In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the evidence of being born of God, which is making war against sin. He describes how indulging in sinful desires may provide temporary pleasure, but ultimately leads to a greater thirst and desire for sin. The preacher highlights the importance of repentance and quick response to sinful habits, urging listeners to seek God and make necessary changes in their lives. He also warns against yielding to lustful passions, as it reflects a lack of knowledge of God. The sermon emphasizes the need to resist the first step of sin, as it inevitably leads to further sins, and encourages believers to find superior pleasure in Christ.

1 Thessalonians 4 connects it with God. Each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God. What's he saying? He's saying, if you yield to a life driven by lustful passion, you act like you don't know God. Your attitude to sin is going to be the most important thing that's going to matter when you stand before the Lord. Let me tell you that. Let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from sin. You've heard me speak about internet pornography a number of times. It's a man who's losing his love for God, who clicks on some site to watch internet pornography. That's one of the clearest evidences that his love for God is going down. Because iniquity shall abound. There's plenty of iniquity on the internet. The love of many will grow cold. Is that happening to you? 30% of internet pornography is viewed by women. It'll feel so good. And that's the lie. It's a half-truth because sin does feel good. And some of you may be sitting there right now saying, frankly, I would rather be there than here. But I'll tell you, and your own conscience bears witness, you don't need anything more than your conscience. Yes, it feels good short term. And then comes the remorse, then comes the misery, then comes the guilt, then comes the shattered family, then comes the ruined career, then comes the late night grieving, and then, in the end, if you haven't learned to fight at all, then comes hell. Which is why Hebrews 11.25 talks about the fleeting pleasures of sin. Share their pleasures. Nobody's arguing that. Go do your thing if you want to, but it's going to fly away. Guilt and pain are gifts of God to warn us that the pleasures of sin are suicidal. Satan shows you the bait, he doesn't show you the hook. Do this. You need it. You want it. You'll feel good if you do it. There is some truth to it. The problem is sin doesn't satisfy. And when I see all this happening and increasing, increasing, increasing, I know the coming of the Lord is near. It's near. And I want to keep my flask full of oil. The number of believers who have been deceived by the devil in this area is absolutely amazing. And then the desires of deceit and the way they succeed is by deceiving us, lying to us. It's lying to you that just punch that little mouse button and get that nude up on the screen or, or, or, or, whatever your besetting sin may be. It's a lie. Your own conscience tells you it's a lie. Sin does not satisfy. Be killing sin or it will be killing you. The evidence of being born of God is that you make war on your sin. The amazing thing is that there may be a temporary thrill, but soon enough the hole is bigger than it was before. Soon enough the desire is greater than it was before. Let's say that you were playing some sport outside. It's hot out. It's miserably oppressive. You're desperately thirsty. Someone says, hey, drink this. Boy, it looks good. Just the bottle that it's in looks good and it looks chilled and everything. And you drink it and for a moment it gives you this incredible feeling. But two minutes later it creates an unbelievable thirst far beyond what you had before. Would you drink it? If it didn't actually quench the thirst, after one or two times you would remember, I'm not going to touch this because if I do, it's going to make things worse than before. And that leads me to the second principle, which is this. Sin leads to more sin. Unfought lust will destroy the soul. We do not resist sin with a brilliant philosophical argument about the destructive nature of sin. We resist sin with hard, cold facts. If you are duped by their lie that this little short-term pleasure is worth it all, then you're ignorant. And a sermon, or let's just say a text like this, is intended to fix that. Ignorance kills. So sin takes over the desires, makes liars out of them. They promise satisfaction and happiness and they deliver cheap, fleeting, shallow stimulation that leaves us less content, less peaceful, less hopeful, more guilty, more restless, more discouraged, more enslaved. Learn this so that you can defeat the lie in the moment with truth. Learn this. They'll lead to death in the end. Verse 21 of this chapter says, The outcome of those things is death. I remember one time after yielding to the flesh, it was a relatively minor thing, you might say, but afterwards I was grieved in my spirit and I said to myself, if I could only remember the way I feel now, if I could remember that before I was tempted the next time, I'd never sin. If I could remember the way I felt after sinning and hold on to that the next time temptation came knocking at my door, I'd say no. Here's the problem. All that sin did was create an appetite to do it again. Even if you had a miserable experience in doing it, even if it totally let you down, even if you felt ashamed in the process, what happens is that thing leaves and it comes back with a peel again. No one is going to take away the suffering that's involved in resisting the trial of the devil. And the more you have yielded your mind to it and your body to it, the more difficult the resistance is going to be. Are you hearing what I'm saying? God is not going to deliver you out of that trial. He's not going to deliver you out of that suffering. He said you endure it so as to sin no more for the lusts of men, but to do the will of God. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Now I see people all the time who want to be delivered out of the suffering. See, here's what they're saying. They're saying, well, you know, I'll stop doing that sin. God, if you just kind of do something to me, well, I don't have to resist it. I don't have to suffer in it. God's not going to do that. Are you hearing what I'm saying? I say God is not going to do that. Are you with me? Problem is you're a little bit weaker this time. Problem is your resolve is not as strong as it used to be because you blew it. Problem is that image, those things have been playing in your mind and kind of pulling on you and you fall again. I can't believe it. I'll never do that again. Two weeks later, back again. One week later, back again. Before you know it, you're a slave. You're a slave. Sin doesn't satisfy. When it tells you, you'll get relief. When it tells you, you'll get the release that you need. When it tells you, you'll get that satisfaction. When it tells you the tension will break and the freedom will be there, it's a lie because it's not going to satisfy and all it's going to do is lead to more sin. I'm telling you, you're going to have to resist it. And the more you fed your mind with it, the more you trained your body toward it, the more you've given your heart toward it, the more difficult, the stronger the test. And the fire, the more heat there is to the fire. Are you hearing what I'm saying? But God doesn't leave you on your own. The Holy Spirit of God is there to do a sanctifying work in you. All God wants you to do is make a choice. You choose, you're not going to walk that way. You're not going to turn to the right. You're not going to turn to the left. But you say to that idol, that temptation, that sin, be gone out of my life. I choose Jesus. Now, you can put yourself in temptation unnecessarily. You can open a pornographic book and say, Lord, lead me not into temptation. That's a lot of rubbish. You know, you keep cigarettes in your drawer and say, Lord, please don't let me smoke, Lord. Destroy those cigarettes. You can't keep sources of temptation around you and say, Lord, deliver me from temptation. The Bible says to run away from temptation. You say, man, I don't watch people take their clothes off on TV. I mean, Steve Hill preaches about that. What's he so fanatical about? That doesn't bother me. Friends, it doesn't bother you because your heart is hard. What's your problem, man? You don't go to the beach with all these bikini-clad people walking around. What's your problem? My problem is I love Jesus. My problem is that that stuff is unclean and defiling and brings lustful, suggestive thoughts into your mind. And if it doesn't bring them into your mind, it's not because you're so holy, but because you're so hard. A man will cut off his leg to save his life. Will you cut off your leg and gouge out your eye to save your eternity? That's what Jesus says. Be thrown into hell. We should fight this lust thing with hellish. He meant, do whatever you must do to get this sight and temptation out of your head. I want to be free. Who cries out at night? Who wets his pillow with tears? You've got to resist the first step because the first step always leads to the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh. It always does. It's inevitable. Unless that chain is broken through true repentance and a radical turning back, one sin leads to another sin. Oh, how many pastors. A statistic a few years ago was 10% in our denomination in Minnesota had come down. Over 10% had failed to gouge out their eye, cut off their leg and do whatever was necessary to find Christ a superior pleasure. How many preachers and godly were diverted off the King's way. Oh, how many godly preachers and godly were diverted off the King's way because they took a second look. Because they didn't and they weren't abiding in Christ. Every Christian who watches pornography who watches filthy scenes in movies is saying that. I would never let anybody, I would never let my daughter behave like that or my sister. But that's not my sister. It's not my daughter. I don't care. I don't care if that person goes to hell living in that sin. You're watching people going to hell and it doesn't bother you. I remember as a young man hearing the story of, I mean the way one man conquered lust. He, whenever he saw a pretty girl through whom he was tempted, he would say, Lord you created that body