(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right, we're here in First John Two, and we're continuing our series on worldliness. And last week was the first sermon in this series. And we just kind of did an overview of what is worldliness. Because usually when we think of worldliness, we kind of think of, you know, watching movies, watching TV, listening to music, and that definitely applies. But I think as we saw last week, that's not the only thing, okay, pretty much anything that's of the world, if that's what your heart and desires are after, and you spend your time on that, that's worldly by definition, based on the Bible, okay? And so in First John Two, though, we're going to kind of go more specific, as we're going to look at today, the lust of the flesh. Notice what it says in First John Two, verse 15, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. So you cannot love God and love the world, you've got to make a choice, okay? For all that is in the world, all that is in the world, okay, then it's going to list you several things that are in the world, it has categories. And the first thing it says is this, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And so the Bible tells us that the lust of the flesh, it's not of God, it's of the world, you say, what is the lust of the flesh? Well, that's what we're going to see today. Turn to First Peter Two, First Peter Two. Now what we saw last week is basically that every person that is unsaved is worldly by definition. They're living their lives based on the things of the world in one way or another. It might not be drinking and fornication, it might not be a drug addiction, it might be being, you know, movies and entertainment, it might be conspiracy theories or whatever, but it's not the things of God, it's the things of the world, okay? But I want you to understand something that when you get saved, those lusts of the flesh remain. They don't go away. They remain. When you get saved, there's no magical change, okay? Notice what it says in First Peter Two, Verse 11. First Peter Two, Verse 11, dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims. Now when he says strangers and pilgrims, what he's trying to tell you is this, this world is not your home. I'm just a passing through, okay? Up in heaven, that is our home. We're strangers and pilgrims in this world, therefore abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. This is written to save people and he's commanding them abstain from these fleshy lusts. They war and fight against the soul. You say, but wait a minute, I got saved, isn't it over? No, they're gonna war against your soul till the day you die. See, when you get saved, you're in dwell with the Spirit of God, your flesh still desires the exact same thing. Look, someone who's a drunk, did you know that right after they get saved, they're still a drunk? Someone who smokes cigarettes a pack a day, when they get saved, guess what their flesh still wants to do? Smoke cigarettes. There's no magical change. I got saved and repented of all my sins, show me that in the Bible. When people get saved, their flesh does not change. Their flesh desires the exact same things as before they got saved, okay? And so when you get saved, you're in dwell with the Spirit of God. But point number one, the lusts of the flesh, they remain and they will always remain in war against the soul. Turn to 1 Peter 4, 1 Peter 4. Look, it's a big mistake for people to basically kind of preach and teach people that, hey, you get saved and it's going to be an easy life of living for God. You just wake up and want to sing the hymns and you want to go soul winning and read the Bible. That's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches it's a battle. It's a war. It's not easy. And those lusts will remain until the day you die. That's what the Bible teaches. 1 Peter 4, verse 1, for as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind. For he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin, that he should no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. Look, when you get saved, the Bible says you should live a godly life. You should live a separated life. You have the free will choice, but that's what you should do, not after the lust. Turn to 2 Corinthians 5, 2 Corinthians 5, 2 Corinthians 5. Look, this ties into the false doctrine of repentance of sins for salvation. Because if a person believes you have to repent of your sins to be saved, what they're basically saying is you made the decision to kill the lusts of the flesh before you were saved and afterwards it's going to be easy. Right? You already repented of all your sins. It's not going to be a hard life. Is that what the Bible teaches? Look, people in this room, some of you have been saved for a long time. I've been saved for a pretty long time, pretty much half my life. And some people, maybe just in the last couple of years. And the reality is that as you serve God, look, it's difficult at the beginning to get rid of your lusts, lustful desires, the things of the flesh that you desire, okay? That's not easy. That's why you constantly need to be growing and killing off those lusts of the flesh. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, okay? It says a new creature. It does not say a reformed creature. It does not say a changed creature. It does not say the old man changes, okay? No, it's a new creature because you're indwelled with the Spirit of God. Your flesh did not change, okay? Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Now look, people use this verse to say that when you get saved, man, you're a new creature. You just want to serve God and love Him and all things are become new. But those same people will say that after you get saved, you still sin. So wait a minute. If all things are become new and that's referring to how much you live for God or the lifestyle you live, that would be saying you're perfect after you're saved. Now look, there's only a few crazy wackos out there that actually think they're perfect, okay? Very few people, Charles Finney was a guy who thought he was perfect. It's like, well, he looked like a weirdo and he believed really weird things. It kind of goes hand in hand, doesn't it? Very few people actually believe they're perfect. That's ridiculous, okay? The Bible says that obviously we're going to sin till the day we die. We're sinners. So here's what I want you to understand. When it says you're a new creature, it's not saying, man, your flesh just doesn't want to smoke anymore. Your flesh just doesn't want to drink anymore. Your flesh just doesn't want to listen to worldly music anymore. No, you're a new creature because you're in dwell with the Spirit of God, okay? Turn to Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4. I want you to understand when it comes to these fleshly lusts, these are going to vary depending on who you are, okay? Depending on what sort of life you lived before you were saved. People that didn't go down a road of pretty hard sin, they're probably more likely to be successful in the Christian life and not get back into those sins. Because look, I've never smoked a cigarette before. I have no desire to smoke a cigarette. You say, why? I've never smoked a cigarette. But look, if you've smoked cigarettes in the past, guess what? That could be a desire you're still fighting, or it could creep up from time to time. Because that's something you specifically dealt with before. Now, I never dealt with, you know, smoking cigarettes, but I have my own things, basically worldly things or fleshly lusts that I did deal with. And after you get saved, those don't change. Those