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1 Corinthians chapter 10, God's giving a warning unto his people. He's talking to those that are saved. Look at the first words. He says, moreover, brethren. He's talking to people that are in Corinth, that are as brothers and sisters in Christ. And he's warning them. He's explaining to them about things that happened in the Old Testament where people fell into sin. They got into idolatry. They got into fornication. They lusted after evil things. Look what he says in verse number 11. Now, all these things happened unto them for examples, he's saying. And they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore, let him that thicken he standeth take heed lest he fall. There is no temptation taking you, but such is this common demand. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. So he's warning them that just as the people in the Old Testament fell into sin, committed all these sins, he's saying, you better take heed. You think that you're standing, but you may also vault. And so you need to take heed and follow these examples that you not make the same mistakes that they make. Let's go through this starting at the beginning quickly. It says in verse number one. Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and it all ate the same spiritual meat, and it all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. So what's he saying in these four verses? He's saying, look, today we have church. Today we believe on Christ, then we're baptized, then we go to church, we break the bread of communion as he talks about later in the chapter. He's explaining that the people in the Old Testament really had something similar there. That's why the Bible calls the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness. In the book of Acts chapter 7, he called it the church in the wilderness. And so he's explaining that there's nothing new under the sun here. They were a church, you are a church. They ate of spiritual meat, you eat of spiritual meat. They followed Christ, you follow Christ. He's explaining the similarities. But he says in verse 5, but with many of them, God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples to the intent, we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. So God is saying here, that church in the wilderness is an example unto us today that we could also fall into the same sins and the same traps and the same iniquities that they fell into. And we're being warned about that right now. He says not to lust after evil things. He said neither be ye idolaters as were some of them as it is written that people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. We're going to go back to that passage in a moment in Exodus and see that. And we're going to talk more about this passage. But let me say this, let him that thinketh he standeth tonight take heed lest he fall. Many people who are listening to my voice right now, many people sitting in the auditorium tonight, you know, you're living for God, you're living a clean life, you know, you're serving God, you're out soul winning. But let me tell you something, there are many, many people who've sat where you sit tonight and they sat in that exact chair and they're not here tonight and they're not anywhere tonight and they're not winning souls this week and they're not living a clean life and they have gone into sin and they have committed these sins and so don't think that you are above falling into sin tonight. If David, the man after God's own heart, could fall into sin to the point where he committed adultery with another man's wife and then have her husband killed to cover it up. Why? Because it started out with lust. The Bible says, then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. If we allow lust to creep into our hearts and begin to lust after evil things, we will go down the same downward spiral that David went, that the children of Israel went in the book of Exodus that he's talking about here. None of us is above this. And you'll look around tonight and see that the godly Christians, you know, that you see that are serving God and some of these people someday down the road will not be serving God and it'll surprise you. But let me tell you something, the longer you've been in church, you'll see more people come and go, come and go. And you'll see people serving God and cleaning up their life and on fire for God and you see them come and you see them go. And then there are the few that are left standing at the end of it, years and years and years and years later. There are a few that are still standing for God. They're still in a fundamental Baptist church. They're still reading their Bible every day. They're still living a clean and godly life. They're still out there knocking doors. And let me tell you something, it's not easy to be one of the few that stays with it and that stays in it for the long haul. It's the minority. Why? Because people let the lust of the flesh here creep in and other things. Seemingly innocent things can creep in. We need to take hand lest we fall. Temptation is out there. Even Jesus Christ was tempted. The Bible says he was tempted at all points like as we are yet without sin. He had the devil come to him and try to allure him into committing sin and to try to deceive him. He's going to do the same thing to you. And the devil doesn't even really need to be at work much today because we've got Hollywood and we've got Madison Avenue and everywhere we look, lust is being pushed on us. The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. And today, television is nothing but filth. It's the lust of the flesh. It's the lust of the eyes. It's the pride of life. And you can sit there and say, Oh, I can watch it. It doesn't bother me. I'm fine with it. But let me tell you, you're not going to be one of the few that's left standing. If you fill your mind with that steady diet of what the devil is serving up on that television today. I mean, I can't even believe it when I talk. I haven't watched TV in a long time, but I hear about some of the shows that are on today and I can't even believe it. You know, I'm preaching to get shows usually that are about 10 years old. You know, I'm preaching about stuff that was on when I was a teenager. But today, people tell me about the shows that are on today and it's unbelievable. They told me there's a show called Modern Family. And the show Modern Family is just every kind of perverted family you can imagine. It's a couple of queers raising kids or something. That's Modern