Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the importance of recognizing and abhorring sin in our lives, illustrating this through the story of Amnon and Tamar in 2 Samuel 13. He explains that the conflict within Christians arises from the struggle between allegiance to God and self, and that true freedom comes from hating sin and loving righteousness. The sermon highlights how sin can initially appear appealing but ultimately leads to bitterness and regret, urging believers to seek God's help in overcoming sinful desires. Beach encourages the congregation to cultivate a love for God's Word and righteousness, which empowers them to resist temptation and live in accordance with God's will.

God has a work for us to do in us. And this scripture perfectly identifies the intent of the word of God and the intent of the Holy Spirit as it works within the believer's life and that is this. To teach us to abhor and hate and detest and despise iniquity and sin and everything that displeases the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says, Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity therefore it was this wonderful divine work that was in the Son of God. The work of hating iniquity and loving righteousness. Beloved, the entire conflict within the heart of Christians can be reduced to one statement. One statement. And that is this. The conflict between our allegiance to God and our allegiance to ourself. That's it right there. And it is God's intent to teach us how to abhor and hate that which is not of God so that in abhorring it and hating it, listen closely, it loses its power over us. Now, turning our Bibles to Jude chapter 1, there's only one chapter. Beginning in verse number 17. Carrying this same thought before we go into the Old Testament. Jude chapter 7, verse number 17. But beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the spirit. But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God. Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some, have compassion, making a difference. And others, save with fear. Now notice this statement that we're about to read. Pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. Ah, beloved, that God would work such a supernatural divine work within our souls as to teach us to hate that which is spotted by the flesh. To love righteousness and to hate iniquity is indeed the glorious privilege that you and I have been called into as children of God. What a privilege to love what is right. To love God's Word. And for God to birth within our spirit. This is not something you conjure up by self-will. This is not something you manufacture in your own spirit. But this is something that God births into the soul that comes before God and comes before the Word of God and lets the impregnating power of the Spirit and the Word birth into you that divine fire. This is something that God wants for us to share in. A love for His Word and a love for what is right. Now, I want to invite you to go to 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel chapter 13. This is a story in the Bible that has an incredible lesson for you and I to learn. And this is the lesson before we read the story. The lesson that we learn in reading this story is to show and to teach us how important it is to learn to hate the things and the ways and the thoughts and whatever else would be entailed. To hate all of these things that would be displeasing to the Lord. Now, listen. As we read this story, 2 Samuel chapter 13. And it came to pass after this that Absalom the son of David had a fair sister whose name was Tamar and Amnon the son of David loved her. Now, we can stop right here. We can begin to expound on this one Scripture and we could be here for several hours. Immediately we see the problem, the cause, the root cause to the whole dilemma that Amnon gets himself in. And what is it? He loves something that he should not love. He loves something that he should not love. And Amnon was so vexed that he fell sick for his sister Tamar. Beloved, you will discover as a Christian that the desire for those things that do not originate from God will be vexing to our soul. Here is the course that occurs. Here is the course that occurs. There is a love for that which isn't right. Then there is a vexation. For she was a virgin and Amnon thought it hard for him to do anything to her. But Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David's brother. And Jonadab was a very subtle man. One thing about the flesh life, and that's basically what we're talking about. The flesh life is like Amnon's friend, a very subtle man. And if as believers we don't learn how to flee to God and to the word of God and to the grace of God, when confronted with a conflict such as loving something or desiring something, that we understand to be that which God would not want us to have, if we don't flee to it, this very thing will begin to happen within our life. We will find a vexation occurring and then we will find a man like Amnon's friend, Jonadab, to come on the scene. And Jonadab represents the crafty carnal mind and the craftiness of the deceitful heart and the reasoning that will come to us when we're looking, listen, to give ourselves slack. How many here know what I'm saying? When you give yourself slack, Jonadab always comes on the scene. Now see, God promises when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will rise up as standard. As Christians, God wants to teach us to look for the Spirit of the Lord when confronted in this kind of a situation. See? Because the Spirit of the Lord is our deliverer. The word of