flee also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." One of the big problems that we have in American Christianity is that we have a lot of unstable Christians. They're double-minded. So they've got one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom. And they have this issue with this verse of when it says, flee. They don't like to flee. But the Bible is very clear. This is a very powerful word. The Bible says, flee also youthful lusts. And so the Christian in America, they will They will go to church. They'll do that. They will be for the Ten Commandments being hung in the courthouse. They'll be for that. They will be for one man and one woman and that's what a marriage is. They're for that. They are going to vote Republican the most conservative way they can. They're for all of that. But the instability comes in when they just refuse to flee lusts. And so we have a majority of Christians, they're saved, they're on their way to heaven, but They've trusted Christ. They truly have. But they just have this problem with fleeing some things. And so they want to sin on Saturday with some lustful things, but then they want to be sanctified on Sunday. And God gives this charge. Paul is giving it to young Timothy. Look, you're going to have to do some preaching here because people are going to have to flee some youthful lusts. And it's not... I understand there's some hard passages in the Scripture. We're not talking about the deep, knowledgeable attributes of God. We're talking about some real simple, basic principles by which to live by. And the hard thing for preachers nowadays is trying to convince people who, by and large, just want to live for themselves and satisfy themselves, It's very difficult to get them to turn their back from lust and run as fast as they can the other way. That's the difficult part. We have to be willing and ready to do that according to the Word of God. What is lust? What is it? Go to Romans 7. And let's look at at least one verse to cross-reference. Romans 7. What is lust? Romans 7, verse 7. The Bible says, What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law. For I had not known lust, except the law had said what? Thou shalt not covet. Lust is living for the indulgence of our own carnal pleasure. That's ultimately what lust is according to Romans 7, verse 7. And so we are now saved but we are living in this world that is controlled by and operates by the principle of lust, just carnal desires. And so we have to be able to be separate from that. And so that's why God tells us in 2 Timothy 2.22, hey, you've got to flee it. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, is not of the Father, but it is of the world. And so, we've got to figure out what master we're going to serve, because we can't be double-minded, we're going to be unstable. You can't flee youthful lusts and follow the Father at the same time. It's impossible to do that, because they're two different directions. Choose ye this day whom ye will serve. We better have more than just the poster hanging up on our wall. We better have more than just the bumper sticker on our car. We better be able to live what we say we believe. And the best thing, young people, you can do is just learn how to flee. And it doesn't mean you're afraid. It doesn't mean you're a coward. It means you're wise. It means you're wise. We are not under the power of the devil anymore. The Bible talks about us having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. You've been set free. I've been set free. We're not held to that anymore. You can understand why a lost person would end up at hooligans for thirsty Thursdays, getting the devil's brew and all that. You can understand that. But for a saved person? I can't understand that. But apparently a lot of saved people have a problem with that. So God says, look, you better make a choice and you better flee that thing. You better flee. Go to James 1. Young people, pay attention tonight, please, because This verse here is going to show you where lust will lead you. It's going to show us all. But young people in particular, James 1. Look at verse 14. The Bible says in James 1.14, "...but every man is tempted when he is drawn away after his own..." What? lust, and enticed. Then, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. I know that a lot of you, young people especially, through the summer now, you've probably done some planting of some crops or fruits or vegetables, and it's almost like you can see, as you look back, you can almost see the seed going into the soil, the water, that little first burst of it coming out of the soil, and then it blossoms with some fruit, and it's a wonderful thing, isn't it? God says it's almost like that picture. That's what lust is. That seed of lust. It's going to bring forth sin and it's going to eventually kill you. It's going to kill your testimony. It's going to kill your walk with the Lord. It's going to hurt you. Living for carnal desires. God says you better flee that. How would you describe the word flee? Run. Right? Run away. Fleeing isn't tiptoeing backwards, keeping your eye on the sin. Fleeing isn't looking one way and then looking back the other way. Fleeing isn't, I'm just going to kind of slowly move away from this situation. That's not what flee is. Your house is on fire! Well, you know what? I think what we need to do is pray about this. Let's consider our options. Let's move slowly out of the home. No, you're going to run! As fast as you can, you are going to flee the burning home because you don't want to die. Does that make sense? There's a rattlesnake. And mom says to the children, children, just be careful when you're playing with it. Just be ever so careful. Just slowly move around it. Now, that mother would be insane. to think that that would be an option. You are going to get your child away from that rattlesnake as quickly as you