Ephesians chapter 2, the part that I want to focus on is there in verse number 12 where
the Bible reads, that at that time ye were without Christ being aliens from the common
wealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope and without God
in the world.
And the title of my sermon this morning is, Without God in the World.
He said at the beginning of that verse that at the time you were without Christ, that
condition of being without Christ is described as having no hope and without God in the
world.
Now back up to the beginning of the chapter to verse number 1 and the Bible reads, You
at the quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins wherein in time past ye walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of
the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath even as others.
But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ by grace ye are saved, and hath raised
us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the
ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us to
Christ Jesus.
For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God,
not of works, lest any man should boast.
But not only did Christ save us from the punishment for our sins of going to hell one day, not
only are we saved by grace through faith, but at the beginning of that there, he talked
about the fact that before we were saved, we walked according to the power of the prince
of the power of the air, and it said, the spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience, among whom we all had our conversation in time past.
So the unsaved man, according to the Bible, fulfills the will of the devil.
He fulfills the will of the prince of the power of the air, that spirit that is working
in the children of disobedience.
So what the Bible is teaching here is that if we were not saved, that's what we'd be
doing.
We'd be fulfilling the lust of our flesh and the desires of our mind, and we would actually
be walking in the will of the devil as opposed to walking in the will of God.
Now go to Titus chapter number three, Titus chapter number three, because what I want
to show you this morning is that not only has God delivered us from an eternity in hell,
he has also delivered us from living a life of destruction.
Even in this very present world, the life that we would be living if we were not saved,
if we did not have the Word of God and the wisdom of God guiding us, would be a foolish
life that would end up in destruction.
We would be walking according to the prince of the power of the air, which is the devil.
We would be guided by that spirit that is now working in the children of disobedience.
We would be having our conversation in the lust of our flesh, and we would be fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind.
We would be living a destructive life.
Go to Titus chapter three, verse three, it says, For we ourselves also were sometimes
foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and
envy, hateful and hating one another.
But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of
regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.
You see, if we today are living a godly life, a clean life, a life of wisdom, and a life
of honor, we really have nothing to glory of because the only reason that we're living
a good life is because of the fact that God saved us, gave us his word to guide us, gave
us that wisdom.
Otherwise we would be living the same foolish and destructive life that everyone else is
living.
That's why he talks about here in this passage, which the context has to do with looking down
on other people or thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think.
He says, look, we ourselves also were sometimes foolish.
What's he saying?
We, before we were saved, we were an idiot too.
And if we weren't saved, we would have all kinds of foolish ideas and we would be doing
all kinds of stupid and wicked things if we weren't saved.
Thank God that we're saved and not going to hell, but not only that, thank God that we're
saved so that God has shown unto us a more excellent way to live our lives.
I mean, do you really want to live your life the way that this world lives?
Because their life ends in destruction.
Go if you would to Proverbs chapter 14, Proverbs chapter number 14.
You see, I grew up as a Christian.
I got saved when I was a six-year-old boy and so from a child I knew the Holy Scriptures
which are able to make me wise unto salvation.
And I've also been sheltered from a lot of the wickedness and ungodliness of this world
just because I was raised in that Christian home and I already had those type of morals
even going into my teenage years and going into my young adult years.
But I can't really look down on someone else for having done a lot of wicked things in
an unsaved condition because I can honestly stand here and tell you that as I look inside
myself I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
That's what the apostle Paul said, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
And I can assure you that if I did not grow up in that Christian home, if I did not receive
Christ as my Savior as a six-year-old boy, just knowing what my flesh is like, I promise
you that I would have gone out and lived the same wicked life that the average unsaved
person is living.
I'll tell you that right now.
I would have gone out and committed fornication.
I would have gone out and partied and lived that worldly, sinful lifestyle.
But I thank God that by the grace of God I got saved at a young age and was taught the
Word of God and was spared that.
But it's really nothing for me to glory up.
I really should just be thankful that I got saved at such a young age because I had parents
that brought me to church and preached me the gospel and showed me how to be saved at
that young age because it's all through the grace of God that I am what I am.
And you today, if you're living a clean and righteous life, it's only because of the fact
that you're saved and it's only because of the wisdom that you got from the Bible.
Without the Bible, you wouldn't have that wisdom.
You would make all kinds of foolish decisions.
And people today who are not saved, they have no hope and they are without God in the world
and their life reflects that.
Look at Proverbs chapter 14 verse 12.
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Listen to the next verse.
Even in laughter, the heart is sorrowful and the end of that mirth is heaviness.
You see, when I was a young man, when I was a teenager, I did not abstain from fornication
because I thought that that was a wise way to live my life or because I had the wisdom
to understand how the right way to live your life and the true path to happiness is going
to be to remain pure and to get married and to stay faithful to your wife till death you
do part because I wasn't smart enough to understand that as a young teenage boy.
But the reason that I abstained from fornication was simply the fear of God because I knew
that God commanded me to abstain from fornication and that God judged people very harshly for
committing that sin and by the fear of the Lord I said, well, you know, even though my
flesh would want to partake of that sin and even though I don't understand what would
be the big deal, I abstained from it because of the fear of the Lord.
Then when I got older, I looked back and was thankful that I had made that decision.
But at the time, you're not smart enough to know that.
You have to just trust in the Lord and follow His commandments and He will save you from
so much ruin and misfortune and heartache in your life.
He will stop you from being a failure in your life.
