart today that by Your grace I'm not going to be defiled. Point four. This is very, very important here. Hebrews chapter 12. Turn if you would. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 15. First, recognize your potential for moral failure. Secondly, realize that you do not have to give in to moral sin. Thirdly, resolve, as Daniel did, purpose in your heart that you'll not be defiled. Hebrews 12 and verse 15. Remove all bitterness. I want to show you here quickly out of the Word of God a natural progression. Verse 15, looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God. Now, the first three points that we've given you, if you do not carry those out, you have failed of the grace of God. Point one, you've humbled yourself. God resisteth the proud but giveth grace unto the humble. So God has grace available to you if you humble yourself and ask for it and make the necessary purposing in your heart and resolve and commitment by choice unto God. God will keep the resolve. God will keep the purpose. I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day, Paul says. And he is not speaking about salvation in its context. He's speaking about the callings of God and the ministry that God has given Him. But when one fails the grace of God, notice what happens. Lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many being defiled. What is the Bible saying? Now, notice in the next. Lest there be any fornicator. The Bible is saying this. When you fail to receive the grace of God, you will become bitter. And by becoming bitter, many will be defiled and you will become a fornicator or you will move into moral sins. A wise man who interprets this passage of Scripture says that all moral sins stem from a root of bitterness in someone's heart. Interesting, isn't it? When I learned that truth six or seven years ago, I just can practically tell you what I did. I went back from my earliest memories. And it took me about three months to accomplish this in my life. But I went back in the greatest of detail and tried to recall everything that had ever happened to me. And I did it for one reason. Any time that I could recall anything that happened to me that I didn't like or I didn't accept, I didn't like that circumstance or that event that happened in my life, I would simply at that point say, Lord, I believe that You're a loving God and that You're a sovereign God and that You allowed that to occur in my life. And now that it's 20 years later, God, I give You praise and thanksgiving for what the circumstances that You allowed to happen in my life. Because you see, the fail of the grace of God is when you do not accept, from the littlest to the greatest events that happen in your life, that you do not accept them as an expression of God's love and grace. For instance, one of the things that I remember so explicitly in this time of examining my life, just to give an example that you may know. One of the things, I followed up my brother in school. And I don't know if you've ever had a perfect brother who was a year older than you were. But I did. At least everybody thought he was. I don't know whether I've dealt with all the bitterness or not. Yes, I have. Everybody thought he was perfect. And I remember constantly, he was one year older than I was. And I remember constantly in school, in my second grade, the first real memory that I have of it, the first day I walk into the door, I can remember my teacher saying, Are you Al Henson? Now, they didn't call me that in those days. I was Alpha Gene then. But I changed my name when I left home. Because I didn't like Alpha Gene, I changed it to Al. So now everybody just calls me Brother Al. But I remember I walked in the door and she said, You're Alpha Gene Henson? I said, Yes. She said, Oh, I'm so excited to have you. Your brother was a wonderful pupil. He was my best student. And I know this is going to be a wonderful year. And I said, She's got a big thing coming. Well, it didn't take her too long. She was looking at me, Why aren't you like your brother? I remember especially in the sixth grade, you know you have memories of these things. I was sent to the principal's office. I went there on a few occasions. Some my daddy knows about, some he doesn't. And I remember that the teacher sat me down. Before she left me in the office there with the principal, you know the school secretary is always sitting there and they're looking so kindly and nice and sweetly smiling at you. And you know once you get beyond her, you're going to be slaughtered. Well, that teacher looked at me and she shook her head, Why can't you be like your brother? And I just about had all of that I could take. I determined now that one of the reasons why I wasn't a lot like him was because they kept saying it. And I determined in my heart I didn't want to be like him. I found out later on he was the valedictorian of his class. And I was just a good, a few A's, a lot of B's and a couple of C's student. Well, once I got all this bitterness out of my heart, I became an A student in college and in the seminary, especially in the seminary. It was there all along. I just was bitter toward it and didn't want to be like him. But I remember as I was going through my life, there's one of the things I got down and I thanked the Lord. God, thank you for my brother. Thank you that he was smart. Thank you that he made good grades. Thank you that he always had a higher batting average than I had. You know, I'd bat 550 and he'd bat 600. Always was the case. I played softball yesterday in a tournament, and they picked my brother and I up to play on the team, and we won the tournament, and he's always batting. He batted fourth and I batted fifth. It's always, I've been that all of my life. And when we walked away, you know, one of the men said, he didn't call my brother out, he said, Al, you sure are a good softball player. And I said, man, this is great. And he said, your brother, he's even better, isn't he? You know, I'd only went nine for 12, but Ernest had went 10 for 12. But anyway, bitterness. By the way, husbands and wives, listen to me. Listen to the Word of God. When you let little irritations come between you and your mate, and they cause little bitternesses, they will ultimately spring forth into immorality in your relationship. But I want to testify to this. When I went through that period in my life, and I went through all of this, and I just, everything that could come, I would thank the Lord that I hadn't been thankful for. I'd acknowledge the bitterness and ask God to take it out, any root of bitterness. My difficulties