Family. It's some kind of a reality show about dysfunctional, perverted, reprobate families with raising their children in all the wrong ways that are against God. They told me about another show, How I Met Your Mother. And it's just basically a bunch of guys every episode going to a bar and getting some girl drunk and into the bedroom. I mean, that's the kind of garbage that's on TV today. And Christians today, they sit and watch it and they sit and watch it and they think that they're going to be Godly. They think they can watch. They think they can read their Bible for five minutes and then they can sit and watch a half hour of How I Met Your Mother and a half hour of Modern Family and a half hour of all these sitcoms and reality shows that promote sodomy and promote fornication and promote ungodliness. And they watch South Park as it blasphemes Jesus Christ and they watch this stuff and they think it's not going to affect them. The Bible says, My eye affects my heart. That's what he said in Lamentations 3. He said, Mine eye affected my heart. Peter and James, I'm sorry, Peter and John say in Acts chapter 4 and 5, we cannot help but speak the things we've seen and heard. What goes in comes out. And today, we're feasting on everything that the world has to offer. We're going to end up the same way that they ended up here in the Children of Israel when they lusted after evil things. Next thing you know, they're committing fornication. Next thing you know, they're into idolatry. Next thing you know, they're drinking. Next thing you know, they're drunk. Next thing you know, they're stripping their clothes off with Aaron and so forth and the golden cap. You see, there's no temptation taking you but such as is common to man. That means that you're going to be tempted with the same things they were tempted with. Are you going to be able to withstand that temptation? Are you going to be able to be one of the few that's standing? Are you going to flee idolatry as the Bible says in verse 14? Wherefore might be dearly beloved to flee from idolatry? You know what he said in 1 Corinthians chapter 6? Flee fornication. Flee idolatry. Flee fornication. What does it mean to flee? Flee means to run away, right? I mean, fleeing is if somebody's chasing me and I'm like, ahhh, you know, trying to get away. That's flee. He said flee fornication. Sounds like it's after you. Go to Proverbs 5. Proverbs chapter 5. See, the Bible says that the wicked flee when none pursueth but the righteous are as bold as a lion. But let me tell you something. When who knows the fornication, you've got to be running scared on this thing. You've got to flee it. Because basically, there's somebody who's out there to get you. The Bible warns us about the strange woman. And the Bible also talks about, of course, the fact that the devil walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Look at chapter 5 in verse number 1. Here's another warning. It says, My son, attend unto my wisdom and bow thy ear to my understanding, that thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge. Now, I like that term, bow thy ear. Because it takes humility to listen to somebody who's warning you about something. You know, pride says, oh, not me. I can handle it. I'm never going to follow this thing. I would never do that kind of stuff. You know, hey, everybody's going to deny you, Jesus, but not me, like Peter, right? Then he turns around and denies it. Pride goes before destruction and an haughty spirit before the fall. Bow your ear, children and teenagers, tonight, to what your mom and dad are teaching you. I'm talking to the kids now. There are kids in the auditorium. You need to bow your ear to what mom is saying, what dad is saying, and humble yourself to listen to, and everybody needs to humble yourself to listen to what God's Word is saying and what the pastor is saying to you right now. I'm not just up here rattling my cage. Look, this is a real danger that's going to be warned about it. He says in verse 3, for the lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil. If sin were not alluring and attractive, people wouldn't be sucked in by it. He's saying it's going to look good. You know, God's not tempting you with something that doesn't look good or that is not attractive. He says, no, the lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil, but her hand is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to hell. Her steps take hold on hell. Lest thou shouldst ponder the path of life, her ways are movable that thou canst not know them. Hear me now, therefore, ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. Remove thy way just a little way off from her. Is that what it says? Just get, just, you know, stay about a foot and a half from her. No. He says remove thy way far from her. That's like when he said flee fornication. He's saying get as far away from her as you can. If she's walking on that side of the street, you get on the other side of the street. I mean, he says remove thy way far from her and come not nigh the door of her house. Because long before you're in her house, you start just getting near the door of her house and just start hanging around. You know, next thing you know, you're on the porch. Next thing you know, you're in the house. That's how sin works. You know, Locke started out, he just pitched his tent just toward Sodom. Next thing you know, he's in the land of Sodom. Next thing you know, he's sitting in the gate of Sodom. And so you see that downward spiral here and God is saying here, don't even go near the door of her house. Lest thou give thine honor unto others and thy ears unto the cruel. Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth and thy labors be in the house of a stranger and thou mourn at the last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed. That's not a very pretty picture. But it's a picture of reality, of being a fornicator. When your flesh and your body are consumed, it's saying, how have I hated instruction and my heart despised recruit? Translation, man, I always hated hard preaching. I always hated hard preaching. You know, I always hated when the pastor told me I'm wrong or when the Bible told me I'm wrong or when my parents tried to rebuke me for doing wrong and I wouldn't listen. He's saying, what a fool I was. And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers nor inclined my ear to them that instructed me. I was almost in all evil in the midst of what? The congregation and assembly. See, just being a part of church does not make you immune from going into sanity. This guy's in church, but he went into sanity way. The people in 1 Corinthians 10, they had a church, they went into sin. The people in Corinth, he's warned them, you're in church, some of you are going to go into sin. You're going to go into fornication. You're going to become a whoremonger. You're going to become an idolater if you don't take heed to guard yourself from the wickedness of this world and not lust after evil things as they also lusted. Get away from the doorhouse. We shouldn't be seeing how close we can get to sin and get as close as we can to it, but we're not going to fall. You know, it'd be like if you went to the Grand Canyon, right? And you want to see how close you can stand to the edge without falling off. But you know, many people have fallen into the Grand Canyon. What is it, an average of about one a year? How many people die in the Grand Canyon? About one per year. How many per year approximately? Okay, my wife said last year it was like 12 people. So about one a month almost. So once a month, approximately, somebody falls into the Grand Canyon and dies. Hundreds of people have died in the Grand Canyon. She has a book about it. That's why I'm asking her. It's called Death in the Canyon. It explains every person who died in the Grand Canyon. Who they were, what they were doing, brief biographical sketch. Strange reading, you know what I'm saying? But anyway, she was reading it because she was trying to tell me, when you go to the Grand Canyon, make sure the kids are really far from the edge. Because she read the story. Now, she doesn't have to fall in the Grand Canyon to tell me, now listen Steve, I fell in the Grand Canyon and let me tell you why it's so dangerous. No, she's smart enough to read about somebody else falling in the Grand Canyon and not following their example. She doesn't have to do it herself. You know, people say experience is the best teacher. Well, here's something better than that. Someone else's experience is the best teacher. You know, let someone else fall off the Grand Canyon and then tell you, hey, don't get near the edge. Because if you get near the edge, you become disoriented. You think you're standing and then you fall. Because people, they go next to the edge, yeah, I'm not scared of heights. I get right up on the edge. But then all of a sudden, ooh. Because there's something about standing on the edge can confuse your senses. And people will even be just close to the edge and those of us, ooh. It sucks to be like that. No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, I would now recommend going to Grand Canyon and seeing how close you can get to the edge. Mom, look, I'm not falling in, Mom. I have a picture of me holding onto the railing. You've seen that picture of me where I'm like hanging into the Grand Canyon buying a rail. But it's fake, OK? Because, I mean, it's not a fake picture, but there was a ledge underneath. I wasn't anywhere near the edge. I was actually very far from the edge. It's just an optical illusion. So it looks like I'm hanging into the Grand Canyon. But I would not really hang into the Grand Canyon. It was just a trick of photography there, OK? I said to my dad, because my dad has a picture of him doing the same thing at the same place. So I just keep it in the family. Someday, myself, take the same picture. But anyway, you don't want to see how close you can get to the edge. The Bible says, no, don't even come near sin. Don't even come near the door to her house. Don't even get that close to it. Just get as far away from it as you can. That's why the Bible says in Romans 13, actually, he says, but put ye on, the end of Romans 13, put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. Don't even put yourself in a situation. Don't even provide an opportunity for you to fulfill the lust of the flesh. That means that if you're dating, guess what? Dating in your bedroom is not a good place to date. Now, I know this is like rocket science up here. But you know, you're dating, and you say, OK, well, let's just date in the bedroom with the door shut. No, that's not a good place to date. You say, well, I'm not going to commit fornication. I'm not, you know, we're not going to do anything. We're just talking. Well, why don't you talk in a public place? Why don't you, instead of making provision for the flesh, that's not, I mean, are you going to get up here and tell me, I'm fleeing fornication. I'm getting as far away from it as I can when I'm in the bedroom with my girlfriend with the door shut, and we're playing Uno. But you know what? That is putting yourself in a position, in a compromising position, where you can easily fall into sin. And you shouldn't even be putting yourself in those kind of positions, what I'm saying. You shouldn't even get that close to it. You shouldn't just play around with it. You know, and I'll tell you, the biggest way to be playing with sin, by the way, the number one way, if you're a young man, because he says, stay away from the strange woman, her feet tickle. You know, dating unsaved girls. Man, you are playing with fire with that. When you're dating, and the Bible says, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Why? For what fellowship had righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion had light with darkness? What part had he that believed with an infant? You shouldn't even have that much in common with unsaved people, where that's the person that you're the closest to, and you're spending so much time with them, and they're not even saved. They don't even go to church. They're not even here in church. They're not even in any church. They're out of church. They're not saved. And yet, that's who you're spending all your time with. They're not going to stop you from committing sin. You know, if you've got a godly young man and a godly young lady, at least it would only take one of them having the good sense to not commit fornication. One of them would hopefully have the righteousness and the godliness to prevent them from going into sin. But when you have the Christian and the non-Christian, well, guess what? That is only as strong as its weakest link right there. One of them, the Christian can have a weak moment, and there's not going to be any restraint on the part of the unbeliever in most cases. And so you're playing with fire. And why would you even date unbelievers? You know, what if you fall in love with them, and then you're going to get married an unbeliever, when the Bible commands us not to marry an unbeliever, right? And the purpose