In his sermon 'How to Live a Holy Life in an Unholy Culture,' Trent Moody emphasizes the challenge of maintaining holiness in a world that opposes Christian values. The sermon draws from 2 Corinthians 6 and Jeremiah 29 to illustrate the need for believers to separate themselves from ungodly influences while still living within society. He discusses the Israelites' captivity in Babylon as a parallel to the modern Christian experience, urging believers to establish themselves without conforming to worldly practices. Moody stresses that holiness involves a conscious decision to resist the pressures to conform, highlighting the necessity of the Holy Spirit's guidance and the power of prayer. He warns against the subtle influences of culture and encourages believers to renew their minds and remain vigilant against spiritual dangers. The sermon concludes by advocating for communal support within the church to strengthen one's resolve to live a godly life.

Alright, 2nd Corinthians chapter 6. I'm going to be sharing with you this morning the message I preached at this weekend, this past weekend's conference. And brother, thank you for reading Ephesians chapter 1, by the way. That was spot on for what I want to say and so actually I want to I just want to point back real quick to one verse that really captures the the message that I would like to share with you this morning and that was verse 4. And verse 4 of Ephesians chapter 1 says, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.

So if you will look in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and I want to begin with verse 14 and read down through chapter 7 verse 1. And thus says the word of the Lord, do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness and what communion has light with darkness and what accord has Christ with Belial or what part has a believer with an unbeliever and what agreement has the temple of God with idols for you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord.

Do not touch what is unclean and I will receive you. I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters says the Lord Almighty. Therefore having these promises beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Let's pray. Our Lord, we thank you for your Word that teaches and instructs us.

But Father, without the aid of the Holy Spirit, your Word does not become effectual to our souls. And so Lord, my prayer this morning is that your Holy Spirit would teach us how to live a holy life in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Lord I pray that your Spirit would teach us this morning or that your Spirit would take the very word of God and may we hear it as the very word of God and Lord I pray that your word and by your spirit we would be corrected and instructed and possibly rebuked this morning. Lord would you teach us and help us to be your people and to live as your people. And we ask it in Jesus name.

Amen. You may be seated. So this weekend at the Build Dwell Plant Conference the theme was found in Jeremiah 29 which these instructions were given But I want to give you a little bit of context of that just so that what I'm going to share with you this morning would make a little bit more sense to you of why I'm preaching what I'm preaching. In this conference the idea there around Jeremiah 29, Jeremiah was instructing the captives who had been taken captive to Babylon because they had been living a life of disobedience to God. They had not fulfilled what God had called them to be.

They were not living as a holy people unto the Lord and God sent them into captivity just like he promised he would do back in Deuteronomy. That there were going to be blessings for obedience and that there would be curses for disobedience. And God was very gracious and patient with them for for centuries he was patient with them and he finally did send them into captivity and as they were going into captivity though he wanted them to understand that that they were going to be there not for a short amount of time as the false prophets were telling them but that they were going to be there not for a short amount of time as the false prophets were telling them but that they were going to be there for 70 years. And in that 70 year span he was wanting them to go ahead and settle in in the sense of you need to build houses and dwell in them. You need to plant a garden and eat of its fruit.

You need to get married. You need to have children and you need to give your children in marriage. So in other words what he was saying is you're going to be here. You need to establish yourself here and you need to prosper here and that prospering was not just in the sense of financial prospering or growing in lands and and houses but it was the sense of being there that you're going to be a stranger in a foreign land for a length of time and really that message is for us today we are actually strangers in a foreign land and we're going to be here for some length of time that we do not know. He's not told us 70 years but he's told us until he comes.

And so we're going to be the people who have to learn how to live a holy life in the midst of an unholy culture because we are living in Babylon. One of the things that I heard over and over again and that I wholeheartedly agree with this weekend was this idea that this wrong idea of thinking that because we have received some conservatism in our country as a as at least a break tap if you would from running headlong into extremism that we think and relate conservatism with Christianity and that cannot be further from the truth. Those two things are not equal to one another, although Christianity does have some conservative principles in it. We want to conserve the very Word of God and the Law of God so that we can live in obedience to God. We're not wanting to turn away from that very law that God has given us that we would live in obedience to Him.