Look, if you live the way that this world teaches you and I hope every young person
is listening this morning, if you go out and live the life that seems right and everybody
is doing it and it's a partying lifestyle, it's drinking, it's fornicating, it's the
pleasures of sin for a season, your life will end up a miserable wreck and a failure.
You'll end up life as a loser.
Or if you trust in the Lord and follow God's rules and God's commandments and let the wisdom
of the book of Proverbs guide you, you will end up your life as a success and you will
find real joy unspeakable and full of glory that you'll never find out in the world living
the party lifestyle.
He says in verse 13, even in laughter, the heart is sorrowful and the end of that mirth
is heaviness.
That way that seems right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death.
That way where you, young teenager and young single adult, you look out at the unsaved
and you see the laughing and the partying and the fun, you know, maybe you're driving
down Mill Avenue in Tempe and you see all the partying going on or maybe you're driving
through downtown Phoenix on a Friday night and you see the partying and the fun and you
look at that and you say, man, that seems right.
I mean, that seems like a better life than what I'm living.
But what you don't understand that even in laughter, the heart is sorrowful.
You know, the unsaved that are out there living that life, it's not all what it's cracked
up to be.
They're not enjoying it as much as you think they are.
You know where the true happiness is?
It's in serving the Lord.
It's in going to church.
It's in having a family and having people that you love and that you're faithful to.
It's in going to church and serving God and singing praises to God.
The world's pleasures of sin are hollow and empty and vain.
Look, Solomon tried to enjoy all that stuff and he said, it's all vanity.
He even got to the point when he had all the money and all the women and all the fun and
all the music, he said, I hated life.
I mean, imagine that the guy who's got everything, he says, I hated life.
Look at the Hollywood stars.
Look at the rock stars.
How many of them hate life and are constantly having to go into rehab for this drug and
rehab for being an alcoholic?
Why?
Because their life is so distasteful to them that they have to drown their sorrows and
they have to just waste their brain on drugs just to forget how miserable and worthless
their existence is.
It's depressing.
You won't show me these Hollywood actors that have it all being happy and being faithful
to their spouse.
No, you see them constantly on the third, fourth, fifth spouse.
You see them constantly getting arrested for shoplifting and DUIs and just fooling, you're
just like, why would you do, if you have millions of dollars, why are you shoplifting and getting
a DUI?
Because you're an idiot, that's why.
And we would be the same way without Christ, without the word of God, without the wisdom
of God.
The only thing that will allow you to succeed and live a life that's worth living is the
word of God.
The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God and the wisdom of this world is going
to take you down a dark path and ruin your life.
Don't you ever, young people, be tempted when you see all the gleam and the lights and the
partying and the laughing and the fun because you don't see that person when they go home
and throw up the next morning and are miserable and say, what am I doing with my life?
I don't even know if it's even worth it to live another day.
That's the thought that comes into their mind.
Even in laughter, the heart is sorrowful and the end of that mirth is heaviness.
See even if you are partying and having fun and woo, you're enjoying the pleasures of
sin for a season, the end of it is heaviness.
You end up in heaviness.
When you're young, you see people, and if you would flip over to Proverbs 3.
When you're young, you see people who seem to have the world by the tail, don't they?
You see that guy that's a good looking guy and he's physically fit and he's athletic
and he wears all the coolest clothes and he's making good money and he gets all the girls
and he's partying and he's drinking and he doesn't care about the Bible, doesn't want
to hear about church, doesn't believe on Jesus Christ, but fast forward 20 years later that
guy that was so cool and you look at him and he's a loser who's wasted his life.
Other people are actually doing something with their life.
Other people actually have a family or are living a godly life, they're involved in church,
they have meaning in their life and you see him just a burned out drunk, burned out drug
addict or filled with STDs or whatever and you don't envy that life anymore.
The end of that mirth is heaviness.
You see him when he's been divorced three times, you don't want to be him.
You don't want to be that guy.
And look, I'm not down on you if you're that guy because if you've wised up and are now
living for the Lord, praise God if you're that guy, if that's how you live.
But you know what, if you're that guy who has wised up and now you're living for the
Lord and now you're in church, then you shouldn't mind this kind of preaching because you, if
your heart is right with God, should want to warn young people, hey, don't make the
mistakes that I made.
Look, I'm not down on you if you have a rough past because I just said at the beginning
of the sermon that I would have done the same thing were it not for the word of God guiding
me, I would have done the same thing.
I'm not down on you this morning.
So let me say this though.
I'm preaching to those who have not yet made these mistakes because they need to hear this
because all that glitters is not gold.
But people easily are sucked in to what the world shows them as a lifestyle that seems
right and I'm here to preach to you this morning and tell you that the end thereof are the
ways of death and that the world has nothing to offer you today and that only the wisdom
of God can protect you from a miserable, worthless life on this planet.
The only thing, look, we talk a lot about being saved from hell.
We talk a lot about the fact that Christ has redeemed us and purchased us with his own
blood so that we can go to heaven and escape hell but, you know, Christ has done so much
more for us than that because he's actually given us the word of God which will actually
give us a guideline whereby we might live a successful, meaningful life.
And so many people, they want to shy away from talking about the commandments of God
and they say, hey, it's not a religion, it's a relationship.
And they say, hey, you know, let's get away from the dos and the don'ts.
Let's focus on the relationship, man.
But let me say this, the dos and the don'ts are one of the best things that God has ever
done for us in our lives.
