Seven Deadly Sins Every Christian Should Hate - 7 - Sexual Impurity — Phil Beach Jr.

Continue to be before the Lord in his presence. Thank you, Lord, for your presence. Thank you for your Holy Spirit. Thank you for imparting to us your thoughts and your mind, Lord. We thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness, Lord.

And we bless you, Lord. And now, Lord, I'm asking you to communicate to us, Lord, by the Holy Spirit, your thoughts and your heart, Lord, and encourage us, Lord, and speak to us, Lord. Speak into our spirits, Lord, into our spirits now, Lord.

Go deep into us, Lord, and help us to understand your thought, Lord. Help us to understand, Lord, what you're saying, even now, Lord, in our midst, because you are here, Lord, you are here. I just want to say that whenever the children need to leave, they can go with the adults, whoever need to go with them.

Just do it in an orderly fashion, not necessarily now, just wait until you're instructed to, okay? But I do have a very pressing word in my spirit from the Lord. And I would ask that everybody would just join together with me as we look into the word.

I don't know if I'll get into the seventh sin. We've been trying to get there for several weeks. I don't know if God is willing after this, perhaps we can go into it because we'll see. But I do need to just share this word from the Lord, okay?

And it surely is something from the Lord's heart, okay? I would invite you to turn your Bibles to John chapter six. John chapter six, okay? We're going to begin to read, beginning in verse number 34. Jesus is talking to the Jews now and they had an interest in the Lord.

Listen carefully, please. They had an interest with the Lord. It's okay, okay, that's fine. Go ahead, children, that's fine. Praise the Lord. We'll just wait for a moment until the children, that's all right, are taken to children's church and then we'll be able to concentrate on this, okay?

Praise the Lord. We thank the Lord for those who are laboring by love to minister to our children. We thank the Lord for this. We really do. We appreciate the love that these girls have and the guys. We appreciate their dedication.

And again, it is a labor of love. That's what it is, a labor of love. And there's no seed that is ever sown that will fall on bad ground if we pray, okay? All right, let's just begin here in John chapter six, beginning in verse 31.

Jesus as the True Bread of Life

Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. And Jesus said, verily I say to you, Moses gave you not the bread from heaven, but my father giveth you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. And now listen to what the Jews said. They said unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. Give us this bread.

Now, these were people who were interested in the Lord. They were interested in his miracle working ministry. They were interested in the fact that he had great power over the masses. They were interested in that.

They saw that even the religious system of that day couldn't extinguish his light. And there were multitudes that were following him and he loved the multitudes. But John chapter six is a transition that Jesus brought the people who followed him through.

And every single follower of Jesus today is going to have to walk through John chapter six in their personal walk with the Lord. Every single follower of Jesus, because Jesus is sifting the motives of our heart.

He's sifting the reason why we're calling on his name. Why are we after him? Why are you after the Lord today? These believers were following Jesus and asked him a question. Lord, Moses gave him manna in the wilderness.

Can you do that? And Jesus basically said, yes, my father will give you the true manna. And then they said, give us this. And then Jesus began to speak some of the most profound words that have ever been spoken.

Listen to what he said. And Jesus answered them when they requested that Jesus give them bread. I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

But I said unto you that ye also have seen me and believe not. All that the father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Listen, go to verse 41. The Jews then murmured at him because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.

And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, murmur not among yourselves.

No man can come to me except the father which has sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets and they shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the father cometh to me.

Not that any man has seen the father save he which is of God. He hath seen the father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Jesus was responding to the inquiry of these Jews by telling them that he was the manna that they were asking for.

You see, beloved, these people here were following the Lord. He was healing them. He was providing for them. He had multiplied fish and bread and fed them. He had spoken wonderful things to them. He had compassion on them.

But all along, Jesus knew that there had to come a time in their life when they were confronted with the real reason why He came. You see, the reason why Jesus came is not only so that we can be fed and taken care of and blessed.

You see, Jesus had to confront these people and basically say, do you see who I am?

You can't follow me seeking something.

That I can give to you. But you have to come to the place. This is what he's saying. You have to come to the place where you see that what I am is the only thing that God accepts. My righteousness, my purity, my goodness, my kindness, all that I am is the thing that God accepts.

And your following me must come to a crisis where you come to where you say, Lord, You must become my manna. I can no longer want something from You but retain my own life. I can no longer follow You without recognizing that to follow You is inevitably my death.

There is a religious addiction in the church today. An addiction to religious things that keep us from seeing the claim of Christ and the call of Christ. That keep us from seeing that to follow Jesus is to lose our life.

Surrendering One’s Life to Christ

Listen as we read on. Verse 51, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I give for the life of the world.

The Jews therefore strove among themselves saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? They wanted something from Jesus that would enable them to retain their own life, retain their own goodness, retain control of their own selves, and yet at the same time, get something from Jesus.

There is a time in the life of every true child of God, everyone who follows the Lord, of everyone who names the name of the Lord, when Jesus must bring us to the crisis where we are no longer able to come to the Lord for something from Him and yet continue to retain our own life.

The Jews strove among themselves, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Jesus again, wasn't going to give up on this issue. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.

Now, to a carnal mind, that's an absurd thing. Eat my flesh, drink my blood, that sounds like cannibalism, doesn't it? Was Jesus saying that you have to kill me and roast my body like you do a pork or a lamb and eat my flesh?

Of course not. The words that He was speaking as we'll read in verse 62 and 63, were spiritual words with a spiritual meaning. And what Jesus was saying was that you have to come to the place where you see that who I am must become your sustenance.

You must live by who I am. You must eat my flesh. You must digest spiritually what I am. It must become your life. You must pour contempt upon your own life. You must pour contempt upon your own goodness, your own selfishness, your own interests, yea, your own will.

You must come to the place where you are being sustained by what I am, by who I am. You must say goodbye to your own life. You can't follow me and not eat my flesh and drink my blood. You can't follow me and retain your own life.

You can't use my name for your advantage. You can't bear my name simply because you want to be associated with me. You can't do that, Jesus is saying here. You must eat my flesh. You must be sustained by what I am.

You must esteem me.

And who I am. And what I represent for God more highly than anything in your life.

You must esteem me.

And who I am more highly than anything that's in this life. You must come to the place where you see that I am the righteousness of God. I am the man that God has chosen. And you must get what I am.

On the inside of you. And you must live by that. You can't follow me seeking to use me for your own benefit.

You can't follow me and ask me to bless your life. It's not about your life and my life. It's not about what I want to do or what you want to do. It's about Jesus. It's about the Son of God. Christianity is about Jesus plus nothing.

Now this is what Jesus was saying. Verse 55,. For my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood. Now I just want to say that these statements here, beginning in v. 56 all the way down to v. 57, the grammatical structure does not suggest an event that occurred in the past.

But rather, it is language indicating a continuous thing. So therefore, what Jesus is saying, He that is eating my flesh and drinking my blood dwelleth in me and I in Him. When Jesus mentions His flesh and blood, He is using what is natural, His natural flesh and His natural blood as an illustration of His whole life.

And when He's saying, eat my flesh and drink my blood, what He's saying is, you must be impregnated by the power of the Holy Spirit with the kind of life that I possess, and then your whole life must revolve around that life.

As the Father, v. 57, as the Living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father, so He that eateth me, even He shall live by me. Oh, the claims of Christ on the church. The claims of Christ on the church.

This is that bread which came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live forever. Now, v. 60, I want you to please pay attention very, very carefully.

Very, very carefully. Many, therefore, of His disciples, when they heard this, said, this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? Now, these are the words that Jesus spoke. And, beloved, these are the words the Holy Spirit is speaking even now into our spirits.

The Offense of Christ’s Claims

When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples murmured, and let me tell you, beloved, by the Spirit of God, there is murmuring in the camp of God. There's murmuring in the camp of God. There's murmuring in the homes of God's people over this issue of eating His flesh and drinking His blood.

There's great murmuring. There's great contempt over this issue of Christ making known the claims that He has over our life. People are saying the same thing today that they said then. Here's what Jesus said.

He said unto them, doth this offend you? Ask yourself this question. Does this offend you? V. 66, from that time. From what time? From the time when Jesus revealed the hearts and spoke the truth regarding the true reason to follow Jesus Christ.

From that time, many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him. Doth this offend you? This is a question He asks us. Does it offend you at the thought of having to lay before the Lord Jesus Christ all of your rights, all of the kingdoms of your heart, all of the areas of your home, your private life?

Does it offend you to have to lay bare before Him every agenda you have and give Him complete Lordship and reign? Beloved, He will have it no other way. He will have it no other way. V. 67, Then said Jesus unto the Twelve, Will ye also go away?

And then Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. Have you come to see the claims of Christ over your life yet?

Have you come to see what it means to be a follower of Jesus? Has the Holy Spirit dealt with you in a way that forces you to see to name the name of Jesus Christ means to give up your life in its totality and exchange it for His.

There is a Christianity that's being propagated today, beloved, that is highly offended at the words of Jesus. It sounds like irony, it sounds like a paradox, but it's true. There is a Christianity today that does not honor the claims of Christ.

Turn your Bibles to Revelation. Please. Revelation 14. This has to do with a company of people who heard the words of Jesus in John 6, fell down at His feet and allowed the Lord to work a work in them.

That's what Revelation 14 speaks of. But listen to here what it says in verse number 3, and they sung as it were a new song before the throne and before the four beasts and the elders. Listen carefully.

And no man could learn that song, but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. The things of God cannot be learned. No man could learn the song. They have to be revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.

They have to be revealed to us by the work of God's precious grace. There is a Christianity today that is trying to teach people how to become Christians. Trying to teach people how to look like a Christian.

How to talk like a Christian. How to act like a Christian. How to be engaged in activities that Christians are supposed to be engaged in. But at the heart of this Christianity, there is a failure to see my life, my way, the throne of my heart is still mine.

Leave me alone. That has been dressed up like a Christian. That spirit. My, me. And acts like a Christian and talks like a Christian and learns the Christian songs. But God sees at the very root of it and does not accept it.

He doesn't accept a dressed up, man-tall Christianity. He only accepts a Christianity that comes to us through revelation of the Holy Spirit and truly, truly, truly does something on the inside. Changes our heart.

And then enables us on a daily basis to keep looking to Him, to Him, to Him. And pouring contempt upon what we are. Does this offend you? Jesus said. Does it offend us? May the Lord help us this morning to see Jesus.

To see the claims that He has as recorded in John chapter 6 over our life. Christianity is Christ. It's Jesus. It's His life, His love, His righteousness enveloping our lives. The Lord has to do a work, a deep work in a people I hope we can be a part.

But He's not committed to any people simply because those people think they're special. He is committed to His own purpose. He's committed to His Son. He will have a people. The question to you and I is will we be a part of that people?

He will have a people who receive in fullness all that He is. He will have a people. Father, we thank You for the Word. We thank You for the Holy Spirit. And Lord, I thank You for the challenge that You bring to us, Lord.

Lord, give us revelation on this issue. Give each one of us, Lord, an ability to see as we read through John 6. Lord, help us to see Your words. I am the manna. I am the bread. And You must eat and digest what I am.

Every area of our life. Lord, please, do this in our lives. Continue, Lord, to lovingly, but firmly search the motives of our heart so that we can be brought to the place of bridehood where the totality of our existence is for You and by You and after You and You alone.

We look to You to perform this, Lord. We look to You to perform it. There's a great danger, beloved, within the ranks of Christianity today in missing what God is after and following after all the hoopla, all the hype, all the activity.