are things you got to battle in war against, because that's a specific area that you got to throw down that and get rid of it. And it's not easy. Why? Because the Bible says it's a war after you get saved. It's not a war to get to heaven. That's done. You believed on Jesus, but it is a war to live for God. It's difficult. Ephesians 4, verse 22, that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. The Bible says that you put off the old man, then it says, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. And there's a combination here of putting off the old man and putting on the new man. You see, you can't just put off the old man. You must also put on the new man and be renewed. If you don't put on the new man, it's not really going to help you that much. See, if you say, I'm going to start living for God, but you don't want to start reading the Bible, you don't want to start praying, you don't want to start singing the psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, you just want to get rid of worldliness in your life, you're going to replace that worldliness with new worldliness. You must get rid of the old man and put on the new man. This is what the Bible teaches. Now when it comes to serving God, I like to use the example of climbing a mountain. And the reason why is it's a biblical example. Moses, he climbed the mountain and he got close to God, he's there for 40 days, 40 nights, and when he comes back, basically nobody recognizes him. He physically changed, and that's a picture of when you get close to God, you spiritually change. Instructions given to Moses were very simple instructions. Basically he was told to bring a few things and climb the mountain. But he was an old man. It's not easy to climb a mountain when you're a young man. It's very easy to know what we need to do, but it's not very easy to actually do it. It's simple, but it's not easy. That's the analogy that's given in the Bible. But I want you to understand that when you climb a mountain, if you've ever climbed a really tall mountain, it's hard to get your momentum going forward. If you've ever run steep mountains, it's really hard at the beginning. You're barely even moving trying to get going. But once you get going, you've got more speed. Then it's not so hard. Once you get that momentum going forward. Serving God is a daily thing. And see, you start off your day good. Maybe you started today reading the Bible, you're at church, and you're going to go soul winning. You're going to go home and you're thinking about the things of God. Your momentum's going up, but when you wake up in the morning, you're stopped. You're not moving. And it takes a little bit of effort to get yourself going, which is why you should start serving God early in the morning. Because you need your momentum going forward. Remember back in West Virginia, we had a time we went to church one day and there's a lot of snow and ice on the roads and everything like that. And it really came during church service. So we show up at 10 o'clock and we knew there's going to be a little bit of snow and we get out and we're like, oh man, this is going to be dangerous to get back home. And so when we were driving and what we decided is that the bus that picked up kids would not be able to make it up the hills. So basically we kind of agreed that in a unique situation that I took home, like three different kids from the bus. It was a very unique situation in my car because the bus was not going to work. And I'll tell you, we were going up those hills with the ice and snow and it was going okay. We're going up, but there was one car that got stopped and all of a sudden everybody stopped on this hill and it's like, oh, this is a disaster because we got like a 20 cars piled up and like nobody's going. And then it's like on both sides, it's just like this jam on an icy road up a steep hill because one car lost his momentum. And do you realize how hard it was to get the momentum going forward? I remember like myself and brother Richard Simes, we hopped out of our cars to help the car that was stuck. And there's a couple other people out of other cars, like people we didn't know, just people that live in town. And we were just like pushing that car to try to get it going. Then it got going and just drove off, no problem. But when your momentum stopped, it's very difficult. And see serving God, your momentum is stopped at the beginning of every day. Whether or not the day before you lived a really sinful life and got drunk or whether or not you went soul winning, you're at a dead stop at a new day. Now during the day, you can either climb or fall, but you're stopped and God's mercies are new every morning, which is great. You screwed up yesterday, it's a new day, but you must get your momentum going forward. And I want you to realize the lust of the flesh, they will always remain and it's a daily thing to kill off the old man, the Bible teaches. Turn your Bible to Acts 20, Acts chapter 20, Acts chapter 20, you say, Brother Stuckey, that's depressing. You know, you're saying it's going to be hard, we got a war against the old man. Well, I want you to understand there are some things we can do that's going to help us win that battle. See, the lust of the flesh will always remain, but I want you to understand the amount you feed that flesh is going to determine the strength of it, okay? The amount you feed the flesh determines the strength of it. Acts 20 verse 28, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. The Bible says you need to feed the church of God when you're preaching sermons and what you'll find is churches where the preaching is actually done, the whole council is preached, those people, they're feeding the new man and killing off the old man and in their personal lives they do the same thing. When you have churches where the word of God is being preached, but the reality is that most of you before you were at this church, you probably were not living as godly. You say why? Because you weren't getting fed. The new man was not getting fed and you had to try to feed it through online preaching and things such as that, but look, I want you to realize you'll find churches where the pastor doesn't preach hard, the members are worldly. They don't want to live for God. They just care about basketball and sports and entertainment and everything like that. They don't want to live for God, why? Because they keep getting their flesh fed. They're not getting fed spiritually, so instead their flesh gets fed in their personal lives as well. That's what takes place. Turn to Romans 6. And in 1 Peter 5 as you're turning to Romans 6, 1 Peter 5 verse 2 says, feed the flock of God which is among you. That's a command and if anybody in this room, if you ever become a pastor or an evangelist or you ever preach sermons, your goal in that sermon should be to feed people, to teach them something, to show them what the Bible says. It doesn't have to be a new truth, but you need to make sure you're edifying people, which means lots of Bible and lots of time spent on your sermon preparing it. Not just, well, I'll just kind of wing it. I'll get up here five minutes before the sermon. Let me just find some verse that's interesting. I'll just wing it up. No, that's not how you preach sermons. You actually need to feed your people. You need to take time to prepare that meal. Look, a meal that takes 30 seconds in the microwave is not as tasty as a meal that takes like 30 minutes on the stove, right? That's one of the joys of being married. You get nice home cooked meals, okay? Look, when you're preaching sermons, a lot of time needs to go into those sermons. This sermon was written a month ago and I rewrote like over half of it last night because I looked over and I was like, you know, I just don't like the way it flows. I want to make some changes. Why? Because the sermons are very important. Those need to be taken very seriously. Romans chapter six, verse nine, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him for in that he died. He died onto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth onto God. Okay? Now we know that Jesus Christ was both physically and spiritually dead, and this is giving us an analogy for our lives when we get saved. Okay? Notice what it says in verse 11. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. See, when we get saved, we're dead unto sin according to the Bible. Now we know that we still sin because there's plenty of verses in the Bible that teaches that. But the Bible says that when you get saved, before you're saved, you're going to be a worldly person. That's just what the Bible teaches. When you get saved, you have the opportunity to start serving God. Before you're saved, you don't know what it means to serve God because you don't understand salvation. But when you get saved, you do understand this. Okay? Verse 12, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body. So the Bible says, do not allow sin to reign in your body, and what happens if you allow sin to reign? That you should obey it in the lust thereof. When you feed the old man, do you know what happens? You are forced to obey the old man. That's what the Bible teaches. When you feed the old man with sin, guess what happens the next day? You're going to keep feeding it with sin. You're going to end up obeying it because of the fact you keep feeding that old man. Okay? Just think of somebody who decides, I'm going to quit drinking pop. No more soda for me. Okay? It's tough the first couple of days, right? But as they go with more time goes by, that desire is going to fade out because they're not feeding that habit. If you go six months without caffeine, quite honestly, you know, at that point, you probably don't have much desire to have caffeine, but that first week is going to be tough because you keep feeding that habit. Okay? And the more you feed it, the more it's going to desire it. Look, I've gone on times, I went a month and a half with like no sugar except for like from fruit and healthy sources. And I'll be honest, as time went by and I'm not feeding that habit, I was like, I don't even desire to have a cookie or cupcake. But here's the thing. If you're eating that every day, guess what you desire the next day? You desire that sugar. That's why when you go on a diet, you don't just buy a bunch of Oreos and just put them in your house right in front of you. You know why? Because you're going to feed that habit. Okay? This is encouraging to us though, because I want you to understand you say, Brother Stuckey, I have habits I cannot break right now. Look, they're very tough habits, but you should be encouraged by the fact that if you quit feeding that habit, the strength of that is going to die down. It's going to be less you throw down the old man every day. And as you throw down those bad habits, look, you're not going to have as much desire to do those things anymore. Look, I really don't feel a desire to start listening to rock music right now. But let me tell you, after I got saved, that was a desire I had for a long time. And I threw away all my CDs that I had, probably had 50 or 100 CDs, I was like, man, this is expensive. It's like I spent a lot of money on these CDs, I threw them all away. And look, I stopped listening to it. And you know what happens when you don't feed that habit? I just don't enjoy listening to Aerosmith. I don't want to hear it. But here's the thing, it's going to be tough at the beginning. So you have that choice with the habits you have. If you keep feeding it, it's going to keep desiring it. Let's say for example, you have a desire say, man, I'm really curious about this one thing. I'm trying to get it out of my life. But you know what, I just want to look at it a little bit. And then just five minutes, I'll be done with it. Yeah, when you spend five minutes on it, the Bible says your eyes are never satisfied. That's what it says in Ecclesiastes. And if you choose say, well, I'm just going to feed this habit for five minutes, and then I'll be satisfied, then the next day you still desire it. Okay, your eyes will never be satisfied, the Bible says in Ecclesiastes. And if you put worldliness in your life, you're feeding that habit. And look, you're satisfied for like a couple hours, but then you want it again, because you keep feeding it. If you would starve it to death, that habit loses its power. Look if you were going to go wrestle somebody, fight somebody, do you want to fight somebody who's eating three meals every single day or you want to fight someone who's gone like weeks without eating any food, someone who's gone weeks without eating any food because he's weak. And look, if you don't feed the old man, it becomes weak and your desires will start to be, I want to serve God. I no longer want to listen to that music. I no longer want to watch those movies or to do that. Why? Because you're starving off and killing the old man. That's what the Bible says. Verse 13, neither yield ye your members as instruments of righteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you for you're not under the law, but under grace. The Bible says, sin shall not have dominion over you. As a saved person, you cannot lose your salvation, but you have the choice to either live a godly life or worldly life. And here's the good news for us that you have worldly desires right now that you want to do. And look, we're never going to be perfect. All of us will have some worldliness within ourselves and we've got to kill that off. I've got areas in my life. I need to get more right with God. Here's the good news for all of us. If we just quit feeding that habit, it will just die out. And you know what? You're not going to desire them. Turn in your Bible to turn your Bible to Leviticus 14, Leviticus 14, Leviticus chapter 14. So point number one, the lusts of the flesh, they're always going to remain. Point number two, the amount you feed the old man determines the strength. Point number three, the length of time since you fed it determines the strength. So it's not just whether or not you're feeding it, but what I'm saying is as time goes by, that desire is going to fade out as well if you're not feeding it. It's going to be tough at the beginning. If you decide right now, brother Stuckey, at the end of the sermon, I'm going to come down to the altar. I'm going to get down on my knees and pray to God and decide I'm going to live for you God. Okay. And I'm going to quit listening to rock music. Well, here's the thing. I hope in your heart, you know, we're not going to actually do that, but I hope in your heart you say, amen, I need to get certain sins out of my life. But here's the thing. Your desire will not fade out overnight. If you make a decision to serve God, that desire does not fade out overnight. You've got to make a real decision and say, you know what? I'm not going to do this anymore and realize it's going to be a fight warring against your soul day after day after day. But the battle gets easier with time. Look, if somebody quit smoking today, tomorrow, it's going to be very tough. The next day, it's going to be tough, but you know, it starts to get a little bit less over time, right? If you decide I'm going to quit drinking pop, you know what? At first, it's going to be tough. You