Some Final Biblical Directives

Introduction: The Battle Against Sexual Impurity and Series Review

0:01 It is true that every time a servant of God stands to open the word of God, that there is a direct frontal attack upon the kingdom that is built upon error and ignorance and lies, the very kingdom of darkness, but I believe in a very specific and heightened way the prince of darkness hates when his kingdom is attacked in areas where he has set up some of his most thick embattlements and some of his most powerful strongholds in which he holds his captives. And so I ask you to join with me in praying that as we seek to wage war with the word of truth, that God will, by his mighty power, dismantle aspects, aspects of that kingdom through the word of his truth coming in the power of the Spirit. Let us pray.

1:07 Our Father, we are mindful of your word which says that we do not wrestle with flesh and blood, but with principalities, with powers, with the rulers of darkness. And we would therefore consciously, by faith, take to us afresh the whole armor that you have given us. And we pray that in these coming moments together, as we seek by your grace to wage warfare against the kingdom of darkness and error and lies, by the word of your truth, that those weapons will be mighty through your power to the pulling down of strongholds, and that our Lord Jesus may take to himself the spoils of his conquest over the powers of darkness. Come then, O Lord, we pray, and take the field in every one of our hearts for our good and for your glory. Amen. We come tonight to the sixth and what will be the final message in this series that I have entitled, The Divine Antidote for Sexual Impurity,

2:32 or positively stated, The Divine Prescription. The Divine Prescription for Sexual Purity. Given the climate of the age, something to which Pastor Smith referred prior to his prayer, and given the fact that it has been fourteen and a half years since I addressed this subject in any focused way, I judge that it was time to consider it afresh and to come to the word of God, concerned to see in it the divine antidote for sexual impurity. It has been six weeks since the last message in this series, and all I will do by way of review is to give the most cursory overview of the ground we have already covered. I began with four major propositions or facts of biblical revelation touching this subject. In stating those four facts, what I was really doing was sketching in a theology of human, sexuality, as it is found in the scriptures. The four facts that I set before you were these.

3:44 Fact number one, our sexuality, including our desire and capacity for sexual pleasure, originates with God and not with the devil. And we spent the bulk of our time in Genesis 1 and 2, and in 1 Timothy chapter 4. Fact number two, the God who designed and created us with our sexuality is the only one who has the right to determine and impose upon us its legitimate functions. And there again, we went to Genesis 1 and 2, and again to God's commandments in Exodus 20.

4:29 Fact number three, the willful, impenitent indulgence in sexual sex and sexual sin in the mind or in practice will bar a person from heaven and will certainly result in the damnation of hell. And there we looked at seven key texts which explicitly teach that any who willfully, impenitently indulge in sexual sin shall be damned for their sin. And then fact number four, a real participation in the dynamics of saving grace will deliver us from the dominion of sin, including sexual sins, and equip us for progressive growth in sexual purity. And what you learned in the adult class this morning was but the broad base of the general teaching on sanctification applied to this specific issue of sexual sin. Then in the next two messages, I sought to expound two of the three major watershed passages in the New Testament dealing explicitly with the subject of sexual impurity. We studied 1 Corinthians 6, 12 to 20,

5:53 and the heart of that passage is that a biblical theology of the Christian's body is essential in dealing with the sins of sexual impurity. And then we looked at 1 Corinthians 7, 1 to 7, and the heart of the teaching of that passage is that a biblical theology of the institution of marriage in its relationship to sexual impurity is also vital. I had hoped to expound 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 to 8, the third of the watershed passages in the New Testament, but to maintain continuity and the like, and I had hoped to expand the value of the passage in the New Testament, and to maintain continuity and the life, and to maintain continuity and the life, of the preaching schedule over the next several weeks. That may await a once-off sermon sometime in the future, but I did want to wind out and complete this particular wind-down and complete this series in our time together tonight. So what I propose to do in this final message is to set before you what I am calling some final biblical directives in relationship to the divine antidote to sexual impurity. And the counsel or directive I give to you is this.

The Final Directive: Continual, Spirit-Empowered, Gospel-Oriented Mortification of Sexual Sins

7:11 No matter what our age and stage in life, once we have been sexually awakened, and here is my counsel, we must continually engage in the spirit-empowered, gospel-oriented mortification of sexual sins. We must continually engage in the spirit-empowered, gospel-oriented mortification of sexual sins. Now in opening up this directive or word of counsel, we will first of all establish this duty, explain the duty, and make some final applications. First of all then, let me seek to establish this duty, the duty of continually engaging in mortification, that is marked by the empowerment of the spirit and suffused with gospel motives and dynamics. And I want us to look at two basic texts. One is the generic text, and the other is the specific. The generic text is Romans 8 and verse 13.