There's a great danger in missing the heart of the Lord and what He's really after. And we need to daily be admonished and warn one another and encourage one another. I will, as I feel a freedom in the Spirit, I will at this time just lay this aside.

I'm sure we'll discuss this more. And this can just be part of tape number seven. Okay, this will just be part of the tape. I will go into the last deadly sin that every Christian should hate at this time.

The Sin of Sexual Impurity

And I trust that God will give us ears to hear and He will alarm us over this last deadly sin that we need to look at in the Word this morning. Okay? The seven and final sin that we need to fear is the sin of sexual impurity.

Now, I know that we have ears here that are in the process of maturing, so I will, to the best of my ability, use discretion in the way that I communicate this with the help of God's grace. I would first, if I may, like to give an illustration.

Has that tape turned yet? Good, okay. I want to give a little illustration. Listen carefully, please. Back when I was 17 years old, I had just come to know the Lord. And shortly after, I'm actually going to give a few illustrations because I want to emphasize and I want the young people to listen to me as we have teenagers here.

This is very appropriate. Believe it or not, I know you kids have a hard time believing this. Your parents and the older ones were teenagers at one time. We were kids. Sometimes my children say, Dad, you just don't understand.

That's because they're looking at me as a man with gray hair going bald and I'm their father, but they forget that I was not born 38. I do understand. I do. I went through it. We went through it. We were kids.

You believe I was a kid, Jenny, at one time? You do?

It's hard to believe you sure don't look like one. We were children at one time.

So at 17 years old, oh my, Jesus saved me so wonderfully. I was at a party. Listen, guys. I was at a party and I was dating a girl at 17 years old. And I was drinking wine and smoking marijuana. And I was dating a girl whose older sister was a Christian.

And we happened to be at her house. And her older sister came to me and said, Listen, I've been wanting to tell you something. I said, What is it? And she told me the gospel. She said, Jesus Christ wants to save you.

He's got His hand on your life. He has a plan for your life. Well, to make a long story short, May 28th, 1978, at four o 'clock in the morning, I began to weep on my knees. By then, she had ministered for four hours to me and showed me all about Jesus Christ and His saving grace.

And everybody that was in the room partying went to another room. And it was just her, the older sister, the younger sister who I was dating, and another girl. And boy, God apprehended me and laid hold of my heart.

And I began to weep. And I got on my knees and I prayed out and I cried, God have mercy on me. And shortly thereafter, I was filled with the Holy Spirit and my life was transformed. The next day, I went to school with a Bible in the high school.

And you know what high school it was? This one right here. Pakistan High School. And you know who the principal was? The principal that's principal now, Mr. Cash Hill. And he remembers very vividly. I went to the high school and started preaching in the hallways.

Jesus Christ is the answer. Turn from your sin. And do you know who heard me preaching? Miss Collette. And I never thought she would become my wife, but she did. But listen, I want to stay on the story here.

The sin of sexual impurity. Very shortly after I got saved, the very woman who led me to Jesus Christ asked me to do something that was not right. Only something that a husband should do with his wife.

She asked me to become physically involved with her. Now, kids, listen carefully. You don't have to be embarrassed. These are things that you need to understand. And I'm sure your parents probably told you these things.

That as young people, God wants you to take your body and give it to Him. And not indulge in the activities, the physical activities that the world condones, the world says to indulge in. We are to have a pure body.

We're not to be involved physically with any person until we get married. And then we can enjoy that physical union that God ordained for marriage people alone. And so, here the very person that led me to Jesus Christ tried to seduce me.

But by the grace of God, I was able to resist and say no. Well, shortly after that, I became zealous to win the whole town to Jesus Christ. So, I went to Centenary College and I started preaching on the campus.

And you know, at that time, Centenary College only had girls. Now, I didn't have too many people in my life at that time. The Lord just saw fit to pretty much allow me to be alone. I didn't have a lot of spiritual older people in my life at that time.