So I don't want you to think just because the election may have gone your way that this means that we are now not living in Babylon. This is not our hope brothers and sisters. Our hope is in the Word of God. Our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ and our hope is in that through the power of the Holy Spirit he would enable us to live in this world unspotted and undefiled. So that's somewhat of the context of what this message was preached.

And so what I want to speak to you about this morning are some of the dangers of living in Babylon or I should say any unholy culture or unholy nation. The grave danger of living in an unholy culture is that that unholy culture wants to live in you. In the conference text of Jeremiah 29 we found that these Israelites had been disciplined because of their sin and now that they were living in this foreign land because they had failed to live a separate and holy life. They began to mingle even in their land, they began to mingle with the people around them, the nations that dwelt around them and they forsook God and they sought other gods. In Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 13 God's word says this, for my people have committed two evils and here's what they are.

They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters And they have hewn themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. So this was the judgment that God, or this was the declaration of God that he was saying, this is the problem with my people. They have forsaken me the fountain of living water. Think about this, a fountain of living water, if you will, would be like an artesian well of the most pure water ever that is just bubbling up from the ground. It's living water.

It is moving water and instead of being coming to that fountain of living water and drinking of that living water, they went and forsook that and they went and hewned out for themselves a cistern out of stone and they've carved it out because a cistern what it did it would catch rainwater and runoff water. But the problem was not only had they hewn themselves cisterns but they had broken cisterns. It was a cistern with cracks in it that could hold no water. So they went from the living water that flowing running fountain of living water and they had rejected God is what he was saying and instead of believing and receiving the living water of God they had gone over here to something that could hold no water so they had gone from a true and living God and they had sought out for themselves idols that were no God at all. And so they had turned so far away from their God who delivered them from the land and from in bondage in Egypt and they were called to be his people and God was going to be their God and what they did they forsook God and the Lord sent them therefore into Babylon into captivity because they would not turn from their evil ways.

They had false prophets telling them, hey don't worry about it, it's not going to be long. And Jeremiah came along and said, do not listen to those false prophets, you're going to be here a while. And so In the midst of this, Jeremiah was telling them that they should plan to build and plant and have children and have grandchildren and to enjoy the benefits of their labors. But they didn't want to believe this. But God told them that it would be so.

This was the promise of God and the blessings and curses from the book of Deuteronomy. So the question was, How should they prepare to live a life in a foreign land of captivity and yet at the same time remain God's holy separate people that he had called them to be? They had just lost their promised land because of forsaking God. So how much more difficult would it be now to follow the Lord in a land where there was no temple? The place of their worship.

Now they're in a land where there was no access to the sacrifices of God. There was no access of going to their place of prayer, and now they were going to be living in a foreign land in the midst of paganism everywhere. And guess what? Here we are. We are living in a land of paganism everywhere.

And anytime that you dwell in a land of paganism it's very easy to allow that culture to invade your life. I guess I could have titled this message this morning how to live as sheep in the midst of a pig pen. That's kind of the idea there. How do we keep ourselves from getting the filth of the pig pen all over our sheeply wool which should be as white as snow. You see the language of the world is a great temptation to adopt.

The smell of the world, the ways of the world, the priorities of the world, and the natural inclination of people is to conform to their surroundings, to the place in which they live, the people among whom they live and this culture in which they live and our natural tendency is to conform to that thing. So this is the great problem throughout history is that God's people and really the reason for the judgment is that God's people would begin to synchronize their lives to that around them. They would be, you remember Scott has been preaching about when we sing together, our hearts actually begin to get into the same rhythm together. I've never heard that before. I looked that up and they've done studies on that, that As you begin to breathe in and out, it has a lot to do with our breathing and how you breathe with your singing, and it actually causes your heart to begin to beat into the same rhythm together.

But listen, the same thing is true if you allow yourself to begin to breathe in and out and begin to get into the same rhythm of the world around you. You will begin to think like them, speak like them, act like them. And so it's a great problem because this is what has happened to God's people throughout the history of the world. Now to be clear we live in a world but it is very clear that we should not be of the world. James 4 says adulterers and adulteresses do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. But I want you to understand that the God of this age has a plan for your life. And I'm not talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm talking about the God of this age, the God of this worldly system, this fallen, corrupt, worldly system. He wants to come in and he wants to steal your assurance of salvation and he wants to steal the joy that you have in Christ. He wants to kill your testimony and your influence and he wants to display your life as an example of a sinful fallen person.

