The sermon 'Pure Men in an Age of Impurity' reflects on the challenges of maintaining purity in a perverse generation, drawing from biblical teachings. It begins with Peter's exhortation in Acts 2 to 'be saved from this perverse generation,' indicating that the call to purity is timeless. The sermon explores the relationship between lust and idolatry, arguing that elevating any desire above God leads to spiritual slavery and idolatry. It emphasizes the importance of the Great Commandment, loving God and neighbor, as the framework for living a life of purity. Practical advice to combat impurity includes starving sinful desires, fleeing from youthful lusts, and amputating anything that leads one to sin. The sermon underscores the role of scripture as a transformative tool, renewing the mind and guiding believers to live as living sacrifices. It concludes with a call to fathers to guide their sons early in understanding these principles and to all believers to keep Christ at the center of their fight against impurity.

In Acts 2, Peter exhorts the people and he says this, Be saved from this perverse generation. The early church was born in a perverse generation. So Peter is calling these new believers out of it, or actually he's calling people to be believers. And that day 3, 000 do become believers and they are baptized. And he's calling them to be saved from a perverse generation.

Do we live in a different generation? Can't we say with Peter, be saved from this perverse generation? Of course we can. James says the same thing. James says this, pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

And to keep oneself unspotted from the world. So we know that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone. But then what? Are we transported away when we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, so that none of the temptations, None of the things that have clawed at us in the past, no longer claw at us today, and won't claw at us in the future, of course not. Those things are still there and we feel the weight of that all the time, don't we?

Are there ever days or weeks or months where we don't feel the weight of that. Because we know that our calling is to be saved from a perverse generation. We know that our calling is to keep ourselves unspotted by the world. And the weight of this, I fear, can cause us to become so fixated just in this one category that we have tunnel vision. You know what tunnel vision is?

They put blinders on horses so that they lose all peripheral vision. They only see this one thing in front of us. And the weight of sin in this area can keep us so fixated on it that we lose our peripheral vision. In fact, we can lose sight of things that are imminently more important and that have an impact in this category. So that lust becomes the issue and we're thinking about it all the time and we're worried about it all the time and we're condemned by it all the time.

And it causes us to turn to self-help techniques in order to manage the problem. Have you ever found yourself in that loop? Where you were so concerned about this, you were just looking for any practical help that you can get. And so the focus becomes self-help techniques. It's understandable, but instead, we need to understand that lust is not the issue.

God is the issue on the table, and lust is a symptom of it. And unless we address the issue with God, the symptoms will never go away. We can use all the self-help in the world. Now the Bible offers wonderful self-help. Praise the Lord for the practical counsel of Scripture that would allow us to be helped.

But you know what? The Gospel can be completely stripped away from that. Where we could come away with a lust self-help book that could be sold at Sam's Club, could be sold at Walmart, could be sold at Barnes and Noble, and people would buy it and they would have this practical help that came right out of the Scriptures to be completely divorced from the Gospel. Where would this leave us men? It would leave us with temporary short-term victories, where we need to be turning to what the real issue is.

And it's the condition of our hearts with our God. One thing that has proven to be very helpful in my life is just to have one single constant framework for any of the issues of life. I like simplicity. And if I can have just a few levers to pull, and I know if I'm pulling those levers, that there are other things, but other things seem to fall into place. And this has been really helpful to me.

And it has to do with the Great Commandment. I'm so thankful for this passage that someone, even though they weren't doing it honestly, they were trying to test Jesus, came to Jesus and asked Him what the great commandment of the law is. So we can hear it from the mouth of the Son of God Himself. What is most important? And here's the account, Matthew 22, verses 35 through 40.

Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Jesus a question, testing him and saying, Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. And so here life is simplified for us greatly. Not to say that the other commandments don't matter, and that we shouldn't be familiar with them, and that we shouldn't be obedient to them, but that all of them must be within the framework of the summary statement that Jesus has given to us. That they wouldn't become disconnected so that we would look at isolated commandments. But we would understand that all of them hang on the love of God and the love of our neighbor.

