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

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When the road is called a gond'r. When the road is called a gond'r. When the road is called a gond'r, I'll be there. And it's labor for the master from the lonesome setting sun. And it's love for one who's one who's loving care. And with all the life is over and our work on Earth is done. And the road is called a gond'r, I'll be there. When the road is called a gond'r. When the road is called a gond'r. When the road is called a gond'r. When the road is called a gond'r, I'll be there. All right, church, you can call the offering plates for being passed around. The Bible says in the book of 1 John chapter 2. Again, it's in the book of 1 John chapter 2. As we do custom areas on the Baptist church, we read the entire chapter. That's what Michael recorded. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is of appreciation for our sins. And not for our sins, but also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby we do know that we know him and we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him barely is the love of God's affection. Hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith, he abideth in him not himself also so as to walk, even as he walked. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which we had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which we have heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which name is true in him and in you. Because the darkness is cast and the true light now shineth. He that saith, he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in them. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes. I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. I write unto you, Father, because you have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. I have written unto you, Father, because you have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. Love not the world, not of the things that are in the world. If any man loveth the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, 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 the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. Little children, it is the last time, and as ye have heard that antichrists shall come, even now are there many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would not in doubt have continued with us. For they went out, that they might be made manifest, that they were not all of us. For ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. I have not written unto you, because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ, his antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son? Whoso denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. But he that knoweth the Son hath the Father also. Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which ye have the truth of him abideth in you, and ye need not, that any man teach you. But as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. And now, little children, abide in him, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him. Let's pray. Thank you, God, for the whole entire Bible. Thank you, Lord, for John and for all the souls that have been saved. Thank you, Lord, for the years that have been placed into the ministry, God, that you bless him. And also for the church plans that we have in the future, God, that you bless that as well. Thanks for all those who are the leaders in this church and also those that have labored in this church, God. Thank you for all the labors that have been done and for the salvation of the soul of the marathon, God. And God, we just praise you and thank you for just all that you've done within this church. God, as you continue to move vitally within us, allow the pastor to preach your boldness and speak your word and allow the pastor here to be attentive to your word. God, we praise you and thank you for all that you do. We say this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. All right, so before I start my sermon, I actually just want to remind people we have a lot of food still left over, so if you are interested, you can have any of the food that we had this morning or this afternoon, I should say. If you want to stick around for some dinner, I would just ask that. There's also going to be some people cleaning up and stuff, too, so try to keep the food contained. We have less people than we did this morning, so if you want to eat, try to keep it contained in this area. It's a lot easier to clean it off of the hard floor than it is off of the carpet, so it really would help us out a lot if we could try to keep the eating in that area. Very much appreciate it, but definitely help yourselves with some food. Appreciate all the work that's gone into it and all of that, so all right. This evening, I'm going to be preaching a sermon, a real basic, real simple. You probably heard preaching on this in the past, but it's one of those things that we need to go over again from time to time, and we started off in 1 John 2, and I want you to focus down there on verse 15, where the Bible says, 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. For all that is in the world, 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 the world passeth away, and the lusts thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. So especially these two verses, verses 15 and 16, we're going to be focused on today about not loving the world. Of course, we're in the world, but we're not supposed to be of the world, and the Bible is very clearly defining and drawing distinction between the things of the world, what's in the world, what's promoted by the world, everything in the world, versus the things of God, the things of the Father, the things that are spiritual, the things that are holy. These are two completely different things, different realms, different worlds, if you will. One, if it's of the world, it's not of the Father. If it's of the Father, it's not of the world. They have different origins, different sources. In fact, the Bible is so clear here, it's brutally clear. It could be brutally honest. It says, look, if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. And these really strong statements, we really ought to try hard to focus in on and make sure it's easy to read a couple verses and then just keep reading when you're doing your Bible reading. It's easy to sort of go past it and be like, wow, okay, that's interesting. You might think on it for a second, and then you just keep on going on. This is why preaching is so important because we could really just dive into and dig into this, and when we see stuff where it's like, man, well, hold on a second. I mean, if the love of the Father is not in me, that's a big deal, right? The Bible's saying, look, I don't love God for some reason. I want to know about that. And the reason it's even written here is because sometimes people don't even realize when, you know, you could ask someone, hey, do you love God? Oh, yeah, I love God. But according to the scripture, God's like, no, you don't. There's many people are self-deceived in the thinking that they're doing. I mean, there's going to be, especially in the end times, people who think they're doing God's service, and they're literally going to be fighting against God and against the people of God. But in their minds and in their hearts, they're thinking they're doing what's right. And this is why we need hard preaching. This is why we need to look to the Bible. The Bible is not soft, by the way. There are definite hard truths in scripture, and things are very frequently stated very bluntly, very black and white. I mean, we see an example of this exactly right here. Look, if you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. And it's just a statement that just put, oh, but what about this? The Bible does away with a lot of the nuance, with a lot of the special cases. Look, it's real simple. You love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. And there's no point in arguing over it, but wait, but you don't understand, but I really, you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. You love the Father, then you're not going to love the world. And the Bible says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. So we're called not to love the world, we're not to love the things that are in the world. Why? One of the reasons is because this isn't our permanent home and nothing here and nothing of this world and nothing in this world is going to continue. Everything is going to be burned up. Everything is going to be destroyed that is in this world right now. We're not supposed to live for this world or this world. This is all temporary. This is all in passing. We're supposed to be spiritually minded about things. But you think about, too, what is in the world? Well, verse 16 says for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. So this is what is in the world. When the Bible is saying not to love the world and not to love the things that are in the world, this is what it's talking about. It breaks it off into three main categories. You've got the lust of the flesh, you've got the lust of the eyes, and you have the pride of life. All three of these things the Bible says this is not of the Father. It is, but it is of the world. These are the things that the world promotes. This is what the world pushes. This is where people, if you're not saved, you have nothing to do with the Bible, you're going to just be living out in the world. These are going to be the things that are going to consume your life. This is what people are going to be mostly focused on, one of these three things, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life, or some mixture of all three. Now, we're going to go in very much detail on each one of those three, because again, we want to be careful that we're not loving things that we're not supposed to love. And I love this black and white picture of just, look, you love the Father, or you love the world. It's very similar to what's stated in Matthew chapter six, where the Bible says no man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. It's one or the other. There's no middle ground. There's no sitting on the fence of going, well, you know what? I'm going to serve money, and I'm going to serve God. No, you can't. You can't. You have to choose one. You're either going to serve money, or you're serving God. If you think that you could try to serve God and serve money, you know what you're doing? You're serving money. That's all it is. God just looks at that going like, yeah, you're not serving me. You're serving money. And this is similar with you love the world, or you love the Father. You're going to love the things of the world, or you're going to love the things of the Father. You say, well, but I want to do both. You can't. Because it's like salvation by grace that's free, or you have to add some kind of works. Well, no, it's free and everything, but you also have to do that, then it's works. You know, you add one element of the works to it, well, now you're just believing in works. You're saying, oh, no, I could love money, and I could serve money, I could serve God. No, you can't. You can't do it. Because God demands, it's on off, right? He just demands, look, this is the way it is. Are you going to serve me? Okay, then serve me. And don't worry about the money. Don't worry about the things. Don't worry about the treasures. Don't worry about what you're going to do here. You're just going to serve me. Because God wants to serve him with all of our heart. He wants to have faith. He wants us to trust that if we just choose, no, no matter what happens at the end of the day, I'm just going to serve the Lord, then he will provide our needs. He will take care of us. We don't have to worry about saying, well, no, I need to serve money a little bit, and then I'm going to serve God. No, serve God. And serve God with all your heart. And this generation especially needs to hear these hard truths. We need to hear it. One, we're inundated with the world and the thoughts and the philosophies of the world continually, but also just the hard truths of just saying, look, you need to stop loving the world, and not walk on eggshells, and not beat around the bush, and not try to hem and haw about it, where people want to just have their ears tickled, okay? You need to hear the truth from the word of God. You just need to hear what the Bible says, and we're not dancing around or playing with the issue, which is why it's so much important not just to stop reading there and then move on to something else. No, let's dig into what the Bible is literally talking about and get the application. Because that's where the real hard truths come in anyways, is the application. How does this apply? What does it really mean, even just talking about the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life? Well, turn, if you would, to Galatians chapter 5. We're going to start looking at the lust of the flesh. And just real basic, if you think about that, what is your flesh? It's your body, your carnality. Whatever the desires are of your flesh, what your flesh would desire to make your flesh feel good is going to be a lust of the flesh. This is going to be where drunkenness comes in, right? Your flesh wants to feel that high, wants to feel that buzz, wants to receive that tingling or whatever in the flesh, in the body, that feels good to the flesh. Your flesh is going to want to be gluttonous and eat and eat and eat and have this excess. And you're like, man, Pastor Burns, do you have to preach this now after we had that great food this afternoon? Yes, I do. We don't want to get into excess. And look, it's funny to joke about, it's funny to laugh about, but let's get real and let's get serious. Look, gluttony is a sin. And it's fine to enjoy nice food. There's nothing wrong with that, but don't overindulge in stuff. That is wrong. It is wrong. To just be excessive and overindulgent is sinful. And we ought not to get to the point where you feel like someone's got to roll you out the door to get you on your way because you've indulged so much that you've got a bellyache and you can't even walk properly. It's wrong. And that is a lust of your flesh. Be able to know when to stop. And you could say, well, it's not the most important thing. You know what? Maybe it's not the most important thing, but is that all we ever care about? Well, it's just the most important thing. That's all I'm ever going to talk about. It's all we ever think about. It's all I care about. Ridiculous. How about we care about all the things that God says are important? And especially things that the Bible says are sinful. And gluttony is one of those things. And you know what? That's linked hand in hand with drunkenness because they're both excessive. Also, other acts of the flesh, fornication, things like that, these are all going to be considered lust of the flesh. You're in Galatians chapter 5. Look at verse number 19. The Bible says, Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these. And now it's going to give us this list of all these things that are the works of your flesh. These are the things that your flesh desires. These are the lusts of your flesh. Adultery, fornication. Obviously, those two go hand in hand. It's the same act. Just one is when you're married, one's when you're not married. But both wicked and sinful acts. Hey, if you're loving that fornication, you're loving that adultery, you're loving the lust of the flesh. And you know what? This is of the world. The world has no problem with the fornication and very little problem with the adultery these days. The world used to have a little bit more problem with the adultery, but now it's like, eh, just to get divorced and marry someone else. Like marriage means nothing anymore. And this is what you're going to hear from the world. Oh yeah, this is the way it was even when I grew up. The world's going to say, oh yeah, when you're young, go ahead, have your fun. You know, sew the wild oats, go ahead and do what you got to do and then settle down and get married. That's terrible advice. It's wickedness. And you're going to be teaching your children to go commit fornication before they settle down. That is not of the father whatsoever. It's terrible advice, but that's the advice of the world. But if you love the father, you're not going to love the things of the world. We're not going to teach the things of the world. Works of the flesh, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, these are all tied together, again, in that same type of physical sin, right? With the uncleanness, lasciviousness has to do with some of those sins that are related to adultery and fornication. Let's jump down to verse number 20 there. Idolatry. Idolatry is actually listed here as a lust of the flesh, where you're setting up something that's not God, but you're kind of treating it like God. Right now, literally, obviously, there are people who made images and made idols and would worship those things and think that they had some power or think that there was a deity behind them or they were representative of a deity. There's lots of different people and lots of different beliefs. But this is a word that can be used to apply to many things that people are going to hold up and elevate in their life and look to with reverence and respect and worship that's not God, that would be deserving of the worship and the reverence and respect that God would deserve. So you're kind of, you're putting things in there that's inordinate. And that can be literally just about anything. That can become idolatrous in your life when you put too much emphasis and too much focus and too much importance on things that at the end of the day, you go overboard and that type of devotion should be dedicated to the Lord, not to some other thing, some other activity. Anyone can get caught up in a hobby, in a career, in a sport and elevate that to the status of, I mean, think about this. If you want to just really attain so much in some professional sports, it's like, well, it's going to cause me to never go to church. But I just have to do that. I mean, this is the thing. You've now replaced your opportunity to go in and congregate and be among the people of God and serve the Lord because this thing is more important than forsaking the assembling of believers, which the manner of some is that Hebrews 10 talks about. It could become idolatrous. The Super Bowl ring or whatever can become an idol for some people, whatever, right? And it's not just the pro players. It can be anyone, any average person, but you start lifting things and elevating to that status. Look, your flesh likes to get wrapped up in those things and you can get some entertainment or some other joy in the flesh out of that stuff. But the Bible's saying, look, don't be idolatrous. How about witchcraft? You said witchcraft, like who's into witchcraft? There's actually a lot of people who are into witchcraft and it sounds kind of funny, but the way that the Bible talks about witches and witchcraft, it actually very easily applies to many things today. This applies to the business of the psychic readers, the tarot cards, and that is a little bit fringe, but there's still plenty of people who buy into that stuff. I mean, I know people personally that participate in this type of garbage and it is witchcraft. And even if it's fake or fraudulent, you're emulating witchcraft, right? God's not pleased with someone who's, whether they're really into the dark stuff and dealing with the familiar spirits and the devils and stuff, or just pretending to be someone who does that, to steal money from people, that's also wicked and bad, right? It's gonna fall into the same category. You might as well just be a witch. But how about also the witchcraft of Harry Potter? How about also the witchcraft of the Lord of the Rings? I mean, look, you can't argue with this stuff. If that's not witchcraft, then what is? I mean, Lord of the Rings, what is his name, Gandalf? Isn't there a, or is that The Hobbit? I don't know, I watched this stuff a long time ago, but he's a wizard, right? Am I wrong? Yes, okay, Harry Potter's a wizard, or a wizard in training, or whatever. I mean, I think they'd literally like someone flies on a broom. I mean, isn't that witchcraft? Oh, oh, but it's not that serious, it's not a big deal. Really? You can say it's not a big deal, but how do you think God feels? Now, look, think about it this way. Because our society and our culture and the world is gonna tell you, who cares if someone's into witchcraft? What's that to you? You go ahead and worship God and do whatever you wanna do and let these people alone, they could do whatever they wanna do, and so what? What's the big deal? It's harmless fun, it's just a movie, it's just this, it's just that. That's what the world's gonna say, who cares? But what does the Bible say about the punishment or the judgment for being a witch? It's a death penalty. Most of us shall not suffer a witch to live. So if we have our judgment screwed up by this world, we need to readjust our judgment and the way that we view things to be in line with what the Bible says. And I don't know about you, but I don't want my children, or myself for that matter, just indulging in and loving and looking to and getting all my entertainment of the things that the Bible's clearly vehemently against to the point of like, look, if you do this as a death penalty, yeah, but I'm just gonna read about it, watch about it, and just feast my eyes on this lust of the flesh because it's kind of fun to think about having so much power that you could be like God and you could tap your wand and cause whatever to happen or give some spell on somebody. You don't need to be messing around with that even in your heart to be contemplating and thinking about having those types of powers that God possesses. That's satanic. Satan is the one that wanted to make human beings think that they could be like God, going all the way back to the Garden of Eden. It is evil. It's wicked. Oh, you Baptist, you're always saying everything's of the devil. Well, look, we believe the Bible. And just because you want to defend wickedness and witchcraft and sinfulness, you're of the world. But we don't love the world, neither the things that are in the world. We love the things of God, at least we should. Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred. Sorry, I can't help but laugh. Everyone calls us hateful, right? We're like, see? But no, we're supposed to hate and abhor the sin. We're supposed to hate and abhor the things that are against God and the things of the world. And we're supposed to love the good, right? But see, the world has a different definition of good and bad. Then we do, which is why we are called hateful. Because if you get your definition screwed up on what's good and what's not good, when we hate the wicked things in the world saying that's not wicked, but that's actually good. Well, now we're hateful. But given the biblical definitions here, and we're talking about just being some hateful person or just having hatred towards things that you should not be hating, that is a sin and that is wicked and that is a lust of the flesh. And people do and can get caught up in being hateful and having hatred towards other people, which they should not have at all. For example, another brother or sister in Christ, you should not hate them in your heart. Because the Bible says if you hate them in your heart, it's like committing murder. Just like lusting after a woman is like committing adultery whether you have these things in your heart, they're really serious. And again, looking at the way God views things, you could say, oh, yeah, but I don't care. You ought to care. Hatred, variance, emulations. I'm not going to go through every single one of these. Wrath, wrath, hatred kind of go hand in hand. Strife is fighting. Lust of the flesh. Seditions, heresies. Verse 21, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings and such like. And so there is no, you know, I mean, this is just all these different sins and that type of stuff. These are all the works of the flesh, of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. And we are, we are inheritors of the kingdom of God, right? Because we're believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and that while we may have been guilty of these things, Christ has washed us with his blood. So we are clean. God doesn't see us as any of these things, even though we may have been guilty of them things. And even if we do commit those things, because Christ is our savior, he's washed of these things. But as children of light, we need to walk like children of light. We can't be walking in our flesh. We need to mortify the deeds of the flesh and not be walking in the lusts of our flesh. But the world's going to teach you different. Turn, if you would, to First Peter, Chapter four. And when it says love not the things of the world, this is where I'm going to keep going back to, love not the things of the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Your thing that you love in the world is probably different than someone else's thing that they love in the world. We shouldn't love anything that is of the world, right? So I'm trying to do a shotgun approach here and hit all manner of different things that are of the flesh that is of the lust of the eyes or that is of the pride of life so that we can all maybe recognize the point because I'm sure everyone is probably guilty in some aspect. But hopefully you're not guilty of loving those things, right? Everyone's guilty of sin. But there is a difference between loving your sin, right? And committing the sin. There is a difference, and the difference is in the heart. And really that's where the most important part of your life is going to come out of your heart, right? So if your heart is right with God, while we still may stumble, we still may backside, we still may do things wrong, we know we're going to slip, we're going to make mistakes. But you really want to get to, you want to make sure you don't get to the point to where you're just loving and indulging in some sin. And when you get that love of some sin, some lust of the flesh in your heart, that's when you get to the point where you know what? Now the love of God is not in you. So when you start taking something that's this sin and you just want to make a space for it in your heart and in your life, and you just want to keep doing this and I'm just going to know I'm going to keep on doing this. This is what I want to do. That gets you into the serious problem where it's like, okay, I mean, do you love God? When you're placing this thing, this lust, that's so important to you above being obedient to God, now all of a sudden God's saying, you don't really love me. It's not just a matter of committing a transgression, committing a sin. For example, let me think of something, you know, maybe you think something bad, you think a bad thought. The Bible says the thought of foolishness is sin. Maybe you're a man and you have a lustful thought after a woman that's not your wife, okay? It happens, right? And that's a sin and that's wicked and that's wrong and we should never have those thoughts. And if that happens, you sin, you got to be like, oh man, what am I thinking? What am I doing? And, you know, not do that. But here's the difference between that happening but then someone going, no one can see my thoughts and I'm going to just have these lustful thoughts and I'm just going to relish in them and I'm going to allow my lust of my flesh to just kind of give in to that and be looking on people and lusting and no one's ever going to know but you're holding on to that and you're loving that sin and that lust of your flesh. One, that's going to get you in a lot of problems because it's going to lead you down a path and get you into a lot more sin. You think you can play around with this stuff, you can't. But two, that's when you start to love that lust of the flesh and that's where God's saying, you don't really love me. Do you notice the difference between the two, right? One is a sin that, look, we do sin and we're going to be making mistakes and doing things we ought not to do in general but we don't want to be at the point where you make a place for sin in your heart and in your life and you hold on to that sin and you want to love that sin and keep that in your place and try to just keep it under wraps or keep it under control, whatever. You can't do that. Does that return to 1 Peter, chapter 4? Look down there, verse number 1, the Bible reads, For as much then as Christ had 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 no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God. So we ought to be putting on the same mind that Christ had because Christ was without sin, right? Christ was able to resist all temptation and live the righteous life. We ought to no longer live the rest of our time in the flesh to give ourselves over to the lusts of men but to the will of God. So our mindset should be one to be thoughtful of God's will in our life. Verse 3 says, For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings, and abominable idolatry. So the partying, the drunkenness, all this stuff being listed, very similar to what we write in Galatians, chapter 5, right? And saying, look, we had our time and that, we had our part in that or whatever in the past. It says, look at verse 4 though, wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you, who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. So when you choose to say, no, I'm not going to participate in those things, the world's going to look at you like you're crazy, like what? Like, that's weird. Why are you so strange? Why don't you go to the same excess like we go to? Hey, we're all going out to the bar after work. Why don't you come along with us? You don't drink. Why don't you come out with us? What's the matter with you? You will be viewed as different. But look, if you want to be right with God, you can't love the world and don't even try to pretend like you're of the world. You ought to be different. God has separated you. He sanctified you so that you are going to be peculiar. You are going to be different. And that's what he wants out of you. Don't be embarrassed and don't be ashamed if you happen to be surrounded by people in this world, if you're not going to do the same things that they do. We are called to be separate. So don't give in to the pressures of whatever it may be, the banquetings, the revelings, the excess of wine, have nothing to do with that. Because you know what? The love of the Father is not in them. And it's not in you either if you go and participate or go out and just be like everyone else, just like the world. Turn, if you would, to Psalm 101. Let's take a little look here at the lust of the eyes. And the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and pride of life, there's a little bit of overlap, of course, between all of these. It's still, it boils down to your, excuse me, your lusts, right, and sinfulness. But it is clear to make a little bit of a distinction between the three as things that we need to be mindful of that we wouldn't be not having the love of God in us. So the lust of the eyes, we're going to see what is, because the lust of the flesh has more to do with, like, literally committing acts and doing them, right, and gratifying your flesh in the fornication, in the drunkenness, in the excess, in all of that. Like, you're giving your flesh what you want, but it doesn't just stop with that. It gets, God still cares about your eyes just like your flesh, okay. So when Jesus said, if you look on a woman to lust after in her heart, you know, you've committed adultery with her already in your heart, that's, God cares about that too, right. So that's in your eyes. That is part of the lust of the eyes. Verse number three in Psalm 101, the Bible says, I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. So this is how you're going to help yourself from committing these lusts of the eyes and indulging yourself in seeing things. You say, even though I'm not going to act on it, I'm still going to look. That stupid saying that people have, like, well, I could look at the menu, right, but it's like, look, you've already ordered. Stop looking at the menu. You know, a married guy that's, oh, I'm going to look at all these other women. Look, you're married. You made your choice. Stop looking. You don't need to keep looking for anyone else. It's done. It's done. And that's wickedness. And it's like, you know, if you're thinking about inanimate objects like food and you're eating this one and going like, man, I really wish I would have ordered that. Well, so what about food, but how is your wife going to feel when you chose her and now you're looking at someone else going, oh, man, well, I wish, you know, that's wicked thought in your heart, first of all, to be thinking like, oh, man, I'm looking at this menu thinking, oh, I wish I would have ordered something different. And that's just going to lead to problems in your marriage. That's going to make you bitter, resentful. It's going to, you know, you think your wife's not going to notice, but they do. They will. Women are very astute on that stuff, too, by the way, men. You know, we're very straightforward on a lot of things. And we kind of just we look at the surface of stuff. And that's why men vary frequently. It's just you say, hey, if I said this, then that's what it is. I'm not playing any games. We're not trying to say anything different or send any messages. We operate. If I say something, did I say these words? Yes, I said, then that's what I meant. This is just how men operate. Women don't operate that way. They don't. We all know this is true. And the older you are, the more you know this is true. Women are different. You know, bless God, he made men and women different. And they have different strengths, too. But women are a lot more intuitive on things, and they can be a little bit more in tune and see some things in people that men don't always see. And your wife will notice if you start having eyes that are going off and looking at other people and you start indulging in the lust of the eyes, and that's going to do damage to your relationship. And you need to stop doing that if you do that and make a covenant with your eyes like in Job 31. You don't have to turn and say in Psalm 101. We're going to keep looking at that. Job 31 says, I made a covenant with mine eyes. Why then should I think upon a maid? Job made it a point to say, I'm going to make a vow, I'm going to make a covenant, I'm going to make a promise here so that if I'm not looking on a maid, then how am I going to think about them? Because sin starts by looking like Achan. It's a great lesson in the Old Testament. Achan saw, then he coveted, and then he took. And that's how sin works. You see something, and instead of going, oh, wait, no, I shouldn't be looking at that, you allow yourself to look on a little bit longer. And then you start allowing yourself to indulge. And then the covetousness starts coming into your heart, and then the action follows. That's the way sin works. So God's saying, look, you need to keep control on the lust of your eyes. And don't think, oh, this doesn't hurt anybody. Yes, it does. And look, if you're married, it's really bad because you're definitely doing damage to your spouse. They're going to pick up on that. You're going to have to realize why. You're having more problems. You're having more arguments and stuff. Your manager's going, I have no idea what's going on. And you're out there just checking out other women or something. It's like, that's why. Because they're going to see that. Even if they don't confront you about it, they're going to see what's going on. They're not stupid. And if you're not married, don't be like, well, I'm not married, so I'm not hurting anyone. Well, you are. First of all, you know what? When Jesus said, if you look at a woman lust after heart, you commit adultery with her already in your heart, you're dragging someone else into your sin, even them unwittingly. Now, it's not their fault, but you're also going to create a pattern for yourself. So if you ever get buried in the future, what makes you think that you're going to be married? What makes you think that if you're playing around in your mind with some wicked thoughts that all of a sudden that's going to change now that you're married? Your flesh likes that. Your flesh is going to want to keep indulging in whatever sin it is that you're giving yourself over to. You think that getting married just solves that problem? It doesn't. You ought to fix that now. Psalm 101 3, you know, it says, I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. And that could be a whole