We ought to be thankful for the rules.
Thank God for his commandments.
Why?
Because his commandments are not grievous.
The way of transgressors is hard, the Bible says.
You ever see someone and you say, wow, they look like they've lived a hard life.
Why?
Because the way of transgressors is hard, that's why.
And God didn't give you all these rules in the Bible because he's just trying to spoil
your fun or because he's just trying to, you know, test you and make sure that you can
suffer enough.
No, no, he's giving you the rules in many cases for your own good.
The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 12 about how we had fathers of our flesh which corrected
us and we gave them reverence.
Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live?
For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure.
Watch this.
But he for our profit, he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness.
It's for our benefit if we obey the word of God.
He said, this is your life.
This is for your benefit because of the fact that he's a loving father that cares about
us.
He's saying, look, even fathers of our flesh, they corrected us for their own pleasure in
the sense that, you know, the parents discipline their kids because they don't want to live
with kids who are swinging from the chandeliers and putting muddy footprints all over the
ceiling, okay?
So you know, obviously the human parent disciplines their child so that they can have peace in
their home and sanity because, you know, think about it, I have eight kids.
Can you imagine if my eight kids were just undisciplined?
It would be a madhouse.
Now obviously I love my children and I discipline them for their benefit but a lot of the reason
why I discipline them is also for my own benefit, for my own sanity and for the sanity of my
life.
But God, the Bible says, but he disciplines us for our profit, for our benefit.
You say, well, why would it be to my benefit?
Look, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous, nevertheless afterward
it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
See, in the end, we end up in the place that we want to be because God disciplined us and
gave us his rules and we made the right decisions.
Look at Proverbs chapter 3 verse 1, my son, forget not my law but let thine heart keep
my commandments because I said so, because I want you to do it for my benefit.
No, look what he says here.
Son, don't forget my law, keep my commandments.
Why?
For length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee.
I mean, who's getting the benefit when you obey the Lord?
Who benefits in this verse?
You benefit.
Look, do you want to have long life?
Do you want to have peace?
Do you want to have length of days?
God says, look, these commandments are there to give you these things.
If you remember them and obey them, you will receive these things.
Let not mercy and truth forsake thee, bind them about thine neck, write them upon the
table of thine heart.
So shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.
And that's why this verse is up here, it's one of my favorite verses.
I think about this verse all the time.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.
You see, if I would have chosen my own path in life, if I would have leaned on my own
understanding, this is not the path that I would have chosen.
I would not have chosen to abstain from fornication.
I would not have chosen to get married at age 19 and to have children with the wife
of my youth.
I dead sure would not have chosen to have eight children if I were just leaning upon
my own understanding and taking lessons from the world around me and saying, hey, well
that seems right, the way they do it.
But no, I trust in the Lord and I said, well, this is the way God says to do it.
And at the time, you know, it didn't seem necessarily like the best path.
But honestly, I'm glad that I'm here.
I'm glad I have eight children.
I praise God for every single one of them.
I'm looking forward to number nine.
See, children are inherited to the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.
But see, the world says, I don't know if that would make me happy.
I don't think that's happiness.
Isn't that what the world says today?
They look at eight children and they say, I don't think that's happiness.
But what did the Bible say is happiness?
The Bible said happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.
So who do we trust?
Our own understanding, our own heart, the world around us, the way that seems right,
or do we trust what the Bible said would make us happy?
What did the Bible say is that, you know, happy is the man that hath his quiver full
of them.
Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the
way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law to thee meditate day and night.
He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in
his season.
His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
But do you believe that this morning?
Do you believe that if you just totally reject the counsel of this world, totally reject
the way that this world tells you is right, and said, this is the way to live your life,
you just reject that and say, no, no, I'm going to meditate on this word day and night.
Reject what they're telling me and go with what the Bible's telling me, the wisdom of
God.
Will you prosper?
You must prosper because the Bible says, whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation
of the righteous.
For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
Think of Moses.
He chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures
of sin for a season.
Why did he do that?
Why did Moses give up being called Pharaoh's daughter, or the son of Pharaoh's daughter?
Yeah, that'd be weird.
That'd be like something in 2016.
Just trying to make the story more relevant to the world we live in.
Why did Moses refuse to be the son of Pharaoh's daughter?
Why did Moses refuse all the riches, all the treasures?
Why?
Well, the Bible tells us why in Hebrews 11, it said, esteeming the reproach of Christ,
greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of
the reward.
He had respect unto the recompense of the reward.
What was the first thing the Bible said?
By faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
daughter, by faith.
So that shows us that Moses wasn't leaning on his own understanding, saying, you know
what?
I think, this is not what Moses thought, I think that if I refuse to be called the son
of Pharaoh's daughter, I'm going to be able to perform all these miracles and I'm going
to bring a whole nation out of captivity and I'm going to become the most famous man who
ever lived.
One of the top five.
Do you think that that was what was going through Moses' mind when he forsook Egypt?
I'm going to be one of the greatest men who's ever lived.
I'm going to be a household name thousands of years from now.
You think that's what he was thinking?
No.
No, he didn't use his own human logic and human understanding.
You know why he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter and chose rather to
suffer affliction with the people of God?
He did it because it was the right thing to do.
He did it because he was trusting in the Lord by faith, the Bible says.
He did it by faith.
Just by faith, he obeyed God and he suffered with the people of God instead of enjoying
the pleasures of sin for a season.
