Destination Purity — Jim Van Gelderen

It's a delight to be here. I know some of you were in the first service. I'll get to meet some of you as well in the second service, but as a result of the material here, we'll just dive right into it for time's sake here.

The Will of God: Sanctification and Purity

1 Thessalonians chapter 4. We're going to be looking at verses 3 through 8. And for those of you that were at the advance, let me just tell you that that message never comes out quite the same. So there'll be mostly similarities, but there may be some differences because, you know, it's a different crowd.

And the Lord can lead us to some other applications. We'll just trust Him to do that. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. And we're going to look at verses 3 and following. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. We'll read the text of Scripture, have a word of prayer, and then we'll begin to examine this material.

For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication. That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God.

That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any manner, because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we have also forewarned you and testified. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.

He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit. Lord, would you be with us this morning, and we do pray even for those that are hearing for a second time, that you'd allow some other truth, some other nuance of application to stir their hearts.

But we do pray for your Spirit to take the Word of God into our hearts, Lord. We ask that you would illumine our hearts so that we would see clearly through our culture, and see what is unbiblical about our culture, and what is right about your Word, and stir us, Lord.

We pray for the Spirit of God to illumine our hearts. Lord, we need you in these moments. We recognize, Lord, without you we can do nothing. We're wasting our time. Would you be with us? Illumine your Word.

We believe you will. We expect you to do it based on truth. We stand on your Word, asking you to speak to us in our midst. We'll thank you for what you'll do, in Jesus' name. Amen. A few years ago, I received this letter.

I will leave out the places and dates to not identify anything, but I do want to read it to start our message. It says, basically, this girl had come to a camp I had been at, and also I came to her local church, and somewhere in that time period she wrote this letter.

You see, just a month before my youth group came, and she names the camp, I made a mistake in my life. I graduated from high school in June of, and she names the year, and wanted to celebrate. My boyfriend of two years and I went off, and well, you know, I felt so guilty and would not deal with it because I knew I'd messed up.

It was not until a month later, and she names the camp again, that I finally asked God for forgiveness. In 1988, Josh McDowell conducted a survey of 18-year-olds in evangelical churches. That's a broad category of churches, but it's churches that do believe the gospel, at least in some measure.

And he found of those 18-year-olds that 43 admitted that they had already surrendered their virginity and stepped into moral impurity. I think we all recognize that in the day in which we live, that God's Word and the truth of purity confronts culture.

In fact, today, I believe as we look at this text of Scripture, we are going to be brought to a crisis or confrontation with our culture. And as I said to the young people the other day, we're brought to a choice.

Are we going to believe Hollywood, or are we going to believe the Holy Word? And that really comes down to what we're dealing with this morning. And I think even those of us who are very careful about our media choices and very careful about worldly influences, I think we all perhaps do not recognize the subtle desensitizing of our culture that is around us.

So let's take a candid look at the Word of God and where it confronts us. May we, by the grace of God, put off wrong thinking and embrace biblical thinking in this matter of purity. In fact, the letter that I read at the very beginning, when I went to this young lady's church, she seemed to be the most spiritual girl in the entire youth group.

And yet, obviously, this sin had come to be a problem in her life and a great scar. So let's, if we could please, go right into the text. And what I want us to see this morning is, as we go through this text of Scripture, I think we're all going to recognize that there is a destination that God wants us to get to.

Destination Purity and the Danger of Moral Compromise

I think all of us would recognize, as we go throughout this text, that God wants us to reach the point of purity. For those that are unmarried, God wants you to, one day, I told the young people this, and as you come to your wedding day, that's the destination.

Of course, once you get to that destination, God wants you to stay there. So we get to the destination and we stay there. But what's God's will for those in this room that are unmarried? It's for you young men, one day, to be standing at the front of the church and the most beautiful girl in all the world, dressed in white, coming down that aisle, knowing that you're standing there with all aspects of purity still intact.

As you're about to pledge your heart, life, and love to this one that God has brought into your life, and the will of God, it's God's will, young men, for you to be standing there with all aspects of purity still intact.

And we're going to deal with that. What's God's will for you, young ladies? It's God's will for you, one day, to walk down that aisle. For most of you, it's God's will for you to walk down that aisle if you get married, and it's going to be God's will for you to be in that white dress that means something.

