If you would take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Galatians in chapter 5. As we continue looking in Galatians chapter 5 this morning, we're not going to read the entire section that we are studying, beginning in verse 16 and going to the end of the chapter where we've been studying. We are really focusing our attention this morning on this segment where he talks about the works of the flesh. I want to thank Monty for the scripture reading this morning in 1 John. I've been reading through 1 John in my own personal devotions, and the theme in that chapter will be very apropos for the conclusion of this message as we think of our own lives. Galatians chapter 5, and let's begin reading in verse 18. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now, the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I have told you beforehand, just as I also tell you now, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Would you join me in a word of prayer? Father, we thank you that as we even sang this morning here at the conclusion of our worship and song, we can come to you in prayer and you love to answer prayer. And Father, the prayer that all of us needs to bring before you repeatedly is the confession of sin. Lord, we thank you that our sin has been forgiven by the blood of Christ. And if we are redeemed, if we have been washed and justified, we will answer for our sin no longer before your throne. And there is no condemnation for us in Christ. And yet, Father, we find this continuing struggle with these works of the flesh. And they are so evident to us. Father, we confess before you our brokenness, our sorrow at our own sin. Father, we pray that you would give to us continuing victory as we walk in the Spirit. Lord, I pray that if there's someone in our midst today that is really struggling in their life with these sins, that, Father, your Spirit would break them. That, Father, your Spirit would break us in a way that we would find victory from them. Lord, show us our need. Father, show us where we have indulged our flesh. Father, point these things to us. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Today we begin the arduous task of examining the works of the flesh. One by one, we've read them this morning here in Galatians chapter 5. It's kind of a little bit like picking through the trash. Stinky at best and revolting at worst. So why do we do it? It would be nice in some ways just to gloss over these verses and go right to the fruit of the Spirit. But this is God's Word. We study this book verse by verse, line by line. It is intended. These things are intended for our learning, for the edification of the saints and for the correction of sin. And it is true that by understanding our nature, we can be enabled to not nurture these vices when we detect them in our own heart. Now, as we study through this list and we talk about these things, we don't want to study it in a graphic way. We don't want to present these sins in a gratuitous way or glamorize them. Rather, in a clear way, we want to understand what these things are so that these sins may, as it says in Romans chapter 5, become exceedingly sinful to us, and that we may hate them, not only in our own lives, but in our world. Now, once again, as we begin this, I want to stress to us that the only safeguard The only safeguard against walking in the flesh is to be led by the spirit. That is the only safeguard. We must be walking in the spirit, not in the flesh. The flesh and the spirit are set contrary to one another in this extended text. They are contrary to one another. They are enmity with one another. And we are not to walk in the flesh, but we must be walking in the Spirit. We must be led by the Spirit that we may be kept from the works of the flesh. Now, further, we've already stressed that, especially last week. Further, I want us to think about this reality. Our ability to walk in the Spirit will be directly proportionate to our indulgence of the flesh. If I am indulging the flesh and I am walking in the flesh and I am pandering to these areas in my life, that will have a directly proportionate result in my life of grieving and quenching the Spirit of God. And so my ability to walk in the Spirit will be directly proportionate to how much and how often I am indulging these areas. I can't have them both. I can't walk in both realms. Now let's begin with some brief reminders. First of all, let's think of some operative words. We've already talked about these. When we think of the works of the flesh, we are thinking primarily of the word lust. This comes up often in this text. It comes up often in Scripture. When we begin to think of the fruit of the Spirit, if you look down in verse 22, the fruit of the Spirit is love. And so when we think of the Spirit, that really equates in our life with this concept of agape love. When we think of the flesh in our life, this really equates in our life with the concept of lust. Now, what is lust? When we think of lust, we often think of sexual sin, but it is not confined merely to it. When we think of the word lust, we're really talking about that strong desire that arises within us from our sinful Adamic nature. It is that strong desire for selfish