All of life is to be about number one, loving our God, and number two, loving our neighbor. And so in this light, persistent disobedience in any category, and now we're talking about the category of sexual purity and lust, but persistent disobedience in this category or any other becomes something very different, it becomes idolatry. The great commandment is calling us to a white, hot, passionate love for God that is all consuming. And so anytime we elevate anything, our desire for sexual pleasure or anything above God, habitually, persistently, then it is identified as idolatry. And here's the thing about idols.

Idols are cheaters. They offer something and they deliver something else. They offer to serve you, but you end up serving them. It all starts very innocently. You have a desire and truth be told, You won't tell the truth, but truth be told, you're willing to elevate it above your love for God.

That's why you're persistently disobedient. If you weren't willing to elevate it above God, would you be persistently disobedient? No, of course not. That's absurd. You're willing to elevate it above your love for God, and then after a few cheap thrills, you discover something.

You discover that while you thought the deal was the idol was going to serve you, you're a slave. You're serving the idol. And so impurity is an indicator of a heart condition, it's an indicator of what the root of the problem is. Of course lust and sexual impurity is a problem in itself. Of course it is.

But it's primarily an indicator that we've gone to treasuring the wrong thing. We're treasuring the wrong thing, brothers. Matthew tells us what the highest value is, what we should value above everything else. Matthew 13, verses 44 and 45, Jesus says this, Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure, hidden in a field which a man found and hid. And for joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who when he had found one pearl of great price went and sold all he had and bought it. Brothers, if we miss this, what we end up with is self-help. If we miss that we must find a treasure that's worth more than any other treasure that we're willingly go sell everything for with great joy to possess. If we miss this then we end up with self-help that will help us manage our sin. This is not what we need.

You end up with temporary fixes that wax and wane like the moon. You end up with frustration. You end up with good weeks followed by bad weeks, and good months followed by bad months, and good years followed by bad years and bad decades. The gospel, the kingdom of heaven, Jesus Christ, is like a treasure And those who have really seen Jesus Christ, when they've truly seen Him, when they've seen this treasure, when they've seen the great pearl, they'll willingly go sell everything. And not consider it drudgery, but consider it the greatest joy, because they understand the value of the treasure this has been revealed to them by God himself so I have two questions one have you ever seen the pearl have you seen that pearl Am I speaking in a foreign language to you?

If you're saying, I understand religion and we do things and it's nice and it's good and we should do them, but what is this guy talking about? Sell everything for and with great joy. Consider if you've ever received the gospel. And number two, I would assume most of us in the tent have seen the pearl of great price. And we have been willing and yet is that the end of the story or sometimes we lose sight, we regress, and we need to repent and return to God.

See, The great commandment is about temperature. It's about temperature. We have a calling to a white, hot, passionate love for God that leaves no room for competitors. It's consuming. It's a consuming fire.

It burns hot, but it never burns up the bush. Isn't this a great thing? Isn't this what we truly desire? That our hearts would be lit on fire, that we would shake off this slumber, that we so often see in our own hearts, and see Christ as He is, the beauty of Christ, the goodness of His ways. And it would cause us to have a disdain in our hearts for these other things, not a love for them, not a running towards them, not a flirtation with them, not a making a place for them.

Just before lunch we'll give out these these booklets from J.C. Ryle called Thoughts for Young Men. It's excellent. And I'm going to, I've lifted out a couple of quotes for Thoughts of Young Men just to promote the helpfulness of the book. Please go through this with your sons.

And J.C. Ryle says this, to live on Christ, to draw all from Christ, to do all in the strength of Christ, to be ever Looking unto Christ, this is the true secret of spiritual prosperity. I can do all things, says Paul, through Christ which strengthens me. Young men, I set before you Jesus Christ this day as the treasury of your souls. And I invite you to begin by going to Him if you would so run as to obtain.

Let this be your first step. Go to Christ. Now we will talk about the practical help that the Bible offers us in the category of sexual purity and the category of lust. But let us start here. Let this be, as J.C.