He did that by faith and he believed that he would be rewarded.
He didn't understand how he'd be rewarded.
He didn't know what that reward was going to be, but he by faith trusted God.
Look, that's the same position that we're in today, my friend, in 2016.
We have a choice.
Suffer affliction with the people of God or enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
That is the path that's set before every young person today.
And we have to choose to suffer with the people of God by faith knowing that there's going
to be some reward.
Now think about if Moses would have made the wrong choice.
What if Moses would have just stayed in Egypt, enjoyed the pleasure of sin, we wouldn't even
know who he is.
He would have just been another forgotten Egyptian nobility, even if he would have become
the pharaoh.
Can you name all the stupid pharaohs from that time?
The only pharaohs that we can name are the ones that are mentioned in the Bible.
Those are the ones that we can name, like, well, King Tut or whatever.
So what?
The point is, he would have just been a forgotten nobody.
He would have just been another fool who pleasured his life away and enjoyed the emptiness of
the pleasure and the mirth, whose end is heaviness, and then he would have just been burning in
hell and just been a nobody and just whatever.
Or you say, well, but he could have believed on Christ and still lived the life of sin.
Okay, well, let's say he would have got saved but not forsook Egypt.
Then here's what would have happened.
He would have failed, because God doesn't allow his children to succeed in this world
if they're saved, because whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourges every son and we
receive it.
So either way, he would have ended his life as a failure.
Now he had to go through suffering and trials and tribulations, but in the end, wouldn't
you say Moses was a great success?
He's someone that you would want to be.
You would love to end your life as a Moses.
I know I would.
He trusted the Lord.
He didn't do what was right in his own understanding.
The Bible says in Proverbs 3 there, in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct
thy paths.
The next verse, verse 7, be not wise in thine own eyes.
Fear the Lord and depart from evil.
It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones.
Who does it sound like is benefiting from you obeying the Lord here?
It's health to your navel.
It's marrow to your bones.
Fear the Lord with thy substance and with the firstfruits of all thine increase.
Show shall thy barns be filled with plenty.
Doesn't that sound terrible?
And thy presses shall burst out with new wine.
My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction.
For whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth.
Even as a father of the son in whom he delighteth, happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the
man that getteth understanding.
For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof
than fine gold.
She is more precious than rubies and all the things that thou canst desire not to be compared
unto her.
Length of days are in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honor.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace.
She's a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her and happy is everyone that retaineth
her.
Ask yourself this question.
Why is it that people go out and live a life of sin?
Because they think sin is going to make them happy.
What are they trying to find?
Happiness in the pleasures of sin.
But does it really bring happiness?
No, the end of it is happiness.
The end is sorrow.
The end is shame, ignominy, reproach.
But happy is the man that findeth wisdom.
Happy is the man whom the Lord correcteth.
Happy is everyone that retaineth wisdom.
The Bible teaches that we're going to be happy if we actually follow the Lord with our lives.
Look, there are two main lessons to get from this sermon and flip over to Proverbs chapter
4 verse 18.
There are two main things to take from this sermon.
Number one is we should never look down our noses at worldly, unsaved people because if
it were not for God's word, we would be doing the exact same thing.
And I'm not just saying that just to be dramatic up here or just blowing hot air at you.
I'm telling you that as the Apostle Paul said, I can say that in me that is in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing.
But I delight in the law of God after the inward man.
Christ made me a new creature as a six-year-old boy.
Old things are passed away, behold all things have become new.
And so the new Steven Anderson is a person who Christ has redeemed from all iniquity.
The new Steven Anderson is one that walks in holiness and righteousness.
But the old Steven Anderson is still there, the flesh.
And I can tell you right now that if that new Steven Anderson weren't there, if it were
just the flesh Steven Anderson, I'd be out living the same wicked life that you see others
living.
So I have nothing to glory of.
It's all because of the fact that we've been washed.
The Bible says, we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers
lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.
But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of
regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.
Look at Proverbs chapter 4 verse 18.
So number one lesson is, don't look down your nose on the unsaved when they live a wicked
life.
Forgive them, they know not what they do.
You'd be doing the same stupid thing if it were not for the grace of God and for the
Word of God.
It's not because, yeah I was so smart, I was so smart that I knew that this is the path
to taking life.
No I wasn't.
I would have picked some other stupid path.
It was only because I followed God's path that I ended up at the right destination.
See what I'm saying?
It's not because we're so smart, it's because we ignored our own smarts and followed what
the Word of God said.
Okay.
But number two lesson is that if you're a young person, I want you to know that if you
take that path that seems right, if you go out and live a sinful worldly life, if you
choose fornication, if you choose partying, if you choose drunkenness, if you choose these
things, you will destroy your life.
You will be a laughing stock to everyone around you.
You will be someone that people look down at and disdain and you will look at yourself
and be disgusted with yourself.
Some day it's true.
Or you can get to the end of your life like a Paul and say, you know what, I fought a
good fight.
I finished my course.
I kept the faith.
Henceforth there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous
judge shall give me at that day.
And not to me only, but unto all of them also that love is appearing.
Or you can be like Saul where you get to the end of your life and you say, I played
the fool.
Right?
I played the fool.
I mean do you want to end the life that you have falling on your own sword saying I'm
an idiot and stabbing yourself like King Saul?
That's where he ended up.
Or do you want to end up like the Apostle Paul saying I fought a good fight?