The guy who was mentoring me a few years later fell into drugs, divorced his wife, and went to California. So, he wasn't a real good influence. But anyway, to make a long story short, I went to Centenary College during the summer while all the girls were laying out.

It's not something I recommend a 17-year-old guy do. But I did it because I was zealous. And nobody sat down and counseled me. And so, I befriended a couple girls who actually showed, in my opinion, a lot of interest in the Lord.

And for a couple weeks, a few times a week, I'd go to their room at Centenary College with my Bible and we'd have Bible studies. And lo and behold, one night I went. And as usual, I sat down at the desk there and opened up my Bible and all of a sudden, I can't even remember her name.

She gets up and she closes my Bible. I said, what's wrong? She said, well, I have different plans tonight. I said, you do? Well, what are they? Well, at that time, she got up and she turned the light out in the room.

And again, she had on her mind something that was not good. She wanted to engage in a physical activity that we're not supposed to engage in as teenagers with another person. We're not supposed to do that.

That's reserved for marriage alone. Well, to make a long story short, right at the time when she proceeded to approach me and sat me down on the side of her bed, her friend opened the door and walked in.

Hi, how are you doing? And at that time recognized what was going on. And she said, oh, I'm sorry. And she quickly stepped out and was shutting the door. And I heard the voice of God as never before. The Lord spoke to me and said, son, you better run now or it'll be too late.

And I tell you, I did it, Joseph. If you know the story of Joseph with Potiphar's wife, I got up, I burst out into tears. I realized what had happened and I realized what would have happened if that girl didn't run in.

I probably would have fallen because I was 17 and I was weak. And I had gotten physically attracted to this girl. It started out spiritual, but then there was a physical attraction there. I grabbed my Bible, I buttoned up and I cried and I asked God to forgive me.

Forgive me, Lord, for what had happened. And I'd never saw that girl again. And she called and called and called my house. And I would tell my mom, mom, please tell her I can't talk, tell her I'm not interested, tell her I don't want to deal with her.

I was so afraid. Then I went to a Christian school. Now this is two times. The devil tried to destroy me through a physical relationship with a girl that was not God's plan for my life. I went to a Christian school.

I thought, oh my, Christian school, everyone's going to have halos. I was wrong. Now, believe it or not, what happened was there was a minister working at that Christian school who sat me down in his office and said, Phil, you are so heavenly minded, you are no earthly good.

You need to visit a certain girl who went to that school. You need to go to her house one night. He said, I will arrange for her parents to be gone. And you need to leave your Bible at home. Because she's told me that you just make her sick.

You're always talking about Jesus. You've got one thing on your mind. And he said, Phil, she's got a lot of problems, but you have to understand that sometimes it's not only the Bible that can meet those needs.

You need to be more practical. This is a minister talking to me like this. You need to go to the house, leave your Bible home, and enjoy a physical relationship with this girl. Say what, sir? Pastor, pastor, he was my pastor.

Well, I trembled. I had to tell my pastor here in town. And then he went and talked to him. That's three times. In less than one year after I got saved, that the temptation of this nature came to me. Listen, young people, and I don't wanna limit this to young people, because this is a sin that is plaguing all ages.

The enemy is destroying lives, church people, daily through this snare. This snare is in the air. It's everywhere. It's pretty poetic. The snare is in the air and it's everywhere. It wasn't intended. I want to stand by the grace of God for a short time.

And I want to represent God's thought on this matter. I want to make it very clear how God feels about this issue of physical purity, keeping your body for the Lord and not allowing your body to be defiled through immorality or impurity of any kind.

Any kind. First of all, I would like to turn to Matthew chapter five. I'm going to try to not become specific. I'm gonna stick to the Scriptures and pray God will apply them to your lives. Listen carefully.

Jesus’ Teaching on Adultery and the Heart

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old, thou shalt not commit adultery. We all know what adultery is. Adultery for the ears of the younger people in a term that can be understood is breaking your promise to your partner who you are married to.