of dating is to be with someone that you're possibly going to marry to get to know them. So why would you be dating someone that's not even safe or that doesn't even go to church? And the first thing, you know, I dated when I was a teenager, the first thing I did was I brought him to church. That was the first thing I would do. If I was interested in a girl, the first thing I did, I brought him to church. I brought him to Regency Baptist Church. And if she didn't like Pastor Nichols preaching, and if she thought that it was too hard, or if she wasn't a Christian, if she wasn't saved, if she didn't like to go to church, I saved. Okay, see ya. You know like church, I know like you. That was my bother. Because I'm not going to date a girl that I know I'm not going to spend the rest of my life with. And I know that I was going to dwell in the house of the Lord forever, as it says in Psalm 23. I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And if you're not going to be here with me, well then you're not going to be here with me. But I'm going to be in the house of the Lord forever, is what David said, and that's what I said. And so, you know like church, I know like you. That's the motto right there. That's the mantra right there. And I remember I brought my wife to church for the first time, before we were married, when we were just friends. And I brought my wife to Regency Baptist Church on a Sunday morning, and she loved it. She thought it was great. She came back Sunday night. She loved it. She thought it was great. And you know what? There's a girl, okay, here's the possibility right here. Here's somebody who loves church. Okay, well then this could work out. But you know what? I just automatically knew it's not going to work out with some girl that doesn't want to go to church. Because there's a lot more to living the Christian life than just going to church, isn't there? I mean, going to church is pretty basic. You know, showing up at church doesn't really take a whole lot of hard work. Living a good Christian life takes a lot of hard work. Going to church is a pretty early step. You know, just showing up at church. That's pretty basic, right? So if she can't even come to church! Good night! How is she going to fulfill the rest of what God wants her to do? Or, you know, I keep saying her because I'm looking at it from a male perspective. You know, we could turn the shoe on the other foot. Obviously, ladies should never be dating. And it's even more important than the ladies because this is going to be your leader, you know, your husband. You better make sure that he's a godly Christian, that he's going to lead you in the right direction. And he better be saved. But I'm using the man's perspective because in Proverbs 5, that's what we're looking at. We're looking at a guy who's involved with the wrong girl. He's involved with an unsaved girl. He's hanging around near her house. You know, the Bible talks about later. I believe it's... I didn't have this in my sermon, but I want to quickly turn to chapter 7 and just show you something similar here. It says in verse number 5, that they may eat thee from the strange woman. Now, this doesn't mean that she's weird. This isn't like a gothic girl who's got, like, earrings in her nose and her tongue's pierced, and she's got, you know, purple hair, and, you know, she's emo and whatever, gothic. When it says strange, it's basically meaning you don't know her. She's just an unfamiliar... Kind of like you say, don't talk to strangers. It's just somebody that you don't know. You know, so here's a guy, and God's just warning you about women that you don't know that could be bad women, that are basically there to trick you up and to cause you to fall into sin. It says, keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words. That means she praises you. Flattery is when I tell you, boy, that tie looks good. Man, you're looking sharp today. Man, you are really a cool guy. It's when I start to praise him and just lay it on real thick. You know, man, Brother Garrett, you are my favorite person in the whole world. Did I ever tell you that? You know, that's just, come on. You know, it's flattery. No, he really is my favorite person. It's not flattery in this case. But anyway, you know what I mean. And nothing wrong with giving somebody a compliment. But when you're laying it on real thick and it's fake, that's flattery. Okay. So, he says right here, the stranger which flattereth with her words, for at the window of my house, I looked through my casement. So he's literally, I mean, he's watching this out the window of his house. He looks out the window and he sees this take place. And I beheld among the simple ones. Who are we talking about? I discerned among the what? The youths. So here's a young guy, maybe he's a young teenage boy, maybe a young man. And it says, a young man void of understanding. So here's a young guy, he just doesn't have the world's wisdom yet. He's just young and he just doesn't know what's going on in the world. He's naive. It's not that he's stupid. It's just that he's too young to have the experience of life here. He's just a simple young man. And it says, passing through the street, look at this, near her corner. So he just kind of goes near her corner. Now, here's a tip. If a woman has a corner, that's a bad sign. All right? So he goes near her corner. You know? If you're not a boxer, you shouldn't have a corner. You know? That's it. Okay? And so he says, you know, he went near her corner and he went the way to her house. So he didn't go to her house, he just kind of went that way. He's just kind of in that neighborhood. He's just kind of in that area. And it says, in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night. Now, to me, this almost sounds like more than one time that this guy's going that way. It doesn't sound like he went this way once. Because he went there in the twilight, he went there in the evening, and you could say that those are maybe the two things, the same. But then he says, in the black and dark night. Now, the black and dark night is not really the same as the twilight, is it? Because the twilight is just while the sun's going down. This is multiple, multiple visits. You know, at first he's just kind of near her corner, then he's kind of going the way to her house. And he's not really necessarily planning on being with her, but maybe he just wants to look at her. Maybe he just wants to see what it's like to be in that part of town, or kind of see what's going on, and just, you know, he's just a