8:29 Why do I counsel you if you would deal with the sins of sexual impurity, that you and I must, continually engage in the mortification of these sins? A mortification enabled by the spirit, and driven by gospel motives and gospel realities. Well I rest the case, first on this generic text, and then secondly on the specific text, that we will consider in the book of Colossians. Romans chapter 8.

9:04 In verses 1 through 11, the apostle is assigned, establishing that the believer's union with Christ, delivers him from the state of condemnation, and also from the realm in which the flesh governs his life. Romans 8.1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are where? In Christ Jesus.

9:31 Union brings us condemnation into a state of grace and justification. But that union with Christ not only before God, in this passage the apostle says, it radically and fundamentally alters our ethical relationship to the law of God. And so he goes on to say, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ, that's union with Christ, has made me free from the law of sin and of death. The law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own, own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. Now here is his end, as it focuses upon this issue of the ethical and moral conduct of the believer. In order that the ordinance, the requirement, the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in, who walk not in the spirit. Then he goes on to demonstrate, you live in one or two realms as the fundament, the mental sphere of your ethical relationship to God and to his law.

10:53 You are either after the flesh, verse 5, they that are after the flesh, mind the things of the flesh, they the things of the spirit. And he goes on to demonstrate, is no,

11:12 are in a state of no condemnation, have also been delivered from the realm of the conduct. He says very clearly in verse 9, you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man has not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. So if you've not experienced this union with Christ, bringing you to no condemnation, and bringing you in spirit, you are none of his.

11:50 Based upon that, those are gaussialities,

11:55 we have a conclusion drawn in verse 12. So then, in light of this teaching, we are debtors, not, to the flesh, to live after the flesh, for, you live,

12:16 here we have a present tense verb, you are continually putting to death the deeds of the body, many as are led by the spirit of God, these are the sons. So you see the basic teaching of this text. If you continue to live after the flesh, the wages of sin is death,

12:42 the flesh is to live, and the end of it is death.

12:50 Dited to Christ, indwelt, by the spirit, they do not live to the flesh, they live after the spirit, and one of the concrete activities of that life in the spirit, is by the power of the spirit, putting to death, and as John Owen so powerfully demonstrates, in his masterful exposition of this text, in his treatise on the mortification of sin, it is we who put the sin to death. Look again at the text. If you, the spirit,

13:33 as believers, united, to Christ, indwelt with the spirit, by the spirit, we are active in this ongoing work of mortification. It is sexual sins, specifically, and concretely. Now then, turn to the passage in which this matter of mortification is specifically applied to sexual sins. Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3.

14:31 I am simply, reestablishing that this counsel I am giving you is rooted in and grows out of the words of Scripture, particularly these two texts. In this preceding context, Paul is underscoring the implications of being united to Christ. Chapter 2 and verse 20. If you died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, here he says, in union with Christ, you have died with Christ.

15:03 Chapter 3 and verse 1. If then you were raised together with Christ, in your union with Christ, you not only died with Him, you've been raised together with Him. He says you are seated at the right hand of God. Verse 3.

15:21 You died, and faith is hid with.

15:25 He is underscoring some of the implications that grow out of what it means to be united to Christ in His death, in His resurrection, and in His resurrection. In His session at the right hand of gospel realities, He now says in verse 5, put to death the result you are to put to death the members which are upon the earth. And then He names five of them. Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. The first two are unmistakable references to sins of sexual immorality. Put to death pornea. Every form of illicit sexual union with a woman refers in a broader sense to every kind of sexual impurity.

16:38 And Lenski, the Lutheran commentator, suggests that what we really have are two couplets moving from the out-stations of sexual sins in the first two, and the next two pointing to the inward. He renders it the inward fire and the base desire. What is rendered in the 1901, passion and evil desire. And then he adds to that covetousness, for often these are joined in Scripture because covetousness is also a form of the moral uncleanness of the human heart.

17:20 It is the capstone commandment of the Ten Commandments touching the deepest, springs of the desire of the heart. And here in this passage, mortification focuses predominantly upon sexual sins. So in addressing the subject in this way, this is not the result of a perverse mind in the preacher. It is the result of a sensitivity to the emphasis given by God the Holy Spirit.

17:51 And so my counsel to every one of you who is serious about God's antidote to sexual impurity, serious about God's prescription for sexual purity in a crassly, immoral age, my counsel is this. You must engage in this spirit empowered of these sexual sins. Whether in their outward manifestations or in their mental inward desire, we must be putting these sins into practice. We must be putting these sins into practice. Well, I hope those two key texts are sufficient to persuade you that it is indeed your duty and mine as Christians to engage in this mortification. Now we come secondly to the duty or the directive explained.

Mortification Explained: Posture of Justified Sinners

18:55 Having considered the duty established, now secondly, the duty explained.