possibly can. And you know what God wants to know? And you know what Paul wants Timothy to know? And you know what he wants me to know and you to know? If lust comes into your life, get away from it as fast as you can. When you get saved, it should not take you three years to get rid of your cigarettes. It shouldn't take you five years to get rid of your alcohol. It shouldn't take you ten years to get rid of the dirty movies and the dirty pictures and the dirty music. It shouldn't take you that long to clean up your life. Get away from all of it quick! Flee! Don't do the tiptoeing. We got too many Christians this tiptoeing around sin. And tiptoeing around lusts. Well, because they're afraid of what their peers are going to think. They're afraid of what their friends on social media are going to think. They're not really your friends. You just hit a button and they're identifying as a friend. But they're not really your friend. God's your friend. Jesus Christ is your friend. Your brothers and sisters in Christ are your friends. All right, follow that course. And God says you'd be a lot, lot better off. And you know people are struggling with physical ailments. We're praying for folks that have cancer. Nobody that has brain cancer goes to the doc and says, look doc, I want you to do the brain scan and all, but look, just take the cancer out of my left side of my brain. You know, just leave a little bit in my right side. That doctor would think you really got some issues, brain issues, because nobody in their right mind would do that. Nobody would. But Christians do it all the time. They got sin in their life. They got cancer in their life. And they say, you know what? I just want to keep some of this here. If you're addicted to video games, get off the addiction. If you're addicted to vile movies, get off of it. If you're addicted to dirty pictures, get off of it. It shouldn't take you forever to get off of the stuff. It's just Christians, they wanna keep the little side compartment of their sin here, and then they wanna have on one day this and one day that, and they're just in the kingdom and out of the kingdom, and they just walk like this their entire life, because they won't flee. They won't flee. and you let it soak into your life for too long, you're gonna end up, someone's arm starts to rot away, they're gonna end up having to amputate it. And you're gonna ruin yourself for the service of God. if you don't understand how important it is to flee youthful lusts. Now, I'm not going to yell this where this isn't really happening. This is for demonstrative purposes only. Fire! Now, if there really was a fire, How fast would you get out of the building? Would you get out as rapidly and as quickly as possible? And would you encourage your children to do in like manner? Then how come safe people have a problem with that when it comes to flee youthful lusts? God's yelling fire, and we're just tiptoeing around like it's no big deal. Get out of there. Get out. And all that stuff we talked about the dishonorable vessels in the verses before, well, you gotta get rid of the dishonorable vessels. Now let me show you something in the Old Testament. Go back to Genesis chapter number 39. I know many of you are familiar with this story, this hist story, but I'd like to look at it in light of what we're speaking about tonight. Genesis chapter 39. Genesis 39, look at verse number 1. Genesis 39, verse number 1. And Joseph was brought down to Egypt. And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, brought him of the hands of the Ishmaelites, which had brought him down thither." So Joseph's becoming a servant now. By the way, it's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Philippians 2, it says, he took upon himself the form of a servant. Joseph pictures our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 2, and the Lord was with Joseph. And he was a prosperous man. What type of servant did Joseph become? A prosperous one, right? We see that. A prosperous man in verse number two. By the way, the Lord Jesus Christ is our prosperous one. In Isaiah 53, at the beginning of the verse, it says, So Joseph is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ in verse number two. As a matter of fact, he's a picture all throughout the entire chapter. verse number four go down to, the Bible says, And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him, and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand. And you know what happens here? Joseph's master was very well pleased with Joseph. And that's another picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. God the Father was always pleased with the Son. This is my beloved Son whom I am well pleased. It's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse number 5, and over all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptians' house for Joseph's sake. And the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the house and in the field." Joseph was a, according to this verse, was he a blessing to others? He sure was. A picture of the Lord Jesus Christ who was also a blessing to others. He was the true light that lighteth every man. Look at verse 6. And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand, and he knew not all he had, save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person and well favored. Guess who else lived a goodly life? As a matter of fact, it was a perfect sinless life, the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 6, he's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 7, And it came to pass after these things, that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph, And she said, lie with me. Now, what is happening to Joseph here? He is being what? Tempted. Joseph is being tempted. That picture is the Lord Jesus Christ who is also tempted. We're going to find out that Joseph is not going to sin. The Lord Jesus