gratification. It's all about me, about my desires, about what I want. And so this is really the idea of lust in Scripture. It is a strong desire to please self. James chapter one talks about the lusts that we must be careful. Let's say rise up within us and they allure us and they set us aside and they destroy us in temptation. James chapter four talks about, you know, from whence do wars and fightings come amongst you? Do they not come from your lust? which waged war within you. In 1 John 2, verse 15, we find there that the lust of the flesh is a part of the world system, along with the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, and it is passing away and it will be done away with. It will not abide forever, but the one who does the will of God, that is the one who will abide forever. So when we think of lust, we need to think of it as that part of our nature that is strongly desiring to please self. And that is why Jesus said, if any man would come after me, let him take up his cross, deny himself, and follow me. Because the demands of Christ upon our life worked exactly contrary to the lusts of the flesh. Now, this is one New Testament list. We've already read it. We've read through a list of sins that are enumerated there to us. And he also throws in a little bit of a phrase at the end of the list to where he says, there are other things like this. This is not an all inclusive list, but there are other things that would fit into this list. And these are some of the things that we see coming up in our own lives. Now, there are other New Testament lists. Last week, we concluded the message by reading the one in Romans chapter one, where we see that God gave them over to unbelievable lusts. And we go through that, we went through that whole passage briefly last week. There's several others. Let me just show you another one. This is in Ephesians chapter five, verse three. He says there, but fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness. Let it not even be named among you as is fitting for the saints. Look at that phrase. Let it not even be named among you as is fitting for the saints. Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor coarse jesting Which things are not fitting, but rather giving a thanks for you know that no fornicator, unclean person, covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Very similar things. As what we see in Galatians chapter 5. Here's another one in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12. Look at this one. Paul says at the conclusion of this letter to the church of Corinth, he says, for I'm afraid lest when I come to you, I shall not find you the way I wish I would. Lest there be in your midst contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, backbiting, whisperings, conceits, tumult. Lest when I come again, my God shall humble me among you and I shall mourn for many who have sinned before and not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lewdness which they have practiced. And so there we could go to many other lists. In the New Testament that bring up similar practices as being antithetical with what it means to be a Christian and to be walking with the Lord. Now, as we've gone through, you can go I think you're still there in Galatians chapter five, we dealt with this real briefly last week, we looked at the list just in a nutshell, and we talked about the fact that in this list of sins in these verses, there are some different categories. There are categories to these works of the flesh. We could think of sexual sin. That's what he begins with in the list. We could think of false worship. You remember there in Ephesians chapter five, he ties covetousness with being an idolater. What is idolatry? We'll talk about that as we go through these sins of the flesh. But there is false worship. Another one in that list would be sorcery. What does it mean to practice witchcraft? The relational sins here. Envy, jealousy and other things along those lines. Selfish ambitions and then there are kind of addictive practices. Drunkenness and revelries. These are the categories of the works of the flesh that are enumerated to us in these verses as we went through from verse 19 through 20. Now, here's how we're going to do this. I was thinking we would get through the list this morning, but I know we're not. So we're going to really look at one major category today. Now, I told you last week we were going to try to do the rest of Galatians chapter 5 in two weeks, and then we were going to move on to a Christmas study. But I think it's going to take three. So I apologize for that, but I want to take the time with these verses because this is very important. And by the way, young people, a lot of what we talk about today is going to be tailored to you. Now, that doesn't mean it doesn't apply to us as adults. It does. But you're living at a time in your life where if you are not careful, you will build young person, especially from like TNT age, coming up into high school. If you are not careful, you will build habitual practices in this area that will haunt you for life. So I'm going to tailor make some comments to you as we go through this study this week and next. We're going to look at the specific