have that desire in your flesh, but it's going to get less over time if you do not feed it. And look, the length of time it's going to affect whether or not you want to do that habit or not. And look, what I'm telling you is this. Serving God is very tough at the beginning. A lot of areas of your life, but it actually gets easier with time if you're feeding the new man and starving off the old man, it's always going to be a battle. I'm not saying it's ever going to be easy and you're going to be perfect, but what I'm saying is it's going to get easier if you're feeding the new man, not feeding the old man. And as time goes by, notice what it says in Leviticus 14. Now Leviticus 14 is an interesting chapter, and it's one I've always kind of focused on because I actually lived in an apartment that actually had a plague in the house as the Bible speaks about. And I didn't really know anybody with personal experience, but I just kind of memorized this passage a long time ago and I was just really curious. And I actually lived at a place that is this exact situation. Notice what it says in Leviticus 14 verse 35. And he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, It seemeth to me there is as it were a plague in the house. Then the priest shall command that they empty the house before the priest go into it to see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made unclean, and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house. And so, basically, a man tells the priest, Hey, it looks like I have a plague in my house. It's going to give you an indication. You can tell by basically the colors that you see. For me, what I found out is, you know, I opened up a room with a water heater, which I never really opened that room, but I saw, like, water coming out from underneath the door, and I opened it up and just the walls were, like, covered in black and blue. I'm like, What in the world happened? It looked like a prison cell. Like people had been murdered or something. And it's because of the fact the water heater from above had been slowly dripping, I guess, for a couple months just down to this room. And with water just there and not gotten rid of, it just caused, like, a plague in the house, as it says in Leviticus 14. Unfortunately, when you live in an apartment complex, they don't really care what a plague in the house is. Okay? As you try to show them, Hey, this is what Leviticus 14 talks about. They don't really care. Okay? So I ended up having to move out of that place and go to a new one. It's a whole other story. You know, maybe I'll preach on it sometime. But anyways, the Bible says the priest comes and checks it out because the Bible gives you specific rules on what you need to do. Verse 37, And he shall look on the plague, and behold, if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow strakes, greenish or reddish, which in sight are lower than the wall, then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house and shut up the house seven days. So basically, if you see greenish or reddish there, basically, you shut the house seven days. And what you're going to do is go back and find out what you see. Now, this is basically talking about, like, mold in a house that takes place. Now, if you are around mold all the time, it's very bad for your health. If you're only around for, like, a short time, you think no big deal. But if you live, like, in a house that has, like, major mold taking place, that will just destroy your body. And you don't really realize it, but it's going to be like a silent killer. That's why a lot of people that used to work in fields where they're around that stuff all the time and they're ingesting that stuff, they ended up dying at early ages or getting diseases and things like that. It's really bad for your body. Verse 39, and the priest shall come again the seventh day and shall look. And behold, if the plague be spread in the walls of the house, then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which the plague is, and they shall cast them into an unclean place without the city. And the Bible says that if you have this situation, you find out what's causing the plague and you get rid of it or what you think is causing the plague. Now, there's a direct application here, which I'm fully aware of because I live in a place like this, but there's a spiritual application here. The Bible says when you find out where the plague is, you cast it into an unclean place without the city. What's the spiritual application? Look, when you find something that's unclean in your house, like your music or your movies, you cast it into an unclean place called a trash can without the city, meaning away from your house. You get it away. Literally, this is what I did when I got rid of my music. I took all the CDs and just threw them in the trash can, and I took them outside into an unclean place without the city. You got rid of it. You say, why? Because I didn't want to basically crawl back and bring those CDs back in. I said, it's done. It's out. I don't want to deal with this music anymore. And so the spiritual application is when you find an area of your life that keeps beating you, this fleshly lust that you desire, you must get it out of your way so you don't have an opportunity to commit it anymore. And look, what happens is as it's gone for a while, all of a sudden the plague's going to be gone then over time. Now in this situation, they're basically taking the stones and getting rid of them. And notice verse 41, and he shall cause the house to be scraped within roundabout, and they shall pour out the dust they scrape off without the city into an unclean place. So basically when it says you shall scrape the house, imagine getting rid of your worldly music, but you also still have to scrape your house to figure out, is there still the opportunity to listen to that music? Now look, when this verse I understood and everything like that, Napster was a thing. Now half of you probably don't even know what Napster is, it was like the first downloading music thing. There was no YouTube at the time, okay? But basically what it's saying is get rid of the opportunity to go back and listen to that music or to watch those movies. Because in today's world, you've got to think about that. Today's world, you get rid of the TV, you still have your cell phone, you still have your computer. And look, for some people, if there's a lust that you cannot battle and beat, you might just say, you know what, I'm going to downgrade from a smartphone to just an old-fashioned phone where I don't have to worry about having this sin where like every single day I'm just checking this out and watching these movies. Maybe you need to get rid of that cell phone. Maybe you need to go to extremes because the Bible says scrape the house, which means you're finding every bit of that plague and getting rid of it. Verse 42, and they shall take other stones and put them in the place of those stones, and he shall take other mortar and shall plaster the house. Now verse 42 is what I've heard preached as the replacement doctrine. Not replacement theology when you think about the Jews, that's another thing. The replacement doctrine meaning that if you get rid of worldly music, you replace it with something similar but godly, which would be singing the Psalms hymns in spiritual songs. Because notice you take other stones and you put new stones in the place. You take stones, which is similar to stones, but these are not basically, they don't have a plague on them. There's nothing wrong with them. And if you're someone who listens to music for three hours a day, and you say, Brother Stuckey, I