In this sermon, the speaker addresses the issue of using sex to communicate the gospel. He mentions a group that taught girls how to use sex to evangelize and shares examples of girls approaching men on the street and even putting their arms around them. The speaker emphasizes the dangers of these actions, stating that it is naive to think that none of these encounters would lead to sexual relationships. He then transitions to discussing the importance of having the shield of faith to protect against such temptations and provides eight points for maintaining purity, including seeking forgiveness, being honest, combating deception, seeking counseling, and being prepared for discipline. The speaker concludes by urging listeners to take a stand against the enemy and to strive for purity in their lives.

I will stand against the wiles of the devil, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girded out with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. Now here it speaks very clearly that we're in a spiritual warfare. We've heard that many, many times. And we read about the wiles of the devil. Moral sin is different from other sin in that it so quickly drags the Church of God into scandal. We were outspoken on this subject years ago when you were really considered taboo for saying the things we said. Fifteen years ago. Now, the things have swung and people are more free to speak about sex. And so, in some ways, it's a lot easier. Though because it is controversial, you'll always have someone who would prefer you not even mention these things in public. Now, if there's anyone in that mentality, I want to ask you, what are we supposed to do with our Bibles? Our Bible, in almost every book, mentions sex in one way or the other. All kinds of things. And it doesn't say that it's a book not to be read in public. In fact, they read it out loud to great congregations of people. And even the children were present in the Old Testament. They read line upon line, line upon line. Often it was a part of revival, as when the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt. Nehezerah, Nehemiah, Zerubbabel. We must speak out about what the Bible says. And we must apply it to our contemporary situation. It must not be all some little cloudy thing that we always talk about in extremely vague terms. The Bible is not vague. The Bible speaks about people who have sex with animals. If you call that vague, condemns it in the book of Leviticus. The Bible speaks about many, many forms of perversion. The Bible tells young men to enjoy the wife of their youth. It says that young men should enjoy the breasts of the wife of their youth. Hardly puritanical, hardly Victorian. It's the Victorian false mentality of sex that has put the Church in its present embarrassment in front of intellectuals, and that has caused many people to desert the faith because of such an unrealistic view in past decades on the subject of sex, which put us in the most hypocritical state because there was immorality and perversion in the Victorian days and in the Church in those days just as it is today. And if you don't think that's true, then excuse me, but my friend, you are ignorant of history and of the facts. Immorality is not new. Perversion is not new. These things are as old as Adam and Eve. They're as old as Cain and Abel. They must be frankly spoken with, spoken about. Now, the Bible says that we have these wiles of Satan, these tricks, these strategies of Satan. It also says in verse 16 that there are fiery darts of the wicked. In the Living Letters it says, in every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by Satan. Now, oftentimes I've just said that the immorality is one of Satan's fiery darts. But this morning I want to elaborate on that because I'm convinced that there are different forms of fiery darts. It's not one dart. It's not one dart. Immorality is not just one dart. There are many different forms of fiery darts, many different strategies, many different tricks. You may be doing very well in one area and think you're going along okay, and then a whole completely different range of fiery darts comes at you. So I don't think we can just pass this off and say, may God give us the victory. I believe as the Bible elaborates, as the Bible gives examples, as the Bible describes things in detail, so we need to be more specific. This isn't something to be left vague. Is that a matter of me coming up here? Dear young people, don't commit immorality this year. The Lord bless you. That's just about as much as the Church often gives us, certainly up to a few years ago, though there are always some beautiful exceptions. It's been a shock to some young people who have come to me to discover incredible immorality in their own homes. The last thing our parents want us to know is that they're immoral. And yet it has been shattering to young people who have come to me to discover that their own father had several women, even though he was a churchman. To discover that their own father was hooked on porno up to the ears, even though he was over 50. To discover that your mother is sleeping with several other men isn't exactly something you want to discuss. We'd rather not know. And the tendency of past decades has been it's better not to know than to have reality and honesty. I want to tell you, if I ever discovered my parents were immoral, I'd love them more. I'd love them more. Actually, I don't believe we should go around probing. You think I'm going around