And you know what?
Paul started out named Saul.
But by the grace of God, he became Paul.
And he became someone who could end his life with joy and gladness.
Joy unspeakable.
Whereas other people in the Bible didn't end so well, did they?
And let me tell you something, you Christian young person, I'm talking to every child,
every teenager that's in this church.
You think that if you grew up hearing this kind of preaching, God's going to go easy
on you?
No, unto whom much is given of him shall much be required.
And if you want to end your life a complete loser and a complete failure, then just don't
obey this book, don't read it, and go live the stupid life that the world's living.
It's the truth, my friend.
Look down at your Bible, Proverbs 4.18, but the path of the just is as the shining light
that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
Isn't that a beautiful verse?
The way of the wicked is as darkness.
And here's the key, they know not at what they stumble.
They fail and they don't even know why.
Why?
Because we're not smart enough to make all the decisions of our life that need to be
made.
We need to lean on his understanding.
And that, well let me think about what the best way to live my life.
No, read the book of Proverbs and let God tell you how to live your life.
And he's going to tell you, stay away from the strange woman.
He's going to tell you, wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived
thereby is not wise.
My son, bow thine ear unto my word.
Listen to me son, do you want to have length of days?
Do you want to enjoy the wife of your youth?
Do you want to have joy or do you want to be a miserable failure?
Look at verse 20, my son, attend to my words, incline thine ear unto my sayings.
Go to chapter 5 verse 1, my son, attend unto my wisdom and bow thine ear to my understanding.
I like how he says bow thine ear, what's he saying?
Humble yourself.
When you bow, you're getting humble.
He's saying, don't think you know everything.
Bow your ear, bow your ear to my understanding, not what you understand.
You see, the Christian life in the early days is all about obeying commands that you don't
understand in the early days.
You know, when you first get saved and you don't know the Bible that well, you can't
expect to understand every commandment that God has in the Bible.
Well, I'll obey as soon as I understand why.
I mean, I remember hearing kids like this when I was a teenager.
You know, I remember being in a Bible class in a Christian school and the teacher was
talking about how you should not marry an unbeliever.
Don't marry someone who's not saved.
Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
You need to marry a fellow Christian.
And I remember kids saying, well, why not?
Literally asking the question, well, but what if I can remember like, I can picture the
guy's face and I don't know where this guy's at today, but I'm sure a quick Facebook search
will probably tell me, but I know I could name the guy, I can picture his face and I
wonder if he's living a failed life today.
I don't know.
I'll have to hit up Facebook when I get home.
But the bottom line is this guy, I can picture him like yesterday saying, well, I don't see
why it would be so bad because as long as, if I'm a Christian and I'm obeying the Bible,
so what if I marry her and she doesn't believe in God or the Bible or Jesus?
You know, as long as we both respect each other, we could just both do our own thing.
Now that's so foolish.
Everybody in here is thinking, wow, that's ridiculous.
But you know, when you're a teenager, that's the kind of stuff you come up with though
because you just, you don't have the life experience.
Like that kid isn't thinking about the fact that when his first kid's born and he's unequally
yoked with some atheist or some Catholic or whatever, it's going to cause all kinds of
problems.
He's not thinking about the fact that as soon as his first kid's born and he married a Catholic,
that they're going to be like, okay, let's go baptize our baby.
And you're like, whoa, what are you talking about?
You know, or oh, hey, I'm going to bring my son to church.
Oh, no, you're not.
I'm an atheist.
I don't want my son being raised with all that religious, beep.
That's the kind of junk, right, that you're going to, you're not thinking about that though,
are you?
Or you're not thinking about the fact that if you marry an unbeliever, they might think
it's just fine to commit adultery, as long as they're discreet about it.
You think that the world out there doesn't commit adultery on a regular basis.
You don't think that 50% of people out there are out there probably committing adultery,
a quarter of people.
I mean, it's insane, the world that we live in, what's acceptable.
And let me tell you something, when you're a teenager, you think you know everything.
And when I was a teenager, I thought I knew everything.
It's just part of being a teenager.
And when you get older, you start realizing that, you know, there's more to life than
you think.
That's why instead of saying, okay, I'm 13, I'm 14, I'm 15, I got to figure out, you know,
all these things, the why behind it, you need to just trust in the Lord and stop leaning
on your own understanding.
You just need to say, you know what?
God said not to fornicate, I'm just not going to do it.
I'm just going to stay pure.
You know, God said not to drink.
God said not to look upon the wine when it's red, when it giveth its color in the cup.
Why?
Because at the last it biteth like a serpent, it stingeth like an adder.
At the last.
By then it's too late.
Bow thine ear to my understanding.
What's he saying?
Don't think you know everything.
Be humble and listen to God's understanding and trust what he's saying rather than your
own very limited experience in this world.
That thou mayest regard discretion, chapter 5 verse 2, and that thy lips may keep knowledge
for the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb and her mouth is smoother than oil.
But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death.
Her steps take hold on hell.
Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are movable that thou canst not know
them.
You know what he's saying there?
You think that you can play around with this woman and that you're smart enough not to
get ruined.
You think that you can still take the path of life with this woman, but what you don't
realize is that her ways are movable.
She's going to take you on a ride.
Sin always takes you further than you want to go.
It keeps you longer than you wanted to stay and it costs you more than you were willing
to pay.
Hear me now therefore, O ye children, verse 7, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
Remove thy way far from her and come not nigh the door of her house.