can't beat this habit. If you get rid of three hours of listening to rock music, quite honestly, the best approach to putting something new in the place is probably not three hours of Bible reading. It's probably some Bible reading and some singing the Psalms hymns in spiritual songs because your flesh has that sort of desire for music. That's what I've heard preached as basically the replacement doctrine. When you get rid of something ungodly, you replace it with something godly but similar. And so that's what you should do. You get rid of music or movies or whatever, get rid of it, replace it with something good. Verse 43, and if the plague come again and break out in the house, after that he hath taken away the stones, and after he hath scraped the house, and after it is plastered. So basically you got rid of the infection in the house and you scraped the house, but all of a sudden the plague comes again. Then the priest shall come and look, and behold, if the plague be spread in the house, it is a fretting leprosy in the house, it is unclean. Basically verses 43 and 44 you determine, you know what, we cannot control this plague. It's just a problem, we can't get rid of it. And what the Bible teaches in verse 45, and he shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the mortar of the house, and he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place. Basically you condemn the house and break it down and get rid of it. That's what the Bible teaches. So when I lived in an apartment that had a fretting leprosy, and they just didn't want to deal with it, I told them, look, you need to break down this building because it's a fretting leprosy. It's a plague in the house, and according to what the Bible says, you know what, nobody should live there. And I told them, I'm going to sue you if you don't let me get out of here, because if I didn't get out of that place, I'm getting all that mold into my body. It can kill you. It's very dangerous. You can get a disease. Of course they didn't break it down because the love of money is all they care about. All they care about is money. They don't care what the Bible says. What the Bible says is you should break down that house because otherwise it's just got this plague that you can't get rid of. And that will fully get rid of the problem. What I'm trying to tell you is this, though. When you get rid of personal plagues in your life, lust of the flesh, as enough time goes by, you can determine, you know what, that plague is not coming back. Why? Because there's a timeline where you're checking it out. You can study Leviticus 14. I find it interesting because I've dealt with this, you know, in a place I lived. But basically you look at it and you get rid of the plague, and if enough time goes by, you can declare it's clean. It's gone now. And the encouraging thing to us is that when you get rid of that worldliness, if enough time goes by, that plague is probably not returning. It means you probably kicked that plague. Now I'm not saying it's impossible for it to return. Don't get me wrong, because you know what? Old sins can creep up, and we should always be wise and continue to scrape that house every single week to make sure we're not letting new sins come into our life or creep back in. But what I'm saying is if enough time goes by, you can declare that house is clean and no longer unclean. Turn your Bible to Galatians 5, Galatians 5, and look, that's encouraging to us because quite honestly, you know what, we all have certain areas of our life that are difficult to kick. We have trouble getting rid of them. But look, if you quit feeding that habit, and if enough time goes by, you can declare, you know what, I'm clean in this area. Look, I haven't watched a movie in a very long time. I haven't listened to rock music or worldly music in a very long time. And in those areas of my life, I can say, you know what, I'm clean in that area. Now I'm not claiming to be perfect because I have areas of worldliness that I need to kick those habits and get rid of, and I need to apply this sermon to my life. But I'm just saying for you in this room, you have certain areas that you know are wrong. You know it's worldly, you know it's sinful, and you say, man, it's tough to get rid of. Yeah, living for God's a war. It's a battle. It's tough for everybody in this room. I guarantee you, everybody in this room who has kicked the worldly music, it was a battle for them to get rid of it. But then once you get rid of it, if you go enough time, you can declare clean eventually, where you really don't have that desire anymore. Galatians 5, Galatians 5. So point number one, we saw this, the lust of the flesh, they're always gonna remain. Point number two, the amount you feed it determines the strength. Point number three, the length of time that goes by determines the strength. But point number four, another thing that's encouraging, if you do what's right and feed the spirit, it helps you fight the flesh. It's not just that you're trying to get rid of a desire. It's like, man, this is tough, and you're just trying to fight that. If you start actually feeding the spirit, that will help you fight against the flesh. Galatians 5, verse 13, Galatians 5, verse 13. For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. As Christians, you know what? We're free in Christ. We're saved. We can't lose our salvation. God gives us liberty. He gives us freedom. And look, no matter how bad I screw up my life, which is possible for any of us, no matter how bad you screw it up, if you have salvation, it's forever. That's what the Bible teaches. Verse 14, for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, notice this, walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The Bible says if you walk in the spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. See, when you're someone who's reading the Bible and going soul winning and memorizing the Bible, what you're going to find is the lust of the flesh just aren't that appealing. You really just don't have much desire to live a worldly and sinful life if you're walking in the spirit. So look, if you have a day where you're really serving God and reading the Bible, you're not going to have as much desire for the worldly flesh. But if you have a day where you're just kind of doing nothing, you're not really walking in the spirit, you're not really walking the flesh, you're just being lazy, eventually you will walk in the flesh. That's the way it works. You must decide, I'm going to walk in the spirit, and this is why I believe that you should start serving God early in the morning. Because every godly person in the Bible, it says he rose up early in the morning, early in the morning. It doesn't say they rose up in the morning. It says early in the morning. Because if we're honest, for the vast majority of us, you know what, you're more likely to be successful serving God early when there's less distractions. Quite honestly, when it gets to be nighttime, quite honestly, people generally are lazy. That's the way we are. Okay. Early in the morning is the best time, and if you walk in the spirit, you're not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh, the Bible says. I'm not saying you're going to be perfect, but what I'm saying is you're going to find yourself wanting to do the things of God. Okay, that is what you find. Walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit. See, the flesh lusts against your spirit. You live a sinful life, and you don't want to live a godly life. If you're committing sins and being worldly, you're not going to find yourself then saying, man, I can't wait to read