probing. Look, I got enough headaches without any probing. It's jumping into my face almost every other day. I don't go around looking. And that's false if you think that that's so. Contrary-wise, I believe many of us are naive. In every nation, I've now been in 50 nations, in almost every nation, Christian leaders have told me, now listen, Christian leaders have said to me, older men, this is our biggest problem. Isn't that enough? To awaken us to the fact that this is an area where the devil is just moving like lightning. Everywhere I go, every country I go in, immorality, perversion, sin in the work of God. And so few are willing to say anything about it. I've been to the biggest mission conferences in the world. Most of them, no one has ever spoken on the subject. Christian leaders sitting, a thousand of them in Asia, in Singapore, we discussed every irrelevancy in the book. All kinds of theological arguments, not one person spoke about impurity in church in Asia, and everybody knows it's the biggest problem in Asia. Someone told me recently, half of the leaders of the Indonesian revival in the early stages, the men with the big names, who everybody thought were almost reincarnations of spiritual life, that almost half of them are falling into the moral pit. Immorality, homosexuality, perversion, seduction, you name it. Now God, by His mercy, up to now has kept O.M. to a large part from any of these things. But I believe it's because we've taken a stand. What are some of these fiery thoughts? Let's give a list, lest I go rambling all over the place. The fiery thought of lust. The fiery thought of lust. You don't have to do anything, it all takes place up here. Lust. Linked with lust, fantasy. You can do it all in your mind. Technicolor, panavision, sound, stereo. But it's sin, it's ugly. It's ugly. To entertain and play in your mind, go to bed with girls in your mind, undress them in your mind. Jesus said very clearly in Matthew that if we lust after a girl, we commit immorality in our heart. Now, immorality in the heart is not the same as immorality described in Corinthians, but it is sin. I believe there are different degrees of sin. And I believe some sins far more greatly affect the whole body and bring scandal and therefore are more dangerous to the work of God. They all may be equally dangerous to you as far as spiritual communion, but different sins endanger the work of God. I hate lust in the mind, but I have to confess before you that I don't always win on the first round. Not in these days. But the fact that George Fowler may have a lustful mind once in a while and not get to victory in the first five seconds or the first minute, isn't going to drag this movement into scandal. But if I decide to live with three women, it will. And there are standards for leadership. And people who are not morally strong and are not living in victory have no right, they have no credentials for leading people. If they stay in God's work in such a state of weakness, they should at least be behind the scenes. That's why I don't believe homosexuals should be leaders or be allowed to be preachers unless they really have come into a long-standing period in which they know they are delivered. Totally. Which doesn't happen to too many. And so we have to understand that. I believe if we would battle in our mind and keep the battle limited to our mind and have short accounts with what we will think on and what we will feed our eyes upon, a lot of these other battles would never take place. They'd never take place. The lust of the mind. The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy. Old Paul was pretty frank, wasn't he? I'd love to write a book, What Paul Says About Sex. And he wrote to Timothy and he said, Flee youthful lust. Flee youthful lust. And when you go out and you see a pornographic book on the newsstand and there's a beautiful woman in that book without any clothing and you begin to lust, that's just what Paul was talking about. It's a youthful lust. Flee it! And I would recommend that if you're weak in this area, not even to go into those places. There's other ways to get newspapers. I get most of mine free on the train people leave them behind. Get it posted to your house. I'd rather have, I'd rather pay five pound a year extra, have the man deliver the newspaper at your house than you have to go down to that crummy, dirty little shop on the corner where all those magazines are jumping off the rack in order to buy your newspaper. Flee youthful lust. That's what Paul said. And that's what we must do. Then there's the fiery dart of false ideas about sex. This is one of the most subtle. The devil is using this little word art to bring about a whole new form of pitfall. That's why we want to get to know the strategies of the devil. I don't care what the big people in the art world say. I don't care who it is. Don't tell me that some of this stuff is art. And I'll tell you that many of our artists, many of our great musicians, were the most twisted, perverted people that ever walked the earth. They may have produced works of art, but as believers, we have to be able to discern between what they may have been able to do with their natural powers, and soulish powers, and what they lived like. Artists have been known for their freedom in homosexuality. Many of the leading artists, leading entertainers, are blantant, outspoken homosexuals. Naturally, they want to tell you it's all art. And thousands of people queued up in Denmark and paid money to