Lest thou give thine honor unto others and thy years unto the cruel.
See when you're young, your honor isn't really that important to you.
You're just like, so what?
Just give me pizza, ice cream, a roller coaster, a party, you know.
The right kids aren't really thinking about honor, but you know what?
As you get older, honor matters to you.
You want to have a life that's respectable and decent, honorable.
You want to be able to respect yourself and be respected by the people around you.
You want to have honor, but the Bible says you go fooling around with the strange woman,
with the loose woman, with the promiscuous woman.
When you're young, he says, you know what?
You're going to give your honor unto others.
Other people will have honor and you won't.
Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth and thy labors be in the house of a stranger.
Now this could also refer to a married person.
Let's say a married person, okay, fools around with the strange woman, right?
Can you see how he would easily end up giving his honor unto others?
When his wife divorces him and some other dude is with his wife and some other dude
is raising his children because he committed adultery with the strange woman and destroyed
his marriage?
Strangers be filled with thy wealth.
That's called child support.
That's called alimony, right?
You know, you go out and you sow your wild oats as a single person or a married person
and you go out and commit that sin and have some bastard child out of wedlock and you
know what's going to happen?
Your strangers are going to take your wealth directly out of your paycheck.
It's called child support.
It's called alimony.
And now mourn at the last.
What's mourning?
It's when you're crying.
It's when you're weeping.
It's when you're just feeling horrible about yourself and your decisions.
You mourn at the last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed.
Why is your flesh and body consumed?
Strangers of alcohol destroying your body, cigarettes destroying your body, drugs destroying
your body, STDs destroying your body.
Your flesh and your body are consumed and you start crying and weeping and the tears
roll down your face and you say how have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproof
and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed
me.
I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
I was in church but yet I didn't listen.
I was in church and I didn't listen.
Now my whole body is consumed.
Now the tears roll down because I've given my honor unto others, because I have nothing
to live for, because I'm a loser, because I've destroyed my life and flushed it down
the toilet.
This is the picture that God's Word paints when you don't listen to the Word of God.
Now again, some people could take this sermon and say, well that's not fair because the
pastor's preaching against me because that's how I live my life, but here's the thing.
If you lived your life and you have repentance in your heart, you wouldn't be offended by
this kind of preaching because you'd be thinking, oh good, thank God Pastor Anderson's warning
others so that they don't end up like me.
That's what a righteous person who's made these mistakes is thinking and if somebody
here this morning is thinking, well how dare he say such harsh words about being divorced
three times and being a drunk and a drug addict.
I'm offended by that.
Then just get out of here because you know what, your heart can't handle this kind of
preaching and I'm going to keep preaching this way so you're just going to get offended
again so just get out.
And by the way, it's not me that's saying this, it's the Bible that's saying this.
This is God's Word.
And you know what, if you're here today and you have lived a life where you have flushed
your life down the toilet and you've been unfaithful to your spouse and you've committed
adultery and you've been a drunk and you've been a drug addict, listen, I love you this
morning and I want you to forget those things which are behind and reach forth unto those
things which are before and I'm here to tell you that you can walk in newness of life and
that Christ does have something for you even for Samson after he'd been a whoremonger and
disobeyed all God's commandments and had his hair all shaved off and had his eyes popped
out with hot pokers to where he was blinded, God still had something for him.
And if you're here and you're breathing air, God has something for you but you know what,
I'm here to warn the people who haven't made the mistakes yet and if your heart's right
with God, you want me to warn them.
And you would be saying amen vigorously saying, you know what, it's so true.
Man, I wish I would have heard this when I was a teenager or I wish I would have hearkened
unto it when I did hear it.
But this is why a lot of preachers don't preach these important messages because they're afraid
of offending the people who've already made those mistakes but I'd rather run the risk
of offending someone whose heart is wrong on this matter than to let our little ones
and our children and the young people and the young singles in their 20s of this church
to not get this important warning.
They must get this warning.
The Bible says, drink waters out of thine own cistern and running waters out of thine
own well.
Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad and rivers of waters in the streets.
Let them be only thine own and not strangers with thee.
Let thy fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe.
Let her breast satisfy thee at all times and be thou ravished always with her love.
And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman and embrace the bosom of a
stranger?
For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all his goings.
His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself and he shall be holden with the cords of his
sins.
He shall die without instruction and in the greatness of his folly shall he go astray.
Look, you could either be the one who enjoys the wife of his youth and is ravished always
with her love and enjoying her breasts at all times or you can be the guy who dies without
instruction and greatness of folly and ruins his life.
You know, you may be a married person today and you're contemplating divorce.
Let me tell you something, God hates divorce.
God hates putting away.
It's till death do us part.
And listen to me, you're at a crossroads too.
You may not be a young teenager but you're at a crossroads too if you're thinking about
quitting on your marriage.
And you need to decide whether you're going to lean on your own understanding or whether
you're going to trust in the Lord when God said to be faithful to the wife of your youth,
to rejoice in the wife of your youth and that God hates putting away and that whosoever
putteth away his wife and marrieth another, comitteth adultery.
Whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, comitteth adultery.
That's what the Bible says.
You're at a crossroads today if that's you.
Don't make that mistake.
I've known so many godly Christians who get to a point in their life where they get backslidden
and they end up divorcing because they're backslidden.
And they end up thinking that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence and
going after this strange woman.
It's not worth it.
Go to chapter 6 verse 20.