the Bible for an hour. If you're fulfilling the lust of the flesh, you're not going to have a desire for the things of the spirit. Why? The flesh is lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. See, if you feed the spirit, you're killing off the old man. You're fighting against the old man, and you're winning the battle. When you're reading the Bible, you're going to find yourself not desiring the things of the world, but desiring the things of God, because you have two men inside of you, the old man and the new man. You fulfill the lust of the flesh of the old man, and it's going to become powerful, and you're going to find yourself constantly losing to the old man. But if you're walking in the spirit, serving God, doing what's right, reading the Bible, memorizing the Bible, you're feeding the new man, all of a sudden it's going to become stronger. Okay? It's the way it works. You know, in some places they have like dog fights or things like that, and you know, if you have a dog that basically is not being fed, it's not going to be very strong in the battle. It's going to lose. If you say, well, dog number one, we're going to feed it three meals a day, and then you have this other dog that's just not getting fed for a week, you know what's going to happen when they fight? Dog number one's going to win the battle. Why? It's being fed. It's going to be stronger, right? This is common sense. Dog number two is going to lose because it's not being fed. And look, if you find yourself feeding the flesh, the spirit's going to lose out pretty much every day. And what you're going to find over time is eventually you don't even have the desire to come to church. Okay, much less really go all in and serve God. But if you walk in the new man and you walk in the spirit and you're reading the Bible and praying and memorizing the Bible, what you are going to find is basically, you know what? The new man is winning the battle pretty much every day. Doesn't mean you're perfect, but you're going to find yourself living a much more godly life. So look, this is a battle we will fight our entire lives, but you know what? It's a battle that you can get the upper hand if you do what's right. If you're serving God and killing off the old man, it will start to get weaker and it will die out. Turn to Romans 13, Romans 13. So it's important for you to realize you got a war your entire life as a saved person. Don't think it's going to be easy. I mean, quite honestly, many people, they start off serving God and then they quit serving God because it's a war. It's a battle. And quite honestly, it can be exhausting. And sometimes you say, I just want to give up and you make mistakes, you fall along the way. And as much as we're trying to serve God, nobody really goes like this in their life. They just are constantly going up. I guess you guys are looking the other way, so I should go this way, right? Nobody's graph of their life is just, man, I'm constantly going up. This is the graph of your life when you're serving God. Down a little, you're slowly going up and you make mistakes along the way, right? We have some days where, quite honestly, it's like, man, I wish I could do a do over. But that's why the Bible says, teach us to number our days because you don't get any do overs. We make mistakes. But look, you'll have some days where maybe you kind of screw up, you have a bad attitude or some weeks or seasons in your life, but your goal should be to be getting better. Whether or not it's at a fast pace or a slow pace, you should be constantly getting better, even if you have some falls along the way. Point number one, we saw that the lust of the flesh, they're always going to remain. Point number two, the amount you feed the flesh determines the strength or the amount you feed the spirit determines the strength. Point number three, the length of time that goes by from when you fed the flesh, that will determine the strength of the flesh. And point number four, doing what's right, feeding the new man, it will help you fight the old man. Point number five, don't put yourself in a position to fulfill the lust of the flesh. Don't put yourself in a position to commit the worldliness. Romans 13 verse 13, let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting or drunkenness, not in chambering and oneness, not in strife and envying, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh. Provision basically means you're providing an opportunity. Don't provide your flesh an opportunity to fulfill the lust of the flesh, because look, you will have those fleshly lusts until the day you die. You're never going to fully kill them off. So do not put yourself in a position to fulfill those desires, okay? And look, it's very easy for anybody in this room right now. You're in this room, you're listening to preaching. Right now you have the attitude, I want to serve God, because the new man's being fed, okay? This is why an altar call is so foolish, because of course when the new man's being fed for an hour, someone's going to say, man, yeah, I just want to read the Bible. I'll read the Bible for three hours every morning. Yeah, I mean, that's how you feel when you're here in the sermon. But then when you wake up the next day, the old man, there's that battle again, okay? And so the Bible says don't make not provision. Don't give yourself an opportunity to fulfill the lust throw up. Why? Because if you give your flesh an opportunity to fulfill that lust, that flesh probably will fulfill that lust, okay? Honestly, the way you kill off the old man is you don't put yourself in a position where you can commit that sin. Turn in your Bible to Genesis 39, Genesis 39. And look, here's the thing, depending on your background and the things that you were interested in, the things that you desire, your desires could be different than mine, okay? For some of you, you might have desires that I just don't have. Like I said, I've never smoked a cigarette before, but quite honestly, I played soccer all my life, and I always love playing soccer and watching soccer games. So I'd probably be a lot more likely to watch a soccer game than some of you guys, because a lot of you guys hate soccer, like soccer. I've never played soccer before. And so, look, we have different desires that we have, different battles that we have, and they're not always going to be the same, okay? But what I want you to understand is that as you're trying to kill off the old man, the secret to success is quite simply, you do not put yourself in the position you can commit that sin. And let me give you an example from my life, because most of my life, I have not had a smartphone because I'm a non-smartphone type of guy, because I like to be very simple and stuff like that. I have a smartphone now, just the last couple of years I've had one. But here's what I want you to understand. When I got rid of my worldly music, what I found, because this was before you could just go to YouTube and everything in the world is there, okay? It's a little bit of a different world now. When I got rid of my worldly music, what I found was when I was driving in my car, I would often turn on the radio, because even though I didn't have the CDs in my house, I still had a desire to listen to it, and sometimes I would lose the battle. I'd be driving, and I'd be saying, man, I don't want to listen to this music, I don't want to listen to it, and then sometimes I'd win the battle, and sometimes I'd lose the battle. You know how I finally won that battle? I asked my friend who would work on my car and help out, he was really good with cars, I said, can you remove the radio in any sound system