name of the sin. We're going to try to define it for us. We'll give some illustrations of it, thinking of other biblical passages that may help clarify exactly what he's talking about. And then we're going to look at some danger areas. Now, last week as we were talking about this, we talked about the reality that every person has three enemies in their life. There's an internal enemy that we're talking about here. That's the flesh. That arises from within. Jesus said that in Mark chapter 7. That from within, out of the heart of a man, arises all these things. We have a flesh within. But we have two enemies that are external to us. One of them is the devil and the demonic host. And the thief comes to steal, to kill, destroy. He wants to destroy our life. And then we also have the world system the scripture talks about. When we think of the world system, we're thinking about the values and beliefs that operate in the world, the fallen world in which we live. 1 John chapter 2 talks about that. James chapter 4 says, if you want to make yourself a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. And so the world system is antithetical with the kingdom of God. And so we're going to talk about danger areas that the world and the devil will utilize to arouse within us and to bring out from us our flesh. And there are going to be specific applications that probably will make us squirm. And we may not like. But we'll hit them anyway. Because I think we need to know. Let's start with category number one. This is where we're going to spend the time with this morning. Like I said, I don't want to do this in a graphic way. I don't want to do it in a gratuitous way. I don't want to glamorize these things. But the Bible talks about this repeatedly. As a foe which would destroy every person in the room. Sexual sin. Today in our world, the world in which we live today, I think essentially if you talk to people on the street and you ask people about sexual issues, the prevailing opinion would be that as long as it's consensual and as long as it's with either adults or minors, it's fair game. As long as it's consensual. But what does God say? What does God say about this area? This is where we want to go this morning as we want to discuss clearly and biblically an understanding of how our flesh would destroy us in this area. You know, in almost any New Testament list of the works of the flesh, these things will show up first in almost any New Testament list. I asked myself, I was thinking about this, why? Why does he put these at the front of the list in almost every case? First of all, I would say this. It is an area of temptation that every person will face. Every person. There's not a person in the room today that is exempt from this struggle. Let's just be honest with ourselves. Let's say it up front. This is an area of struggle that every person will deal with. You know, not every person is going to struggle with drunkenness. There are other sins that not every person will struggle with and battle with. But this is an area that every person will face a struggle in. It also, I think another reason why it always comes up first in the list, is because it is most obvious, it is most evident to us that this is incompatible with what it means to be a believer and it is an area of life And it is a sin that must be discarded right at the outset of the Christian life. That is so obvious to us from many places in the New Testament and in the Old Testament. Now, when we think about this issue, this is the most powerful of all fleshly urges. It is the most to be feared. And it tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, it is the most devastating. Every other sin that a man commits is outside of the body, but he that commits fornication sins against himself. This is in 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Now, there are four in the list. Adultery, that is the Greek word mokeia, fornication, pornea, uncleanness, and lewdness. You see them there in your Bible in Galatians chapter five. Let's talk about these four things. The first one is adultery. I put an asterisk there next to it. Maybe you notice that. And the reason is because depending on what translation of the Bible you are reading, it may not be in the list. There are two works of the flesh, and to be honest with you, right up front, that do not appear in every Greek manuscript. One is adultery, and one is murder. So as we go through the list, the reason I put that there is because some of you are reading from other good translations of the Bible. And maybe when I read adultery, you were like, why did he read that? That's not in my Bible. Okay? In some translations of the Scripture, it does not show up. So, there are four in the New King James, and I believe in good manuscript evidence, adultery would be included. But like I said, some of the translations that are out there today will not have it, so I put an asterisk by it. There's adultery, there's fornication, there's uncleanness, there's lewdness. Fornication in the ESV, that word is translated with the concept of sexual immorality. The word uncleanness is translated in the ESV. And I just chose the ESV because it's another good translation. There's other ones we could