simple young guy. He just wants to know which way the wind's blowing. And behold, there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot. And so, you know what that tells me? There's clothing that God calls the attire of a harlot. Wouldn't you hate to be dressed in such a way where God would look down and say, oh, you're wearing the attire of a harlot? What do you think that was? What do you think she was wearing? A long skirt? A skirt down to her ankles? And a blouse? Now, you know what she was wearing. You know what the young girls wear when they're trying to show off their body? And basically, you know, if it's not for sales, take down the for sale sign, you know? And that's what she's wearing, the attire of a harlot. And subtle of heart. She is loud and stubborn. Now, these are the things not to look for in a young lady, guys. Loud and stubborn are not two things that you're looking for. Her feet abide not in her house. Now is she without, now in the streets, been lying in wait at every corner. You say, how can one person lie in wait at every corner? Because there's not just one. There are a lot of them lying in wait at every corner. You see, girls like this are a dime a dozen. They're not rare. He said they're lying in wait if they're everywhere. If you want to find this type of girl, you can find her pretty much anywhere you want to look. Go to Phoenix, go to Tempe, and you're going to find it. It's not going to be hard. So she caught him and kissed him. And with an impudent face said to him, I have peace offerings with me. This day, if I paid my vows, therefore came I forth to meet thee. Diligently deceit thy face, and I have found thee. Okay, what's my name? She doesn't know who he is. But she acts like, oh, I was just searching for you, specifically, and I found you. She's already kissing him. Now, look, that's a bad sign right there. These fast girls, you know, all of a sudden she's kissing you. Guess what? You're not the first guy that she's done that to. And you're a fool if you think you are. Yesterday was somebody else. Tomorrow it'll be somebody else. And she goes on and on, and I don't want to spend my whole time on this subject. But you get the idea. You get the point. Go to Exodus chapter 32. Exodus chapter 32, this is the portion of scripture where Paul was referring to in 1 Corinthians 10 when he said that it was a warning for us, what happened in Exodus chapter 32. And so we see God warning us in Proverbs 5, Proverbs 7, 1 Corinthians 10. Flee fornication. Flee idolatry. Run screaming in the other direction. Don't go near her house. Don't go the way of her house. Don't even get close to it. Don't start watching it on TV and say, well, I'm just going to watch it on TV and see what it's like. You know, you start watching adultery on TV, and TV today is filled with adultery. And nothing makes me angrier, nothing makes me more sick than a TV show that promotes adultery. And you say, you know how I fixed that problem? I got rid of my TV about 10 years ago. Got sick of all that garbage. I haven't watched TV, I don't know how long. It's been about, I don't know, 9 or 10 years or something. I don't know how long exactly. It's been a long time since I've watched any TV. But the reason why is because it makes me sick. To promote adultery. Adultery is a betrayal. It's a wicked sin. You know, we've got to keep ourselves only unto Thee as we've made our wedding vows so long as we both shall live. But the TV and Hollywood will make adultery seem cool. They'll make it seem normal. Everybody's doing it. You know, you go to work and, you know, you're in there, and these are the way TV shows are. It's like a hospital theme, right? And I'm sure it's out there. I could name the show, but there's nothing new under the sun. You know, decades ago it was General Hospital or something. Now I'm sure, I'm sure if I asked you, you could bring somebody, some worldly person, they could name for me probably three shows that take place in a hospital. And it's a hospital and, you know, the woman, and I've never even seen this garbage, but I can tell you what it is, because it's the same stuff that's been going on for thousands of years, and on TV it's been going on for decades. The same stuff. Have you noticed when they're coming out with, like, Batman Part 25, that it's just the same stuff over and over again? Spider-Man Number 9. You know, somebody said they came out with Rocky Part 6. Is that really true? Somebody said they came out with Rambo 5. I'm like, what? I mean, they just keep doing the same thing. It just gets worse, though. And so, you know, let me just invent my own TV show, and maybe some Hollywood writer will take this and, you know, make sure, but it's already been done. You know, some woman, and she's married, but she's a nurse in the ER, and she's down there, and there's some good-looking suave doctor, and she just accidentally finds herself kissing and hugging him and all this. And next thing you know, she's committing adultery with him, and her husband doesn't know about it. That's the kind of filth that I don't want to hear about. It's stupid. Is that the garbage that you watch? Is that where you sit on the edge of your seat? Oh, I wonder what's going to happen. They're not going to show you those people burning in hell at the end of it. They're not going to show you those people with their ruined lives and ruined marriage and children who don't know who their parents are and all the broken homes and all the heartache and all the consequences that are real. You're not going to see what happens. You're going to see some fake, phony, feel-good ending on that show. And it's all going to be dressed up to look good and nice when the Bible calls it filthiness of her fornication, vileness of adultery, the blood of adultery. God hates adultery, my friend. And you watch it on TV, it's filling your heart and your mind. And how many people I've known, godly, righteous Christians, but they're constantly listening to rock and roll. They're constantly listening to hip-hop music. They're constantly listening to country music with the talk about adultery. And they're constantly watching TV about it, watching movies about it, and it's fornication and it's adultery. And the next thing you know, those people are leaving their life and they're out looking for something else. I can go down a list with you. I've been in church my whole life. I mean, I was raised in church from the cradle until now, and I can tell you person after person that sat where you sit, that for decades was in church, that for decades