And it minimizes the power of the gospel in your life to change your life and that will cause you to live a holy life and he wants to parade you before the world and show that he has power even in the midst of the life of a Christian when you sin and fall. I want you to understand also that the influence of his people is all around you. I want you to understand that every morning when you wake up you should wake up as if you were sleeping in a game reserve in Africa. And I mention this because a few months ago Justice was actually doing that very thing. He went out and slept on a cot in a game reserve in the midst of all kinds of wild animals and he woke up with wild donkeys chewing on his socks.

But he also woke up with footprints of wild dogs around his cot. But I want you to wake up every morning recognizing the fact that your adversary is as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And the Bible says be sober, be vigilant, because that adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion and he's seeking whom he may devour. If you were to wake up and to sleep each night in a game reserve where you knew there were wild animals that could devour you, you would sleep differently and you would wake up differently and you would walk through that place differently. You would be watching behind every bush.

You would be careful. You would be looking for tracks. You would be listening. You would be, all of your senses would be engaged in this thing. And that's how we are actually to live in this corrupt world, this unholy culture in which we live.

Because if you don't, you're going to be devoured. And you're gonna be paraded. So my goal this morning is to equip you to live this holy life in the midst of an unholy culture. And I have four texts that I want to share with you. The one that we read this morning was only the first text regarding correlating with the first point.

I hope that this will greatly aid us in our pursuit. There are many more passages that we could look at. There are many more principles that we could look at and I want to take for granted just for a moment or not take for granted for a moment the fact that if you try any of these things apart from prayer and apart from the power of the Holy Spirit You will find that these things are are wholly insufficient for you to do it. So I'm not gonna preach on prayer, I'm not gonna preach on your reliance on the Holy Spirit. We're gonna take that as an understood.

We're gonna recognize that what we need before we even get out of bed in the morning is to pray, Lord help me to live for you today. Help me to recognize all of the dangers all around me and by your spirit help me to walk in holiness. Because apart from these things, brothers and sisters, you cannot do these things. It's not within our own strength to do it And so I want you to realize that I have prayed for each one of you this morning. I have asked God to help you to be able to live in this world and not be of it.

To live a life that is unspotted from this world. And so let us look firstly. In order to live a holy life in Babylon you must live a separate life. And that's what our text tells us. Come out from among them and be separate says the Lord.

He gives us this understanding and I wish I could read all of this chapter of chapter 6 but he he begins this chapter by saying this very thing he says and we as workers together with him also plead with you. I want you to understand the heart that I have towards you this morning. It is this, it is a heart of pleading with you. I beseech you therefore brethren, we'll be there in just a few moments, but I plead with you and I desire as Paul says to the Corinthians that your heart would be wide open to these things and that you would not hold back your affections for it but that you would be wide open ready to receive all that God has and that you would be willing to hear the very word of God, therefore come out from among them and be separate says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean and I will receive you." This idea of being separated means to be set aside for a particular function.

It's very closely related with the word holy. Holy means to be set apart and also sanctification has this same idea as well. You are being set apart unto God. You are being sanctified unto God. And so it is much like this word holy that I'm saying that I desire for us to do that we would live a holy life.

But I first want to tell you what I'm not saying. I am not saying that the way to be separate is to go and live in a cave or a monastery somewhere where you separate yourself from all of society and you go live all by yourself as a hermit. That is not what God is saying. That is not what I am saying. That's not what Paul is saying.

We are actually called to live in this world and be separate at the same time. So the separation there is not location, but it's sanctification. It's not that we remove ourselves from the very presence of these people, but that we remove our affections away from the things of this world. Matthew Henry says, let us take heed of carrying away with us any of the pollutions of Babylon. Touch no unclean thing.

Now that God makes bear his holy arm for you, you be you holy as he is holy and keep yourselves from every wicked thing. And when they came out of Egypt they brought with them the idolatrous customs of Egypt which were their ruin. Let us take heed of doing so now that we come out of Babylon and that we touch no unclean thing. This passage is actually quoting from the book of Isaiah. Isaiah wrote before the captivity and it's interesting here because he's actually prophesying to them of what God would have them to do once they're in captivity, come out from among them and be separate says the Lord.