19:02 And here I heartily recommend for those of you that don't feel you could bite off the full treatise, volume six of John Owen has three separate treatises. One on temptation, one on mortification, and the third one I have forgotten, but it's three treatises. And here in this condensed version that is done by Andrew Swanson, what every Christian needs to know, Owen's treatment on temptation and mortification are very

19:40 language and I cannot recommend too strongly the help that God has given to his church since Owen penned these things many, many years ago and interestingly they were originally preached to teen age students at Oxford. He preached them in chapel to help young men be pure in what was according to today's standards a very counsel of God's servant. We carry this in the bookstore. I heartily recommend it.

20:14 Now then, what does the scripture mean and how do we go about chilling, putting to fornication, uncleanness, passion, and evil desire? I will not be exhaustive in the remaining time of the message, but I set before you four specific things involved in this spirit-empowered, gospel-oriented chilling of sexual sins.

20:57 First and foremost, foundational to all aspects of mortification is this. We must seek to mortify our sins from the posture of justified sinners. We must seek to mortify our sins, yes, our sexual sins, from the posture of justified sinners. ...besides in Romans 8. Turn back to Romans 8 with me, if you will, please. When he says brethren in verse 12, so then, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. If you live after the flesh, you must die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the scribes in chapter 8 in verse 1 in this way.

22:03 There is therefore now in the condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. If we are united to Christ by faith in a very real sense, the day of judgment has contents of the life of God. ...has already been uttered. That's what he's saying. There is right.

22:42 He goes on to say that those who know that reality of no condemnation in Christ still have, though delivered from the dominion of flesh, no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit and choked grace. He does not want those engaged in mortification ever.

23:15 You see, the devil trips up men by one of two things. Either gets them to take their sin too lightly, or to take it seriously in the wrong category.

23:27 If he can get you being indifferent to sin, Christ crucified will mean nothing to you. If he can get you to rationalize that your remaining sins are little things, you will never deal with them ruthlessly. But once you get serious about your sin, as an unconverted person, what does the devil come? He says, you mean to think you can be forgiven just by believing on Christ?

23:48 That's ridiculous. And he tempts people to be unbelieving before the free, gracious provisions of God's mercy in Jesus Christ. And then when such people lay hold of Christ and are serious about killing sin, the devil says, look, how can you be a Christian and you've still got that to kill and this to kill and that to kill? And they relinquish their state of no condemnation and it pleads them of all vigor and strength to go after the sin with mortification.

24:16 And we must learn by the grace of God whenever we're engaged in verse 13 of Romans 8 to take our stand on Romans 8. If you don't, you're going to be crippled. You're going to be dispirited and overwhelmed. There is therefore now, right now, no condemnation to those who are in Christ.

24:42 It is those who in the joyful embrace by faith of those gospel provisions that are called upon to mortify their remaining sin. So then, if you're serious about mortifying sins of a sexual nature, that in a peculiar way clog the cut, excuse me, with crippling guilt and a sense of defilement, hear me carefully. You must seek to mortify your sin from the posture of a justified sinner. Secondly, we must seek to mortify sexual sins by a well-informed faith in the implications we must mortify sexual sins by a well-informed faith by a well-informed faith in the implications of what we're trying to say there. Again, I'm just trying to say what Paul teaches in Romans chapter 6 and what he teaches in Galatians chapter 2 and what our Lord teaches in John 15. Look at Romans 6.1.

Mortification Explained: Well-Informed Faith in Union with Christ

25:58 Again, I didn't consult before this day. I was preparing. He was preparing. Many of the passages set before you this morning are going to be set before you again tonight.

26:09 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Paul has just said where sin comes along and raises a mountain, 20,000. So someone says, oh, you mean the mountains of grace are higher where the mountains of sin are higher?

26:29 That's right. So let's go out and raise your sin added to the doctrine of free justification based on the doing and the dying of another. And Paul says that's impossible. Look at it.

26:45 Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Make an ointment. May it never be. God forbid.

26:54 We who are such as have died to sin, how shall we any or live therein? This is how someone says die to sin. He's going to tell them. Verse 3.

27:08 Or are you ignorant? Are you uninformed? Do you not know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus, all of us who have been united to Christ vitally and truly by the Spirit of God symbolically in our water baptism? Are you ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death?

27:35 We were therefore with Him through baptism into death that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. If we become united with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection knowing. You see why I use the term we must have a well-informed faith of the implications of our union with Christ? Do you not know?

28:09 Verse 6. Knowing this, and was crucified with Him that the body of sin might be done away so that we should no longer be in bondage to sin. For he that hath died is justified, released from sin. But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall live with Him.

28:27 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more, death no more has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died unto sin once or once for all. But the life that He lives, He continually lives to God. 11.

28:41 Even second ye also have an active faith that intelligently lays hold of this reality. In being united to Jerusalem, He was created in a ball in space.

29:11 In the experience of the virtue of His death, your sin becomes our death. And His resurrection to newness of life, erection to life. Paul says, know this, don't be ignorant.