Ryle exhorts us, our first step. That we would go to Christ, that we would have Christ as the treasury of our soul. This is our only hope. If we would try to lay hold of the practical counsels of the Bible and not have Christ as our treasury, we would end in frustration. Because no other motivation is enough to sustain us past a good week, a good month, a good year.

And we'll find ourselves over time again with our passion for these things waning and an inability to fight off these things because we need to be saved from our perverse generation. The Council of Scripture, we're going to talk about this in two categories. One, what to do, and secondly, how to do it. What to do, how to do it. So we start with what to do and we start in Romans 12, verses 1 and 2.

And Paul tells us what to do. The text reads this way, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Paul starts here by exhorting us by the mercies of God. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God." Maintaining purity in a perverse generation in an impure world only begins to make sense as we have the mercies of God in full view, isn't it? Is any other shield adequate against this perverse generation that comes on us in an onslaught like a tidal wave?

It's the kindness of the Lord that leads us to repentant. It's the mercies of God which must be in full view If we're to do what Paul is calling us to do so he says I beseech you therefore brethren By the mercies of God He's putting the mercies of God front and center. And then he tells us what to do. Present your bodies as living sacrifices. Present your body as a living sacrifice.

Holy. And then he says this. It's your reasonable service. Have you ever felt like purity in an impure world was an unreasonable service? There's just too much fighting against it.

There's too much constant pressure day in and day out. It's not a reasonable service, but Paul says, no, in view of the mercies of God, it is a reasonable service. We have a great and mighty salvation. Our sins have been taken away from us. The wrath of God was justly directed at us, but we have not received it.

It has been diverted away from us and placed upon Christ. It is the mercies of God that make presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice a reasonable service. And then he says this, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And this is a theme that's, it's becoming a theme at this Father-Son retreat. Steve talked about it last night, Peter talked about it this morning.

There are really only two choices, aren't there? Is there a third neutral choice here? This is not what Paul is arguing in Romans 12. He's saying, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed. In other words, you will be one or the other.

The world is pressing us into a mold, and it is not the mold of the image of Christ at all. It's a very different mold. But we're being conformed. There's pressure and the pressure is to conform us into an image. And it's a deformed image.

It's a destructive image. And the only option to being conformed by the pressures of the world into the world's mold is to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. You will either be conformed to the world. The pressures will eventually force you into the mold so that you fit the world's image or you will be transformed by the renewing of your mind. There is no other choice for us, brothers.

So Paul tells us what to do. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice. That sounds simple enough. How do I do that? The rest of our time will be devoted to how do I do that.

What to do? Present your bodies as a living sacrifice. How to do it? I believe that the Council of Scripture can be divided into three buckets. One starved, two run, three amputate.

This is the Council of Scripture and we'll talk about these in detail. How to do it, how to present your bodies as living sacrifices. One, starve. Two, run. Three, amputate.

Number one, starve. Peter says this in 1 Peter 2, 11. Beloved, beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain, abstain from fleshly lust which war against the soul. Peter is begging us, beloved, I beg you.

He's imploring us in the most passionate terms. And do you understand the argument that he's making? He's saying, don't act as if this is your home, your sojourners, your pilgrims. How have we become so comfortable in enemy territory? I'm so thankful for what Peter Bradrick said this morning.

To me, it was like a jolt of electricity where I instantly saw all the complacency in my own life before me, and many of the areas that I am falling short in that I did not realize until this morning. Thank you, Peter, for that. And Peter, the original Peter, the Peter of 1 Peter is saying the same thing. I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, don't be comfortable in enemy territory because he's saying, as stained from fleshly lust, which war against the soul. Isn't this what Peter was talking to us about this morning?

There's a war against our soul, but we're saying, peace, peace. And We should be standing up to say, there is no peace. There's war against our soul. This is not our country. Isn't this a comfort to us?