Even though they were in captivity. And he tells us on a very practical level, how do we do this? Well the preceding verses are really the answer to his command here. Do not be unequally yoked together with an unbeliever. This points back to Deuteronomy 22.

You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. You don't yoke an ox and a donkey together. Well, what in the world does that have to do with being a Christian and living in this world? I haven't plowed with an ox lately, or a donkey for that matter. But they were not to bind these two together or yoke them together.

The point was is that an ox and a donkey are animals with two different natures. You have an ox that was considered to be a clean animal and you had a donkey that was an unclean animal. It didn't have a cloven hoof. It was putting two contrary-natured animals together, yoking them together, and trying to plow a straight row. It would be much like taking a live ox and a dead ox and trying to plow that way.

Now we often relate this passage to marriage, but he's not specifically talking about marriage here, although it does apply to marriage, but he's actually talking about you in your life and in your relationships, and perhaps even in your businesses that you do not be yoked together with those who are of a different nature. It doesn't mean you can't work with an unbeliever or even work for a company that you know companies aren't believers or unbelievers, companies are companies. They can do ungodly things and you may need to step away from something like that but you can actually be a good doctor in a hospital system or you could be a good lawyer and you could be a good judge or whatever it may be a good plumber. You can be these things and That's what God is calling us to do. But he wanted them to understand that the yoking together, the intimate relationship of a clean and an unclean animal was not something that could take place, and it would not work.

It would actually hinder the work of the one that was clean. And so he did not want his people to be yoked together with those who were spiritually dead. Now in the New Testament it is It is even that much more important that there is not an unequal yoking together of ourselves with unbelievers. Specifically, the Corinthians were doing this and Paul was calling them to separate themselves. He was pulling from what Isaiah told the Israelites to do in Babylon and now Paul was relating that to the church.

He's telling them do not be unequally yoked together for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness. How do those two things to go together? What communion has light and darkness? Can you take light and darkness and mix them? No.

You can't bind those two things together. They're totally separate things. But I want you to listen to how Moses applied this in Hebrews chapter 11. We see what Moses did. Moses, it says, by faith, Moses, when he became of age, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.

Listen to what he did. Esteeming the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. For he looked to the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible." So Moses was he was raised up in Pharaoh's court he had everything that his heart could desire and his flesh could desire but once he understood and had a realization of seeing him who was invisible when he saw God when he understood who God was he chose rather the Bible says to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. You need to choose this morning.

This is the day of choosing. Are you going to choose to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin or are you going to choose to suffer reproach with the people of God because you've looked to the reward and you realize that the reward of God is so much greater than the passing pleasures of sin which are temporary. That's the question and that's the choosing that you're gonna have to make. It's not a choice that you need to make tomorrow. This is a choice you need to make today.

No matter where God's people dwell, we should work to produce this superior culture that Scott has been talking about, this type of separation creates a more stable society. It's actually a blessing to the culture in which we live. When we live a holy life, a separated life, and we live in the superior culture of the church, we are actually being a blessing to our society and not a curse. They may not see it that way but we brothers and sisters bring stability to a society. There is no doubt that there are some of you here even today who need to take seriously this command regarding your separation from the world.

I believe that there are many especially of the younger generation but not limited to that who have who have not truly owned the doctrine of Christ. You may be here this morning simply because your parents told you to be here this morning. I mean, let's be honest. When you're young, you go where your parents tell you to go. But you, you may have sung these songs this morning that we were singing.

The words coming out of your mouth may have sounded as if that Christ is my all. You may have proclaimed with your mouth, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, but you have not owned Christ. And what I mean by that is you have not chosen this day that you are going to live for the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation. Your affections are warming perhaps to the passing pleasures of sin. And perhaps it's only a matter of time before you turn of age and you run headlong into Babylon.

I would say to you this morning come out from among them and be separate. I would say to you as James says, pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this, to visit the orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. What I'm talking about is not so much again location as sanctification. I really want you to take account of your relationships. I want you to see if there is something in your life that you need to cut off because of the influence that it is having over your life and over your thought process and over your affections that you're having.