29:35 Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God. Don't let sin reign in your mortal body. Why? It's a usurper whose power has been stripped by death.

29:50 Let it come and say, I'm your master. You point it to Christ's tomb and say in union, tied to sin's dominion. And in union, in union with Christ as alive from the dead. Look at verse 13.

30:05 I will no longer present my members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present myself unto God as alive from the dead. And my members as instruments of righteousness unto God, for sin shall not exercise lordship over you, for you're not under law.

30:26 You see what he's doing? He's saying, you Roman Christians have a well-instructed, well-instructedly received, perfect life in his substitutionary death, resulting in your free justification with Christ.

30:53 His resurrection to life is your resurrection to life. Count on that reality. Even when sins of your own saying, I'm my lord. He said, no.

31:08 In yourself, dead indeed unto sin. And as alive from the dead, you present your instruments, your eyes, your hands, your sexual members as instruments of righteousness and righteousness. Since 220, we have this in a nutshell.

31:29 Bringing together this passage. Perhaps, let me go in the order I have in my notes. John 15 is another whole approach to the doctrine of union with Christ. Here, that union is set before us as we were so helpfully instructed several years ago when Pastor Lamar expounded the upper room discourse and this discourse.

31:53 The Lord says, I am the true vine. My father is the caretaker, the husbandman, the gardener who takes care of the vine. Every branch in me that bears not fruit, he takes away. Every branch that is bearing fruit, he cleanses it.

32:08 He goes on pruning it that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word I've spoken unto you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, so neither can you except you abide in me.

32:25 I am the vine. You are the branches. He that abides in me and I in him, the same bears much fruit for apart from me, severed from me, cut off from me, you can do nothing. The Lord Jesus gives us the doctrine of union with himself, not under the figure.

32:44 I'm raised with him. A living vine flows into the branches and severed from that vine, the branch is just a that's all it is. But in union and as it bears,

33:08 prunes it, the branch is just a but an expression of the life that ultimately is in the vine itself. So you have the doctrine of union with Christ here under the imagery of a vine. In Romans 6, it is under the imagery and the reality of sharing in the virtue of his death, burial, and resurrection. Now Galatians 2.20 seems to bring both of these concepts into a beautiful and intimate conjunction. Galatians 2 and verse 20, the apostle says, I have been crucified with Christ. I have been crucified. Well, you're dead, Paul.

33:54 He said, no. You mean you're a crucified man, but you're not dead? That's right. How come?

34:01 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I. My omnipotence was put for Jesus, the centauri. Look at the text. I have been crucified with Christ.

34:32 It's no longer I that live, but Christ lives. Christ is so united to me and I to Him that I can say Christ lives in me. Well, does that mean then I just sit back and I'll just get life? Christ lives in me and that life which I...

35:07 I'll never forget A.W. Tozer saying, any editor, he was speaking to a large group of evangelical leaders. He said, any of you editors here ever got a statement like this for some aspiring writer?

35:17 You just shot it back by return mail the same day. He said, the poor guy's hopelessly confused. I've been crucified yet I live. Yet it's not, I but Christ.

35:27 And yet the life that I now live, well, does Christ live it or He live it? It's a whole bunch of jumbo, mumbo-jumbo double talk. No, it isn't. It's a beautiful synthesis of so much rich biblical theology.

35:39 I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I that live. Christ lives in me, but not in such a way that He blots out the conscious exercise of my will, my judgment, my understanding, the life which I now live in the flesh. I live in Christ.

35:56 I live in faith, faith in the Son of God who loved me, gave Himself up. It was a well-focusing and so I say to you, my dear people,

Mortification Explained: Purposeful and Righteous Avoidance of Temptation

36:18 if you and if I would make progress in dealing with our sins generically and with our sexual sins in particular, we must not only seek to mortify sin from the posture of justified sinners, but we must mortify sin mortify these sexual sins by a well-informed faith in the implications of our union with Christ. Thirdly, now we move from the broad theology to where the rubber meets the road in the practical. We must mortify sexual sins by a purposeful and avoidant tenses.

37:08 We must mortify sexual sins by a purposeful and righteous avoidance of any thing that is not a thing or explain why I use the two qualifying words purposeful and righteous. We must mortify sexual sins by a purposeful avoidance, a conscious, deliberate, calculated thing in a given set of circumstances or reacting to unexpected circumstances in a kind of predetermined, pre-programmed, reflexive response.

37:53 Some of you who've been active in sports know that the reason you get drilled by a good coach again and again and again and again and again in the basics is that they know in the heat of athletic contest it's what you have pro-spontaneously in the field of conflict. That's why I've continually mortified my desire to get a pilot's license. Everything in me still wants to fly a plane. I have for 35 years.