served God, that for decades did right. But eventually, it's going to get through to you. All the movies, all the TV, all the rock and roll, and that's what the music promotes, and that's what the Billboard promotes, and that's what the TV show promotes, and that's what the magazines promote, and all this stuff, and they make it all seem like it's normal, and eventually, you will be out there at some bar somewhere. You'll be out there on the Internet somewhere, you know, looking for something else because you've left your wife, because you've left your husband, because you're out looking for that, you know, that debonair guy, that guy, you know, and these women, they idolize these movies. They see this guy on the movie and the TV, and he's so, you know, their husband is just as brutish, you know. They look at their own husband, and they think he's a brute, you know, because he puts his feet up on the coffee table because he leaves stuff laying around or whatever, you know, because maybe he's a little rougher on the edges because he's not a smooth little pink shirt, purple tie wearing pretty boy on some TV show, and he's just so sweet and loving, and their husband's just, you know, a little more of a real manly guy, you know. He's just a little more rougher or whatever. He's not Mr. Pretty Boy, Mr. Smooth, and they look at their own husband, and they think to themselves, you know, oh, you know, this other guy, he's so much more this, and he's that, he's the other, and these seeds get sown in their mind. And they watch all this stuff, and they begin to covet someone else's husband, or men will covet someone else's wife and covet their neighbor's wife and covet their neighbor's husband because it all starts in the mind and in the heart from seeing all this stuff. And women will idolize that guy on the TV show because he's so smooth, he's so gentle, he's so loving. The guy is a fag in real life. Are you listening to me? He doesn't even like women. You say, which one? Pick one. I mean, look, if you don't know that Hollywood is filled with homosexuals, you know, okay, well, you know, what do you want me to tell you? Water is wet. You know what I mean? Water is wet. And you know, the sky is also blue, and grass is green, and let me explain something to you. Hollywood and then the modeling industry, you know, male models, they're homos, by and large. I've had friends that were, my cousin was in the modeling business. He said it's filled with homos. He was high up in it. I mean, he was traveling all over Europe. He was, of course, a righteous man. I mean, he was a saved man. He's a normal Christian man. That's why he got out of it. That's why he had to get out of it because he said it's just filled with homos. And you're like, oh, he's so cute. Well, he's not interested in you, honey. He's a sodomite. He's a pervert. And that's who they look at in the poster, and they want their husband to be like that guy. Look, I don't want my wife to be like the Hollywood bimbos that are across the screen. I don't want her. I love my wife exactly the way she is. I don't want her to look like Angelina Jolie, and I don't want her to look like Cameron Diaz, and I don't want her to look, Help me out here. Who do all the guys idolize? Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga? I definitely don't want that in my house. I definitely don't want that in my house. Leave it to Brother Davis on that one, man. He's had to push that button, huh? You know, I don't want my wife to be Lady Gaga. I don't want her to be Britney Spears. I don't want her to be Angelina Jolie or Cameron Diaz or Britney Spears. Come on, help me out, world leaders. I keep naming the same names. Help me out. Everybody's like, got all these names? No, no, no. That's Judy. Judy. Judge Judy. Judge Judy. This is really going to happen. We need to stop this audience from being arrested. Howard Stubborn. Howard Stubborn, yeah. That's definitely Judge Judy. I don't think her lips are dropping with Honeycomb. Let me tell you something. I don't want my wife to be like that image, that Hollywood image of these sleazy women. The pretty woman women. Julia Roberts. Yeah, she's probably like 60 years old by now. She's in various groups. What I'm trying to say is that that's not who I want to count on my life, but let me explain something to you. If you're constantly just watching all the Hollywood and all the TV, that's who you're going to begin to think, oh, that's the ideal woman right there. Because do they picture on there a woman in the kitchen cooking and she's had six children? Is that what they put on TV and say, this is your ideal wife right here, cooking dinner for your six kids? No. They put a woman on there who is fitting the picture that they want to have of just a loose, independent woman who's sleazy and easy and floozy and I don't want my wife to be like that and I don't want my children growing up and watching movies saying, I like her. Yeah, that's what I like. They're going to find that girl in real life and it's going to be the woman we read about at Proverbs. And I don't want my daughters growing up and looking at all the sistified little twinkies on TV and saying, oh, that's what I want a man who's sensitive and loving and smooth and soft and wears a purple tie. No. I don't want them to grow up and be with a real man. And dad will show them what a real man is and then I want to bring them to church so they can be around a bunch of real men at church and not show them all the sistified, effeminate Hollywood stars and that that's what they're going to be into. No. I want to keep my heart in the right place and that's going to be biblically, that's not going to be from Hollywood. And this kind of preaching today is what we need because I'm telling you, many people have sat where you sit and they didn't listen to this kind of preaching and they get involved with the wrong girl and they get involved with television and they get involved with all the Hollywood and they get into the bar scene and they get into the sin and they get into the rock concerts and they get into the hip hop culture and they get out of church and they get out of God's will and it happens all the time. Somebody needs to get up and give the same warning that's given in the Bible to warn you, take heed lest you fall. Take heed. Be careful. Watch out. Exodus 32. Look at Exodus 32. It says when the people, verse 1, when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mouth, the people gathered themselves together on the errand and said unto them, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not