What is it that's warming your affections? Is it Christ and Him crucified or is it the things and the passing pleasures of this world? And young people you need to take note what is it that stirs your heart? What is it that warms you? And I don't want you to think so highly of yourself that you think that you can handle the influences of a godly relationship or ungodly influences in this world and not be affected by it.

Be careful. Live as if you're in that game reserve. Think not that you can walk haphazardly through the lion's den. Secondly, in order to live a holy life in the midst of an unholy culture, you must not be conformed to this world. You can turn to Romans 12, you probably haven't memorized by now, but Romans 12, 1 and 2, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies 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 or test what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. One of the things that we have learned in Romans 12 and something that has been just constantly going over and over in my mind is the idea that inactivity in your spiritual life will automatically produce conformity to this world. The world it never stops trying to conform you. You may stop in your walk of sanctification, but the world never ceases to press you into its mold.

You know this idea of being conformed, we've learned about this, is to take upon the shape of something else. It is to be conformed to a pattern or to a mold. Matthew 21 Jesus said and he said to them, whose image and inscription is this? And they said to him, Caesar's. And he said to them, render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's.

He was asking them what pattern or what image has been pressed upon that coin. And they said Caesar's. Give it to Caesar then. What he didn't say plainly was and what we should all note is that we as human beings have pressed upon us the image of God. And in fact, if you're a Christian this morning, you have the very image of Christ pressed upon you.

You have been, you are being shaped into the image of Christ. That's the whole work of sanctification and that's called you being a new creation. You are not to be conformed to this world. You're not to be allowing the world to press its stamp upon you or to shape you into its worldview, into the way it thinks, the way it looks, the way it smells, the way it acts, the way it talks, and in every other way that you can imagine that the world is constantly pressing you. But the problem today is that we have these things that we carry with us and we have so much opportunity to be looking at what the world is doing.

And for some ridiculous reason, we think, man, that's cool. I want to be like that. God forbid. Why is it that we put ourselves into the place in which we are going to be viewing and receiving information maybe through audio or video and we look at these things and those things you cannot view them without influence upon your soul and upon your mind. It will affect you.

It will. No more could you jump into a pond and not get wet than you can walk in this world and not be influenced. Apart from the power of the Holy Spirit and through prayer and recognizing what the problem is all around you. But I want to challenge you this morning to stop looking at anything in this world as being neutral. There is no neutrality.

I had a young man come up to me afterwards he said I'm in a secular university right now I'm working on my PhD and what's your advice for me? What do I do? I say well first of all you need to know yourself. Are you a man of conviction? Are you a man that can actually walk around in that university?

And are you a man that can actually hear things from teachers that are contrary to the Word of God and not be influenced and affected by them? Are you the type of man who can resist the things of the devil? Are you the type of man who has a firm conviction upon the Word of God, you have the ability to see that nothing is neutral and everything coming in, that you're going to bring it through this filter of the Word of God and be able to say, no, I reject that worldview. Or I accept that as truth of God. Because there are things that are true regarding mathematics and regarding science and all of these things that you can say these things are true, but these things are not true.

So the first thing you need to do is know yourself. You need to know your weaknesses. You need to know your limitations. I'm not gonna recommend people go and immerse themselves in that world because I think it's very dangerous. But I will not say this impossible for someone because I read the book of Daniel before.

He didn't go willingly though. He was placed there. He was put there and he was, but yet we learned this weekend that he was a man who had determined in his heart not to defile himself with the king's bread or meat, his dainties. He had determined in his heart, and that's what we must do. We must be the type of people who determine in our heart.

You know, you think back during our COVID conformity years in which the world was trying to conform us into this image. It wanted everybody to do the same thing. Wear the mask, get the shot, conform. Be like everyone else and stop being difficult. In much the same way, the world has not stopped at all from trying to conform you into being this citizen or to be this person that it wants you to be.

Don't think that that conformity years are over. They have never stopped. The world is constantly trying to conform you into its image and to press its stamp upon you. And you need to recognize that, you need to understand that. The purpose is not just so that you'll wear a mask, the purpose was that you would conform.

That's just an example or an illustration if you will about what's actually happening on the spiritual realm of what this ungodly world is trying to do to you. It's wanting to corrupt your mind. And I want you to ask yourself a question, and in what ways are you willingly being conformed to this world? You know, it's one thing to be influenced by things that you're not really aware of, you're just kind of going through and you don't realize what's having an influence upon you. But it's another thing altogether to willingly be putting yourself in a place of conformity.