in my car? You say, why? Because sometimes you've got to go to extremes to serve God. And guess what? I don't desire to listen to worldly music now. You say, why? I'm not rid of the opportunity to even do it. Now I know in today's world we've got YouTube and cell phones and things like that, but I killed off that part of the old man a long time ago. And look, sometimes when you're going to serve God, you might seem like a bit of a peculiar person to other people, because you're going to great extremes to serving God. I remember my old pastor in West Virginia, he was talking about how someone he had counseled a long time ago or something was trying to basically, he had lived a rough life before he was saved. He's a married guy, but he had a wandering eye from just things from his past. And he said, man, he was really struggling with the billboards that you drive by. And the advice, like my old pastor said, he's like, you know what? You should just drive a different way to work. It would take like 45 more minutes to avoid those billboards that you cannot resist with your eyes. Now, that seems pretty extreme to people. But it doesn't seem extreme to me as a Christian, because, yeah, you know what the secret of success is? You avoid putting yourself in the position to commit those sins. And that might mean you seem a little peculiar and weird to the world. But look, I'm telling you, in terms of getting rid of my music, that's what I did. I don't think it's that extreme to say, you know what? I'm going to downgrade, get rid of my computer or do whatever, whatever you have to do to get rid of those fleshly lusts. Because if you don't go to extremes to get rid of it, you're probably not going to get rid of it. Here's the thing. When you went back, you don't have to go there. But in Leviticus 14, it starts off very simple, just remove the stones. But what if that doesn't get rid of the problem? You've got to go to more extremes. And in your life, you might have some areas where you can kill off that old man pretty easily. But you might have some areas where it's a battle. It's a war. And you know what? You might have to go to some real extremes to get rid of it. And you say, man, I'm going to seem strange. Well, first off, you won't seem strange to me. And I don't think you should feel strange to anyone else in this room, because we're all trying to serve God and get rid of our fleshly lusts. And here's the thing about this. In a year from now, you might be able to say, you know what? I've won that victory. I don't have a desire for the rock music now. Because look, there's plenty of people in this room. I'm not naive, okay? I understand that all of us, we have different struggles. And I'm sure plenty of people in this room, you struggle with the worldly music or the worldly movies. And those are not the only things of the world. Those are just easy things to kind of categorize. And I'm sure some of you right now, you're fighting those battles. Look, my advice to you is go to the extreme you need to, so you don't have the opportunity. Because if you make provision for the flesh, you're probably going to fulfill the lust deal. Genesis 39, verse seven. And look, here's the thing. You know, if you didn't go down a road of sins in certain areas, because my son, you know what, he's going to grow up and he's not going to have watched all the movies that I watched. You know, he's not going to listen to all the music I did. And it's a great start. He still has to have his choice if he's going to serve God or not. But quite honestly, man, that's a great start. A lot of us, though, in this room are first generation Christians. Right? A lot of us, you know what, it's not like we've been raised in soul winning IFB churches for 50 years. Quite honestly, a lot of us, we have a lot of battles we're going to have to fight that, you know what, other people don't have to. You look at a lot of the godly pastors out there that we respect and love, do you realize like over half of them were raised IFB, I think? Over half of them. You say, why? Because if you're raised as an independent fundamental Baptist that doesn't listen to the world of music and doesn't watch the TV and go soul winning every week and has a pattern of reading the Bible every day that's taught to them from when you're young, do you realize how much easier it is, okay, to end up serving God? For a lot of us, I got saved at 18 years old. So yeah, you know what, it's been a battle trying to serve God and it's still a battle now. Now it's a battle for them as well, but I'm just saying there's a reason why such a high percentage of people that end up being great pastors, they were raised correctly. Because the way you raise your kids makes a difference. And look, some of us, we might have a rougher background than others. I praise the Lord I was homeschooled. So quite honestly a lot of the trouble I probably would have gotten in, I didn't end up getting into it because I was homeschooled. My parents were very strict, okay, I was raised with strong morals. If you're someone though that made a lot of mistakes in the past and you had a lot of fleshly lust that you really struggle with, go to great extremes in your life to not allow those things to come back. Because otherwise you could find out one day, we've seen godly pastors that all of a sudden those sins just came back and they're just, their life's destroyed, their marriage, their church and everything. Why? Because that's a battle they fought before. I would be pretty shocked if I ever smoked a cigarette one day, because I've never smoked a cigarette before, okay? If you haven't had battles and struggles before in certain areas, you're probably not going to struggle with that after salvation either, okay? But if you had a lot of struggles in the past and you had a rough upbringing, hey, praise the lord, it's all under the blood, you're saved, no one's ever going to bring it up, we don't want to hear about it, it's fine, you're serving god now. But just know in your mind, I have to make a point not to allow this to creep back in my life. It's an area you've got to make sure you're scraping every week and you might need to go to extremes to scrape that area and get that plague out of your house. Genesis 39 is a great example of a man who is unfortunately in a rough situation. Genesis 39 verse 7, and it came to pass after these things that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph, and she said, lie with me. But he refused and said unto his master's wife, behold, my master wadeth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand. Now in Genesis 39, we're seeing the story of Joseph, and basically, you know, his master's wife wants to sleep with him, that's what she means by lie with me. And so this, look, this is a pretty crude woman. She just walks up to him and says, sleep with me. That's a whore. That's what the Bible's definition would be. That's a whore. And if it was a guy that would do that, that's a whoremonger. I mean, that's like a wicked person. It's like a normal person is not going to just go up to you and say, sleep with me. It's like, what in the world? Okay. And that's what she's doing to him. She's like, lie with me. Verse 9, then he says, there is none greater in this house than I, neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? And Joseph says, this would be a wicked thing for me to do. I'm not going to sin against God. You know, your husband, he's trusted me with everything. And he's like, I'm not going to do this great sin. Now Genesis 39, verse 10, and it came to pass as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearken not unto her to lie by