use. We could talk about the New American. We could use the word there. But we're using the ESV. Uncleanness is translated in the ESV with the word impurity. And then lewdness is translated in the ESV with the word sensuality. Sensuality. We talk about sensualness a lot. This is the word lewdness. Now, these are all linked together in several texts of the Bible. In fact, I'm going to go back a couple of screens. Let me go back to 2 Corinthians 12. Notice at the end of this passage, in 2 Corinthians 12, God says to us, Paul is writing, he says, when I come to you, I'm afraid that God is going to humble me among you. And I am going to mourn amongst you for the many, notice the word many there, the many in the church who have sinned before And yet they have not repented of the uncleanness, the fornication, and the lewdness. You see those three things? They are given to us in that same passage in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 as they are over here in Galatians chapter 5. And we see that the case many times where the word fornication shows up. So will be the words uncleanness and lewdness. Now, when we think of the concept of sexual immorality and we're talking about fornication, that is just a general term. It's a very general term in the Bible that just speaks of sexually immoral actions of any type. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, the scripture says this. Remember in the song we sang? We talked about choosing God's will, which is perfect, good and kind. You know, what's God's will for your life? Here it is. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. This is the will of God, your sanctification. You want to know God's will for your life? Here it is. This is the will of God, your sanctification, that all of you abstain from fornication. That every one of you, he says in 1 Thessalonians 4, know how to possess your own vessel. That's your own body, that we all would know how to possess our own vessel in sanctification and in honor. Now, when we think of adultery, We are thinking of a specific type of sexual immorality, aren't we? We are thinking of the breaking of the bonds of marriage, the covenant relationship of marriage with a sexually immoral relationship outside of marriage. That is what adultery is. When we think of uncleanness, we're really talking about the result of the sin. It makes us unclean. When we think of lewdness, we are thinking about where this sin leads us. It doesn't just stay confined in the corner of our life. It leads us down a road of destruction. And along that road towards destruction, there is a place that we come to that we just call lewdness. We'll define that in a minute. Now, when we think of sexual immorality, the Greek word is porneia. It comes from the root word porne, which is just the Greek word for a prostitute. And so the Greek word porneia simply meant to visit the prostitute. And then what happened with that term is over time it just came to mean any and all sexual activities outside of marriage. Any and all. There's a guy named William Barclay who wrote a commentary on this and he said this, of this word. He said this word, this word porneia, fornication, is the love which can be bought or sold. Which, by the way, is not love at all, he said. And then he says this, the great and basic error of this is that the person with whom such lust is gratified is not really considered a person at all, but as a thing. He or she is a mere instrument through which the demands of lust are gratified. And that's why we think of words in this concept of pornographic. or pornography. It's just about the gratification of self. The word to be unclean, akatharsia, simply is a Greek word which means dirt. That's all the word is. It speaks of impurity. It speaks of that which is soiled or that which becomes dirty. And it speaks of the moral separation that results in this, in our separation from God. The word lasciviousness or lewdness is an amazing word because it just simply means this. It is a love of sin that is so reckless and audacious that a man has ceased to care what God or man thinks of what he's doing. He flaunts it. It is sin without shame. There is no attempt to hide or to cloak it. It's San Francisco, my friend. Let's say it this way. It's gay pride parade. It's celebrate it. That's lewdness. And this is where it goes. This is where what begins as fornication eventually leads us. It is the end result that is described in Romans one. I said this is a difficult message. The first century was described by historians as an age when shame seemed to have vanished from the earth. Much of the degeneracy that grew in the ancient world grew out of the Greek culture. It was spread like a virus. through the mystery religions of the day and came to permeate the very fabric of society. All of the Greek philosophers were immoral to the core. Men that we know of, Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, not only did they keep mistresses, but most of them were homosexual pedophiles. Historical reality. Plato's work entitled The Symposium, which by the way is even regarded today as one of the greatest works of literature of all time. Not by me, I've actually never read it. I had to look it up on Google