with evil thoughts, with immoral thoughts, took a great plunge in my life. Hebrews says here that when you do not accept grace, that means that you aren't accepting grace. Grace is the love of God made available. You're not accepting it when you're not accepting what God's doing round about you. That would develop an area of bitterness, and out of that bitterness many will be defiled, and ultimately you'll end up a forticator. And every one that I've ever dealt with, with immorality, I could search it back to bitterness. Heed and listen. Remove all bitterness. Gothard says this, Bitterness is at the root of all moral impurity. Pretty definite, isn't it? Point five. Romans 13, 14. Restrain your flesh in every area. Romans 13, 14. It's just been dealing with, especially in verse 13, about the lustfulness and lasciviousness, this word wantonness. In verse 13, Chambering there is lasciviousness. Not in strife and envying. This strife is bitterness that pours out in envying and jealousy. But verse 14, Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not, and here it is, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. Fulfill the lust thereof, in the Greek, to fulfill passionate cravings. You ever have those within you, they're just passionate cravings, burning desires? The Bible says, Make no provision for those. Proverbs in chapter 7, don't turn there, but verse 8, Pictures a young man, in this teaching of the strange woman, or adultery, come knocking at your door. And the Bible says there in Proverbs 7, that this young religious man goes out of his house and walks by the strange woman's house. And the picture is this, is that he made a provision for his flesh. And when he walked by her house, then she sort of called him in. This means in your life, you may have to change jobs. You may have to take your TV and throw it out the window. You may have to cut some of the places that you go to. The movies that you see. The programs that you watch. The activities that you involve yourself in. But if you were counseling tonight an alcoholic, would you not somewhere in that counseling tell him to make sure he gets in no place where he could get an alcoholic beverage? Would you not counsel him that way? Well, brothers and sisters, all sin is habit forming. And the reason why this is such a grievous sin in our local churches today is that we have lived in such a society and many of us coming to give our lives to the Lord, prior to that we had participated in this sin with an action, at least in thoughts and in the material that we were reading for years and years. And just like an alcoholic is hooked upon alcohol, you're hooked upon immoral thoughts and evil thoughts and lustful thoughts and moral impurity. And it's like an infection in your soul. And that word there in Romans puts it that way. A passionate craving, just like a man who smokes has a craving for a cigarette. An alcoholic has a craving for alcohol. Many of you sitting here tonight have a craving, a passionate craving for immoral thoughts and activities. Thus the way you're going to avoid that is make no provision for the flesh. 6. We've got to move on. 2 Timothy 2.22. In the verses prior to this, we preached on this several Sunday mornings ago. We didn't come to this verse. It talks about a great house. Now a great house, you're a great house because of who lives in your vessel. It makes you a great house, but in every great house there are areas of honor and dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself of these, he shall be a vessel unto honor. Verse 22. Flee youthful lust. Point 6. Run from every form of evil. Flee youthful lust, but follow righteousness, faith, and charity and peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. As I'm getting a little older, I guess I'd still be considered young at 33, I'm understanding this statement more and more. Flee youthful lust. I'm seeing more and more how my selfishness, which is lust, has robbed my marriage of so much. And now that I'm seeing it, I say, how could you have been so foolish? But the Bible is saying it's the way of youthfulness sometimes. We want, want, want. We are ambitious. Very self-centered. And by the way, I think as you get older, it just goes into other avenues sometimes. I'm not speaking about moral sin. I think that age has very little to do with moral impurity. But flee youthful lust. And simply we'll just simply say that run from every form of evil. The example of this is Joseph. I've often thought about what he did. You remember the story of Potiphar's wife? He wasn't like David. Remember, David looked out over and he saw this woman bathing. And he should have run. He was the king. He should have run down through the castle where he lived. And he should have shouted his servants or to the soldiers, get in that house next door and you tell that woman that she ought not be doing what she's doing over there. That she's going to bathe to do it confined and not publicly. That's what he should have done. He had the authority to do it. But he didn't. And I think this word flee means run. Like Joseph. Potiphar's wife grabbed Joseph and tried to force him into an immoral relationship and he just fleed from that. He ran immediately out. And I'll tell you, you need to do that. I was once on visitation and I knocked at a door and glanced through the door. And the lady through the door was not properly dressed. I did not walk. I ran to my car and got in my car and got out of that place as quickly as I could. Why? You say, Brother Al, why? Take heed lest when you think you stand, you fall. 1 Thessalonians 5.24. Turn there. Remember when we were reading back earlier in 1 Corinthians 10, 12 and 13? It says there's no temptation given you but He is faithful. I like this. 1 Thessalonians 5.24. Faithful is He that calleth you who will also do it. If I make the necessary commitment and resolve in my heart and life and are faithful to the practical principles that God gives me out of the Word of God to flee, to restrain or make no provision for my flesh, if I deal with all bitterness, then God gives me the power and the Holy Spirit. He will perform through me a moral life. Do you believe that? Faithful is He that calleth you to be moral who will also keep you morally pure. Amen? Number nine. Keep your mind with the Word of God. And I cannot overemphasize this. Keep your mind with the Word of God. Romans 12, 1 and 2. You may not need to turn there. You may. I'm just going quickly now. Keep your mind through the Word of God. And then Psalms 119, 11. Romans 12, 1 and 2. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your body a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto the Lord which is your reasonable service. And be ye not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. How does one renew his mind? You'll be transformed from immoral thoughts by the renewing of your mind. How does one renew his mind? By taking upon him the mind of Christ. Philippians 2. Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus. What is the mind of Christ? It is the Word of God. I have never had anyone come to me who'd fallen into immoral sins who had been faithful in their study and application of the Word of God in their lives. But generally, they'd got away from the Scriptures and they'd got away from the Word and they got away from God. Psalm 119, 11 says this, Thy Word hath I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. Simply saying it this way, keep memorizing Scripture. 10, Rejoice in your present state. You need to see this. Proverbs 5.18. I cannot overemphasize this one. Rejoice in your present state. You say, brother, what do you mean by that? I mean praise the Lord. Praise is repulsive to Satan and sin. Proverbs 5.18, Let thy fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. You know what that's saying? Be thankful. Praise the Lord for what He's given you. Husbands especially. If you, God knows you and your physical needs and your wife is perfectly the answer to those. And any time immorality occurs within the marriage, the husband has become dissatisfied with his wife. The opposite of praising God for her and for her body and for what God has given you in her. And being satisfied, praising the Lord. You want to find victory over your evil thoughts? Men especially. Get up tomorrow morning and thank the Lord. Praise God with unusual praise for your wife and even the physical things that God's given you in her. Rejoice with thy wife. Sin and Satan and temptation cannot participate with praise in thanksgiving. Praise precedes and prepares always for spiritual deliverance. The psalmist said, Be satisfied with the breast of thy wife. Anything more than that or in your thoughts is lies of the devil anyway. By the way, those of you that are single, teenagers, physical relationship between a husband and a wife is a very beautiful and very precious and a very spiritual thing. What the world is showing you has nothing to do with it. What the world is telling you and the pleasures to be gained are so false. So false. It's a lie, young people. A lie. In this area of praising the Lord, develop. I'm trying to be careful with my wording tonight because even the Bible says don't speak in public of those things done in private. But let me share something, husband and wife. Let God get involved in every area of your marriage. I had such a wrong concept of the physical relationship between the husband and the wife and an evil relationship that it being evil, it was almost like we left God outside of our bedroom. It's not evil. It's not dirty. It's holy and pure and lovely and pleasing to God when it's done in submission and obedience in heart and attitude to the Lord. Finally, Ecclesiastes 12.14, remember that everything you ever do will be brought before the judgment seat of Christ. Ecclesiastes 12.14. The conclusion to the whole matter is this, that we obey God or fear God and keep His commandments for this is the whole duty of men. For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. Remember as we were talking in our message prior to this concerning the sin, that half, if not more, of the enticingness and the pleasure to moral sins has to do with the secretiveness of it. You meditate on that and understand that. That so much of that that seems to draw into this sin is the secretiveness of the sin. The way to abolish half of the strength of the sin is to realize in your own heart that it is not done in secret and there is nothing secret about it, but all things are manifest unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Hebrews 4.13. There is no creature that is not made manifest in His sight. All things manifest unto Him with whom you have to do. Now an invitation. Turn to 2 Corinthians 7.1 with me if you would. I want to read with you. Follow me as I read in 2 Corinthians 6.16. And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be My people. Wherefore, come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you. And I will be a father unto you and you shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Verse 1 now. Having therefore these promises, dearly divine loved ones. What promises? Promises that this generation, that you are the temple of God, and He will dwell in you and walk with you and He will be your God and you shall be His people. And He will call you His sons and daughters. Having these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Dear brothers and sisters, based on that you are the temple of the living God, even as Daniel, the knight, would you resolve in your heart, purpose in your heart, to live morally pure. Dear brothers and sisters, dear brothers, if you will raise a godly family, remain married to the same woman, and stay morally pure, you will accomplish what very few ever accomplish in a lifetime. I believe that the reason why we as Christians so struggle with this is that we've not really yet let go. We've not truly let go to the place that we flee, that we make no provision, that we seriously deal with areas of bitterness in our life. I like the last phrase of that verse we just read, the fear of God, the fear of God. Let's bow our heads together and let's stand reverently and quietly. The pianist and organist come. Now Father, bless the teaching of Thy Word. Lord, there are young teenage men, young teenage ladies here tonight that are on the path to moral impurity. There are parents here tonight who are on the path to moral impurity. Many, O Lord, are given over to the sins of evil thoughts. God tonight help them to come, confess those, and then secondly, O Lord, to believe You by purposing in their heart to be pure and holy and to take these principles, practical principles that we've shared, and begin to daily apply them into their lives and hearts. O Lord, use this message tonight to cleanse Thy body where it needs to be cleansed. And O Lord, to protect and prevent some that are going the wrong direction. From this grievous sin, Holy Spirit, do Thy office work. I pray You would deal right now specifically with the sin of pride, O Lord, that covers up. Pride that says, I can do it. O Lord, deal with this sin. In Jesus' name I pray with You.