And so ask yourself in what ways am I doing that? In what ways are you marring the image of God that you are and conforming to the image of this world? And I'll admit sometimes it's difficult to discern these things. Sometimes you don't realize something is having some influence over you. But it amazes me the power of peer influence.

And I speak to young people now especially because there's so much influence in this world. And I don't understand. It's amazing the powerful motivator of wanting to fit in and Be accepted. Even in a church like this, you can see it in small ways. There's a powerful motivator, and listen, if that motivation is to live a godly life and to be a holy man or woman or child, praise God for that motivator.

But I want you to understand there's always a motivator that's trying to press you into other ways. It's always a razor's edge that we're walking on. There's always this sense of in which you could be motivated to be some clique or to be some thing or to be some style or whatever it may be or to some language or terminology or some little group that you want to be in and you know you got to conform to be in this thing and that's what the world is wanting you to do and I want you to understand that the desire to fit in and to be accepted is a powerful motivator and the real question is who is it that you want to please? Whose approval are you seeking and to what extent are you willing to conform in order to receive that approval? Matthew 26 24 says no one can serve two masters For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon. The only way to overcome this conformity to this world, there's three things that I want you to understand. First of all, you must acknowledge the fact that the world is always trying to press you into its mold. You have to acknowledge that. You have to be able to wake up in the morning and realize I'm getting ready to walk out into a 50 million pound press that's wanting to crush me and shape me into itself.

Acknowledge that. Secondly, you need to recognize the ways that the world goes about this work of conformity. And I want to use an illustration from John Bunyan's allegorical work, The Holy War. If you've never read that, I would suggest doing so. But it's another allegory that John Bunyan wrote.

And he's speaking about, in this, a city called Mansoul. He's talking about Mansoul, obviously. And in this Mansoul, there are five gates. And these gates are the eye gate, the ear gate, the mouth gate, the nose gate, and the field gate. Now what he means by these things I'll just explain each one of them to you.

These are the areas or the gates in which the attack of the city of Mansoul is being attacked. This outward army or these outward worldly thoughts are wanting to penetrate into that gate so that it can get into your soul. And it's a brutal attack. The ear gate of course is representing the sense of hearing and is often used by sin to speak and influence the inhabitants of Mansoul through sounds and voices. I would say it is doing that through music, it is doing that through movies, it is doing that through the counsel of worldly, ungodly friends or philosophies that are not according to the Word of God.

So in what ways is that gate of yours, your ear gate, being attacked and assaulted. This is one of the gates that the world wants to break through to conform you into its image. The next is the eye gate. This gate, again, represents the sense of sight, and it's used by sin to present vivid, alluring images and visions to the inhabitants of mansoul. Again, movies, pictures, advertisements, anything that appeals to the lust of the eyes.

There is an assault upon your eyes. I have made, Job says, a covenant with my eyes not to look upon a young maid. Because he knew himself. He recognized that there was an assault. He acknowledged this fact and he was going to do something about it.

He made a covenant. The mouth gate. This gate represents of course the sense of taste and speech. Yes, taste. How can your soul be assaulted through taste?

How about unbridled gluttony? That's a pleasure of the flesh. That's a living to please your own palate. And yes, that is actually a sin. But it's also not what goes in the mouth as Jesus said that's not what defiles but also it is what comes out of the mouth.

And this assault upon that could be through conversations that are unprofitable or foolish or crass joking. The next is the nose gate. What in the world? How can our soul be assaulted through our noses? Through this sense of smell.

Well I think it kind of relates to the one before that. Man, you smell some types of food and it does make you want to overindulge, but there's another area in which scientific studies have shown that your sense of smell actually is the most powerful sense to bring back and to recall memories. It draws memories to your mind. Have you ever walked into to an old house and it smells like your grandma's house? And it's just like you just got taken back there.

But what about senses that can actually bring back memories of ungodliness? And let me just say is I'm not going to go too far on this and I'm not against perfumes and colognes, but I just want to say be careful. Don't see it as neutral. There's a reason why people go, oh man that smells so good. It could be inducing or being a stumbling block to someone.