to find out what it was about. It's actually a writing by Plato of a sequence of speeches that were given by a bunch of men at a drunken party. And in their speeches, they are each praising all of the different manners of erotic love, especially in their midst, homosexual behavior. The symposium. This is the Greek philosophy that built much of our Western world. A man named Gibbons, who wrote the book The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, tells us that of the first 15 Roman emperors, only Claudius was anywhere near what we would think of as virtuous in regards to sexuality. Julius Caesar was a homosexual. Nero married a young boy named Sporus. And the degeneracy just goes on and on. Even in the lowest rungs of society, institutionalized prostitution existed through all of the pagan temples and even through the religious rites. Ephesus had Diana. Corinth had Aphrodite. Where, as we read about Corinth this morning, in the center of the city, at the top of the hill was the temple to the Greek god Aphrodite. And there were 600 temple prostitutes that were employed by the temple. Palestine had Baal and Asherah. And so, immorality was the very fabric of society. In the book of Leviticus, God describes the debauchery in the ancient world this way in chapter 18. He says to the nation of Israel, after going through a list of types of immorality that I don't even want to mention. He says, do not defile yourselves with any of these things. For by all these things the nations are defiled and I am casting them out before you. For the land is defiled, therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it." And then God says this, and the land pukes out its inhabitants. That's Leviticus chapter 18. And so when someone became a Christian, it was understood that these vices were expected to end. And so God said in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is past, the new has come. And it almost sounds deja vu to our world today, doesn't it? There's nothing new under the sun. I'm going to recommend a book to you. I recommend this book to you as adults. Not a book you want to leave laying around. It's a book by a guy named, he's a journalist named David Kupelin. It's called The Marketing of Evil. It's graphic in many ways, but not in a gratuitous way. But it is important for us, it's not a fun read, but it is an important work for us that we might understand the times in which we live. Let me just read you the table of contents in this book. Chapter 1, Marketing Blitz, Selling Gay Rights to America. Chapter 2, Buying the Big Lie. Chapter 3, the killer culture. Who's selling sex and rebellion to your children? And it goes on and on and on. It's an important book for you as an adult to read. That we can understand the times in which we live. Now let's talk about some danger areas. Danger areas that our external enemies would exploit. We know these things are within us. They are part of our sinful, Adamic nature. But there are foes without us that would allure us to destroy us, that would pander to these areas of our flesh and would cause them to rise up within us. Let's just say, right at the get-go, we need to be careful with Hollywood, don't we? We need to be careful with the movies we watch and the TV that we enjoy. We need to choose wisely. We need to guard the eye-gate to our mind. Movies that make immoral behavior cute, cool, glamorous, commonplace, as it says in Ephesians chapter 5. It doesn't matter if everybody else is watching it. They should not be named amongst the saints. When we get together as Christians, we shouldn't be able to talk about the latest movie as though it was just a good thing to have watched when it glamorized porn. Even if it was soft porn, it should not be named amongst the saints. That was God's words 2,000 years ago that are applicable today. Oh, we like to watch movies. And there are good ones to watch. But let us choose with the Spirit of God leading us, not our flesh. We think of MTV. We think of music. We think of the peers that are out there that have been unclean in thought and deed and would pass that on to your children, my dear parent that's out there. Not every peer that is in your child's life is a relationship that you could encourage. You should pray for that young person that is caught in uncleanness. But you should safeguard your child. How about the dances that would arouse these passions amongst peers? With someone that you really are not even intending to marry. Would that be named amongst the saints? How about the immoral lyrics and the driving beat and the sensuality of much of today's music, which is like an IV drip to our soul, and it inoculates us to the evil of the practices that are glamorized and glorified in those songs. Parent, take the music that your child is listening to and take out the jacket. I think they still have them in the jacket. If not, I'm sure you can find the lyrics on Google. And don't just listen to the tune. Read the words. Does it have a message that is glorifying to Christ? Or is it gratifying to the flesh? What is God's plan? By the way, before we go any further with that, what were Jesus' words? If your eye makes you offend, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better