God is our deliverer. But now listen, this is a lesson that we learn. And we learn it, let me tell you something, through failing. We learn it through failing. How did Peter learn not to deny the Lord? By denying Him three times. Verse 4, And he said unto him, Why art thou being the king's son, leaning from day to day? Wilt thou not tell me? And Amnon said unto him, I love Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister. You see, the problem with Amnon is that he was undiscerning. Rather than take his longing to God and say, now is this right? Should I be loving my brother's sister? Should I be desiring that which is not lawful for me to have? Rather than thinking this thing out and bringing his desire to the will of God and to the word of God and understanding its origin and coming before God in a broken, contrite manner, he just became a slave to his desire. And he tells his friend that he loved her. And Jonadab said unto him, Lay thee down on thy bed, and make thyself sick. And when thy father cometh to thee, say unto him, I pray thee, let my sister Tamar come, and give me meat, and dress the meat in my sight, that I may see it and eat it at her hand. So Amnon lay down and made himself sick. What are we seeing here? Ha! We're seeing that this guy gave Amnon a plan in order to what? Fulfill the desire of his heart. So we have a wrong desire. Number two, we have a vexation because that desire can't be fulfilled. Number three, we have rather than a submitting that desire to God and resisting it, we have a yielding to that desire. And then number four, we have finding a way to fulfill that desire. This is the nature of sin. This is the nature of the flesh right here. Now how many have found, even as Christians, that this very principle has operated and can operate if it weren't for the grace of God and the working of God's Spirit in your life on a daily basis? Sure. Now watch this. Here's the sad part of this whole story. We're not going to go into it because now the story goes into the fact that he goes and he takes this woman and he does to her what he shouldn't do. But let's go to verse 14. Chapter 13. Howbeit he would not hearken unto her voice, but being stronger than she, forced her and lay with her. There's the fulfillment of the desire. Now watch this. Watch this. All of a sudden there's an instant reversal. And this is what the Bible means when it speaks of the deceitfulness of sin. Sin is so deceitful and so subtle that it comes to us with an appeal. It comes to us with a sense of desire. It comes to us clothed in appeal. And this is going to be good. This is going to be nice. But watch what happens to sin once it's fulfilled in our life. The true nature of sin is suddenly made known to us. Now watch this. Verse 15. Then Amnon hated her exceedingly, so that the hatred wherewith he loved her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her. And Amnon said unto her, Arise, be gone. Get out of here. I don't even want to look at you. Now this is incredible. When that which we love is fulfilled, rather than resisted by the grace of God, that which was momentarily sweet becomes bitter and repulsive to us. That which was momentarily sweet becomes bitter and repulsive to us, even to the point where we don't even want to look at it. Now listen, beloved, this is why the Holy Spirit wants to teach us as children of God to abhor and to hate and to despise and detest sin. Because the true nature of sin does not fulfill the desire of the heart. Now here's the secret in having power over sin. Right here it is. You mustn't look at temptation. You mustn't look at the things that come to you and have a tendency to cause you to desire something that God wouldn't have you have. You mustn't look at it as it appears. But you must look at it as it really is. The magic of sin, the enticement of sin is fake and phony. Sin always comes in a cloak. It always comes robed in the lie that it's going to satisfy you. It's going to meet your need. It's going to help you. But when it's fulfilled, the garments are taken off and suddenly our hatred and our grief for that sin is greater than our love for it. And that's why God wants to reveal His love to us as believers to teach our soul and to teach our minds and to teach our hearts to love righteousness and Him. How many want to be filled with love for God so that by God's love and by God's power we can find the ability to resist whatever it is that would come our way and love God with all of our hearts. So remember this little story in 2 Samuel chapter 13. The true nature of sin. The true nature of sin. And may God teach us when you're counseling a person or talking to a person, this is a good scripture to bring them to, to let them see that sin doesn't pay, but only Jesus and His righteousness and His love. And this is the chief desire of the Holy Spirit. The more you fall in love and are filled with the love of God, the more you want Him and the less you desire to displease Him. And when you do, you know that God has not forsaken you or cast you off because of it, but rather has given you another opportunity to learn to hate and to abhor that which is evil and cling to and cleave to that which is good and holy and righteous. Any questions? At all? Tonight the Holy Spirit moved in a marvelous way, didn't He? All of us were touched. And this is what He's trying to do. He wants us to be infatuated with His love. And in being infatuated with His love, we will find more and more of that overcoming victory and power in Christ to do those things that are pleasing in His eyes. Amen? Amen. Well, any questions at all?