what is done for them. And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. Now, here's the first problem. Why is your son wearing an earring? Keep your finger in Exodus 32. Go to Genesis, what was it? 35-4? We were talking about this earlier. What's your son doing wearing an earring? Now you say, are you against earrings? Well, I'm not against women wearing earrings. Because the Bible actually talks about women wearing earrings as a thing that's fine. And you'll see in the Bible, women are wearing earrings, and God actually talks about in Ezekiel chapter 16 how he put earrings upon a woman. That's all fine and dandy in Ezekiel 16. I'm not against earrings, but I'm against earrings on men because they're effeminate, that's why. Look if you went to Genesis 35. It says in verse 2, Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments, and let us arise and go up to Bethel. Bethel means the house of God. And I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress and was with me in the way which I went. Listen to this verse. And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Jacob. So he told them to get rid of the strange gods, and they said, Okay, we're going to get rid of the strange gods, and we're going to get rid of our earrings out of our ears. And you notice that the Ishmaelites also, the Bible says that the Ishmaelite men wore earrings if you study the Bible. So look, I'm against earrings on men. Somebody said to me, they told this guy, they said to a guy, Now which earring is it that means that you're a homo? You know what I mean? You know how it's like one earring means that it's a homo? They say if it's in your left ear, you're okay. You know, you're strange. But if it's in your right ear, that means you're a homo. Who's ever heard that before? Okay, so my pastor, when I was in California, there was a guy who came to church, and he had an earring, and he'd been coming to church for a long time. And so the pastor said to him, he said, Now that's not the ear for, you know. And the guy said, Oh, no, no, no. He said, That's the right ear that means that. And he said, Okay, well that means you're this far from being a queer. You're this close. You know, this is from ear to ear. Okay, and you know, he said, You're this close. Okay, because look, why don't you leave the jewelry to the women, guys? You don't need to be all decorated like a Christmas tree. You're a man. Listen, Mr. T, that was the 1970s, okay? Get off of it. Why not look and be a man and dress like a man and act like a man? Talk about, you know, let my wife decorate herself up with jewelry. And I'm not even into that. But let me tell you something. I'm not going to try to make myself pretty. I am going to remain ugly as long as I live. I'm a man. I'm not trying to be a little pretty boy. I'm not trying to try out to fill in the gap with the Backstreet Boys or something. You know, I'm not trying to help the Backstreet Boys make a comeback. I'm here to be a man. And so, that was for free, but go back to Exodus 32. Exodus 32. They take the earrings out of their son's ear. They should have done that a long time ago. But they take the earring out of their son's ear and they break off the earrings and then they basically mold them into a golden calf. So they make this idol, this statue of a golden calf. And they said in the end of verse 4, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. And they rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down, for thy people which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. And he goes on and on and explains how they had corrupted themselves. Go down, if you would, to verse number 25. This is when Moses comes back. So Moses is gone for 40 days. Well, after a few weeks, they don't know where Moses is and they say, We don't know what happened. We're going to make our own god. So they make this golden calf and they basically start eating, drinking, playing, committing fornication, you know, dancing and partying and having this big thing around the golden calf. Look what it says in verse 25. And when Moses saw that the people were what? Naked. For Aaron had made them naked under their shame among their enemies. You know, the man of God leaves. Moses, the great leader. And next thing you know, everybody's naked, worshiping the golden calf. You know, that tells me that we need preaching. You know, we need leaders. We need men of God to lead. And not all the people were doing it, obviously. But you know what? Some people will go into sin. The Bible says some of them committed fornication. Some of them committed idolatry. Some of them started worshiping that golden calf. And when the calf's away, the mice will play. That's why you need to be in church and listening to the preaching of God's word. And that's why children need to stay at home with their parents and let their parents raise them and rule over them and have rules for them. And not just be out living freestyle, free-for-all. They need somebody to be a leader. They need a pastor. They need a mom and a dad that'll lay down the law to them. And that'll be a strong leader that'll make some statements and some rebukes to them about what's right and what's wrong. And that's what Moses was. But being in church wasn't enough. They'd heard Moses preaching. They'd been in church, but then they got out of church. Moses was gone for 40 days, and they began to fade spiritually. Many of them did. I've seen it in this church. I've seen it in other churches. I've watched people begin to fade away spiritually. I've watched people get excited about serving God and doing great things for God, reading their Bible, winning souls, doing all the right things, and then they start missing church. They start skipping soul-winning. They start hanging around with a worldly, unsaved crowd. They start dating unsaved people. They start to fade away spiritually. You start seeing them every once in a blue, and you know what? It won't be long until they're completely gone. They're completely out of the will of God. Don't let it be you. Don't be that guy that gets out of church because he started lusting after evil things, because he started to just be enticed by the world, and the world's going to wear you down. I mean, after seeing that billboard 5,000 times, it's going to wear you down. I mean, after seeing those TV shows and that music, it might take a long time, but it's going to wear you down. You've got to flee it. You've got to get away from it. Flee fornication. Flee idolatry. Go back to 1 Corinthians 10. I'll close with this, 1 Corinthians 10. You say, why are you preaching this sermon? You know, I'm just, I love you. I'm trying to warn you. I want you to live a long and productive life serving God. I mean, I want you to be serving God five years from now. You know, I was talking to Brother Dave. You know, Brother Dave's been in our church for almost five years serving God. You know, you look at a man who's been here for five and a half years. You know, our church has only been around for five and a half years. Others that have been here for three years, four years, a couple of years. You know, you see people who've stayed with it, but guess what? There were a lot of other people who came to win in the meantime. You know, and some people obviously went to another good, godly church, and that's fine. But I'm talking about people who got just out of church, who got into fornication, who got into sin. How are you going to be one of the ones who stays in it? How are you going to be here five years? I love you. I want you to be here five years from now. I want you to be here ten years from now. I want you to still be reading your Bible. I want you to still be soul winning. I want you to still be serving God. I want you to be clean and pure. I want your children to be pure on their wedding day. I want you to live a clean and godly life because that's what God wants you to do. And that's my job as a preacher is to warn you and to give you the Bible here to tell you that it's easy to fade away. It's easy to fall when you get close to the egg. None of those people that fell into the Grand Canyon thought that they were going to fall in. You know, when they had the camera and they're just trying to get that perfect shot? They all thought that they were on firm footing. But they fell. And it's the same thing in church. People get comfortable. They can handle it. We think we can take fire into our lap and not be burned. We think we can walk in our hot coals without burning our feet. And we get close to it and we play around with it and we kind of flirt with it and eventually you're going to fall. And many, many a mighty man has fallen. Many a mightier man than I or you have been have fallen. What's the difference? It's not that, it's not that maybe that Pastor Anderson is just a superman. That's why he's been serving God for, for, you know, over a decade. It's not that Brother Dave is some superman or that a man is, it's just that they took heed to this particular sermon. They stayed away from the edge. That's how they stayed in. Because when you, they didn't fill their mind with everything that Hollywood and the world had to offer or they wouldn't be here. And so it's not that we're perfect. It's not that anybody's just a great person. Look, David was a greater man than I am. I promise you that. I promise you that David from the Old Testament was greater than Pastor Anderson. But he fell into sin and I don't have to. And I'm going to go my life not falling into sin. That's my goal. And I don't even want to get close to him. I don't want to be that one. It's not that I'm better than David. It's that I'm learning from his example and other people's example. David was prideful and because of his pride, he fell into sin. We need to be humble enough to bow our ear to the words of the Bible. Bow our ear to the preaching of God's word and say, you know what, I'm willing to listen to this and take this. Some people can't take this preaching because they're too high and mighty to take this kind of preaching. Others will bow their ear and say, you know what, I do need to be careful. I do need to take heed lest I fall. 1 Corinthians 10 says in verse 8, neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of servants. Neither murmur ye. This is complaining. We can get a bitterness and a complaining and we're always, it's not fair and I have everything so bad in life. This can begin to lead you down that path. And we're destroyed of the destroyed. Now all these things happen unto them for its samples. And they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh, he standeth, take heed lest he fall. The world is not going to warn you tonight. TV's not going to warn you. School's not going to warn you. Your job's not going to warn you. You want to come to one place to get a warning. From God. You come to church. Where else are you going to get it? And so church needs to be a place that will warn you and tell you to take heed lest you fall. Careful now. Are you? And ask yourself tonight. Don't just try to apply this, oh man so and so needs this. Apply this to yourself and say you know what? Am I beginning to fade? Am I getting close to that edge? You know if there was a time when you were more fired up about serving God than you are right now and if there was a time when you were reading your Bible more than you're reading it right now and if there was a time when you were more excited about the things of God than you are right now and if there's a time that you were more faithful to church than you're faithful to church right now and if there's a time when you were doing a lot more soliting than you're doing right now you know it sounds like you're back split. It sounds like you're going backwards. I mean if you used to be a better Christian than you are today. If there's ever been a day when you were a better Christian than today it sounds like you're back split. Move forward. Higher ground. Press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God and Christ Jesus because if you don't go to the high ground you're sliding down and you're sliding down you're sliding down and then you're going to get to that edge. And you will be one of the many not one of the few when you go off that edge. You'll be one of the many. If you're still here if you're still serving God if you're still reading about Him then you'll be one of the few. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father thank you so much for your word dear God thank you for giving us these warnings. Thank you that we don't have to make these mistakes ourselves but we can rather learn from the children of Israel and learn their mistakes. Thank God for Solomon looking out that window and seeing that guy so that we can learn from that guy. Thank you for giving us that example Lord that we can see that guy and not make that mistake. And Father please just bless us now as we go our separate ways help us to take heed lest we fall and bless the food to our bodies as we partake of this cake that we have after the service for Father's Day. In Jesus' name we pray.