to go into life without an eye than to perish with both. Now, he is teaching there metaphorically, isn't he? If your hand would make you offend, then cut it off and cast it from you. It is better to go into life with one hand than having both and go to hell fire. He is basically saying to us, we need to do whatever we have to do to eradicate from our life the influences that would drive us towards the flesh. I like the movie Fireproof, when old Kirk Cameron takes out the computer that is destroying his life and his marriage, and he is ruthless with it with a sledgehammer. Or is it a ball bat? You say, that was a good movie. How many people would be willing to do it? In reality, whatever it takes to put that sin behind you. God's plan for our life is one man for one woman, for life. That's God's plan. Young people, and here's where I'm tailoring it to you, because you're starting out on this journey. Young people, God's stated will for you is complete chastity, complete purity until you are united with another in marriage. That is God's will. And true love waits, and true love is worth waiting for. Don't sell your birthright for a mess of pottage. Now, let me give you some advice. Young people, young men, young men that are in here, listen up for a minute. Even if you don't want to look like you're listening to me, listen with your ear gate. Don't indulge your mind in fantasy. And do not make as close friends those that would destroy your morals. You must be ruthless here, young men. We're going to talk about this tomorrow night at men's council, so adults don't just come bring your boys. Young men, when you're going out on a date, I don't know if we like that word anymore, maybe it's courting, whatever it is, hanging out with someone of the other sex. Keep your hands to yourself. You do not need to be, I hate it when I go down to the school and I walk through the halls and I see this stuff. You do not need to be hanging all over a young woman. to inform us that you like her. Keep yourself here. Young women, your neckline and your skirtline are not meant to be revealing, but concealing. If you cause a man to stumble in this area, it is true, it says in Matthew chapter 5, if a man looks on a woman to lust after her, he's committed adultery in his heart. But if you cause a brother in the faith to sin, to fall into sin by the way you are dressing, I submit to you, young woman, you are accountable to God. Clothing is not meant to allure and to tempt. Clothing is meant to attractively adorn. That is why God has given it to us in a fallen world. Where did clothing come from? Genesis, chapter three, right after the fall. I know all you young women are into all the latest fads. That's OK. As long as they're modest. And as long as you ask yourself, if Jesus was going with you as you left your room, would he be embarrassed? So how do you keep yourself pure in a sexually impure world? Go with me to Romans chapter 13. We'll bring it to a conclusion. Romans chapter 13. Let's just read the last couple of verses of this chapter. He says in Romans 13 verse 13. After talking about good government, which, by the way, is to reward the good and punish the evil. And we have a flip flop in our culture today where what is good is being called evil and what is evil is being called good. But he goes from government and he talks to the Christian. He says, let us walk properly in Romans 13, verse 13. Let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and in lust, not in strife and in envy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and notice this statement, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust. You see that statement there? Never put yourself in a place that you can. Then you can't. Make no provision for the flesh. That is what the Scripture says. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if we're going to be sexually pure in an impure world, whether that's an adult, a senior citizen, or a child, I would submit to you that there's things that need to happen in our life. First one is this. You're going to have to fight for it. You are going to have to fight for it. Life is not a playground, it is a battleground. And you are in for the toughest fight of your life to keep yourself pure for the glory of God. Think with me of 2 Corinthians chapter 10. This sounds a little bit like a fight. He says, cast down imaginations. And then he says, bring every thought captive to Christ. That sounds to me like a battle. Every thought captive. The next thought comes and it's not a good one. Then banish it and bring it captive to Christ, and it may be that every thought is a battle for you at stages of your life, but it is a battle worth waging and winning. You must flee. Think with me of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, that would be a perfect illustration. We won't take the time, but in Proverbs chapter four, Verse 14 and 15, Proverbs chapter 5, verse 8, Proverbs chapter 7, verse 25 to 27, he talks about the importance of fleeing from this stuff, having nothing to do with it. When we get next week into false worship, when we go to the sin of idolatry and the sin of sorcery, we will go to Acts chapter 19. We won't go there this morning, but in Acts chapter 