Christ is tempted. And guess what He doesn't do? He doesn't sin. All of it, the entire chapter, is a picture of our Lord. Look at verse 8. Watch what happens. But he refused and said unto his master's wife, Behold, my master what is not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand, there is none greater in this house than I, neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife. How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Joseph realizes he's being tempted. Joseph realizes his sin would be against who? He may not even have gotten caught, but God would have known. And Joseph didn't sin because he knew God was looking. He knew God was watching and he wanted to obey who? God. Our sin is ultimately against God. Verse 10, And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her. And it came to pass about this time, that Joseph went into the house to do his business, and there was none of the men of the house there within. Gentlemen, if you ever get yourself in a situation like that, you're going to be in a real pickle. You go to get some work done, and there's not any other men around, but there's a single lady? You better remember this chapter. It's time to do what? Flee. That is a rapid running with the legs. That's called fleeing. Okay? Get out of there. Matter of fact, watch what Joseph does. And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me. And he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out. Does the Bible say in 2 Timothy 2.22, flee youthful lust? Do we see a perfect picture in the Old Testament with Joseph? When he is in the midst of a sinful situation, what does he do immediately? He flees. He doesn't sit down and have tea or coffee or let's talk about this. No, he flees as fast as he can. He gets out of there. What's wrong with it? What's wrong with it is any type of temptation you gotta get away from as quickly as possible because you and I aren't as strong as we think we are. We are strong with accountability, with church fellowship, with Christian friends, with preaching. That's safety. We get out on our own and we get around people of the world, you better be real, real, real careful. Because if there's one thing Satan wants to do, it's ruin your testimony. And if you want to lead your family for the Lord, I can tell you, Satan's going to put something in front of you, and something in front of you, and something in front of you, so you can be tempted and lie with it. You know what you've got to do? Get up and flee. Flee youthful lusts. And it's horrible. on occasion somebody will send me something or something, you know, I'll look at a news thing or something and it's just horrible how gripping sin can be. Because it doesn't matter how old you are or how young you are, church doctrinal statements don't change when the youth minister falls into sexual sin. There wasn't anything in the doctrinal statement that anybody disagreed with. And it doesn't matter if you're married or not married. Well, I'm married so I'm safe. You better stop thinking that way. Because Satan wants to wreck your marriage. And the way he's going to wreck your marriage is by putting somebody in front of you that you ought not be with. I'm not telling you to be paranoid and walk around like a schizo all day. What I'm telling you is, what happened to Joseph can happen to you. That's what I'm telling you. That's what I'm telling you. And it doesn't matter if you're a new Christian or an old Christian. You know how many preachers fall into this type of foolishness? A lot. It's not one every ten years either. It's a lot. It happens all the time. And you know what the news media can't wait to get a hold of? That story. They are salivating. Give me the story about the Christian that fell in sin, man. Is it wrong? You bet it's wrong. And even the world knows it's wrong. And they're going to use that to broad brush every Christian, every church, every preacher. Satan is salivating. I'm telling you, the best thing we can do is just get away from it as fast as you can get away from it. Ladies, that might mean turn off the soap operas and the romance novels and all this junk, because that's putting your heart in a place where it shouldn't be. Ask your husband to sweet talk you if you want to hear. I mean, talk him into sweet talking you. Really. Gentlemen at work, you just better be careful who you're putting your time into and if there's accountability with that time. And if there isn't, figure out a way to get it. Because Satan wants to get in there and he wants to mess things up. And you just be surprised about how fast all of a sudden what you thought wasn't a problem now became a problem in your life. 2 Timothy 2, verse 22. Let's get back there because we didn't get past three words of that verse. 2 Timothy 2, look at verse 22, and let's look at the next part. It says, "...flee also youthful lusts." We see that semicolon there because God now is attaching something to this. fleeing, and he attaches what you replace it with, which is follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Nobody can become a spiritual vacuum. You have to replace fleeing with something else. You can't have a void there. You have to replace it with something. You can come out from among them and be ye separate, right? We all understand that verse. But also in Romans 1, the Bible talks about Paul. He was called to be an apostle separated unto the gospel. So you can come out from the heathen and be separate, but now you're gonna have to be separated unto something. And it should be, in Paul's example, it's unto the gospel, it's unto the Lord. But you can't just be separated from unclean, filthy, wicked things. You can't just be separated from it, you have to be separated unto something. So God says flee, and he doesn't leave you in a fleeing mode. He leaves you with, okay, now I've got something better for you to follow after. Ephesians 