host of things. Wicked entertainment, smut, filth, all manner of garbage that's out there. And nowadays, more than ever, putting things in front of your eyes is so easy to do. As opposed to any other time in history, we have the most opportunity to sin with our eyes than ever before. Having screens of images in your pocket at home, anywhere you are, you can put an image in front of your eyes. That is dangerous. Obviously, I have one too. I'm not saying the device itself is wicked, but what I'm saying is it's dangerous. So you need to be aware of what this is capable of, the screens, the images, and especially for your children. What wicked things are you allowing to come before their eyes? We need to have the heart and the attitude of I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. And here's what I believe. If you know, like in Proverbs, if you know where the harlot lives, where the wicked woman lives, where the woman who's subtle of heart, where the Bible talks about the man who's simple and he walks by her way down her street, it's saying he's a simple one. He's a simpleton. He's kind of stupid. He shouldn't even be walking that way, right? Because you know that that lady's going to be there and she's subtle of heart. She's going to be deceiving. Just go a different way. Just like you shouldn't be looking on the wine when it's red, when it moveth itself right in the glass, when it giveth its color in the cup. Look, don't have anything to do with that. Just don't even look at it, right? Avoid it. Well, if you know that there's a certain part of geography called the beach and the odds are there's going to be a lot of people who are naked there. When I say naked, I mean biblically naked, like they're wearing almost nothing. Oh, okay, but they have a few patches of clothing covering a few little key parts. Why are you going to put yourself in that environment? How about you don't set those things in front of your eyes, then you can avoid it altogether. Well, the same goes on the internet. Oh, I hate when this pops up. Then how about you stop going to those places? Oh, I hate when they throw this in there. These ads, well then stop watching the stuff that has those ads. Eliminate it. Oh, but I really want, you really want to? Is it really that important? And here's the thing that people oftentimes won't, like ask yourself, how important is this really? This is why we do the digital detox challenge every year, because you start to realize how, you get these little addictions, addictions to YouTube, addictions to social media, addictions to Facebook, addictions to whatever, Instagram, whatever it is, whatever the thing is that you feel like you just need to do this every day. Oh, man, it used to be and it probably still is. Oh, I need to see my show. I need to watch this. I need to watch, you know, we get into these little habits and we form these behaviors. It's like, oh, I have to do this. But then if you don't for a while, you realize it never really mattered. And that could be sports. Look, I was right in there. I loved watching football and I was in the bar every Sunday, watching football, not in church, being right with God. And oh, no, I can't miss this game and oh, I got to be here for this game and oh, I got to watch this game. And then when I stopped watching sports, when I got right with God and I got in church, you realize none of it matters. Someone's going to win. Some team is going to win some championship this year in every sport. It's going to happen. And they're going to be from some city. And they have people supporting them and there's some players and they're going to do really good and there's going to be other players that don't do so good. Who cares? Seriously, what does it really matter? But it's the Falcons, you understand. They haven't won in like 200 years. I know, I understand. I was a Cubs fan. Who cares? The TV shows, oh, but what's going to happen next to some fictional character? Are they going to die? Are they not going to die? I don't know. Who cares? It doesn't really matter and you realize, I know what it's like to get sucked into this. I'm human too. I've watched a bunch of garbage in my life. But if it's causing you to also be putting wickedness before your eyes, is it really worth it? Well, I want to watch the Super Bowl, but now you're watching all the beer ads? They flash all the cheerleaders in their skimpy outfits on the screen. Oh, I don't like when they do. You can't control, oh, I can't control that. Well, you can if the screen's off. How serious are you? You do, don't think you don't have control over these things. There are, of course, there's going to be some aspect where you don't have control. I mean, if you're just walking out of church, you don't always have control of who's going to walk by or something like that. You know, you go to a restaurant to eat something. You don't have all the control in the world, right? That's not what I'm talking about, but you definitely know what I'm talking about when you have control over certain things and what you choose to turn on and what you choose to put in front of your eyes. And we ought not to let anything get in the place where we have so much of this lustful desire of our flesh or of our eyes to see these things that are wicked that we're willing to just say, no, I want to watch this instead, and I don't really care what the Bible says about it. That's the dangerous place to be. That's when you don't have the love of God in your heart. Verse three, I never even got through this. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. I hate the work of them that turn aside. It shall not cleave to me. And this goes to having the proper hatred that I was talking about before, right? There's a bad hatred when we shouldn't just be hateful people in general, but this is a hatred that we ought to have. The work of them that turn aside, the work of the people that have nothing to do with God, they want nothing to do with them, and they're turning aside from the Lord. Look, if you don't have this proper hatred, it's a lot more easy for that to cleave to you. You're making a lot more allowances for it. You're just real permissive of that stuff. You're really tolerant of all that sin. It's easier than to cleave to you. We have to have the proper hatred in our heart for sin, for the wickedness, and be like, look, I want to see sin. It's like, oh, man, get that away from me. I don't have nothing to do with that. Have this proper hatred for something instead of going like, well, maybe I'll take a second look. Right? When you're willing to take that second look, you don't have the right hatred for that sin. You're like, oh, well, hmm. Whatever that may be, right? Whatever the lust of your flesh that's tugging on your heart to get involved in. A froward heart shall depart from me. I will not know a wicked person. Yet how many people really know all about a bunch of wicked people that are in this world? All the celebrities that are living wicked lifestyles that have nothing to do with God, nothing to do with church, nothing to do with the Bible, nothing to do with the things of God that are totally of the world, that are promoted by the world, that are posted on all the magazine racks, that are posted on all the social media, that are pumped on the TV. They're of the world. The people who are really popular in this world are of the world. That's a fact. How much do you really need to know about them? Well, the Bible says I will not know a wicked person who so privately slandered with his neighbor, him will I cut off. Gossip. Gossip sells. And that an eye look and a proud heart will not I suffer. Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land that they may dwell with me. He that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me. Turn, if you would, to Luke chapter 12. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, how about the pride of life? What do you mean by the pride of life? Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, I kind of get that. That makes sense, right? My flesh is driving me to do these things, these wicked things. My eyes, real closely related to other lusts of the flesh. I get that. But what about the pride of life? What does that mean? I mean, we're all alive. We're all living this life. Well, what's the pride of life? Well, I think that's pretty easy to understand. How many people do we see that, well, one, you know what pride is, right? You're lifted up with pride. You're kind of full of yourself. So people that get pride of life, they're just really proud and boastful of where they're at in life, what they've accomplished in this life, and just really proud of all of their earthly, worldly achievements and have lifted themselves up in the business that I made and whatever. And it doesn't even, the thing itself doesn't have to be sinful, right? So if someone starts a successful business, there's nothing wrong with that at all, right? Great. God could bless you and you could operate and run a successful business and serve God. You can do that. You have to work and provide for your family, men. And however you do that, be successful in what you're doing. And you can still serve God and have him at the forefront, have him at the top and be like, I'm going to serve God. I need to work in order to provide for my family, but I'm going to serve God. I'm not going to serve the money. And you can still have those things. Men of God have been blessed by God and have had substance. Job had a lot of substance. Abraham had a lot of substance. There was nothing wrong with that. They were hard workers. They did a great job. They were hard workers. They did a good job. Jacob did a good job. He was a hard worker. Great. Fine. But when they put God first. But the problem is when you get this pride of life. Like Nebuchadnezzar had. Oh, look at me and look at my kingdom and all this great stuff that I did. Well, that's when God is going to bring you low. And that is what is really just being of this world because the world's going to again promote and teach. Oh, yeah, look at this guy and how great he is and all the great things he did. And look, if other people lift you up, that's fine. But when you have the pride yourself in your own heart, that's when it's bad. That's not good. If other people lift you up, fine. But you don't get a proud heart, especially when other people lift you up. Luke Chapter 12. Did I have to turn to Luke 12? Look at verse number 16. The Bible says, And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do? Because I have no room where to bestow my fruits. And he said, This will I do. I will pull down my barns and build greater. And there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, So thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry. Talk about a vain life in existence. Like I just have all this. What am I going to do with all this stuff? I know I do. I'll just make it even bigger place to put all my stuff. And then I'll just kick back and take it easy and just enjoy my stuff. But God said unto him, Thou fool. This night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then who shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that lieth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. Having the riches isn't a bad thing, but I mean, this guy is just full of himself going, Oh, I have so much. What am I going to do? Oh, I don't know. Maybe you can help someone else out who doesn't. No, I'm just going to build greater. I'm just going to have this all for me. And I'm so great and I have so much stuff and I'm and I'm just going to make it so I can have even more stuff. It's the pride of life. He's so caught up in the pride of life. He loses his life. It's ironic, isn't it? And the Bible says, look, if you're if you are one that lays up treasure for yourself, you're not rich toward God because being rich toward God, that's what really matters. The riches world you can have them or not have them doesn't matter. But you start getting caught up in the pride of life. You're going to be unfruitful in the things of God because you got to serve God humbly. You start thinking that you're all that and you're you're some great special person and everyone else needs to bow down to you. Well, that's when you run into a lot of problems. That's how the world operates. And this just popped into my mind, just like Jesus was explaining when the disciples were talking about who's going to be the greatest. Right. It's like, well, hey, the Gentiles, they worry about these things. But for you, it's not the same. Right. For you, whoever is going to be the servant, whoever is going to minister, who's ever do that work, they're going to be exalted, not the other way around. Right. It's not the people who have this this great stature among men and everything else. That doesn't matter. You're not the greatest. It's it's oh, are you doing the most work? Are you the most humble? Are you serving and ministering the most? That's God's economy of things. Last place I return, James, Chapter four. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. I think it's very interesting that all three of these things are exhibited in the people that are being promoted by the world. I mean, these are the things that are of the world. These are the things that we ought not to love. These are the things that we ought not to set our heart on. Right. Because if you love these things, then the love of the Father is not in you. But all three of those things, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Show me the famous person that's not exhibiting all three of those traits. The world promotes its own. I mean, you'll find the lust of the flesh in their in their wicked lives. The lust of the eyes and wanting to be seen of everybody and, you know, seeing and to be seen in front of everybody and being in the public eye and having that fame. And then the pride of life, of course, their position, their stature and their view of everyone. All the normies out there that don't have all the riches and stuff. James Chapter four, look at verse number one, the Bible says, From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts, that war in your members. And when you give yourself over lusts and that's what you want, it does end up just in wars and fights and strivings. Ye lust and have not. Ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. Ye fight in war. Yet ye have not because you ask not. Ye ask and receive not because he ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts. So first he's saying, look, you lust and you don't have. First of all, because you're just trying to take things and just take what you think is yours instead of just asking for it. But then he's saying, then you ask for it and you still don't get it because God's not going to give you something. You know, he's not going to hear your request and hear your petition. To give you something just to consume it on your lusts. And if he does, it's going to end up like it did for the children of Israel when they lusted after the flesh. And I don't think you want giving God giving you then the lusts of your flesh and answering your oh, we don't have any flesh to eat. Yeah, because then he had it till it came out their nostrils and then he killed a whole bunch of them. When he gave them the lust of their flesh. That's not where you want to be. Verse four, ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God. So just to reiterate kind of where we're at. Hey, if you've got the love of the world in your heart, the love of the Father's not in you. You want to be a friend of the world. You want to be buddy buddy with the things of this world and you and you love what the world has to put out there and you love the things of the world. You know what? That's enmity with God. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. It's one thing to look at it and be like, well, no, I still love God. You want to downplay what the Bible says there in First John Chapter two. But how about just being labeled God's enemy? Who wants to have that label? Yeah, I'm God's enemy. Are you a friend of the world? The same thing. Do you think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? Isn't that interesting? It keeps talking about the lust, the lust, the lust of the flesh, because this is talking about the same thing that First John Chapter two is talking about. The lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life, those are the things that are of the world. Hey, you want to be a friend of the world? You're of the world. The love of the Father is not in you. You're actually God's enemy. But he giveth more grace, wherefore, saith God resisteth the proud pride of life, but giveth grace unto the humble. Very parallel here in the teaching. And I just bring this up as a warning, as sobering, hopefully, to take stock in your life. Are you loving the things of the world? Are you becoming a friend of the world in any area? Right? It could just be one area. Let's work on that. See it for what it is and fix it. Right? Have the right heart where hopefully you could be leaving here with a godly sorrow that worketh repentance. So you could you can find the thing and think about the thing that you know what? I've been holding this in my heart. I've had this spot and I've had this place for this sin, this lust that I don't want to give up. But now I'm seeing, look, I don't want to be the enemy of God. So I think I'm just going to give this up. I think I'm going to make some changes. And you're not going to be perfect. I know that. But you need to have your heart right. So you're not just giving yourself over and kind of even internally just allowing for all this stuff and holding on to that sin and making place for it. You need to start hating that sin. That'll help you start viewing and thinking about if you have a problem, you're struggling in any lust of the flesh, particularly. Whether that be drugs, alcohol, smoking, things that have to do carnality with, you know, a fornication type of thing, a pornography type of thing, whatever. You know, whatever these areas are that might not be obvious to other people. You need to get to the scriptures that's going to make you hate those things and see what God does with those sins and how bad it really is and how bad it affects you. Whether it be the witchcraft or the, you know, any of these things, the lust of the flesh, get that in your heart so you get the right hatred for it. So you have the right response to the things that we ought to be finding vile and wicked and want to have nothing to do with. This is what I love so much about hearing the preaching for the first time about the sodomites and the homos, because the world wants to normalize it and wants to tell you it's not that bad and wants to tell you it's not a big deal. And so it starts brainwashing people into thinking you're desensitized, it's really not that bad, it's not a problem. But when you actually hear and see and look at what God's word says about it, you get reminded of that over and over and over again. You go on like, whoa, look, this is not OK. You can't just start normal. Look, I need to have the right hatred for that sin, for that wickedness, for that vileness. But that's not the only way. Yeah, it's really easy to say, amen. Yeah, because we all hate that because we're not perverts here. But what about your sin? What about that area of wickedness in your heart that you want to hold on to? That's extremely wicked, whether it be some adulterous thought or some fornicating, you know, you need to hate that just as much. So that when it tries to rear its ugly head, when you're when your vile flesh is trying to get you to to commit some sin, you can be like, no, man, I don't want to have anything to do with that. Strengthen your spirit, mortify your flesh. And we could have the love of God in your heart and definitely not be considered an enemy of God. Let's bow our heads, have a word of prayer. Dear Lord, we love you. We thank you so much for your words. God help us help us sinful creatures. Dear Lord, help us while we live in this in this carnal body. Can't wait for the day where where you change our corrupt bodies into into incorruption and that you swallow up our mortal flesh and immortality, dear Lord. But until then, help us to get our our bodies under control and bring them into subjection and that we could walk in the spirit so we don't fulfill the lust of the flesh. Dear Lord, and help us have the right mindset and how you view things like you've you've already shown us in scripture that the friendship of the world is enmity with God and that you you just help these things to sink in and that we could properly deal with with our sinfulness. Dear Lord, we love you. We do love you. We want to serve you, dear God. Help us overcome these sins that we have individually in all of our lives and and be able to make good, righteous changes that will will help us to live more righteously in the future. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. All right. We're going to sing one more song before we're dismissed. Brother Peter, will you please lead us? All right, Church, you can open up your hymnals to song number 261. So 261. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Let's sing the song 261. All right, Church. Let's sing myself a verse. Oh, soul, are you weary and troubled? Oh, light in the darkness, you see. There's light for a look at the sea. And light for a content and free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will prostrates we did in the light of his glory and grace. Death into life everlasting. He passed and he followed him there. For a sin no more hath dominion. For more than for courage we are. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will prostrates we did in the light of his glory and grace. His words shall not fail you, he promised. He leave him and all will do well. Then go to a world that is dying. His perfect salvation to tell. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will prostrates we did in the light of his glory and grace. Amen, Church. Great singing. Thank you so much for coming. You guys are dismissed. Thank you. Thank you.