38:28 So occasional pilots are dead pilots. And one of the reasons is if you're not flying continually what you do in a crisis by reflex leaves you short end like Mr. Kennedy found out and ended up in the Atlantic Ocean. So what I'm saying is that this principle of mortifying sexual sins by a purposeful avoidance is that purposeful avoidance may be pre-programmed in certain situations and we'll turn to the Bible to see it illustrated becomes such an internal spiritual dis- If we are surprised we simply turn from the situation or the person who is the occasion of temptation. Qualified with the word righteous. Why did I do that? Because in the path of doing the will of temptation is our blessed Lord Jesus it is said in the Gospel writers was driven by the Spirit in his temptations were ordered by the Spirit.

39:40 Did that trouble you? I didn't write that.

39:44 There are some situations where if you're going to be a righteous man or woman you're going to be You cannot avoid the circumstances or the people that will tempt you to sexual sins. You have a responsibility to provide for your family. You may work in a school. I look out and right now my eyes met one of our school teachers.

40:04 You may work in the city in a high class office situation with women that buy $100 and $200 and they know how to be sexy in a very sophisticated way. And they're walking by you daily. You can't quit your job put your family on well-being and your welfare. You cannot righteously avoid the temptations that come with that.

40:28 So you've got to learn how to deal with it. That's why I've qualified with the words we must mortify sexual sins by a purposeful and righteous avoidance of anything or that tempts us to indulge in such sins. Now let's look at the biblical basis for this concept. Romans chapter 13 and verse 14.

40:55 Romans chapter 13 we begin at verse 11 to see the context. And this knowing the season that already it is time for you to wake out of sleep for now is salvation nearer to us than when we first believed. The night is far spent and the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of dark and put on the armor of light.

41:19 Let us walk becomingly as in the day. Now notice the three couplets. Not in reveling and drunkenness. This is partying and wanton abandonment and taboos.

41:33 Not in chambering and wantonness.

41:38 Our chambering and wantonness. The one word koite means bedding down. Not in bed hopping beastly that would be a good translation of the two Greek words. Not in bed and fulfilling and passions in sexual wantonness.

42:04 Not in strife and in jealousy. So embedded in the specifics that Paul and the city marked by reveling by drunkenness by bed hopping at beastly lust. Read Romans 1 18 to 32. Strife and jealousy.

42:31 Don't.

42:33 Here's what you're to do. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a beautiful imagery. The verb for put on means to dress yourself with.

42:43 You mortify by spirit with your sins. That's what Paul's saying. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Clothe yourself with all the gospel realities and gospel motives but you must not stop there and make for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof.

43:11 And this verb in an infinitive form make no forethought for the flesh.

43:20 Don't.

43:26 And you can try to put on Christ and put on Christ until your arms are weary. But if you take forethought to place yourself in positions of lust you'll never mortify sexual sin. How wise is the Spirit of God in giving this directive. John Owen said he who takes no care to avoid the occasions of sin is not serious about dealing with sin itself.

43:56 He who takes no care to avoid the occasions of sin is not serious about dealing with sin itself.

44:06 Now let's look at a couple of biblical examples of some people engaging in gospel mortification. Genesis chapter 2 chapter 39. Perhaps some of you already thought of this.

44:20 Genesis chapter 39.

44:23 And we read in verse 5 concerning Joseph now down in Egypt in Potiphar's house. And it came to pass from the time that Potiphar made him an overseer in his house 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. And he left all that he had in Joseph's house and in the field. And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand.

44:49 And he knew not all that was with him save the bread which he did eat. And the old 1901 says in Joseph was comely and well favored. Words that say nothing to us. The NIV translation is very contemporary and as far as I know accurate.

45:09 It is said of Joseph that he was well built and handsome.

45:14 In today's parlance he was a handsome Can I get more contemporary than that? And if you want to know what a hunk is look it up in the dictionary. I did in my preparation. That's exactly what the Bible is saying about him.

45:28 He was a head turner.

45:33 When Joseph went by the girls giggled and nudged one another.

45:39 And there was a girl a woman a married woman she noticed him. And we read in verse 7 that it came to pass after these things that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph. She saw this handsome hunk day after day. Maybe Potiphar was beginning to get bald and a bit paunchy.

45:57 And here's this handsome hunk day after day. And there's always something very, very challenging to a pure, innocent, handsome young man to a frustrated married woman.

46:13 And the Bible records it. It came to pass after these things his master's wife cast her eyes we'll have occasion to come back to the eye business upon Joseph. And she said lie with me very brazenly. Go to bed with me.

46:29 But he refused and said unto his master's wife behold my master knows not what is with me in the house. He's put all things into my hand. He is not greater in his house than I. Neither has he kept back anything from me but you because you are his wife.

46:42 How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Here's a gospel motive. The God who has pardoned and forgiven me and wonderfully superintended the dark chapters in my life thrown into a pit to die. And here I am in Potiphar's house and all he's withheld from me is his wife.