I'm not saying don't do it at all. God gives us fragrances, he gives us the beauty of a flower and all sorts of things that we get to smell. But be careful, what are you trying to produce in others by wearing it? So be guarded. And lastly is the field gate.

This gate represents the sense of touch and is used by sin to tempt through physical sensations and experiences. These are the areas or the gates that are described in this book that are points of vulnerability through which that city of Mansoul is attacked and influenced by worldly influences. So be aware of these things and then last I want you to resist it. The Bible says but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You need to understand that this battle is a battle of your mind.

And Paul points to this renewing of your mind as the way in which you cannot be conformed to this world. Your mind is actually that part of you which makes decisions. Your mind is to inform your emotions and your senses on what would be good or evil. It is that part of you which you need to make the decisions to do what is right. And he says here in Romans 12, 2 that here's the reason that you should renew your mind that you may prove or test what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God it's it's the ability to be able to look at any circumstance, any situation, anything and say is this in a line with the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

It's through your mind. Your transformed thinking will lead you to informed emotions and affections. Ephesians 420 says, or 424 says the same thing, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. If you leave your mind unguarded, it will become the playground of the world. But I want you to know, you don't live in a playground.

You live in a battleground. The difference between a playground and a battleground is this. A playground is the place in which your greatest concern is enjoyment. But a battleground is the place in which your greatest concern is survival. You're on a battleground every day, day in and day out.

Your mind will be affected by the fall and therefore it's easily given over to the corrupting nature of this world. However, as believers, I want you to encourage you this morning, you actually have something greater than the world to help you. Listen to what 1 John says, you are of God little children and have overcome them because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Listen, the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead, Paul says in Ephesians, is the same power that is in you and alive that would give you the strength and the power you need to resist the temptations of the world and from being conformed into its image. That's the power that you have.

But we walk around like with the cord unplugged or something. It's like, what's the deal? Plug it in. Live in the power of Jesus Christ that raised him from the dead. And that's the power of the Holy Spirit.

The third thing, turn back to 2 Corinthians again, chapter 10 this time. And I'm going to hurry through this one and the last one I've already preached to you before but I'll just mention it so we're gonna hit the three main ones this morning but 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 I want you to know that in Babylon you must always be warring against your enemy so again it's kind of like that you're not on a playground, you're on a battleground. Not only are you to resist the pressing or the conformity of the world upon you, you need to resist that huge giant press that's wanting to make you into its mold, but you also need to war against it. And I want to show you how to do that. In 2 Corinthians 10 verses 3 through 5, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.

Okay, we're talking about spiritual warfare here. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. You cannot Fight this battle with carnal weapons. I don't care how much you work out. It's not gonna help you As Paul told Timothy bodily exercise profits little Prophets little I'm not saying we shouldn't be take good care of the temple of God that he's given us, but when it comes to the spiritual battle, brothers and sisters listen, you need to be exercising different muscles, way more than you do your external muscles.

This is something that you need to dedicate yourself to. Listen to what he says, the weapons are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. Does that sound offensive or defensive? Well, a defensive maneuver is not to pull down a stronghold. The defensive mover is to run into the stronghold and shut the gate and wait.

We're talking about attacking the stronghold. A stronghold is a place in which a city, the inhabitants of a city would pull back into when they're being attacked and they would bar the doors and wait it out until hopefully the army lost interest. But here's what we are to do. We are actually the ones on the offensive in this case. We are to pull down the stronghold.

What is this stronghold? The stronghold he describes for us, he says, pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. This is such a warring language here. There's a stronghold and this stronghold is actually, it has to do with the thoughts of your mind. It has to do with your your argumentations and listen this is not only other argumentations people trying to argue against you and against the gospel.

These are actually arguments that you make in your own mind to resist the things that God is saying in His Word. The reason you don't do what God's word says is because you don't like what God's word says. There are certain things that you read and you're like, I don't particularly like that. When it goes after your pet's sin or it goes after your pet philosophy or it goes after some argumentation that you make, you build up arguments and they could be from your past life before you're a Christian, they could be some from the influences that are from the world and you take this argumentation and you try to do this spirit this unspiritual jiu-jitsu to get around what God's word says and you say here's my argumentation it actually doesn't mean that. What are some things that you find difficult or you are always trying to wrestle around because you don't really like what it means if you actually had to do that thing?