This is not our country. These pressures, these pressures that are forcing us, conforming us into this mold, they will not last forever. But while we're here, we should act as sojourners, we should act as pilgrims, we should act as if there's a better country, another country, a heavenly country, and our God is taking us there. This is war. We're in a perverse generation, but we're in an affluent generation that affords us.

It affords us much. Slothfulness is not the right word. What word am I thinking of? It affords us ease. It affords us comfort When we should not be feeling ease and comfort This perverse generation calls us should be calling us to the highest level of vigilance, and yet many times the affluence of where we were born gives us a sense of ease, gives us a sense that there's peace when there's war.

Here's what Richard Baxter says in the category of starving some things. So Peter has told us to abstain. He's told us to starve some things, abstain from some things. And Richard Baxter says this, Keep as far as you can from those temptations which feed and strengthen the sins which you would overcome. Lay Siege to your sins and starve them out by keeping away the food and fuel which is their maintenance and life.

Baxter's counsels to us are that we would lay siege to our sins. Baxter is using the language of war as Peter was. Lay siege to your sins and starve them out by keeping away the food and the fuel, which is their maintenance and life. There are some things that should be fed lavishly. Love of God should be fed lavishly.

There are some things which should be starved, because they lead us in a direction, a conforming direction, that we would be conformed into the image of the world. Some things to be fed, some things to be starved. J.C. Ryle says this, Remember what I say, If you would cleave to earthly pleasures, These are the things which murder souls. One of the interesting things when I go back and read the old dead guys.

When you read the old dead guys, they had such a firm understanding of this. You cannot read an old dead guy who doesn't talk the language of war. And so it is with Ryle. Remember what I say, if you would cleave to earthly pleasures these are the things which murder souls. There is no sure way to get a seared conscience and a hard, impenitent heart than to give way to the desires of the flesh and mind.

It seems nothing at first, but it tells in the long run. Once the body was a perfect mansion of the soul. Now it is all corrupt and disordered and needs constant watching. You hear what Ryle is saying? Once the body was a perfect mansion of the soul, now it is all corrupt and disordered and needs constant watching." You hear what Ryle is saying?

Once the body was a perfect mansion of the soul, now it is all corrupt and disordered and needs constant watching. It is a burden to the soul, not a help meet, a hindrance, not an assistance. It may become a useful servant, but it is always a bad master." Let's linger on that last sentence. Ryle is talking about our members, our bodies, and he's saying it may become a useful servant. Let's go back to Romans and what Paul is calling us to do, to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice.

And Ryle says this, it may become a useful servant, but it is always a bad master. David said in Psalm 101 verse 3 I will set nothing wicked before my eyes. I will set nothing wicked before my eyes." David starved his eyes. He refused to set wicked things before his eyes. He starved them.

Job did the same thing. He made a covenant with his eyes that he would not lust after a woman. Job put his eyes on a strict diadem. Job's eyes were on a strict diadem. He made a covenant with them not to look lustfully at a woman and so should we.

Number one, we must starve some things. Starve them. Lay siege to your sins, brothers. Lay siege to your sins, Jason. There's not another Jason here, or at least I'm not aware that there is.

I was talking to myself. Unless you think I was singling something out. Boy, he knows something about one of those guys. Number two. Number one, we starve things.

Number two, run. The counsel of scripture is to run. In 2 Timothy 2, Paul says this, verse 22, flee also youthful lusts. Flee also youthful lusts, but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. We don't manage sin, brothers.

We run. We don't negotiate with sin, brothers, we run. Consider Joseph. He counts in Genesis 39. He's been sold into slavery.

He's now a slave in the house of Potiphar, the Egyptian. Potiphar's wife takes notice. She likes the new slave. She's talking to the new slave all the time and essentially, not essentially, explicitly offering herself to the new slave day after day. Here's exactly what the text says.

She spoke to Joseph day by day. And in explicit terms, she's offering herself to Joseph. And what does Joseph say? How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Even in this face of this day by day conforming pressure, Joseph has not lost his bearings.