19, there were people in the church that were engaging in sorcery. And in that relationship, they have these books of magic in their homes, and they bring them out, and they bring them to the church, and they have a public burning of them, and they destroy those things. My friend, there are things. Young people, there's some songs. that are on your iPads, that if mom and dad knew you listened to, and you liked, and you fantasized on what they're saying, you would be embarrassed. My friend, that needs to be deleted. It needs to be destroyed. If you don't know how to get it off, go to your mom and dad and say, I want a new iPad, and it's because I want my iPad to bring glory to God. I bet your mom and dad would support that. Do whatever it takes. We must leave these things. Now, I want to go to one more passage in 1 Corinthians 6, because this is an important one for us and it ties in with what Monty was reading. He says, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. What is he telling us here? We would intuitively, by our own flesh, deceive ourselves on these points. Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. Period. And such were some of you, but you were washed You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus. I want us just to hone our thinking on that last portion of this text. And such were some of you. My friend, if you are in this room and your life before Christ was characterized by these sins, or if you slipped into these sins as a believer and you have turned from them and they have been banished from your life, don't let Satan keep beating you up. You were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified. You were forgiven. It is done with. Go on. If you're struggling with it today, I would tell you two things, number one, Go to Christ, to the blood of Christ. Number two, after confessing that and stopping to do it, make yourself accountable to another believer. Half of the battle in these regards is exposing your need for help to another brother. That's half the battle. Why is it half the battle? Because it's the hardest step to take. When you actually go to another person and you humble yourself and you say, I am struggling in this way, will you help me? And like I said, tomorrow night, guys, we're going to talk about this a little bit more in depth in some practical areas of our lives at Men's Council. I would encourage you to another book if you're struggling in this. A guy named Erwin Lutzer, who is pastor of Moody Church. I think he still is. He was. Wrote an excellent book. The title of it is How to Say No to a Stubborn Habit Even When You Feel Like Saying Yes. It's not psychology. It's not even psychobabble. It's just good old Bible applied to life. But it was helpful to me. Extremely helpful to me. I went to a pastor at one point in my life and I sat down with him and I said, I need your help. He gave me that book and we had an accountability relationship and it meant all the difference to me. I would encourage you, young men, if you're struggling in this way, go and get a book like that. Make yourself accountable and God will give you the victory. After David's sin with Bathsheba, he prayed a wonderful prayer of confession. I think many times, you know, when we confess our sin to the Lord, we need to make it personal. We need to make it real. And one of the ways that we can do that is by praying back to God his own words in the experience of the saints. In Psalm 51, after that fallen condition in which David had sinned, he goes to God and he says, according to Your lovingkindness, according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions, wash me from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin. I acknowledge my transgressions. My sin is always before me against You. You only have I sinned and done this evil in Your sight that You may be found just when You speak and blameless when You judge. I was brought forth in iniquity. In sin, my mother conceived me. But you desire truth in the inward parts. In the hidden parts, you will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Let us pray. Father, I just pray that as your word has gone forth this morning. That it would convict our hearts, every one of us. Father, we find within us this struggle that rages because of the world in which we live and because of the flesh that inhabits us. And there are messages that bombard us all around us, Father, that would cause us to sin. Father, may we, as Job said in the book of Job, may we make a pledge with our souls to keep ourselves pure before you. Lord, I pray for someone in this room that's really struggling in this area. Father, even if they don't want to do it this morning for whatever reason, that Your Spirit would not let them get away from this. And they would get on the phone and they'd call Pastor Matt or myself or one of the deacons, and they would make an appointment to sit down and get some counsel from Your Word in how to gain the victory. Father, maybe a young lady here who feels like in order to find true love, she has to buy into all the world's values. Oh, Father, purge from her heart that folly. May she long for purity. Lord, keep us in your hand, I pray. In Jesus' name, Amen. Let's stand as we sing.