Chapter 6 verse 20.
Proverbs chapter 6.
The Bible says in verse 20, My son, keep thy father's commandment and forsake not the law
of thy mother.
Bind them continually upon mine heart and tie them about thy neck.
When thou goest, it shall lead thee.
When thou sleepest, it shall keep thee.
And when thou wakest, it shall talk with thee.
This is your companion in your life.
This is your guide, your counselor.
Thy words are my counselors, David said over and over again in Psalm 119.
This is where you get advice from.
Not Dr. Laura, Dr. Phil, somebody at work in the cubicle over from you.
This is the advice.
Because they'll tell you, oh girl, you are too good for him.
You need to drop that zero and get you a hero.
You can't let him treat you like that.
But what does the Bible say?
Get yourselves unto your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord.
Your friends will tell, oh, you can do better than her.
You need to get rid of the old ball and chain.
She's just making your life miserable, man.
You need to get free, bro.
But this book will never give you that kind of stupid advice.
This book will never tell you, hey, carpe diem, eat, drink, and be merry, because tomorrow
we die.
The Bible will never teach you that doctrine.
It says here in verse 23, for the commandment is a lamp and the law is light and reproofs
of instruction of the way of life.
Meaning that without God's commandments, without God's law, we're going through life
in the dark and we know not at what we stumble.
And so this whole attitude of modern Christianity that says, oh, man, the do's and the don'ts,
why are you emphasizing the do's and the don'ts?
Because I'm trying to shine the light on my life, trying to shine the light on your life.
I just don't want us all banging around in the dark.
That's why we're talking about commandments.
That's why we're talking about the rules, because the rules help us.
They're a blessing to us.
They're a gift from God, not a curse on our life of all these rules, you know, we really
got to suffer for Jesus with all these rules.
No, because you actually end up living a happier life because of the rules.
Look, here's the fact, fact, more happiness in getting married and staying married to
the same woman your whole life than whoring around with all these different people, fact.
Are you listening to me?
It's a fact.
Staying around and sleeping with a different person every weekend on the campus of ASU
is not going to bring you the happiness of being married for 15 years.
It's not going to.
Oh, it might seem fun and exciting at first, it's going to get real old, real fast.
Now, I don't know that from experience, but I know it from reading the Bible, and I don't
need to learn it from experience.
I just trust that the Bible said that it would get old, because it got old for Solomon.
And I've had plenty of people tell me that it got old for them, too.
That's a fact.
The sober life, the Christian life is a better life than what the world has to offer, fact.
You're sitting there and doubting that, well, then you know what, you just need to trust
the Word on this one, because that's all I can tell you.
If you're going to go with what seems right, then you know what, I'll see you in 20 years
when you're a worthless derelict of a person.
Because I'm telling you, any child who grows up in this church and hears this much Bible
and this much doctrine, this much preaching, and goes out and lives a life of sin is going
to be in a horrible condition 20 years from now.
They're going to be a worthless derelict, fact.
Well, that offends me, well, then be offended.
But that's the true story.
You wouldn't be the first person who took one bad batch of drugs and lost their mind.
You wouldn't be the first person who thought that they were smoking marijuana and it was
laced with some other hardcore drug that you didn't even know was in there.
You wouldn't be the first person to get drunk and get in the car and get in a car accident
and be a vegetable for the rest of your life.
You wouldn't be the first person.
You wouldn't be the first person to get drunk and go out and get in a car and then kill
some young mother and her children and have to live with that for the rest of your life.
You wouldn't be the first person to go out and sleep with some loose woman only to find
out that she was filled with disease and now you have a disease?
You think you'd be the first person?
And you better know that whom the Lord loveth, he chaseth and scourges every son whom he
received.
And if you're saved and you go out and try to live the life that the world lives, oh,
they might get by with it.
You'll never get by with it if you're a Christian, especially not if you grew up with this kind
of preaching, because he that knew his Lord's will and did it not shall be beaten with
many stripes, but he that did not know his master's will and did it not shall be beaten
with few stripes, for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.
The commandment is the lamp, verse 23, and the law is light and reproofs of instruction
are the way of light.
See, Romans 6 23 is a great scripture on salvation, on getting you to heaven, but let me tell
you something.
Romans 6 23 is a great scripture on keeping you from turning your life into a hell on
earth, because it tells you about the commandments.
See, the commandments can't get you to heaven.
If salvation comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
I mean, can the commandments save you?
Can the commandments get you to heaven when you die?
No.
You only get to heaven through the blood of Jesus, by grace through faith.
But let me tell you what the commandments do.
They save your life.
Whosoever doeth them shall live by them.
The Bible says, you know, they are something that keeps you from screwing up your life
on this earth.
What will they do for you?
Verse 24, here's what they'll do for you.
They'll keep you from the evil woman.
They'll protect you from the evil woman.
From the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.
Lest not after her beauty in thine heart, neither let her take her with thine eyelids,
for by means of a whorish woman.
A man, and by the way, we need to bring these words back into our vocabulary as Christians.
A whorish woman.
By means of a whorish woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread.
And the adulterous will hunt for the precious life.
Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?
Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned?
So he that goeth into his neighbor's wife, whoso toucheth her, shall not be innocent.
Let's end on this, Psalm 37, verse 37.
Psalm 37, verse 37.
And while you're turning there, I just want to review with you what we learned from the
Word of God is that Paul's talking to people who got saved as adults.