And you're like a spiritual contortionist of trying to bend yourselves around stuff so that you don't have to you make arguments against God. These are the strongholds that you need to tear down and he describes it here. Every high thing. Every high thing. It's representing here these high places in which they would put idols.

What is it that is the idol of your heart? A lot of times itself, it's just your own pleasure, it's your own desire to do things. To enjoy certain things that God's Word says you shouldn't enjoy. God's not a killjoy, he wants to give you true joy. What are the idols of your heart that you make arguments about and say, it's okay.

Like I can do both of these things. That's what Israel said. We can have the temple of God and we can have high places. Solomon made this terrible mistake in thinking that he could be a man of God and also marry foreign wives contrary to the very word of God. And he was supposed to be the wisest man ever to live.

But God warned him, do not marry foreign wives, they will turn your heart away from me. And that is exactly what happened. Don't think that you're smarter than God. Don't think that your argumentation and your ability to reason is actually higher than the wisdom of God. In fact, God's foolishness is smarter and wiser than the wisdom of man.

God confounds the wisdom of man. Don't think for a second that you're going to outsmart God. Don't think for a second that you're going to outsmart God. Don't think for a second that you're going to find a way in which you can actually disobey what God's word says and still not be affected by it and not receive the punishment or the discipline for it. I can't name all of the idols that you possibly could be making but you need to recognize them.

And recognize that the battle that you face is the greatest battle ever. And it is something that is constantly going to be after you." Benson notes these things as this, he says, the means they used to enlighten, reform, regenerate, and save the world were effectual because the Lord worked with them. How? Pulling down strongholds. He describes these strongholds as ignorance, prejudice, unbelief, fleshly lust, worldly affections, desires of wealth, honor, pleasures, errors, and vices of all sorts, and whatever was opposed to the wit and wisdom or power or malice or cruelty of men or devils against the progress of the gospel in the world and the influence of divine grace upon the souls of men." That's a mouthful but you could get the gist of what he was saying.

There's all sorts of things that are high places and argumentations that we use to try to justify our sinful behaviors. And Paul is telling the Corinthians that what they did was go in and pull down strongholds, these philosophies, and that's what you are to do in your own mind is to go into your mind, examine yourselves, and to recognize the areas of strongholds that need to be pulled down and destroyed. I mean he goes on and he describes it casting down arguments every high thing that exalts itself. Listen what he says here at the end of it and taking into captivity or every bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ every thought really every thought Kind of like what he's saying here is you need to be the spiritual policeman if you will. You need to handcuff every thought, you bring it over to Christ, you bow it down before the judge of all the earth and you say is this a godly thought in accordance to your will or is this an ungodly thought?

If Jesus Christ says that's a good one, you can live with that one, then you let him go. If it's an ungodly thought, you leave him bound, you bring him into captivity to the obedience of Christ. And ready, he says in verse six, to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. Are you ready to punish your own disobedience before God? That's where we must be brothers and sisters if we want to live a holy life in an unholy world it's the strongholds of your mind that will drive you down and Lastly, I'm just going to mention this in reference and it's again brother reads from Ephesians 4 which is spot-on and Adam you read from Hebrews 10 that was my last verse my last point Hebrews 10 and I'm just going to read it let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering if you're going to live in Babylon you must commit to being a confessional people who regularly assemble because when you regularly assemble, you actually have the responsibility to stir one another up to love and good works.

If you're gonna live a holy life in an unholy world, you need to be regularly right here in a local church where we can stir each other up. Because guess what, you're not strong enough by yourself. And That's just the fact. Because Hebrews two says, "'Therefore we must give the more earnest heed "'to the things we've heard lest we drift away.'" And in closing, I'll just read again 2 Corinthians 6, 17 through 7, 1. Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord.

Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters says the Lord Almighty. Therefore having these promises beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and the Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Let us pray. Our gracious Father, we thank you for the Word of God that instructs us and now we pray that the Spirit of God would enable us to live this holy life that you called us to.

Lord your word says be ye holy for I am holy. Lord we want to be your separate people. We want to be a separate people who actually influences the world instead of the world influencing us. Would you give us this strength? Would you give us this this vigor that we need to do these very things?

Help us to guard our hearts and minds and we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.