But he says, how then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? And when the critical moment comes and she lays hold of him, he does not manage his sin, He does not negotiate with his sin, but he leaves his garment in the dust and he exits stage right. This is what the Council of Scripture is to us, brothers, that we would flee youthful lusts. I have great regret for all the times that I have negotiated with sin, that I have tried to manage my sin. It will gobble you up.

It is a mismatch of historic proportions, brother. You're no match for that sin. It cannot be negotiated with. It cannot be managed. You cannot make it serve you.

You will serve it. Which is why the counsel of Paul is to flee youthful lusts. So we're running away from something, but what? We're also running towards something. Listen to the whole verse again.

Flee also youthful lust, but pursue righteousness, faith, Love, peace with all those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. In the first category, in starving things, we talked about there are some things that should be fed. There are some things that should be starved. And this is the same way. There are things that we're fleeing, that we're running away from, but we're not just running into oblivion, we're running towards things.

We're given things to pursue, and what are they? They're beautiful things. They're righteousness. They're faith. They're love.

They're peace. Paul is so consistent in this respect. This is exactly what we see in Colossians 3. In Colossians 3 we have a list of put-offs, flea, put-offs, and we have a list of what? Put-ons.

Pursue. Flee one thing, pursue another thing. Put-off one thing, put-on another thing. Paul says the exact same thing again in Ephesians 4 and 6. There's another list of put-offs.

In Ephesians 4 and also in 6, there are lists of put-ons. And one of the put-ons in Ephesians is the full armor of God. These are the types of things that we run to when we're running from something. And we cannot neglect either, brothers. I have tripped up on this many times in the quest for sexual purity.

So much focus goes into the put offs, but there's neglect on the put ons. And we find ourselves impotent and ultimately unable to succeed in the put-off category. And why is that? Many times It's because we're not pursuing anything, we're just fleeing. Fleeing into oblivion.

There is no oblivion. We're running, we must run towards something. You've heard this, it's not a proverb, it's a proverb of the world, but I think there's truth that we can acknowledge here. Idle time is what? The devil's workshop.

Idle time is the devil's workshop. Is it possible that many of our frustrations, many of our failures in the category of sexual purity have come because we were not pursuing what God has called us to pursue. And it has become idle time and it has become the devil's workshop. Is it possible that We are finding frustration and failure in the category of sexual purity. Because although we've resolved to flee, we have not resolved to pursue.

Run. J.C. Ryle says this, Custom, habit, custom is the nurse of sin. Every fresh act of sin lessens fear and remorse, hardens our hearts, blunts the edge of our conscience, and increases our evil inclinations. Brothers, this is why we must run, because we don't run.

It's not just that we'll fail this time, it's that we'll put our feet on a slippery slope. We'll dull, we'll sear our consciences, and once our feet are on the slippery slope, we're in free fall, with no way to recover. And So the counsel of Paul, the counsel of the Bible, is that we would run. Number one, starve. Number two, run.

Number three, amputate. The counsel of scripture is that we amputate. Matthew 18, 8-10 says this, if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or named rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the everlasting fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you.

It is better for you to enter life with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hellfire. One thing for sure that this passage says is that men, brothers, young and old, there must be no sacred cows. For us, there must be no sacred cows. You know where the expression sacred cows come from? Comes from India, where cows have a religious significance.

They're really sacred. They think cows are sacred. And so, some of the poorest people in our world who are starving live among free-ranging cows. And we who have the Word of God know that they can be food. Say what?

Kill those cows! Eat those cows! They're delicious! They'll be life for you! But they won't.

It's a sacred cow. They won't touch the cow. They'll starve to death while the cow wanders around the yard, but they won't touch the cow. Brothers, do we have sacred cows? Things that are hidden?

Things that we can't touch? Things that will take our life from us. This is about heaven and hell. This is about heaven and hell. Now are you saying my sin can drag me into hell?

I'm a believer. Are you saying I lose my salvation? No, I'm saying that persistent disobedience doesn't say that it will make us lose our salvation. It will make us say that we've fooled ourselves, that our feet have never been on the path to heaven, and we thought they were. If we're always perpetually, persistently, habitually elevating something above God, What have we done to the great commandment?