watch open exhibitions of the Sex Act. It is now one of the biggest fads going around the world. You can get it as cheap as 50 cents, watch people having sex, and a dollar or more for perversion, every form of perversion, openly in front of you. And in some cases, they allow you to take your own pictures. Art! Watch out for this subtle trick. This is art. Because that is not a magic word. It's not even a spiritual word. False ideas about sex. On the other side, you have the fellow who believes sex is dirty. The evangelical neurotic who believes it's dirty, who's trying to figure out how he can manage to only have sex with his wife once every two years, so that he can live the disciplined life. Though you may smile, I tell you, I've met people with that kind of a twist. They thought the only time they should have sex with their wife is really, you know, go anymore, and it's better to have sex than to burn. It's a little twist on that scripture. Sex is beautiful. We've read again and again in OM conferences that verse in Hebrews that marriage is honorable and the bed is undefiled. It's obvious that sex is given of God. It's man's creative power. When it's used according to God's program, it is a beautiful thing. It's nothing to be ashamed of. It is a private thing. I don't believe we should go flamboyantly talking about our sex life and all these things. We may do it in personal counseling. But I do believe there's a danger on both sides for people in OM. We've had girls hung up. They thought we had a case of a girl who thought that you could get pregnant from being kissed. We've had cases of girls who thought that petting was equivalent to adultery. It's not saying I believe in petting. We'll maybe mention that later. But there are a lot of false ideas. We must be reoriented. Our minds must be revolutionized. You have even married couples where women feel, well, this brings out the animal instinct in my husband. When there's sex, he's so different. And they get the idea that's wrong. But that's a creative power that God has given to man. And of course he will be different than he would be if he were giving tracks out in the street. What kind of a thing do you expect? But I believe it's wrong that false ideas develop because of this. Of course, men should be loving and kind and disciplined in this area of sex. Women should not be forced. And that works vice versa. And this isn't easy to work out in marriage. It's something that engaged couples should talk about, what they believe, read about. There are many good books now. Praise God for them. People of past generations haven't had near the teaching and the training that we have. But praise God for sex. A beautiful thing. Without it, none of you would be here today. None of you. False ideas about sex. Thirdly, the fiery dart of premarital sex. David Berg, the leader of the children of God, alias Moses, says there is no such thing as premarital sex. Once I go to bed with a girl, she's with my wife. She's my wife. There's a number of problems in that. What if you've already been to bed with five others? Which one is your wife? What if you decide after you bed with this girl that really she's not the one for you? Then what do you do? Do you go for divorce? No, you've never been officially married. How are you going to get a divorce? Very complicated. I believe the word is clear. I've given you verses on this before. Maybe we can look at 1 Corinthians 7 just for a moment. 1 Corinthians chapter 7. Notice verse 2. to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife. Let every man have his own wife. Let every woman have her own husband. Then it goes on. Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence and likewise also the wife unto her husband. The wife also hath not power of her own body but the husband and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body but the wife. What a fantastic verse that is. Showing the power of the wife over the man in the area of sex. And yet the same time the power of the man over the wife. This is an area where we exercise tremendous power. And that's why it needs to be controlled. It needs to be understood. But verse 5 says defraud ye not one another except it be with consent for a time. In other words don't stop having sex. For many of you five years after marriage maybe later on having sex will be a discipline. You won't want it anymore but maybe your partner will. Many a man is cracked up. Many a man has gone into immorality because he wanted sex. He needed sex but his wife refused. Of course when people get very older for health reasons and other reasons they come to a mutual agreement that there's no longer need for this or some other problem that's different. Most of you got many years to go yet. But I can tell you recently I met one of the most happy sexually adjusted men I've ever known. He's a great preacher. He's a man of God. He's pushing towards 75 and he has the most beautiful sex life of anybody I've ever had a personal encounter with. Don't think sex ends at 40. Who can understand the way of a man with a maid? That's what the writer of Proverbs has said. Of course everybody's different and some people go through a period in which no longer even men they have any desire whatsoever for sex and if their wife fully agrees to this fine. If they don't agree they've got a problem and this is an area where there must be discipline because some of the worst immorality is about is with those men over 40 and over 50 years of age. The men who keep the porno business going are mostly all over 30. Did you know that? Long after they can't get anything sensible from their wife they go into perversion. That's why it's so important for you girls to have a beautiful and a proper view about sex to consider it a privilege when you're married to minister to your own husband in this way to love him in this way to submit in this way to meet his needs no matter how dedicated he is how loud he is how disciplined he is in most cases he will need you in this area as much as any other area. So the Bible says don't stop having sex except certain times to give yourself to fasting and prayer. Let Satan tempt you. I believe this book is practical. I'm so fed up with all this super-spirituality that leaves the practical nitty-gritty basic teaching of the Bible out of the picture. False ideas about the sufficiency of Christ. Certainly if we know the sufficiency of Christ we don't need sex. Jesus is my all Jesus is my everything wait a minute that's taking one scripture and contradicting another. God looked at man and he said he shouldn't be alone so he gave him a woman he didn't give him a Bible verse gave him a woman and I believe that certain spiritual people get into the greatest problem in this area. Now there are eunuchs for the sake of God and if God gives you that calling keeps you single praise him he will give you special grace but please don't get this fishy idea that because you're turning 30 that you're now a eunuch automatically for Christ's sake. Premarital sex is condemned in the Bible it's considered fornication. You must not go into the Old Testament for your teachings about sex. That is deadly. God allowed certain things because of the hardness of the heart. This revelation was progressive to some degree in terms of God's full standard and we must go to the New Testament we must go to the teachings of Jesus. We will see things in the Old Testament beautiful things good things we should study them yes amen but we must have them compared scripture with scripture that's how we study the Bible to get the full picture which is given to us by Jesus Christ and by the apostles. A leader must be the husband of one wife. The fiery dot of extramarital sex that is definitely more of a problem than premarital sex. It's just staggering staggering staggering what's happening in this area among Christians among Christians I would warn you in the name of Jesus don't think that married couples in OM could not fall into this. Do not think that leader where you're working could not fall into sin with you though he's a married man. Watch out for your relationships. Watch out some missions will not even let single girls live with married couples anymore. Did you know that? They won't allow it. Too many times the married man in the house fell in love with a single girl. The Bible says beware of the fiery dots. This is one of them. Don't think because he's a spiritual man and he's got good sermons and he's so nice and he seems so committed. That's why we have a policy in OM of the open door that basically we don't want secretaries working with their boss behind a closed door. We're not afraid of it. We're not trying to pretend that we're the perfect little movement. Nothing ever happens. We're all so spiritual. We're all so spirit filled. We're all so dynamic. We're all so busy in the work of God. Take heed lest ye fall the word of God says. You may feel you're very strong in this area and we have this teaching in OM to avoid the appearance of evil and most of the time it isn't that the leader doesn't trust you. I have a tremendous trust in people in this area. God has given me the grace to believe the best otherwise I'd crack up in conferences like this. But I believe we should avoid the appearance of evil. You will not find me driving around in a car with another single girl alone. I've had it happen the other day. The secretary was going to pick me up in a railway station and it was all arranged and I couldn't do much about it. All right, I cast her on the law and I don't become a neurotic but basically I stay out of cars along with women. Billy Graham has the same practice. He won't go anywhere without his wife or another man. Okay, he's more famous. He's got these lewd magazines trying to get pictures of him with other women. You're not so famous. You may feel you don't have a problem. All right. This isn't a policy. It's not a fixed rule in O.M. But we tend in this direction. We feel it's wise especially for our leaders who the devil is trying to attack because rumors are about Europe that O.M., I think they've been cut down lately but years ago that this is one big immoral party. Mixed teams, some people with their old-fashioned mentality believe that a mixed team means teams having sex together. Rumors are about that we all bed in in factories together. People believe this stuff. What do you think they think of our little ship? You get some people you just see a little smile on their face. Oh, this ship is very nice, isn't it? What are all these cabins here? And we've had some people wouldn't understand on this ship why we have the rule that we don't expect single fellows to be in a cabin of a married woman without the husband there. Avoiding appearance of evil. Realizing one of the biggest areas of sexual breakdown is with married people. There are women everywhere who haven't had decent time of proper sex with their husband for weeks. They're subtle, they're ready to fall and I've known of so many cases and the same is true with men. When people get lonely their minds begin to go. And they'll do anything for any love. Many women don't particularly even want sex. They just want friendship. They just want someone who will appreciate them. Someone who will talk with them more than their negligent husband. And so, one thing adds to another and happens. Oh, may God show us. May God show us. Then there's the fiery dart of homosexuality. We've had this policy that people with homosexual problems because it is to some degrees a medical problem should walk in the light with us about it. How can we help people in this area if we don't even know they have a problem? It will not be made public. It's kept in confidence. But I think we need a bath of reality in this area. Some girls think they're homosexuals and in fact they are not. But they never had enough counseling to know. We're all mixed. Our hormones are mixed a little bit. And a girl who may have slight tendencies can easily be brought back to a normal position. But if she refuses to share it, she bottlenecks it, it gets worse and worse. Girls are much slower to share their homosexual problems than men. I'm not interested in you sharing it with me. You can go to one of our girl leaders. You can go to my wife. You can go to Pauline. You can go to some leader. Pauline was sharing with me one or two cases. She doesn't mention names. I don't know who they are. I'm not interested in knowing what girls have this problem, unless they feel I need to know. I am interested in the men. Most Christian works, if they found out you were homosexual, out. Just like that. So why do you think OM is asking too much to at least have this thing shared with us? Now, if you're not living in victory, we will have to ask you to leave. I believe there's a great difference between a person with latent homosexual problem, who's living in victory, who's claiming the victory. He wants deliverance. Maybe deliverance has come. Maybe the work of grace is not complete. Maybe a deep psychological problem. There's a difference between that person and the man who is practicing homosexuality. If there's anyone here practicing homosexuality, I believe you are out of God's will. I believe you are in sin. And I believe judgment will come on you. And you have a chance of completely marring this movement. It cannot be tolerated. We are very open. We are very fair. We're willing to pray with you. We're willing to believe the victory. You will not be asked to leave. But this double life cannot be tolerated in God's work. There are certain kinds of jobs I don't believe homosexuals, even without problems, should be doing. Some people don't know how to deal with homosexuals. Love. But if it's a girl and you're a girl, it's love at a distance. Firmness. Firmness. You must understand that a homosexual person, in their terms, fall completely madly in love just as a man does with a woman. All over Birmingham, all over London, men are living with men. They're in love with each other. They have honeymoons. They have marriages. A vicar recently performed a marriage of homosexuals. And that's a new thing with pastors. A lot of the liberals feel that we should marry the homosexuals. And I don't think it was a vicar. I think it was a priest in the States. One of the more well-known denominations. Why not let them have their time? They love one another. So in the church, two men holding hands, putting the ring one finger on the other. I now pronounce you man and wife. This is the church. You ask why we don't speak up. The world is not silent. The liberals are not silent. The devil is not silent. The church goes around, oh well, oh well, you know, we must not discuss these things. They hardly ever happen in the churches. This is isolated cases. Isolated cases. I'll tell you what's isolated. You know what's isolated? Men in our generation who are morally pure, morally clean, through and through. He's the isolated man. When he gets to 50. You may be pure now, but what about when you're 50? What about when you've been through some rough years of marriage? Maybe your wife was sick in the hospital. The doctor said, no sex for you for two years. Ah, that will be a good test to see how morally straight you can walk. Don't go blowing your moral trumpet when you're 19, when you're 20. You wait until you run to the end of the race. Then you blow your trumpet. Hallelujah! I've made it. I wish I had more time to speak about this. You can ask your questions. We are considered in some places too strict. Praise God for that reputation. Hallelujah! How in the world did a group of young people like us ever manage to get that glorious, wonderful, beautiful reputation? Too strict. Praise His name for that. Let's have a toast that all of us may be considered too strict the rest of our days. Because with the way people think, you will either be considered too strict or immoral. With the way they think in the outside world, there is no middle ground. You're either too strict, you're old-fashioned, too disciplined, fuddy-duddy, ooty-booty, or you're immoral. May God give us a balance. But even as we find that balance, we'll probably be classified as right-wingers. This is one area I don't want to go left. Then there's the fiery dart of deception. Men who are living with several women absolutely convinced it's of God. There are such men everywhere today. I can't give you names, but I have the names. They believe they're of God, they're prophets of God. Because they're prophets of God, He has given them special help. After all, how can a prophet of God have one woman? He has many needs. So their minds twist. And again and again, Christian leaders have defended from the Bible many wives. Now, some of you are living in Christian communities. They're good for a one- or two-year program. They're not very good for the long, long run. There can be exceptions. Extremely disciplined, revived people can do it. But many communities, especially, have fallen into impurity. Here's what happens. I've not only thought this, but I've also read it. In the community, the single men easily find a wife. Because they can go outside the community and get a girl, bring her in. They are at advantage, right? Every girl here knows the man has got the better deal on this. That's why you're all trying to do the same thing. But you better watch out for trying to do the men's job. But the girl in the community, she can't go romping out and finding someone from the outside. She has to find someone within the community. The men within the community see her. They see her in the raw in a sense, her problems and battles because she's in the community. Plus, any interest in her will bring major gossip, major discussion. So he goes outside the community. What about the girl? She stays single. And the male leader in the community sympathizes with this girl and decides to at least comfort her. And that easily leads one thing to another. Especially for single girls, there should be teams. They shouldn't generally stay in the same place too long. And in some cases, a year out of the community and in some cases, a year out of OM will give God a greater opportunity to show them who they should marry. I believe it's only fair. Everybody's different. OM is different because we're so mobile. Very few people are in the same community for a long time so we don't have much problem. We've had very little problem in this. There are many advantages of community life but immorality is a plague in many communities. Personally, one of the strong points for living alone is less temptations in this area. And of course, every man and woman knows the situation. A married couple that are strong, that are having a strong and beautiful sex life, that they just really aren't going on like a house on fire, are in a stronger position than a couple who's having all kinds of battles. And the wife already knows the fellow is weak. Maybe he's already had one fall. And so, we need to be careful. Deception is dangerous. The Bible says the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Desperately wicked. I can be deceived. That's why I want to have other brothers around me exhorting me. Challenging me. If I see one of my leaders, I ain't one of you pretty girls. He's a married man. Boy, he's gonna have me on his doorstep. And I say, well, praise the Lord, brother. I noticed that you noticed a new girl just flew in. What do you think of her? Well, you know. And, I believe we are a brother's keeper. And I praise God for a lot of people keeping their eye on me. Because though I've done so well these past years, my marriage is going like a blaze. I feel like I just got married yesterday. Everything is tremendous. And there's no woman anywhere in the whole world that can match my wife. Still, I don't trust myself. It's deception. And I've seen too many strong men fall. This is why I prefer the dictaphone generally to the secretary sitting on the end of the desk with her mini-skirt. You have no idea of all the immorality between bosses and secretaries. I could write an encyclopedia. First volume on that. People say, Oh, don't be silly. It doesn't happen in Christian work. Oh, it doesn't happen in Christian work. I can name six leaders who all married their secretaries. Another one just went. I know two just went in the last three months. I saw Bill Bright in Dallas. First thing, we were talking together. He had announced in the meeting he had to cancel a couple of speakers for Dallas. They'd fallen into impurity before they got there. Watch out for your relationships with those who work close with you. Talk it out if necessary. And, of course, believe the best in the process. Deception. So much in the church. Plaguing the church. Dividing the church. One man told me in the country he was laboring in, he didn't know one single church that did not have a major moral scandal in the past ten years. We've seen Christian leaders in India chopped up one after another. Wherever there's a man, there's a woman helping. I know some youth groups that have been knocked out of one city after another. One city after another. Impurity. Impurity. Just two more fiery darts. The fiery dart of gossip. This is something we must watch. Don't talk about what you're not sure of. Guard your tongue. Believe the best. That girl that he was walking with, probably may have been his sister. May God give us a balance between minding our own business and being our brother's keeper. It's a thin line, but you can find it if you want to. However, we're going to stop gossip by avoiding the appearance of evil, which I've already mentioned to you. Avoiding the appearance of evil. 