to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. Say that next time you see a girl improperly dressed. You created that body to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. That girl doesn't have a clue what she was created for. You died to save her from that sin. Lord, save her from sin. I won't look on a woman to lust after her. God gives me that ability. Brother, if you think God can't, you haven't read the Bible. God gives you the ability when you're pure in heart, when you're absolutely surrendered, when you're filled, controlled by the Spirit and you stay close to God, abiding in Him, soaking yourself in the Scriptures and in prayer daily from the moment you met with Him in such a manner. He gives you the ability not to look and commit adultery with her which will bring judgment, God says. If such a life is continued in your heart, even though no one outside knows, though you're singing Hallelujah while you're looking into the corner of your eye. So, fight lust indirectly as well as directly. Give yourself to reading. Give yourself to study. Give yourself to meditating. Give yourself to memorizing. Give yourself to savoring the beauties of God and pray like crazy that the Lord would open your heart to see wonderful things that feel more wonderful than the surge of this masturbation. Just looking or more illicit behavior, fornication, adultery, fooling around. That second look is impossible to the man that devours the Word of God as his greatest delight in life. Somehow that stopped or he would not have been capable of looking a second look at what the devil was saying. Look. You are incapable, sir, of that second look if this book is your greatest delight. The devil cannot touch you, young man, if this book is your source of survival. These are the sources of power. One, being filled in our heart and mind with the Word of God. Psalm 119, David says, Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. That's the other source of power. God wants enduring obedience and that only comes through enduring study and meditation upon God's Word, enduring prayer and making ourselves accountable to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Some of you, the greatest blessing that you need in your life is to make yourself accountable to another brother or sister. You've got a besetting sin in your life. You've got a problem in a certain area of your life. One of the greatest things you could do is pray and ask God to show you someone to whom you could make yourself accountable. You know, some of you struggle with certain sins and you're sitting there going, I'm just never going to get free. Maybe you just need to pray and maybe you need to go to somebody, somebody that's trustworthy, someone that can keep their lip closed except to God. Someone who can pray for you. Go to them and say, look, I'm caught up in so much of this stuff and I need help. Uriah is listed as one of the mighty men of David. In that cave, when David is writing the sweet psalms of trust and provision and protection, do you think for one moment that David ever thought that he would be murdering this man that was next to him? You don't know what's in your heart. None of us do. Only the Spirit of God can search it. We don't know and anyone who trusts in his own heart is a fool the scripture says. Did he ever think that this man that he's nurturing this man that is becoming mighty under his influence, he's going to end up stealing his wife and murdering him one day. Did he ever think that would happen? The sweet psalms of Israel. It only happened because he got spiritually lazy. It happened because he went to bed instead of going to God. It happened because he got up in the evening time. Folks, in the evening, you're supposed to go to bed not get out of bed in the evening. His laziness is proven by the fact that he was in bed all afternoon having nothing to do but just indulge his own heart. And when he got out of bed, he just did what was naturally there because he was not seeking God as he had in the past and ended up murdering one of his own mighty men. How many baptismal testimonies have we heard when people said, I lost it all? For what? For a little pleasure? For momentary satisfaction? For fleeting fulfillment? For what? Every man is tempted when he is drawn away, when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. In this world, the devil will place many things before us that we did not choose or want to behold, but it is our choice if we keep on looking. Temptation is not sin, but the second look is, brother. The second look is, sister. You see, spiritual laziness. Here are some signs of spiritual laziness. It is when we begin to pray at the end of the day and not at the beginning. God says, I will not, David says, I will not start my day, and God, you can be sure that my day will not start until you hear my voice. And I will cry out to you, O God. And here is what he cries. Verse 8, he says, lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of my enemies and make my way straight before my face. He says, you are going to hear my voice in the morning and it is going to be praying this simple prayer, O God, lead me, guide me. There are too many enemies around and within me. I need