47:02 How can I sin against a God who's conferred such grace upon me? Gospel motives are percolating through his heart. Verse 10 And it came to pass as she spoke to Joseph day by day why was he still around her? Because the will of God demanded it.

47:19 He could not righteously get away from her. See how the principle is there? He had a dispensation of stewardship from Potiphar and he seeks to fulfill it. And in the way of righteousness righteousness righteousness righteousness He's still confronted with this temptation day by day.

47:37 Now notice what he did. He hearkened not unto her to lie by her or to be with her. When he could righteously do it when she came into his view he turned the other way. When she came into his room he split and went to another task.

47:57 What was he doing? He was mortifying sexual sin. By doing what? By a purposeful and righteous avoidance of anything or anyone.

48:09 Isn't that what he was doing? That's what he was doing. He's a marvelous example of this. And though in doing it circumstances point to the fact he must have caved in.

48:23 And it came to pass as she spoke to him day by day verse 11 came to pass about this time he went into the house to do his work. That's a righteous man. Whatever his hand finds to do doing with all his might as unto his Lord. He went into the house not to cast his eyes upon her not to flirt with her not to be near her.

48:46 He went to do his work. That was the path of righteousness. There was none of the men of the house there within. She caught him by his garment saying lie with me.

48:58 Left his garment in her hand and fled and got him out. He didn't stay there and reason with her. She had him alone. And he said I'm here.

49:08 What is he doing? Purposely and righteously avoiding that purpose. That would seduce him. And it came to pass when she saw he had left his garment in her hand and fled forth.

49:20 She called unto the men and spoke unto them saying and now she comes up with her plausible story. He tried to rape me. No, no, not Joseph. I've got his cloak in the hand.

49:32 I've got to see what people do with their so-called evidence, isn't it? She had the evidence. It was his coat. Nobody could deny it.

49:47 She had it in her hands. She put her spin on the facts. And God allowed this man in the way of righteous mortification to end up in prison. I've got a sneaking suspicion.

50:01 I don't think Potiphar believed him because I understand in that situation he'd have been dead by sundown.

50:11 But that's only speculation. But do you see this beautiful example of the principle? There it is. God puts it there that we might see what it is.

50:20 We'll apply in a moment. But one other key passage. Proverbs 5 and verse 7. Remember what we're trying to see.

50:27 That the third element of mortifying sexual sins is by a purposeful and righteous avoidance of anything or anyone that tempts us to indulge such sins.

50:39 Here Solomon is teaching his son things that apparently he forgot himself through a critical period of his life. He speaks to his son and says in warning against the immoral woman, giving descriptions of her in the opening verses, from verse 3 onward. Now in verse 7. Now therefore, my sons, hearken to me.

51:06 Depart not from the words of my mouth. If you're going to heed my counsel and take my warnings about the sexual sins that will be your portion with the immoral woman, this is what you're to do. Remove your way far from her. Come not near the door of her house.

51:26 He doesn't say don't go to her bed. Don't fall into her arms. Don't embrace her. He says don't even go by her door.

51:36 If you don't go by her door, you'll never be in her arms. And if you're not in her arms, you won't be in her bed.

51:43 Don't say the Bible's prudish. The Bible is very frank and very realistic. And here is Solomon's warning. And then in chapter 7, he opens up this subject again and says he was looking and viewing a young woman.

52:00 A young man who did not take this kind of counsel. Verse 6 of chapter 7. At the window of my house, I looked forth through my lattice and I beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding. What is the first thing he sees?

52:18 Passing through the street near her corner and he went the way to her house in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the midday, in the middle of the night and in the darkness. He's setting himself up for this married woman whose husband is away on business and she's on the prowl to seduce an innocent and simple young man. And what was his folly? His folly was the time of the day that he goes for his walk to have the, quote, security of darkness.

52:56 He takes his walk by her street and by her house he's setting himself up by making provision for the flesh to fulfill the sweet toxin and sweet smells him and sweet embraces him into her bed. And then we read at the end of the chapter what the result is. Isn't it interesting that to my knowledge the only sin we are told to flee is sexual impurity. 1 Corinthians 6.18 Flee fornication! I don't know of a verse I racked my brain to find one in my preparation that said flee pride,

53:45 flee jealousy, flee murder,

53:50 blasphemy. I don't know of any such command in the Bible. But when God says flee fornication, God is underscoring for us this truth that among all the sins into which we can fall, these more than any others require, if we're to mortify them, a purposeful and righteous avoidance of anything or anyone that tempts us to indulge such sins. Then I come forth and finally, and we'll get to specific application.

Mortification Explained: Jealously Guarding the Inlets to the Soul

54:26 If we would, with gospel motives and with spirit-empowered grace, mortify these sins, here's the fourth principle, we must jealously guard all the inlets to the soul that would provoke us to mental or accidental or actual sexual sins. We must jealously guard all the inlets to the soul that would provoke us to mental or actual sexual sins. And what are the main inlets to the soul? They are the eyes and the ears.