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. And the last fiery dart, the fiery dart of immodesty. Now, every country is different. It's difficult to know where modesty begins in terms of the length of the skirt. The skirt is only one problem. You can be immodest with your eyes, playing with your eyes, luring men. I believe a loose living evangelical girl is playing the role of a whore. And I believe we have had women in OM with whorish ways. Flirting, fooling around, loose living. And I've interviewed many men. I took a survey on how many men were stumbled by the extremely short skirts that many girls were wearing. It was an international group of men, including Englishmen, the strong types. Ninety-eight percent were stumbled by the skirts. And I believe that we've got to be revolutionary in this area of modesty. I believe that we've got to seek God. I can't dictate very much to you. Each country will be sharing what their policy is for the length of the skirt. Certainly, it's around the knee somewhere. I'm not interested in getting involved in arguments. I believe the bigger problem often times is the rebellion of our own hearts. On the other hand, it is difficult. The biggest stumbling block to some girls are other girls. The ones more upset about short skirts are other girls. They have kept the rule. They have followed the policy, dressed modestly, followed the instructions, and then others wave aside. They're not interested. And they stumble these girls as well as men. As I mentioned, the skirt is only one problem. The way we sit, the way we go up and down stairs, the use of the eyes. We as men are warned in the book of Proverbs in more than 15 places to watch out for the whore or the prostitute. They're everywhere. There's more prostitutes in London, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Rotterdam than there are missionaries in the whole world. And if you don't think that men ever fall in sin with such people, then you don't know men. I don't want to be a stumbling block. And I wish people would walk in the light with me if there's anything that I'm doing, any way that I'm dressing. And men, you can be immodestly dressed. These tremendously tight trousers. Many of our bathing suits should be thrown into the fire. Absolutely shocking. I don't even want to go to many beaches. Just immoral demonstrations of man's carnality and Sodom-like clothing. Nobody wants to speak against we all pretend everything is well. Thousands and tens of thousands of illegitimate babies are born, including also in our Bible schools. Nobody wants to say anything. We're in a war. Satan has subtle, tricky strategies. He wants to get that nice little evangelical girl. She's so sincere. She loves Jesus. She wants to sing for Jesus. We had it here in Birmingham. Somebody ordered this group to come in and sing in our meeting. I've never seen anything so subtle in my life. That girl's skirt was at least eight inches above her knees. Her dress was made the skirt appear modest because to me most men have far more battles from this area up than down. And she sang the gospel. And when she sang she wiggled and I don't want to do it. Incredible! Praise God. Half the O.M. girls got up and walked out of the meeting. It's good that there's a few girls left to know how to blush. Praise God there's such girls left. I know a group that had sessions here in Britain how to use sex to communicate the gospel. How to use sex to communicate the gospel. Send the girls out for fishing. They come up to fellows in the street. Even put their arms around them. There's cases now of girls in the street witnessing gospel buttons. Put their arms about fellows. Jesus loves you. Woo! Boy! That's nice. Come with me. Let's go. If you don't think any of them end up in bed at night then you don't know young people. You don't know the society you're living in. You're an ostrich. That's the first half of my message and all my time is gone. I'll just give you this as a list. Maybe I'll preach it sometime. The shield of faith to stop these things. Eight points. Because we have the shield of faith we can stop the fiery darts. There are others I don't have time to mention. Here they are. First of all, claim God's forgiveness. Claim God's forgiveness. Two, walk in the light. Be honest. Be honest. Three, combat deception in every form. Read some of the tremendous books on this subject. Seek counseling. I repeat, seek counseling. Get answers to some of your questions. Four, be ready to accept reaping and discipline. Some of you have sinned in this area already. You may reap something in the days to come. We see that in the Bible with the story of Amnon. Read that story of Amnon in 2 Samuel 13. You will reap many times. That's why it's so foolish for the sake of a few minutes of pleasure to sell your soul. The devil says he makes men into a piece of bread. I think we've got sex way too elevated. We think it's much greater than it is, even in marriage. It's only one-fifth, maybe one-sixth of the joys in the reality of marriage. Many a good marriage has gone out even without sex because of medical problems. We have the idea this is it. Many young people today of the modern types go into drugs because they've tried sex. It's left them stale. Once you do it again and again and again it becomes stale. You don't want it. Then you try drugs and then you try or you try perversion. Why do you think many people get into perversion? Harming their bodies. All kinds of things. Transvestinism. And masturbation. And masochism. And all these things because they've discovered that just sex, sex, sex out of God's plan leads a man dry. It destroys. It eats away. Sears the conscience and can ruin the mind. There may be a reaping and by faith we have to accept it. Don't ever desert the faith because you fall in this area. That's the greatest mistake