you to lead me. I need your voice behind me. I need your path before me, God, or I am going to make a mess of my day. And David says, you will hear my voice in the morning. And it was in those times that victory after victory after victory after victory began to come into his life. I will not defile myself. You are going to have the purpose in your heart to make up your mind. I will not defile myself. I will not. I will be holy in this life. Don't blame your friends if you compromise. Don't blame peer presser at school. Don't blame corruption in the land, lack of censorship, filthy books, evil videos and things. Don't blame anything. You are as holy as you will be. You are as holy as you want to be, my voice. But there was one thing that didn't leave me. I was bound to pornography. I was bound to a spirit of lust. He says in verse 10, for godly sorrow produces repentance, leading to salvation, not to be regretted. But sorrow of the world produces death. It's not just confessing, it's confessing and repenting. Godly sorrow produces repentance, leading to deliverance. Worldly sorrow focuses on you. You've embarrassed me. What is the consequences of my sin? Will I be judged? Will I go to hell? What's it going to cost me? Godly sorrow on the other hand says I have sinned against the heart of the one I so love so much. Godly sorrow focuses on him. David falls on his face and says Lord, against you and against you only have I sinned. I got delivered. And the reason I did is because that sin was hurting the heart of the one I love so much. Because in praying for the next 7 months like that, my heart grieved to love him so much, it was breaking my heart that I was hurting his heart. Jesus says, he says you shall know the truth and the truth will make you free. What happens is you get so full of the word of God, you get so full of the truth, it's like shoving your fist down into the water. And you see, the reason I don't want sin in my life is because I don't want that fellowship broken. What caused you to fall in love with Jesus, that first love? It's you spending time with him. Our entire life every moment of our life should be one of being with the master. It is very hard to call up pornography sites on the computer when Jesus Christ is there. It's very hard. But when you spend time with him on an intimate level and you commune with him he becomes more real than your natural world that you live in. You know, David made a lot of mistakes, but there's one thing he had, passionate love for the presence of God. They tell me that when a man looks at pornography there are chemicals released in his body more powerful than any type of illegal drug he could even think about getting on. We were created with these hearts recreated with these hearts to behold the glory of God infinite beauty infinite awesomeness of God. Knowing God is a good strategy for overcoming lust. It is. Knowing God. I mean really knowing him. Do we stay away from sin? Yeah. I'm going to tell you I have more of a reason to stay away from sin than I ever have before because I don't want to break the fellowship. That's what David means if a righteous man falls, he gets up, he does get up he repents and says no more because I don't want this relationship broken and that's the power right there to keep you in obedience is the passion for intimacy with him. Now every morning when I'm outside praying, I'm not praying God use me, God use me, God use me I'm praying God, Father I want to know you the best a man can know you I want to walk with you I want to know your heart. I want to know what you love and I want to love what you love and I want to know what you hate and I want to hate what you hate I don't want to say not my will but yours I want to live not my will but yours Finally, I've learned that the greatest weapon against temptation and sin is to know and walk in the love of God. The greatest weapon against sin listen to Paul's testimony we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice, envying, hateful and hating one another. Now that's a messed up people, I'll tell you that's a mess servants to all kinds of evil. But after that, after what, after all of this the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man. In the middle of all this the revelation came Paul said and by his mercy he then saved us I said Lord if it takes 10 years, it's going to take 10 years but I'm going to seek you but I'm not going to live the substandard, defeated Christian life I have right now. Be quick to repent, be quick to respond be quick to get things right if there's a recurrence of sinful habits, take it seriously, you need to talk to a leader, if you need to separate yourself to God in prayer and fasting, if you need to just ruthlessly change your schedule and all that stuff, do it because sin destroys and you'll understand when you come to God with true repentance, he washes cleanses and says let's get on with it Micah 7 verse 8 and 9 and rejoice not against me or my enemy don't you rejoice when I fall I shall arise when I sit bring me forth to the light and I shall behold his righteousness. You have no right if you fall not yet, get up get up now cry out to me to cleanse me and I'll restore you I'll restore you