4 talks about putting off, but it's not just putting off, putting off, putting off. It's also what? Replaced with, put this on. God never leaves us in a spiritual vacuum ever. He always has something better. In Ephesians 5, it talks about, be not drunk with wine, where is an excess? Oh, okay. Well, I'm not going to be drunk with wine. I'm not going to be filled that way. What am I going to be filled with? The Spirit. He never leaves us in this vacuum life. He always has something better. Turn the page. God's got something better. The Bible says, walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." Young people, how do you escape lust? You have to walk in the Spirit. And young people, if you're not saved, your parents are going to have to force you to not flee after carnal lusts. I'm getting ahead of myself. I've got to save this for Sunday school, but I'm going to bet None of our young people smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, do drugs, watch dirty movies, listen to dirty music, and have a potty mouth. But I can tell you what you do have. a carnal heart that wants to satisfy yourself. And that's called a lustful heart. Self-indulgence. That's what you do. Young people, that's what you do have. That's why you bow up when your mom tells you, no, we're not doing that. That's why you bow up. Because your carnal heart wants what it wants. And God says to overcome that, you have to walk in the Spirit. And if you don't have the Holy Spirit, your parents do, and they will help you walk that way. But I'm telling you, the picture of fleeing, we talked about, man, that's rapid running. Following is very different than fleeing. Like that, you can turn your back on sin and run the other way and never look back and go that life again. There's things in my life that I did I don't even want to look back on. I don't even have an interest in going back there if somebody tried to sell it to me for an hour. You could put the best infomercial together and try to sell me on that. I just don't. I have no interest. I have fled from that and I have no interest in going back. Following's going to take me a little bit longer. And walking in the Spirit is going to be a lifelong journey. But I'll tell you what, as long as it takes, it's a lot better than being in the mess and the mire and the filth that we used to be in. Amen? It really is. The following is going to be a lifetime of us letting the Lord lead and letting the Holy Spirit guide, and us just step upon step, day after day, week after week, this lifelong walk of following Jesus. There isn't a better walk. And it does take time to learn how to live right. And it does take time to learn. There's a lot in the Bible. There's a lot of questions that come up when you get saved. It takes time. You know, we have people visiting. And I know, probably as well as you do, I know it's like walking into, you know, just church on steroids. I know that. We're going through a lot of verses. We're covering a lot of material. It's a lot of Bible. I get it. You hear one sermon, it opens up a question for another, and then you get that question answered, and you got ten others. Well, if people stick around, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, if you stick around long enough and try to make it to all the services or at least catch up on the ones that you miss, by the end of a year, you'll be surprised how much Bible we can learn. We really can learn a lot, but we have to be willing to just keep following and the Lord will start filling in the blanks. But it doesn't happen in one sermon. But you keep following. It's not one step and you stop. You've got to go another, and another, and another, and God's going to be right there. He's going to be right there. You can't follow righteousness and lust at the same time. And I understand that our church will have a revolving door. I guess they all do. Because we're teaching all of the Bible, there is eventually going to be something that we're going to get on that's going to annoy you. And there's going to be something that we'll get on next month that's just going to annoy you. And then you're going to be annoyed at me because you think I'm making it up and I do my best to just read the Bible. But there's going to be something that's going to rub you the wrong way, and you're going to get upset at, and you're going to kind of want to just park it. That's not the time to park it. That's the time to start praying. Because we don't want to be a church where it's just, well, church, if it's convenient, I'll go. Look, as long as I don't get an invitation to go on the boat on the lake, I'm in church. And as long as the ball game isn't on, as long as they're game not on, hey, I'll be here, preacher. That's an awful way to follow. That's one step forward, and let's turn around and take two steps back. It's a daily walk. This is why, by the way, we ended up with what has been termed the American Gospel. The American Gospel accommodates people who think they're following after righteousness when indeed they really aren't and they have no intention of. And they sure aren't going to follow you and your church's legalistic beliefs either because, well, they have a life to live and it's a life full of lust. And as long as nothing else comes up on my schedule, preacher, I'll be there. And a lot of what we see in churches is a flesh-appealing carnal show. And we're trying the best we can to get to the heart of the matter. 