Can we truly say that our feet are on the path to heaven? Can we, brothers? Ephesians 5 says this, starting in verse 1 through verse 7, Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you as is fitting for saints, neither filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not be partakers with them." In Romans 12, Paul says that for the Christian, Offering ourselves as a living sacrifice is what? It's a reasonable service. But now in Ephesians 5, he lists things that can be idolatry, habitual fornication, uncleanness, filthiness, and he says they're not fitting for the people of God. Offering ourselves as a living sacrifice?

Reasonable service. Sexual immorality, uncleanness, covetous? Not fitting for the people of God. We must be about the things that are fitting. We must be about the things that are a reasonable service.

Let us not deceive ourselves. We are persistently elevating things above God to say that we love that more than we love God. And think that we put our feet on the path to heaven, that God has placed us there. J.C. Ryle says this, nothing darkens the eyes of the mind so much and deadens the conscience so surely as an allowed sin.

Take my advice and never spare a little sin. Israel was commanded to slay every Canaanite, both great and small. Act on the same principle and show no mercy to little sins. Ryle talks about allowed sins. Sins that have our permission to come and go as they please.

Allowed sins. And Ryle counsels us to show no mercy to these little sins that we think are harmless, that are sapping the spiritual power right out of us. God desires us to be warriors in our generation and we're completely spiritually impotent. And why is that? Many times it's because we have allowed sins.

We think they're little. They have our permission to come and go as we please, as our friends, as our guests. And they're emasculating us in a spiritual sense. Man, it's quiet in this tent. By the way, you only preach this sermon as a hypocrite.

I've given this sermon three times in the last 12 months. I'm preaching it the third time as a hypocrite. By the grace of God, I'm less a hypocrite this time than I'm preaching it than I was in January. And in January, I was a less hypocrite than I was last October when I preached it. I prayed that next time I preach it I'll be a lesser hypocrite than I am as I stand before you today.

I have two charges in closing. One to fathers and one to sons. Fathers. Fathers, be ruthless in your personal life. Have no allowed sins that can come and glow at their leisure with your permission as a friend.

Be ruthless in your personal life. Where does this leave tantalizing images on the internet? Notice I did not say pornography. We all know that's out of bounds. You may be struggling with it today and at least you know it's wrong.

I said tantalizing images on the internet. How many times have we given ourselves permission because we wouldn't say it was pornography? That's not pornography. I sure like looking at it, but that's not pornography. Shame on us.

Where does it leave self-gratification for not to have allowed sins? Brothers, we have to get rid of the dark corners. You have to get rid of the dark corners. There are men in here, they seem fine to you, they seem fine to me. I'll never know, you'll never know.

They smile, everything's great, but everything's not great. They're dark corners. They refuse to be ruthless in their personal life, and it may bring them down. They may escape through the fire, but they'll lose everything that's precious to them. They'll lose their wife, they'll lose their children, they'll lose their church, they'll lose the respect anyone ever had for them.

Their mom and dad will never look at them the same way again. They'll never recover. You may see them in heaven, but they'll never recover on this earth because they allowed us in they would not be ruthless in their personal life. We should weep for these men. We should weep for ourselves when we're allowing sin.

It could cost us everything. Fathers engage your sons early. Engage your sons early. If your strategy is to assume that everything is fine until you have evidence to the contrary, then you do not have a strategy. I think it was Michael Steele last election cycle that said at one of the conventions, hope is not a strategy.

And that's so true. Hope is not a strategy. This is a category where your son needs your help. He needs you to come alongside Him and lock arms with Him and speak frankly to Him. Now does this mean that we just take all the sewage of our past in great detail and just dump it right on the head of our son?

No, No, do not do that to your son. But come alongside him. Engage him in this category early. How do you do this? If you have young sons, you do it progressively.

Progressively. We read books of the Bible through, just start to finish. You'll hit enough. If that's your practice in your home, and it should be, you're going to hit passages that will bring questions. The term sexual immorality is going to be there.