you can make. God is ready to pick you up. He's ready to use you. He's ready to cleanse you. He's ready to give you a bigger shield that you may win the battles. Five, to believe God and His Word not the devil and feelings. Sometimes you feel like a locomotive going downhill with no brakes. You've got to have it. You've got to have that magazine. You've got to do it. You can't stop and you're just going. Oh, the man who learns how to put on the brakes. The man who learns not to trust those feelings. One thing you can do at that time is immediately find someone to talk to. Phone someone. Say, Brother, I'm under attack. Sister, I'm under attack. I'm going downhill. My brakes are broken. Come over and see me. We have agreements among us, some of us. We're ready on call at any time if the brakes fail. We'll come with new brakes. And let us know what's happening. Don't trust ourselves walking in the light not listening to feelings. The devil's lies. The devil says, Ah, don't worry. Just once. Just once. You can be forgiven. God is grace. God loves you. Don't worry about it. You may be able to be forgiven, but you may reap a harvest. You may ruin your ministry. You may ruin that person's life. You may bring a baby into the world. Don't talk about cheap forgiveness. Lie of the devil. There's no such thing as cheap forgiveness. It costs Jesus Christ His precious blood. It's not cheap. It never will be cheap. When you go into the sin of adultery, you slap Jesus in the face. You spit on Him. You kick Him. You mock Him. We need more holy hate for sin. More love for purity. Jesus Christ was tempted in all points, including this area. In many women, He probably could have snapped His fingers and had it. False theologians teach that He did. Other theologians teach that Jesus was homosexual. It's a lie. Lie of the devil. We know He was pure. We know He was born of a virgin. And we know that He Himself never committed any form of sin because He was never married. And if He was married, He would have had a perfect marriage. But there was no perfect woman, so He never got married. Six, to approach His promises or appropriate His promises. The Bible is filled with promises that can help us in this area. We must appropriate them. We must claim them. That's where faith works. Our goals, our regulations, our policies, our convictions will not work if it's not backed by faith. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world. Seven, to practice little disciplines. That's very important. Lots of exercise. Use up that creative energy. Hard work. Hard work. Exercise. Burn it out. Run it out. Don't let it all get bottled up, especially as a single man. Food. The right kind of food. Proper diet. Fasting. The discipline of fasting is the biggest practice in my single life. I fasted five times as much as a single man as I do today. I think it saved me. Memorizing the Word. Letting it cleanse you. Letting it build you up. My mind, where it used to be filled with evil thoughts, now mainly gets Bible verses. Either that or problems of the work. Getting active. There's nothing wrong with being active. Being passive is ten times worse than being active. Jesus was active. Paul was active. Every man of God was active. Don't react from the sin of activism to not being active. You need to be busy. You need to be active. It's hard for the devil to catch a man who's running. You get passive. Just let your mind open a bit. Relax too much. These next two weeks when you leave this conference, you better have an active program. If it's prayer and waiting on God, make it an active prayer. I recommend the mountains, not the streets of London. It's hard to fall and sin in the mountains. Exercise. Going two by two. Don't go alone unless you absolutely have to. Two by two. What a valuable practice. We don't have a fixed rule. It is our prayer that we may be mature enough to go two by two. That is our prayer. And eight, to exhort one another. Oh, we don't like to exhort anybody in this area. We're cowards. We're cowards. We are causing our brethren to stumble because we won't speak. And if your leader goes down the tube, it may be your fault. Not doing the job you were supposed to be doing in a loving, broken, humble way, esteeming him as better than yourself. These are fiery darts. Let's take a stand. Let's believe God for the victory. Some people say, I never had any problems in this till I came on OM. Probably not because you came on OM. It's probably because you are exposed to more people. You're growing up whether you're in OM or out of OM. Don't blame OM for things that would happen to your life whether you were in or out of OM this year. You're going into new stages of growth. You're going to face new problems whether you're in or out of Operation Mobilization. You say, I haven't been exposed to these things before. It's better to be exposed now, here, under the Spirit and the Word than to be exposed reading pornography or seeing films. The places we go do speak of what's running in our minds. Do speak of what's in our minds. Let's pray. Father, You know our hearts. How easily we're deceived. How blind we can be. Forgive us, Lord, for lack of discipline in this area. Forgive us, Lord, for not taking a stand against the evil one. We believe that You can give the victory. Cleanse hearts and lives. Cleanse marriages that we may be pure and clean. Disciplined. Filled with the Spirit. Realists in the glory of Jesus. That pure and perfect one who won every battle in His name. Amen.