2 Timothy 2, verse 22, what do we follow after? Faith. That's what we follow after. Faith. When you purpose in your heart to follow righteousness, then your faith will strengthen. And too many times we ask God, God can you give me more faith? Please God, give me more faith. What comes up first in the list though is follow righteousness. Maybe it should be, you know what Lord, I'm just going to obey you and do right. And then you will strengthen my faith, Lord. That's the pattern. Flee useful lust, follow righteousness. I obey God, I do right. Now he strengthens my faith. That's the way we can see this play out. Now God will prove his faithfulness. What's next here? We see flee also useful lust, but follow righteousness, faith. Then it says charity. It doesn't say love. I know a lot of lost people that love others, at least when they do something for them. But charity is nothing in return. You know, you give to charity, you don't get anything back. Charity is specifically the sacrificial love that saved people have for other saved people. It's a deeper form of love. It endures all things, by the way. And its meaning is that you have charity toward the uncharitable. Bible also says if you don't have charity, guess what you and I are? Nothing. You think you can live with charity unless you have faith? Do right, let the Lord strengthen your faith, and then maybe you have a little bit of charity in your heart. Because here's what's going to happen. You're going to spend your time helping someone, and they're going to turn around and hurt you. And then you're going to spend your time praying with and counseling someone, and they're going to turn around and they're going to gossip about you. You're going to pour your life into somebody or somebodies, and what's going to happen is, now they're going to betray you and they're going to do something you never thought that they would do. Are you going to do right? Are you going to trust God to strengthen your faith? Well, if you do, He'll give you some charity in your heart. Because when you see that same person out in public, you know what you're not going to have in your heart? Malice and anger and the thought that you want to punch them in the neck. You're going to have charity. You're going to have charity. Are you? I'm a little nervous in the service. Am I? After all we just said, the person who you were charitable to, that you trusted, that you spent time with, they turn around and they did something awful to you to hurt your testimony. When you see them in Walmart, are you going to have malice build up in your heart and you can't wait to explode on them? God says, you do right, He'll strengthen your faith. And when these situations in life come up, charity is being charitable to the uncharitable. Well, that about killed the night. I mean, that's a tough one. That's an easy one to preach. I mean, I preached it, but I don't know if any of us can truly live following that. Because I'd like to follow righteousness. I want to follow faith. I want to follow charity until it comes to that. And then I kind of feel like the Lord's putting on my left turn signal to go the other way. That's a tough one. That's a tough one. Didn't say you had to forgive them. Didn't say you had to have them over for fellowship and lunch. Didn't say you had to trust them again. But I believe it'd be right to show as much charity to them as you can without giving them a face-ripping sermon on why they did what they did was so wrong to you. Well, we better move on. You say, I don't know if I agree with that. I don't know if I agree with that. But I know charity is a deep, deep love that expects nothing in return. So just remember, if you're doing something good for somebody, trying to help them, counsel them, come alongside of them, do it because it's right. Don't expect anything in return. And it says, last one is peace. Righteousness, faith, charity, peace. And peace is at the end. Most people will put that first. But God's trying to help us understand we're not going to have true peace unless we start living right, having faith in Him, and having some charity in our heart. And then true peace is going to come out. And I don't want to be the guy... I don't want to be the church where it's 12 o'clock on Sunday afternoon. and we just hear a great sermon, we just sing some great hymns, we have some great fellowship, we're with our great friends in the Lord, and then we're upset because it's 12.05 and we want to be at the Golden Corral. We got no peace. and to make it worse, I don't want to be the church that as soon as we get to the first light and it turns red and we can't get through it, now we're even more fired up. And it's almost like, man, everything that we just enjoyed, now it's all gone. We don't have any true peace. I understand things come up in life that are frustrating, but we're a peaceable people. The Bible talks about seeking peace, making peace. living peaceably. We preach the gospel of peace. We have unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. The peace of God should rule in our heart. We should live in peace. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. We have the peace of God which passeth all understanding. Yeah, I hear you preacher, but I'm hungry and I'm stuck at this light and it's lunchtime. We lose it. We lose it. I think we should hunger for peace. Be content. Lastly, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. I really believe the pure in heart will find the pure in heart. And I really believe there will be people that will help me flee and follow, as I believe there will be people God will put in your life to help you flee and follow. Say this and we'll close out. Christian people have always called on the Lord. But Christian people have not always called on the Lord with a pure heart. It's the slot machine Jesus. I want something to come out Lord. I want to hit the jackpot on this. Get your heart clear, get it cleared, get it pure before you call on the Lord. He's holy and He should be reverenced and we shouldn't approach Him like He's the vending machine God. We should approach Him as He is holy and majestic and we should be in awe of Him. Call on Him, but make sure it's out of nothing less than a pure heart. Get your heart clear, get your heart right, get your heart pure, and then call on the Lord. you