55:08 And I'm not sure if I should put hands in that category, but since Jesus addresses hands in Matthew 5, I stuck them in. Eyes. Eyes are the inlet to the soul, particularly with reference to sexual sins. You remember Job's words?

55:26 Again, the NIV rendering is so helpful. I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully upon a girl. When Job is protesting his moral integrity, he said, I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl. He doesn't say, I made a covenant never to look at a woman or to appreciate the beauty of a woman other than my wife.

55:54 But my covenant was that my eye would never be the inlet to lustful desires toward a woman other. What was Samson's downfall? One of the old writers perceptibly said that in God's chastening of Samson, I may have said Samuel, I meant Samson, it was right that God should allow his eyes to be gouged out. For it was his eyes that led him to dishonor his God and to be shorn of his power.

56:29 In Judges 14, notice how clearly the eyes are emphasized as the inlet to the soul of Samson. Judges 14.1, Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah, the daughters of the Philistines. And he came up and told his father and mother and said, I have seen the woman of the daughters of the Philistines.

56:57 Now therefore, get her for me to wife. She was a stunner. He didn't know a thing about her character. She's from the hordes of the uncircumcised Philistines whom Samson is raised up to defeat on behalf of Jehovah and the people of God.

57:16 But he sees her. And looking the second time and the third time, his heart burns. He continues with passion. I've got to have her.

57:26 What he meant is I've got to have her body. He didn't know diddly about her soul. His eye became the inlet to a burning lust that eventually led to his eyes being gouged out. And he grinds like an animal at the mills, taunted by the enemies of God.

57:49 Oh, no wonder, I wonder how many times Samson may have mourned in his blindness. My God! Why did I? Why not guard my eyes while I?

58:01 You want to be shorn of your power and bring disgrace to God? Then let your eye be the inlet to your soul of lust and of burning sinful passion. David, his trouble began with his eyes. Second Samuel chapter 11 and verse 2.

58:24 The Spirit of God is careful to focus upon the eye. Second Samuel 11 and verse 2. And it came to pass at eventide. David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the king's house.

58:39 And from the roof he saw a woman bathing. And the moment his eyes glanced upon the naked flesh of this woman, other than his wife, he should have turned and run to his place of prayer. But he looked a second time until he began to notice the beauty of her form. Who is that?

59:01 Christ was conceived and burned until He sends for her and He commits adultery with her and seeks to cover His sin with murder and deception all because of what He let into His eyes.

59:20 Right here, right here, His eyes. And what did Jesus say in Matthew 5, 28 and 29? You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery, but I say unto you that whosoever what looks on a woman, adultery already in his heart, therefore if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out. The Lord is not talking about literal mutilation.

59:45 If you pluck out one eye, you've got another one to lust. What He's saying is deal with the eye, that it not be the inlet to the soul, committing mental sin. And here, dear people, without being fundamentalistic and legislate what you should and should not look out, I want to raise my protest that people in this church watch movies, that have scenes of lust and of adultery and fornication and illicit physical contact between the unmarried and illicit scenes of married couples. No one has a right to look into a married couple's bedroom.

60:30 It's voyeurism. It's uncleanness. Oh, but I don't pay my whatever you have to pay to go to the theater. You just check it out at the video store.

60:39 Be not deceived. God is not mocked. He that sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. David looked.

60:54 Samson looked. How are the mighty fallen? Who are you and who am I to think we can look and not fall?

61:06 The TV, when secular writers, and that's why I get my New York Times on Monday and read the arts and entertainment section, when people with no biblical norms and sensitivities, say that the hottest shows are nothing but a form of soft-core pornography. Whoever makes the distinctions, I don't know what is a Christian doing watching them. The sitcoms from seven to nine, banal, raw, crass, bathroom talk. Everyone neighing after someone else's wife in the language of the prophet.

61:47 These things ought to have no place in your home. In your life or in mine. But if we've gained a measure of victory over the movies we'll watch and rent, and the TV shows we will or will not watch, there are always the billboards. When I occasionally go to the average market to pick up something for my wife, which is rare, I have to plot ahead of time when I go to the checkout line to have tunnel vision.

62:18 Breast every side when you just want to check out a gallon of milk. Guard the inlets to the soul. That would provoke to mental or actual sexual sins. Catalogs that come to your house.

62:43 Parents, don't be naive as to what your teenage boys and girls with just beginning to have sexual awakening, what can provoke lust. What is in a JCPenney catalog now was pornography thirty years ago. I'll pass to give a prude. I'm determined to get to heaven pure.

63:04 If your eye offends you, the JCPenney catalog is a stumbling block to you, to your kids. Cancel it. You'll get to heaven without buying anything out of JCPenney's catalog. What about the romance novels some of you allow your daughters to read?