With all aspects of purity still intact, as you come to the front to pledge your life, love, to that young man that God's brought into your life. Now, we all recognize that. We know that's where we should be, and we know that's the destination we should get there.

We all know, for those of us that are married, that that's the destination that we should stay at. And we're going to deal with that because there's a few more adults in here. We're actually going to make some applications to married folks a little bit more here this morning because I'm convinced that it's a huge issue.

And I'm convinced if we don't deal with sin compromises in our youth, they will haunt us in our adulthood. And so I'm going to make some applications that I didn't make. And I told the young people this, and I may refer back to this, but while I was at the Advance, something happened to me.

I've never had it happen. My cell phone rang just moments before the service. I picked it up. It was a pastor friend of mine in tears. And this is probably why I'm speaking. His resignation is being read because he's committed adultery.

I want to tell you, folks, it's a big issue. None of us are immune. Wherefore, let him that thinketh, he standeth, take heed lest he fall. This, I don't know about you, that sent chills up and down my spine and fear gripped my heart.

Friends, we need to be sober and vigilant because there is a roaring lion who wants to devour us. He wants to destroy your marriage, destroy your family, destroy your kids. And for you young people, he wants to destroy your marriage before you ever say, I do.

So we get the idea that the whole thing begins at I do. No, it begins right now, young people. We're going to deal with this this morning. It's so important. And I'm going to encourage you adults this morning.

God, I'm convinced, is going to confront some of you with compromises in your youth that you have never dealt with. You've just kind of pushed them aside. It's no big deal. You know, we didn't do that much.

It wasn't that wrong. And you push it aside. The only problem with that is that if you regard iniquity in your heart, the Lord won't hear you. It will be a hindrance to your Christian walk. And what I encourage you to do this morning, adults, is you recognize God dealing with you about some past failures or compromises or rationalizations in your teenage or young adulthood years.

Let me encourage you to take 1 John 1, 9 to heart. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And as we told the teens a couple of days ago, the word confess simply means to agree with God.

It's just simply say, God, you are right. I was wrong. It was sin. It was compromise. And you know what? God will forgive you. He will cleanse you of all unrighteousness. And you can clear up your conscience.

The blood of Christ is powerful to do so. So allow this message I trust to be such that would help you get the 1 John 1, 9 and get back on victory ground. Now, we've looked at what the destination is.

The Road Map Through a Culture of Temptation

But we've got to ask ourselves the question, how are you going to get there? How are you going to get to destination purity? And if you're already married, how are you going to stay there? I'm an evangelist.

So many times I travel. I travel with my family most of the time. And in fact, I'm just about to begin a tour to get with my family. We live in a little tin box, 31-foot trailer. No slide outs because we've got too much payload in the van.

I can't handle weight. So we have a great time. The one good thing about being in a trailer is your wife goes by and you can hug her. And so you get a little bit more of that. But we travel in a trailer.

And when I get up on a Saturday morning, one of the times I pick up Rand McNally. And Rand and I have become very good friends over the years. And I'll find out where I'm going to find the best way to get there.

Now, we've seen where we're going. And I want to ask you a question. How are we going to get there, young people? Moms and dads, how are you going to help your young people get there? How are you going to help them get there in a country where with a couple of clicks of the mouse, you can access the most vile filth a human mind can imagine?

How are you going to get there in a world like that? How are you going to get there in a world where you cannot check out groceries? I think this is tragic. You can't check out groceries without being tempted to look at provocative, inappropriate material on magazine covers.

I think that's tragic. But how are you going to get there in a world like that? How are you going to get there in a world during the summertime, you can't go to a public arena without being confronted with provocative, inappropriate dress?

How are you going to get there in a world like that? How are you going to get there in a world where almost all media choices, Whether it's magazines, internet, media choices on television, are filled with inappropriate dirty images.

How are you going to get there in a world like that? And I submit to you that the answer is, the only way you're going to get there is follow the road map. And what we're going to do this morning is we're going to look at the road map, and we're going to stick right with the Scriptures we're going to go through, and at one point we'll park and make some very important application.

And so let's begin by looking at number one, the road to purity. Now, I warned the young people, I will warn you, that most of the message is Roman numeral number one, okay? Because I want you to say, when I say Roman numeral number two, I don't want you to think he's never going to make it, okay?