And he's saying, you know what?
We all walked in time past according to the prince of the power of the air.
We all fulfilled the lust of the flesh and served the desires of the flesh and of the
mind.
We all were by nature children of wrath, even as others.
He said in Titus chapter 3, we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived,
serving divers, lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one
another.
We all were like that before we were saved.
But thank God he has shown unto us a more excellent way.
Thank God for his word, his commandments, his light.
But I'm here to tell you that without God's word, that is the life that all of us would
be living.
And here's the thing.
You say, well, hold on.
I know saved people who actually live a pretty fairly decent normal life.
Yeah, but it's probably because they're following Christian morals and Christian principles
that they learned in our society.
I'm telling you that without God's word, the heart of man is deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked.
Who can know it?
And I don't know about you, and I don't know where you're thinking, where you're at this
morning in your heart where you think, well, I never would do this.
I would never do that.
But you know what?
Honestly, I can say this.
I can honestly just be candid with you and say that if I were not a Bible believing Christian,
I would have committed fornication as a teenager.
I'll just come right out and say it.
I would have.
I would have gone out and partied and done it all.
Why?
Because I was stupid.
Because unregenerate man is foolish.
Why?
Because the Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
Fear of the Lord is the beginning of understanding.
Look, you haven't even started understanding if you don't have the fear of the Lord.
So without the fear of the Lord, I would have been a total idiot and done all the things
that idiots do.
But thank God for His commandments.
And thank God I didn't go to church and just hear a salvation sermon every week.
Sometimes I literally just want to stand up in church when I'm hearing these salvation
sermons over and over and over and just say, hey, we're all saved.
I mean, have you ever felt that way where you're in church and you're just like, we're
saved.
We've been preaching on salvation every Sunday morning for 50 weeks in a row.
We get it.
We're saved.
Okay.
You need to learn more than that.
I thank God I didn't just hear only the Gospel.
I thank God I heard some leather-longed, face-ripping, hellfire and damnation preaching that said,
you know what, God killed people in the Bible when they disobeyed Him.
He killed Ananias and Sapphira.
He killed 23,000 people in one day because of fornication and it's a fearful thing to
fall into the hands of the living God.
And that God will judge His people and that judgment must begin at the house of God and
if the righteous be scarcely saved, what shall be the end of them that obey not the Gospel?
And what about all the Scriptures where God's wrath burned in the camp of His own people
because they had fornication and sin and wickedness?
I thank God I heard the fire-breathing sermons against alcohol.
The fire-breathing sermons against, and you say, well, I don't know what fornication means.
Fornication is when you go to bed with somebody that you're not married to.
It's when you do that which married people alone should be doing.
You do that with someone that you're not married to.
I'm glad I heard all the sermons against adultery and fornication and drunkenness and drugs
and stealing and murder and all these things because of the fact that it's the only reason
why I didn't do those things.
One reason.
One reason why I didn't do, and I'm not saying I was sinless, but I'm saying that I didn't
just completely go down that path and that I did stay on the Christian path in general.
One reason, the fear of the Lord, only reason.
And the only reason I even knew which path to take was because the Bible told me which
path to take.
It's not because I'm smart.
It's because He's smart.
And because I just let Him tell me.
And I didn't stop to think about whether it made sense.
I just did it because the Bible said, oh, that's stupid.
No, you're stupid.
You sit there, oh, you're so stupid, you just blindly follow that book.
I blindly follow this book.
You're just a blind fool, you're just a blind idiotic faith, why don't you think for yourself?
I'm not going to think for myself.
I'm going to follow this book.
And we'll see at the end of the day who gets to the right destination.
Because I blindly followed this book.
Well, but don't, you know, are you sure that that, I don't, it doesn't matter.
God said it.
That settles it.
I can't even believe this fool, this idiot just follows whatever that book says.
Yeah, but you know what, they're not going to be laughing when their flesh is consumed.
You know what I mean?
Let the world laugh.
Let them mock.
They mock Jesus.
Who cares?
You know, Christians spend so much time trying to convince atheists how logical they are.
Some people come to me and say, well how, but what do you, I mean, how do you convince
these atheists?
I mean, when they just won't get it.
You know what I say?
I don't.
When they won't get it, I just say, all right, enjoy hell, see you later, and walk away.
I mean, I don't really say that, but that's, I, don't ever say that to people, all right?
But I'm saying, that's what I'm just thinking to myself, well, too bad for you, you're going
to hell.
Because you know what, no matter how many people I preach the gospel to and they reject
it, I'm still going to heaven.
That's the truth.
Here's the final verse of the sermon, Psalm 37 verse 37, mark the perfect man and behold
the upright, for the end of that man is peace.
You know, mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace.
You know, what is the end of a man who lives for God or a woman who lives for God versus
the end of those who follow the ways of this world?
That's the only thing that matters.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for saving our souls, yes, but not only that, you've
also delivered us from this present evil world.
You've also delivered our minds from the stupidity of sin.
You've not only just given us eternal salvation, but you've actually given us intelligence
because we have the mind of Christ, because we have understanding through your word, Lord.
Help us never to be prideful or puffed up and think that we're better than anyone.
No, because we'd be doing the same stupid things.
Lord, help us to just be grateful and thankful for your commandments that have guided us
in a true path, Lord.
Help us to stay on that path, Lord, and help us never to waver and help it to all be by
faith where we just trust your word, whether we understand it or not, we just obey it.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.