63:28 Oh, they're Christian romance novels. Rubbish. Your daughters can't read tender accounts of Mr. Right embracing Miss Right under the soft moonlight filtering through the trees.

63:44 Not have awakened desires that ought never to be awakened in that setting. Trash your romance novels. Give them good solid biography. Give them good Red Rock Ridge history.

63:58 Trash the stuff. Don't be naive. Am I going to come in your home and check your book sketch? No.

64:05 You deal with God in these matters, but I'm appalled at some of the stuff that I hope is naively permitted. And if you dads have not talked with your sons about the temptations they face from catalogs and flyers that come into the home, sit down with them tonight and say, Son, be honest with me. If you ever have the pain of a son or daughter that goes astray sexually, you want to have a good conscience that before God you did nothing to provoke it. Serious business, folks.

64:45 The eyes. Peter says in 2 Peter 2.14 they have eyes full of adultery. Eyes full of adultery.

64:53 Watch the ears. Here my time is gone. Ephesians 5.3-6.

64:59 Paul explicitly addresses dirty jokes. Double entendre. Off color. Innuendo.

65:06 He says let it not be named among you as become saints. Read Revelation 18 and the destruction of Babylon. You know what is destroyed with Babylon? Babylon is the world and all that it has.

65:18 And God says down with Babylon will go its violins and its clarinets and its instruments of music. That have been a vehicle of causing the world to come in and possess the souls of men. Watch your eyes. Watch your ears.

Conclusion and Application: Call to Purity and Deliverance

65:41 Watch your hands. I couldn't help but think of the little ditty that many of us learned as kids. Be careful, little eyes, what you see. Be careful, little eyes, what you see.

65:53 There's a Father up above looking down on you in love. Be careful, little eyes, what you see. Be careful, little ears, what you hear. Be careful, little ears, what you hear.

66:04 There's a Father up above looking down on you in love. Be careful, little ears, what you hear. We can go right down all of our inlets to the soul. And if we're not serious, and dear brothers and sisters, if we get serious, and we don't legislate for one another, but we legislate as for me and my house, we will be labeled a bunch of fundies, a bunch of weirdos.

66:31 But if by the grace of God we can get through this moral cesspool clean to heaven, it will be worth it all when we see Jesus. Summary, would you take God's antidote to sexual impurity? Then you and I must continually engage in the Spirit-empowered, Gospel-oriented mortification of sexual sins. That means you're not going to make any progress until you're in Christ.

67:04 Romans 8.8, They that are in the flesh cannot please God. Some of you may be utterly crippled by these sins, and you're never going to make any headway until you get united to Christ. The fundamental problem with some of you may be you're not in Christ.

67:24 I urge you to go to Him. Go to Him as you are, filthy, vile, spattered, discouraged. Go to Christ, who said, Whom the Son sets free. Is free indeed.

67:38 Such were some of you, Paul could say. And then, dear child of God, lay to heart. Memorize Romans 8.13, Colossians 3.5, and periodically ask yourself, Am I seeking to mortify these sins from the posture of a justified sinner? Am I seeking to mortify by a well-informed faith in the implications of my union with Christ? Am I purposefully and righteously avoiding anything or anyone that tempts to these sins? And am I jealously guarding all the inlets to the soul?

68:15 And if you are, then I believe you'll be able to say, By the grace of God, I'm making progress in dealing with sexual sins. And when you connect the dots, Oh yes, there may be falls, but you connect the dots, and you'll see that by the grace of God, there is a progress in the application of grace to your heart and life. May God help us. Let's pray.

68:48 Our Father, again we marvel at the perennial relevance of Your Holy Word. Thank You for these texts we have studied together. Thank You for the examples of Joseph. We grieve, but we are grateful that You've set the negative examples before us in Samson and David.

69:09 Thank You for the warnings of Solomon. O Lord, we pray, write these things upon our hearts and enable us by Your grace to be a pure, clean people in this age whose eyes are full of adultery. We think especially of the dear young men and women among us growing up in a society that's lost its conscience and would suck them into the vortex of the vilest imaginations and actions. Have mercy upon them.

69:42 We pray that You would bring them to Yourself. Cause them to be so united to Your Son that like a Daniel in Babylon and like the three Hebrew children who stood in that pagan society, like a Joseph in Potiphar's house, make them strong to resist all the temptations that they may glorify You and magnify Your grace. We pray for those who deeply struggle in this area, whose struggles are known only to You, who've never had the courage to disclose their struggle, perhaps even to husband or wife, to father or mother. We pray, Lord, that our study tonight would be used of You to create a climate in which they would feel the liberty to come to someone wiser and older and bare their hearts that we might together wrestle through to a place of deliverance. O God, we ask that You'd have mercy upon us and cause this Word to bear abundant fruit in all of our hearts, even until the return of our Lord Jesus. We ask in His worthy name. Amen.