So you won't panic at that point. But Roman numeral number one is the road to purity. Look at verse three. It says, for this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication.

Now, note the very first phrase. This is the will of God, even your sanctification. I want to make a grammatical point here that's critical. It is followed in the original by five Greek infinitives. These five Greek infinitives make up three infinitive phrases.

So what this is saying is, this is the will of God, and it gives us five verbal actions that are the will of God. Number one, it's the will of God to abstain from fornication. Number two, it's the will of God to know how to possess your vessel.

Number three, it's the will of God to not go beyond and to not defraud. Those are the three infinitive phrases. Now let's look at them a little more closely. First of all, let's look at biblical constraint.

Biblical Constraint: Fleeing Sexual Immorality

This is the will of God, even your sanctification. Number one, to abstain, or that ye may abstain from fornication. Keep away from, stay away from, separate yourself from fornication. Well, now the word fornication comes from the word pornea.

We get the word pornography from. In fact, pornography comes from two Greek words. The second word is graphe. We get graphics from. The word pornea means all kinds of moral failure, sexual sin, all kinds of moral perversion.

But primarily in the Bible, it seems to set apart and accentuate mostly the premarital aspects of sexual infidelity. So God says, I want you to know, it's the will of God to stay away from, to separate yourself from, all kinds of moral sin, moral perversion, premarital failure in the moral arena.

That's what it's dealing with. Now the world will have you believe that if you're not messing around in this particular arena of sin, you're missing out. Nothing could be further from the truth. See it is a lie from Satan, and it's important for us to see this.

Now the amazing thing to me is that the world is now coming around and admitting that God's right. Now they're not saying that, but in so many words, that's what they're saying. Let me just read a couple of things.

This is U .S. News and World Report. Okay, last I checked, this is not a Bible-believing publication, okay? Now here's what it says, cohabitation may seem a good trial run for a solid marriage, but in practice, cohabitating couples who marry, many of whom already have children, are about 33 more likely to divorce than couples who don't live together before their nuptials.

Virgin brides, on the other hand, are less likely to divorce than women who lost their virginity prior to marriage. Cohabitation is associated with other risks for young couples. Live-in boyfriends are far more likely to beat their partners than are spouses.

And young adults who move in together without being engaged to be married are more likely to use cocaine and cigarettes after they start cohabitating than beforehand. All in all, Harvard sociologist Christopher Jencks, adult premarital sex, quote, may ultimately prove to be a little like smoking dope in the 60s.

In retrospect, maybe it isn't such a good idea after all. Now that's an amazing statement from a Harvard psychologist. You know what they're basically saying? Now, they're not saying this out loud, but what they're saying is, you know, God was right after all.

Now, one other thing that I think helps us, and again, the reason I mention this is because I want you to see that in reality, those in the scientific community who do research come to biblical conclusions when they're honest.

This is a survey of sexuality which was called by U .S. News and World Report the most authoritative ever. It was conducted jointly by the University of Chicago and the State University of New York. And this survey found of all sexually active people, quote, the people who reported being most physically pleased and emotionally satisfied, hang on, were the married couples.

When it came to physical pleasure and emotional satisfaction, this act that God has made for marriage, the ones that found it the best were married couples. Now, the researchers not only found out that, they also found it's best if you've had one sexual partner in a lifetime.

Quote, physical and emotional satisfaction started to decline when people had more than one sexual partner, end of quote, the researcher said. Did you hear what those folks just said? They said if you want the very best in this act that God has made for marriage, in physical pleasure and emotional satisfaction, here's what you do.

You keep yourself pure, married, be faithful to your married spouse, and that's the best it gets. It's the best it gets. No better than that. You know, God's been saying that for thousands of years, and now the University of Chicago says God was right?

Well, hallelujah. You know, I want to tell you something, young people. If you will keep yourself pure, married, be faithful to your married partner, you won't get burned. You'll get blessed. No good thing will he, God, withhold from them that walk uprightly.

And young people, if you will believe God, and parents, if you will believe God, you will help your young people have the best. God's not out to burn you. He wants to bless you. The world, the flesh, and the devil certainly want to steal from you the very best, and they are doing a good job of it.