If it's a guy, it's breaking your partner, breaking the promise to your wife. If you're a woman, it's breaking your promise to her that you will only love her physically. You will only be involved with her physically.

Hug and kiss. You know, sometimes you see mom and dad hug and kiss. That's something that only husband and wives should do. Teenagers shouldn't be doing that. It's not God's plan to get involved in that way.

It's not God's plan. So to commit adultery is to get physically involved with someone who is not your husband or wife. But Jesus said, but I say to you that whosoever looketh, and that word looketh is in a continuous action.

So it suggests a continuous thing. Whoever is continuously looking on a woman to lust after her. That word lust means to desire her. Now it doesn't simply mean that you look at someone and say, wow, he's a good looking guy.

Or wow, she's a good looking girl. That's not wrong, it's human. We need to distinguish between the things that differ. But when you are looking continuously after someone and it results in your heart desiring her in a way that you should only desire your husband and wife, you have committed sin.

And so I want to open up this whole thought by saying this whole issue of the sin of sexual impurity is a hard issue. It goes beyond doing outwardly the right thing because a lot of people can outwardly be doing the right thing, but inwardly their heart might be guilty of this sin.

And so we want to say from the beginning, God searches the heart. God knows the heart. And what we need to do is we need to follow the words of Jesus, 29 and 30. If they right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee.

Verse 30, if they right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee. Here is radical language that Jesus is teaching. And what he's saying here is simply this. Deal with the thing in your life that is causing you to fall into this sin.

Deal with it. The language, pluck it off and cast it out is not intended to be literal, but it's intended to communicate the truth. Get to the root of the problem and eradicate it. Close the door in your heart.

It's a heart problem. And if you find yourself with this heart problem, get into the Word of God. Get into the presence of God and confess it to God and deal with it. And don't let your conscience become seared.

That means don't allow yourself to begin to justify this condition. Deal with it. If you have to, find brothers, if you're a guy or a sister, if you're a girl, who love you and talk to them about it. Be accountable.

Do whatever you've got. That's what Jesus is saying here. Be radical. Do whatever you've got to do to get this sin under control by the power of God. Because if you don't, it will control you. It will take you captive.

Fornication, Pornography, and Guarding the Senses

You will become a slave to this sin. And as the prophet said, surely your sin will find you out. We've got to have a stand on this issue of sexual impurity. Ephesians 5, verse 3. But fornication, listen carefully, the word fornication in the Greek looks almost identical to the word that we have in the English language called pornography.

Now, I'm not going to go into details, but I'm simply going to say this. When the Bible says fornication and all uncleanness, it is capturing the whole realm of improper, sinful, physical pleasure. Whether you actually engage in the act or whether you entertain yourself by looking at things that ought not to be looked at.

Dirty magazines. Old people, young people, please listen. Do not become involved in anything that results in you listening to with your ears or looking at with your eyes that which is sinful. The human body is created by God and in its proper place, it is to be honored and respected, but it is not to be displayed outside of the marriage vows.

It's not to be looked upon. That is, in its naked form. It's not to be looked upon. It is not for your eyes or my eyes to see. The nakedness of another human being. Unless it be our own husband and wife.

God doesn't want it. But the world will not tell you that. The world will encourage you to look upon these things. Don't do it. Say no. Everybody say no. No. Again. No. One more time. Let me hear it. Come on, young people, let me hear it.

No. No. No. I will not look upon that which is wrong. I will not listen to that which is wrong. Hallelujah. Does everybody understand what the Holy Spirit is trying to say today? Have I communicated it enough for even the younger ears?

Do you understand what we're trying to say today? Jenny, Jackie, you understand? Kids over here, you guys know what I'm saying, right? I know you guys aren't foolish. You live in the world. You're not of the world.

You live in the world. You know that this stuff is in the world. And it's an issue that we need to deal with. We need to deal with it. And I want to challenge you as older people and as younger people to have a clear understanding of what God says about this.