You'll hit the rape of Dinah in Genesis, and there will be times to talk with your young sons about this. In my house, our strategy has been, we'll start with a little knowledge now and they'll know more later. I don't want them to know all today. It wouldn't be appropriate for them to know all today. So sexual immorality in my home with many of my children is it's a man and woman living together as if they're married, but they're not married.

It's not pleasing to God. It's completely the truth, and it's not the whole story. And they'll get the rest of the story later. Engage your sons early. Start teaching them now.

Not the whole thing, but what they need to know to build on in your discussions as they get older. Sons, Sons, bathe your minds in the Word of God. If Christianity is your Father's religion, repent today and be saved. You cannot go to heaven because your father is a Christian. You must embrace Christ and have Him for your own.

You must love the scriptures for your own. Your father cannot protect you against these things. Only the Lord Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit and His mercies towards you are a shield against it. Faith is your shield. If you don't have that faith, it doesn't matter how protective your Father is, you are world bait.

The world is going to gobble you up. Bait your minds in the Word of God. Remember the counsel of Romans 12 to be transformed by what? By the renewing of your mind. The one way to renew your mind is to have scripture as a constant companion, as a faithful friend.

You go to it daily. You put yourself under the authority of it. You take the counsels of God. David says this in Psalm 119 verse 9, How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to your word.

Young men, sons, if you would have a way that's cleansed, if you would cleanse your way, you must take heed according to God's Word. Two verses later in Psalm 119 verse 11, David says, Your Word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. If you, sons, would not sin against God Almighty, then hide the Word of God in your heart. Bathe your mind in it. Transform it.

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And sons, lastly, understand what a slippery slope this is. You cannot negotiate it. You cannot manage it. You think you can just step one foot to the right, but it's a slippery slope.

And when your foot's on it, you thought you could taste the pleasures of it and then step back to the right, but you slip and then you're in free fall and you're at the bottom of the hill looking up with no idea how to get up that hill again. Sons your fathers have been there they know they will testify that this is true. It is a slippery slope sons. Starve, Run. Amputate.

Proverbs 6-12 asks a very rhetorical question. Can a man scoop fire into his lap without being burned? Can we heap coals on our lap and not be burned? No. We must starve.

We must flee. We must amputate. Not heap coals on our lap and hope for the best. The best when you got a lap full of coals isn't very good, brothers. God forbid, God forbid that we would be sons of Esau who would sell our birthright for a bowl of stew.

How many a man has sold his birthright for a bowl of stew in the area of sexual immorality? In closing, It's one of the most sobering texts of scripture. Romans 7, Paul talks about the war between a willing spirit, a spirit that inwardly delights in the law of God, and a weak and a corrupt flesh, and he says, what I want to do, I don't do. And what I don't want to do that's what I find myself doing. Well if that's true what hope is there for us?

Paul answers the question. Oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So now we end where we began to say the practical self-help stuff may be of some virtue, some value to you, but if it is it's because that we keep it married with Christ. Christ is the only one who will save us from this wretched man that we are.

That can give us ammo against a weak and corrupt flesh for our willing spirit. We must not allow this to be divorced from the good news of the Gospel, that God would turn away His wrath and place it on His Son Jesus. By the mercies of God, brothers, present your bodies as living sacrifices. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Oh, your word is a pure spring.

We desire to be like the man of Psalm 1 who meditates on your word day and night. He's like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither, whatever he does prospers. Plant our feet by the streams, Lord, so that our roots would always have an abundance of the pure water of your Word. God, I pray that you would give us humble hearts, not lifted up so that we're ripe for the picking, for temptations, but humble, knowing How weak we are without Christ. Lord, I pray that you would be exalted, that you would be lifted up in all these things, that all these pressures would cause us to run to you, our one source of victory in this world.

Our only source of victory in this world is you, Jesus. We thank you for your mercy that you have turned away the wrath of God that we deserve, but it's been diverted and placed upon your shoulders. You were wounded for our iniquities. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen.

Thank you.