In fact, some of you out here who either didn't get saved or didn't get taught early in life, you bear the scars. You know what I'm talking about. And let me just simply say, as I go through this message, certainly I recognize some out here have had some things in your past that you regret.

Now, obviously, yesterday's failure is no excuse for tomorrow's sin. So what you need to do is get right with God. Call it what God calls you. Get right with God. Now, I have found this, that adults who get right with God about this matter, you know, you can rebuild a foundation.

You can have a solid marriage. The grace of God can help you, but there will always be regret, and there will always be scars. Now, God can rebuild it. God's grace is always sufficient. But you know, young people, you mark this, you mess around in it, but you always regret it.

There will always be scars. And there are adults in this room who could probably very eloquently tell you that is certainly true. And again, it's not diminishing the fact that God can't put things together.

He can. But you always wish it never happened. Okay, so let's dive into this. First of all, biblical constraint. God says, stay away from moral failure, all aspects of it. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth was without the body.

But he that committeth fornication sinneth against his misinteresting his own body. There is something about the moral arena where the sin is against your own body. Now, we're going to see that as time goes on here.

Biblical Courtship: Holiness, Honor, and Self-Control

That's 1 Corinthians 6 .18. Now, that brings us to the second infinitive phrase. The first was biblical constraint. The second is biblical courtship. He says, this is the will of God, even your sanctification, verse 4, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor.

Now, the word possess, there is an interpretational battleground over what the word means. There's two groups of scholars. I'm talking about orthodox evangelical scholars. And one group would say the word possess means possess in the sense of acquire.

So what the verse would mean is, every one of you needs to know how to acquire a vessel or a spouse. Now, I personally, as I read the grammatical arguments, I favored that interpretation. But on the other side, some of them said, no, no, that's not what possess means.

What possess means here is that you need to know how to possess your own vessel, your own body in the moral arena in sanctification and honor. Now, please hear me. Whether or not it means to acquire a wife or a spouse, or it means to keep your own body in self-control in the moral arena is really not the issue because the application is real similar.

So let's focus on the application. Following this infinitive phrase, you will see some prepositional phrases. And these, of course, teach us how to do this. So number two, it's biblical courtship. Number one was biblical constraint.

Number two is biblical courtship, how to find the right one, keeping your own body in self-control. How do you do that? Number one, biblical courtship is number one, holy, holy. Look if you would, please.

The first prepositional phrase says that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification. Now the word sanctification here, this is key, is not talking about the state of being holy.

It is talking about the process by which we come holy. In other words, it's progressive sanctification. Okay, that's the idea here. Okay, so what it's saying is this. If you find the right one done the right way at the right time, it will aid your spiritual growth, not hurt it.

Now this is a huge sign. If young people and parents could get this one roadside in their soul, it would save some heartache and shipwreck. It's simply this. It's the right one, the right time, the right way.

It's going to help you grow spiritually, it won't hurt. So that means this. If you're in a relationship, guy-girl relationship, and you're going downhill spiritually ever since you've been in that relationship, it's not the will of God.

Get out of it. Now, friends, I want you to understand, this is not subjective. This is objective. It's a huge roadside. I don't know about you. Aren't you thankful that God gives us some pretty clear roadsides?

I mean, this is clear. Now, young person, get that in your soul. When God's in it, you're going to grow. When he's not, you're not going to grow. So get out, bail out. Makes all the sense in the world to me.

So number one, biblical courtship is always holy. It helps both parties grow spiritually. Number two, it's honorable. Look what it says. That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor.

Now, there's many aspects of honor. We could talk about honoring God, honoring each other, but the one I want to focus on is honoring your parents. Now, this amazes me. It really does. But we are living in a time, and even Christianity, I have heard of young people at Christian colleges where Christian college professors have counseled them to get married over the objections of their parents if they thought it was the will of God.

Now, please hear me. That makes no sense to me because you never have to break the fifth commandment to find the will of God. You will never have to break any commandment to find the will of God. It makes no sense to me.

In fact, I have counseled a young man who was engaged to a girl and her parents were dead set against it. And he came to me for counsel and said, you know, these professors are telling me that if we believe it's the will of God, it doesn't matter what our parents said.

I said, well, wait a second. It's not going to work because you can't disobey God to find the will of God. You'll be in trouble. Fortunately, he went to a pastor who counseled him right. A pastor who said, you know, he said the same thing happened to me.

He said, I received some counsel and that man told me that the man who counseled him, he said, if you marry that girl over her father's objections, he said, you will regret it. You will lose her respect.

And he went down the line. And so he, this pastor, when he was telling the story, called up this girl's father and said, I'm done. I'm breaking it off. And I'm not going to do anything without your permission and guidance.

I'm going to make a long story short. God brought them back together in his time, the white way, and it's, and he's, uh, had a blessed ministry and he shared that with that young man. And so that young man called that girl's father and he broke up a year later.

They ended up getting married with the father's blessing. You know, God's a great God. You do not have to break, uh, God's commandments to find the will of God. God's bigger than that. Listen, you will never miss God's will by honoring your parents.

Never. You know, the Bible says in the book of Proverbs, the Lord, um, talking about the heart of the Kings and the hand of the Lord, and he turneth it with us to every will. If God can turn the heart of the former president, Bill Clinton, he can turn the heart of an unsaved parent.

Can't he? Absolutely he can. And uh, so, so biblical courtship. And by the way, young, young man, young lady, if you're in some guy girl relationship and either set of parents is not for it, for it, break up, you're out of the will of God.

Every single time. It's either not the right one, it's not the right time, or it's not the right way. So when it's the right one, right way, right time, both parents will be honored. That's just the way it is.

Because biblical courtship, God says, listen, I want you to know how to find the right one, know how to keep your body in self-control. First of all, in a way that's holy, age your spirit, your growth.

Secondly, in a way that is honorable. Okay, that brings us to the third. The third one is the negative one. It's found in verse number five, the three ways here of biblical courtship. It says, not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles, which know not God.

So biblical courtship's holy, it's honorable. Number three, it's harnessed. Now we got to do a couple quick word studies. The word lust here has the idea of passive passion. Let me give you the commentary, an overmastering feeling in which the man is borne along by evil as though it's passive in cement.

So the idea of lust is someone who's on a raging river of passion and they do things they never thought they'd do. That's the idea. Now the word concupiscence in this context is concerned, as one commentator said, with the active side of lust.

So what this is saying is, not in the passive lust or passion, which comes from active lust. Now you say, what's the difference? Okay, active lust is when someone makes a choice to pursue a cheap thrill or a turn on.

That's the idea. It would be clicking on the internet, knowing full well the filth that's going to fill your mind. That's the idea. It would be in a guy-girl relationship, beginning kindling one another's passions, knowing full well that God is not for that before marriage.

And that's the idea. Making a choice. It would be turning on the television, knowing you're going to watch something that's provocative and inappropriate. That's the idea. It's making a choice to pursue it.

And what God is saying is, when you make a choice to pursue lust, you're going to put yourself on this raging river of passion and you're going to do things you never thought you'd do. That's what it's saying.

And what God is saying is, that's, look at what it says here, not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles, which know not God, now please hear me, lost people may find their spouses that way, but God's people shouldn't.

Listen, listen folks, I want you to see this. God's people ought find their spouses far different than lost people do. That's what it's saying. Listen, lost people may, may do this, but God's people shouldn't.

But God's people, unfortunately, far too many do. But God says, no, not in the passive lust, which comes from active lust, even as the Gentiles, which know not God. And I remember, back a few years ago, in watching young people get together, and you're thinking, man, what in the world?

This isn't going to work. And they began, evidently, began those first stages of kindling one another's passions, and you know what? They began the glue that God only intended for marriage. And you know what you'd see?

They'd break up, and it was like a rubber band. They come right back together. They break up, go a little farther out, rubber band, right back together. Why? Because they weren't harnessed. Not in the lust of concubines, even as the Gentiles, which know not God.

And let me use an illustration here. No analogy is perfect, but this is just kind of a side illustration to illustrate, I think, help us understand the importance of this. There's a guy named Larry, Larry Waters, who a few years ago had a passion to fly, so he joined the Air Force.

Only one problem, his eyesight was no good, so he basically hardly ever left the ground. So when he got out of the Air Force, he contented himself to sit in his Los Angeles suburban home and watch Navy jets fly over the backyard.

One day, the passion to fly became too great. He went down to the Army-Navy surplus store in his neighborhood, and he bought himself 45 weather balloons, when inflated, measured about four feet in diameter, and he bought himself a tank of helium.

Larry's plan was, one Saturday morning, he was going to get up, and this is what he did one Saturday morning, and he began to inflate the balloons. I don't know how many he inflated, but he tied them to a lawn chair.

Then he tied the lawn chair to the bumper of his Jeep. Now, Larry's idea was this, he was going to get in the lawn chair, he was going to cut the rope, he figured he'd fly up about 30 yards, 30 feet, he'd kind of wave at people all around the neighborhood, and then he'd bring a BB gun and shoot the balloons and slowly descend.

So Larry got all the balloons on there, and he got himself a six-pack of Coca-Cola, he must have been from Atlanta, I don't know, got a six-pack of Coca-Cola, and he packed himself a lunch, and then Larry made a decision, an act of choice.

He reached down with his pocket knife, and he cut the rope that held the lawn chair to the bumper of the Jeep. Now, Larry did not lazily float up about 15 feet. Larry does not lazily float up about 100 feet.

Larry shot like a cannon into the Los Angeles sky. He did not level off until he was at 11 ,000 feet. Now Larry was so scared, he was afraid to shoot the balloons, because he figured if he shot the wrong ones, 11 ,000 feet was a long way to fall.

So Larry stayed up there for 14 hours. Larry inadvertently drifted in Los Angeles Airport International Airspace. The first one to see Larry was the United Airlines pilot. I'd like to have been that pilot.

Can you imagine him radioing down to the tower? Hey, we got a guy up here, six-pack of Coca-Cola and a BB gun. How would you have liked to have been on the flight, you know? Larry's handing you Coca-Cola out the outside window.

But anyway, down there in the tower in Los Angeles, they looked at the radar, and sure enough, there was Larry. They dispatched a helicopter. If you've ever flown into Los Angeles, you can picture this.

By this time, Larry was out over the Pacific Ocean. And they took that helicopter, and the only problem was, when they got close to Larry, the wind of the blades pushed him away. But a dramatic rescue, they rescued Larry, and when they got him on the ground, they arrested him for violating international airspace.

Now, I realize, no analogy is perfect. But you know, friends, there is some truth we can learn. Larry was completely in control, no problem, until he made an active choice to cut that rope. And when he cut that rope, you please hear me, he was no longer in control.

He was at the mercy of the helium. And he went much farther than he ever intended to go. And I am afraid many young people are playing with fire. Can a man take fire under his bosom and his clothes not be burned?

Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned? Solomon warns us about the moral impurity arena. Friends, I want to tell you, it's dangerous to pick up one dirty picture. It's dangerous to watch a TV program you know has dirty innuendos or provocative images.

It is dangerous to open the door at all. It is a Pandora's box of Pandora's boxes. That's what it's saying here. And God is saying, you are going to get in trouble if you make an active choice to pursue it.

Illicit passion and lust. So it's harnessed. Now that brings us to the third. We saw, first of all, biblical constraint. Our second infinitive phrase was biblical courtship. Our third infinitive phrase is what we're going to call biblical conduct.

Biblical Conduct: Not Going Beyond or Defrauding

Look to verse number six now. This is the will of God, even your sanctification. That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter. Because that the Lord is the avenger of all such as we have also forewarned you and testified.

Now there's two infinitives here. The first one is to not go beyond. And the second one is to not defraud. Now to not go beyond is real simple. It simply means don't step over the line. Don't transgress the boundary.

Don't go beyond where God wants you to go. Now to defraud simply means to have more. So God's saying don't step over my boundary, my limit, and have more than I intended you to have. It also has the nuance and the innuendo.

We know the word defraud as thievery or stealing. Someone is defrauded. They've been stolen from. They've been thieved. Okay. So God says don't step over the line and have more than God intended you to take.

Now that's the idea. Now we're going to get a little more concrete, a little more specific here because I believe the Bible allows us to do it. Okay. The question we'd have to ask ourselves and teenagers will ask, okay, what's the line?

I think it's tragic that we have to think that way, but many people do. You know, what's the line? Well, folks, the line's real obvious. The line is purity. No one would debate that. Nobody in this room would say that that can't be the line.

Obviously it's the line. Purity, on this side you're pure. On this side of the line you're impure. Okay. So God says don't step over the line. Okay. You say I can buy that, but let's get a little more concrete.