her or to be with her. Now it's very important when you notice here, it says day by day. So every single day she's going to him and saying, sleep with me, sleep with me, sleep with me. It doesn't tell you, but I think it's pretty obvious from the story. This is probably a very beautiful woman. Her husband's a very powerful man, and he probably married for looks. He probably married someone who's a very attractive woman. And so I'm sure the lust of Joseph, I'm sure part of him is like, yeah, you know what? He probably had a desire for that because she was probably a very attractive woman. And day by day, she's saying, sleep with me, sleep with me, sleep with me. Verse 11, and it came to pass about this time that Joseph went into the house to do his business and there was none of the men of the house there within. Now before this woman was just a really crude woman and there was other people in the house and she was still telling Joseph, sleep with me. It's like, man, he would have been insane to do that when there's other people in the house to begin with. Obviously it's a wicked sin anyway, but there's other people in the house. Now though, there's nobody else in the house. So look, nobody's going to know if this takes place except God, God, her and him. Okay. So he's in a situation where there's nobody else in the house and she comes to him and says, lie with me. And she caught him by his garment saying, lie with me. And he left his garment in her hand and fled and got him out. And he just basically runs out of the house and basically she ripped his garment. Why? Because of the fact he did not want to fulfill the lust of the flesh. Now I don't really believe personally that this is Joseph's fault because I don't think he could avoid this situation. This is his job and he shows up to work and it's just like she's trying to get him to sleep with him and sleep with her. And he just basically runs away and his garment's ripped. And of course we know she lied about the situation and everything like that, but you're looking at a situation where you don't want to put yourself into the position where you could commit a sin like this. And look, when I give advice, this might seem like extreme advice, but you know what? My old job in Maryland, and this was before and after I was married, that, you know, sometimes I'd be working and then all of a sudden people go home because their job's done and I'd be the only person at the office with one other lady. Do you know what I did? I basically punched out and said, I'll just start early tomorrow. You say, why? Because I don't want to be in a position where I'm alone with someone that I'm not married to of the opposite gender. You say, why? For one, you know, even if I know I'm not going to do anything, for two, you know, people can make accusations or whatever. I mean, this woman makes an accusation against him. Okay? You know, I think it's foolish to be alone with someone you're not married to. Okay? I think it's a bad situation. I think it's foolish, and I believe if you do that, you're going to end up fulfilling the lust thereof. Okay? That's what's going to end up taking place. Why? Because look, we're all human, and our desires do not die off when we get saved. You still have those same desires, and the way you win that battle is not by saying, I'm so strong I would never commit that sin. I mean, what about David? He committed adultery because he had the opportunity. Look, it's a foolish attitude to say, I'm so strong that I would never do this sin, and some people say this. They say, well, you know, you're just not strong enough. You're weak. I'm strong enough I would never cheat on my wife, so it's no big deal to me if I go out to dinner with other ladies and I'm alone with them. I'm not going to commit some sin. No, a smart person wouldn't put himself in that position. You're a fool if you say that. You put yourself in that position, you don't know what you're going to end up doing, and many godly people have screwed up their lives because they did not follow the principle of don't put yourself in position to commit those sins, and the amazing thing you find is if you don't put yourself in the position to commit that sin, you won't commit that sin. Look, day by day she's trying to tempt Joseph. We don't know how long this is, but let's say that's 50 days, and then let's say on the 50th day he gave in to the lust of the flesh and he slept with her. Well, he was successful 98% of the time. 49 times out of 50, that's 98%. I mean, it's pretty good, right? 98%? You get 98% on a calculus exam, amen, that's great, right? 98% is pretty good, but 98% is not very good in this game. See, here's the thing. If you basically have zero opportunities to commit this sin, then guess what? Zero for zero is great. 49 out of 50 is not going to work in life. The success is you don't have any opportunities to commit those sins, and look, that's why you and your personal life, you should think in your mind, what areas do I need to make sure, because here's an area I personally struggle with. I should not put myself in any sort of position to commit that sin, and that might mean being a little bit extreme as a Christian. Point number one in our sermon was this. The lust of the flesh will always remain. You will never 100% kick the lust of the flesh. They will always be there. But point number two, the amount you feed it will determine the strength of the lust of the flesh. Point number three, the length of time that goes by since you fed it will determine the strength. Point number four, feeding the new man will help kill off the old man or the flesh or the lust of the flesh. Point number five, don't put yourself in a position to commit that worldliness. And quite honestly, point number five is probably the most important, because if you don't put yourself in a position to commit those sins, eventually your desire is going to die off because you're killing off the old man without even having to battle it. Hey, it's great if you win a battle, right? Let's say you box someone, you fight, and you win that battle. Okay, good. You won the battle. But you know, here's the thing about this. If you don't get involved in any boxing matches, you're never going to lose, right? I mean, if you find yourself going toe to toe with the desire that you really want, that your lust of the flesh, you really desire it, and you fight it day after day and you win 85% of the time, that's pretty good, 85% of the time. But what about if you never have to fight that desire because you don't put yourself in that position? Guess what? You're always going to win. And then what you're going to find is you don't even desire anymore. Let's close in word prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and I ask you to help us apply this sermon to our lives. And I think if we're honest, every single one of us in this room could admit that we have areas of our life where we're still worldly. We have fleshly desires that we need to kick. We need to get rid of God. And you know, it's a battle. It's going to be a war until the day we die. It's not the same battle for all of us, but we all have battles we're fighting, God. And help us just to live our lives in a position where we don't even have the opportunity to commit those sins so we can strengthen the new man and kill off the old man. And God help us as a church, not just to say, well, I'm a soul winner, but help us just in all areas of our life to be devoted to serving you and to every single year just serve you more and more and to love you more and more and to live a more godly life. We pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen.