Good morning. Great to see everyone. It's a pleasure today for me to be able to share the Word of God with you. We're going to turn in our Bibles today to the Book of Joshua, and I'm going to be reading there in a few moments, and so I would invite you to turn to Joshua chapter 1.
But before we open the Word of God, I'd like to speak to God in prayer. Father, we come into your holy presence today and we love you, God. We thank you that we can gather together as a church to worship you and to worship your majesty as we have just sung, and sing praises to your holy name. And I just pray, Lord, that now as we open the Word of God, that you will speak into our hearts and meet us where we are, I pray, Lord, that we would be brought into the transparency of the presence of God, and I pray that you would convict our hearts and encourage us and give us strength, Lord, to live a life that is pleasing and honorable to you.
And I pray for wisdom and grace and help as we look at the scriptures together and to pray most of all that your Son would be glorified in our midst today as we thank you for this opportunity of reading the scriptures and teaching from it. We pray that we would do this in a right way, and so we ask your blessing in Jesus' name. Amen. Joshua was 80 years old, and he was the leader of two million desert wanderers.
Their task, it was to invade a fortified land of world cities, warriors, and giants. Their mission was to conquer and possess a new land. The challenge was great. The enemy was strong.
The task was insurmountable, and the odds were against them. How was Joshua going to be successful? That's my question today. How would Joshua, with two million wandering desert people who really had no experience in war, how could they conquer this enemy's territory and defeat giants and battle these cities of strong walls?
How were they going to be successful? I'd like to speak to you today about lessons from a spiritual warrior. Lessons from a spiritual warrior. And to really give the backdrop of what I want to say, I want to read numerous verses in the book of Joshua.
So I'm going to ask you to turn to Joshua chapter 1, and we're going to read first of all, at verse 7-9 you can follow them right up on the screen here. Joshua chapter 1 and verse 7. Only be thou strong and very courageous. That thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded me.
Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper wherever thou goest. The book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night. That thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein for then. And this is the phrase I want you to notice.
Then, shalt thou have good success. Then, shalt thou prosper and have good success. Notice in verse 11 it says, pass through the host and command the people saying prepare. How are you going to have good success?
Prepare. We're going to talk about that today. Prepare food supplies for within three days. You will pass over Jordan and you will go in to possess the land which the Lord your God gives you to possess.
I want you to turn to chapter 3 and verse 3. So at this point they are about to cross Jordan and Joshua commands the people and he says, when you see the ark of the Lord your God and the priests and the Levites carrying it, then you shall remove from your place and you will follow it. When you see the ark of the covenant, what's that? That is the presence of God, the presence of Christ.
When you see it begin to move, you shall follow it. Leave from your place and you will follow it. Then in verse 5 he says unto the people, sanctify yourselves. Sanctify yourselves.
You mean I have a part in this? Yes. Every one of us have a part in this. Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow.
The Lord will do wonders among you. Let's go to chapter 5. Chapter 5 and verse 2. This is a very painful experience.
He says, at that time the Lord said unto Joshua, make sharp knives and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. Make sharp knives. And then he says, verse 9, the Lord said unto Joshua, this day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you, wherefore the name of that place is called Gil-Gol to this day. Gil-Gol.
Let's go to chapter 6. Joshua chapter 6 and verse 17. And the city shall be cursed even it. And all that are in it to the Lord only Rahab the harlot shall live.
And she and all of who are with her in her house because she hid the messengers that we sent. If you're reading an ESV and you're looking at that verse 17, it should say something like a curse or set to destruction. It is the word destruction that is directly related to Jericho. And we're going to come back to that and I'll explain that in a second.
Look at verse 21 of chapter 6. And they utterly destroyed. This is very strong language. They utterly destroyed all that was in the city.
Both man and woman, young and old and ox and sheep and asked with the edge of the sword. Completely, utterly destroyed. The word is devoted to destruction. Very strong language.
Go to chapter 11. Joshua chapter 11 and reading at verse 11. A whole history of the different cities of Canaan in the beginning of chapter 11 and how they had victory over all these cities. And in verse 11 it says that they smote all the souls that were in it with the edge of the sword.
Adderly destroying them there was not left any that breathed. And they burnt Hezar with fire. Finally I want to read chapter 24 and verse 15. These are the last words of Joshua.
We're going to come to it at another lesson but at the end of the book of Joshua, Joshua gave two final speeches to the nation and this is his last one. Joshua 24 and verse 15. He says, and if it seemed evil unto you to serve the Lord, then choose you this day who you will serve. Whether it be the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose hands you dwell or as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.
As for me and my house we will serve the Lord. I want to speak to you today about spiritual lessons from an incredible warrior, Joshua. You know I think that when we look at the world that we live in today, Christians living in this world, the odds are against us. Naturally and humanly speaking there is a massive war that is going on of spiritual warfare.
Paul reminded us of that in Ephesians chapter 6 and he said, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers of evil that are in the heavenlies. And I think that most of us as believers we don't even see this. We're not even focused, we don't pay attention to some of the battles that are going on. And I would say it's very difficult today to live as a Christian in this world and be spiritually successful.
Could I ask you, what does it look like to you to be successful? How would you define a life that is successful? Most people immediately would think wealth, fame, fortune, popularity, power. Is that really what it means to be successful?
If it was your last day and you're looking back on your life, what would you want to be said about you in your obituary? How did you live your life? I'm going to suggest that for a believer success would be described as a life of spiritual character, a life that was lived deep in faith with God, a life that was lived in a walk, that walked in intimacy with God, knowing God and leaving a life of character. I think most of us would like to finish strong.
Most of us would like to look back on our life and say, I battled the things of life and I was spiritually successful. You know that Jesus said in Luke chapter 12, a man's life consists of not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. But yeah, we live in a world today that success is measured by the abundance of things that people possess. You know, as I read through the book of Joshua, God has spoken to me about these four principles.
And I would like to really share these principles with you over the next number of weeks that I do speak, because I think they are critical for defining a life of success for a believer in Jesus Christ. And I learned these lessons from the book of Joshua. The odds were against Joshua. He was going into military action.
He was going to be fighting enemies. And he was going to be possessing a new land. Four principles that God taught Joshua. Chapter one, at the very beginning, meditate on the Word of God.
I spoke about that the last time that I spoke. That was my message number one. It is critical to read the scriptures. No substitute for God's Word.
The versionals, podcasts, wonderful sermons. The Word of God is living. It is God's truth. It is inspired.
God breathed. It is infallible. Read it. Hear it.
Obey it. Pray over it. Let it take root in your heart. Why?
Because it will convict you. It will convert you. It will bring conformity to Christ. And it will bring cleansing in your life.
Why meditate on the Word of God? It produces spiritual growth. It gives Godly wisdom. It brings you into fellowship and communion with God.
And will give you a life of fruit bearing for Christ. Make your decisions based on the Bible. Biblical principles. Store the Word of God in your heart.
That's a quick summary of my last message. I want to speak to you today about mortifying sin. Probably the hardest thing that we will ever do while we are in human flesh. It's the battle that we battle with sin.
Mortify sin. Cut it out. Do not let it rain in your mortal body. The third lesson that God taught Joshua was this.
When you see the ark moving, follow it. What are you following in your life? CNN? I hope not.
We will follow him. Facebook? Popularity? The government?
What are you following in your life? As believers in Jesus Christ, if we are going to be successful in the spiritual warfare, we must follow God. Move and step with God. Here's the problem.
If I don't meditate on the Word of God, I won't know God's truth. If I don't hide the Word of God in my heart, I won't have power over sin. If I don't have power over sin, I won't have fellowship with God. Four principles for Christian living.
Meditate on the Word of God. No substitute for it. Mortify sin in your life. Don't let it rain because it will destroy you.
Those two things are not consistent. You can't meditate on the Word of God and live in sin. And if you're living in sin, you won't meditate on the Word of God. Those two things are diametrically opposed.
One is light and one is darkness. Anybody ask, are you preaching at Christians? Yes. No, let me stop.
I'm preaching at me. Me. I've got a list just like you do in every single one of us battle this. And you know what the reality is?
We will battle sin as long as we are in the flesh, as long as we are in the body until the very last step is taken. The scripture tells us to mortify sin. Why? Because it's in your very nature.
The scripture calls it flesh. Do you know that sin is at the very core of our being? The scripture says that the heart is deceitful, above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it?
Sin separates us from God. It breaks communion. It destroys spiritual desires. Sin is the greatest life long battle that every one of us will have.
And you know, we don't really talk much about this, like we should. It's very easy to see sin in someone else's life and condemn it. But it's not that easy to judge ourselves like we ought to. Sin is the greatest battle that you will ever have in your life.
You know, I've been reading through 2 Samuel and this struck me the other day when I read this. You look at the life of David. Here is a man who was called the man after God's own heart. And if you go to 2 Samuel chapter 8, this is amazing to me.
There is a list of all the victories that David battled in his life and overcame. You can read it, 2 Samuel chapter 8. He killed 22,000 Syrians. He killed 18,000 Ammonites.
And he had victory over Moab. And he had victory over the Philistines. And he had victory upon victory upon victory. Guess what happens when he gets to 2 Samuel chapter 11?
He lost the biggest battle of his life. And it wasn't bloodshed and battles with physical human beings. It was a battle of sin. And he lost the greatest battle that he had in the sin of Bathsheba.
You know, I take that very, very seriously. Because I have known men of God, good men, much better men than I will ever be. And they have lost battles with sin and it has destroyed their life. Do you know what it says in 2 Samuel chapter 13?
God loved David and God forgave David his sin. And his sin was blotted out, but there were consequences. The sword shall not depart from your house. And there was rape and incest and murder and adultery.
And there was betrayal. And eventually the king has pushed out. And you know the story of David. Awful consequences happen.
And a little while later, David numbers the people. And 70,000 men in Israel are slain. Sin has tremendous consequences. And every single one of us will battle it.
I'm not exempt and you're not exempt. And as believers, we need to take this very seriously. In recent years, I think of a man called Ravi Zacharias. Most of us would look up to this man.
An amazing intellectual giant. You think of a man who won battles of philosophy and battles of debate with the best of the best of the intellectual world. And yet when he battled sin in his own life, there was failure. And I can't stand up here in front of you and say that I've never battled sin and failed.
I have. All of us have. But we need to take this seriously. If we're going to have a spiritual successful life, we need to meditate on the Word of God.
We need to hide it in our hearts. And we need to battle sin. And we need to mortify it. Because otherwise it will mortify us.
You know, there's a man called John Owen. And he made this quote, I'll refer to it a little bit later. He said, what we need to do is to be killing sin constantly or sin will kill us. And I believe that that's what the scripture teaches.
When John Owen bought a new house, he was pretty proud of it and his parents came. And he was showing his family, this beautiful new house that he bought in this prime real estate. And the very first thing that his father pointed out to him was, do you see what your neighbor has? And he said, no, my neighbor has lovely grass.
He said, yeah, it's Bermuda grass. John said, what does that mean? He says, if you don't erect a barrier between your property and it, it will encroach over and it will cover your entire property. And he said, oh, Dad, relax, that's crazy.
Guess what happened 18 months from then? His whole yard was covered in Bermuda grass. That is a picture of sin. If I don't intentionally erect a barrier, a divide, sin will not only encroach, it will overgrow, and it will take over my heart.
For lessons like God taught Joshua, Joshua was a very different leader than Moses. Moses was a diplomat, an amazing leader. And he would counsel the children of Israel. And he would sit and hear all their problems.
And he would search through and he would write the law a very diplomatic leader. Joshua was a military leader. And he was raised up by God to go into enemy territory and conquer. We are battling the battle of sin, the battle of spiritual wickedness in heavenly places.
And we can't be passive, but we're going to get overrun like that Bermuda grass. For lessons like God taught Joshua, meditate on the Word of God. If you're not reading and meditating in the Scriptures, you will not have strength to overcome sin. And if you are not mortifying sin, if you let sin take a foothold of your heart, what will happen is you will not be moving in step with God.
You will be moving according to the course of this world, which is by nature disobedient. How am I going to be successful as a Christian? Meditate the Word of God. Motify sin.
Move in step with God. And my fourth one is this. Joshua 24. Joshua made those incredible words when he gave that last speech to the nation.
He said, if it seems evil to you to serve God, then you serve who you want to serve. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Can I ask is not a conviction that you have in this church and your own family? Because if you don't have that conviction, you're going to be wishy-washy when things come and they go.
And as fathers and the leaders of households, we need to be convicted. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Make life altering decisions. I'm going to speak a little bit about life altering decisions when I get there.
No idols in your life. You say you're talking to Christians. Idols? Yeah.
It's very, very common for Christians to have idols in your life. You know what John said? 1 John 5. He said, my little children, keep yourselves from idols.
Who do you serve in your life? Serve God and Him only. Those are four principles for successful Christian living. And I've already spoken of one and I'm speaking on the second one today.
You know, I think that when it comes to Motify sin, most of us take a very docile approach to this. We're really passive when it comes to Motify sin. And I'm speaking to myself. I'm the same.
It's so easy to say, well, you know, a little bit of that, a little bit of this. It's okay. No, it's not. Because God made a really clear point to Joshua.
And it stood out so clear in my mind when I read the book of Joshua over and over and over again. He said, Joshua, you're going to go into Canaan. And he said, this is going to be what you're going to do. You're going to meditate on the Word of God day and night.
You're going to move in step with God. When God says, go to that city, you're going to go there. You are going to cut off the flesh, re-circum size, the children of Israel. Get them back to reality.
And you are going to serve God and Him only. You're going to sense that as you move through life. And I think that's what God wants us to do. But one thing that stood out so clear as I read through the book of Joshua is it almost seems like a violent book.
Doesn't it? I read a scripture that says, devote to destruction. Utterly destroy. That's not passive.
That is aggressive. Utterly destroy. Devote to destruction. Everyone that breathes.
Man, woman, child, ox, donkey, slaughter them all. You know, when I'm on the street, and I know that Brother Warren has experienced this too, I've had many people say to me, you know, the book of Joshua just doesn't seem like it's from God. Because it's so violent. Like, there's so much violence in that book.
How can a loving God instruct Joshua to go into a city and utterly destroy people? Isn't that genocide? We hear that all the time. How can a loving God justify this?
Let me make three points about this. First of all, it wasn't Israel that initiated the conquering of the land of Canaan. Israel didn't sit back and say, you know, I think we'll go into Canaan and we're going to destroy all those cities and we're going to take over and we're going to set this up. No, it was not Israel.
You know that Israel today gets a really, really, really bad rap? Because there's so many people that actually are against Israel because they blame Israel for some of the things that they did in the earlier days. This was instructed by God. And these are God's people.
And so it wasn't Israel that initiated conquering the land. And secondly, Israel could never have conquered the land without the Almighty power of God with them. You don't like to make this point, is this? God is not the God of man's imagination.
We don't just imagine who God is and then try to fit God into all these boxes. God is sovereign. He is the ruler of the universe. He is holy and He is just.
And it is His duty and His right to punish men for their sin. He judged the world of corruption when He sent the worldwide flood. He judged Sodom and Gomorrah when He destroyed the cities of the plains. And God will judge this world in the tribulation that's probably not too far away.
God is holy and God is just and He will and He must judge sin. That does not take away from His character of love and compassion and mercyful. God is mercyful and He's just and He's compassionate, but He will punish sin. I want to show you what it means to mortify sin.
If you look at the slide here for a second, I already mentioned that either you will destroy sin or sin will destroy you. I want this message to be an encouraging message. I want it to be real because we all deal with sin, but I want this to be an encouraging message. God gave a promise.
God gave a promise to Joshua. Here is a promise. I will be with you and there is not a man that will stand against you all the days of your life. What a powerful promise.
Okay, is God giving you this promise? Yes, He has. I will never leave you nor forsake you. So there is a promise that should give us confidence that if I step out and mortify sin, that God will be with me.
God gave this promise to Joshua. He said, I will go before you and I will drive out your enemy. God has given us a promise that if we submit to the Word of God, that if we humble ourselves, that He will give us power over sin. That's a promise from God.
Submit yourselves unto God. Resist the devil and He will flee from you. That's a promise from God. So there is a promise.
So be encouraged as you embark on this journey, this lifelong journey of mortifying sin, and mortifying discipline means put to death. Destroy it. You know, there is a really interesting analogy in the Old Testament about sin and the flesh in a nation that is called Amalek. I don't know if you know about this, but Amalek is a picture of the flesh.
And Joshua learned a lesson in Exodus 17 that he never forgot. Do you know the story about Exodus 17? They had just come out of Egypt and they were weary and there was no water and they were weak and then came Amalek. It just seems like right where they are at the weakest point and Amalek starts roaring with Israel.
And Joshua says, or Moses says to Joshua, take the best men, go down into the valley and roar with Amalek. And I will stand up on this mountain and I will pray. And Joshua takes his men of war and goes down into the valley and he is battling Amalek. And sometimes Amalek is winning.
And sometimes Israel is winning. And it is a long battle that goes on the whole day. And Moses is weary and he is holding up his hands and he is praying. And he calls Aaron and Aaron holds up this arm and his arms are held up in supplication to God.
Israel is winning. But when he gets weary and he stops praying and his arms sag and his exhausted Amalek prevails. You know that story? This is a picture of the flesh.
A related reference is in Deuteronomy chapter 25. An amazing comment that Moses makes about Amalek in Deuteronomy 25. He says, remember, remember when you came out of Egypt and you were weary and you were exhausted? And then Amalek came and he came from behind and who did he attack?
Those that were the weakest among you. Those that were feeble. Those that were frail. And Amalek attacked you.
And he says this, I will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. And God says this, I want you to know, I will utterly destroy Amalek from off the face of the earth and his remembrance will be no more under heaven. You can read it Deuteronomy 25 and Exodus 17. What a picture.
So we are in this valley. That's life. That's the world we live in. And we're battling Amalek every single day.
We get up in the morning and the very first thing we see is this. And the very last thing that we see before we go to bed is this. And we're bombarded with the flesh all day, every day. And we haven't read the scriptures.
And we're weak and we're feeble. And we're exhausted. And we're hungry. And we have desires.
Then comes Amalek. And he goes after the feeble ones. It's like the lions of Africa that are chasing the gazelles. Every morning in Africa a lion wakes up and he knows he must outrun the slowest gazelle or his star of to death.
Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up and he knows he must outrun the fastest lion or he be chewed to pieces. It's the slowest gazelles that get destroyed by the lions. This is a biblical principle that if we are meditating in the Word of God, we're strong. If we are walking in the presence of God, we have power.
If we are mortifying sin, we will overcome the world. And if not, we are exposed to what Peter says. Satan, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour. Read the Word of God.
Meditate on it. Mortify sin. Walk in step with God. Prepare.
You know, this just doesn't come without thinking about it. You need to be intentional. You need to change your schedule. You need to get up early in the morning.
You need to read the scriptures and prepare your heart for the day. When Joshua said to the children of Israel, he says, go through the camp and tell them, in three days we're going over Jordan. By the way, Jordan speaks of death. I love what our brother, Lord, when shared this morning from Galatians 2 and 20.
I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me and the life that I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me. You want to love the spiritual victorious life?
Read the scriptures. See yourself as gone through Jordan, dead to sin, alive to God in a new land, conquering territory for Christ. That is the power of spiritual living. Prepare yourself.
In chapter three and verse five, he says, sanctify yourself. You know what that word means? Basically, set apart to be holy. Have you given time in your life to let God speak into your heart?
Shut the world out. Get into the secret place with the Most High God and dwell in his presence. And let the word of God refresh you. That is that preparation.
You know, in this battle, there's going to be pain. Yep, there's going to be pain. When you got saved, not all your troubles went away. Hey, you still battle and you still have tribulation.
Jesus said that. In this world, you will have tribulation. You will have trouble. Be a good chair.
I've overcome the world. This is the power that he's given to us, but there's going to be that battle. There needs to be things in our life that sometimes have to be cut off. They're very, very difficult.
There's habits that have to be cut off. There's thinking that has to be cut off. There's evil desires that have to be cut off. And sometimes they need to be renewed.
Don't just think that, you know, now that I'm a Christian, I'll never battle sin again. On the contrary, you'll battle sin more than you did when you were unsaved. Because when you were unregenerate, you didn't even know what sin was. It wasn't bothering you.
Because you were in a state of blindness. Now that you're awake and there's this battle between the flesh and the spirit and the new nature and the old man, Romans chapter 7 says that there's a battle. So you need to make sure that you're preparing yourself and that you cut off what's hindering you. Folks, this is a process.
Please don't think that I'm going to reach a point in my spiritual life when I've arrived. What are you told, Pia? This is beautiful. I'll never sin again.
It's perfect. And you know, I know all the scriptures. I know all the teaching. I got this down pat.
Let him think if he's standing. Take heed. Lest he fall. None of us will have arrived until the last step is taken and we are in the glory.
Up until the very last step, Amalek is hunting us like that roaring lion seeking to devour us. This is an ongoing process. Other setbacks? Yes.
I learned that from the experience that Joshua and the men had in A.I. What a setback. They just conquered Jericho. They had huge victory in Jericho and they're probably beating their chest and saying, yes, look what we did.
Well, just hang on a second. What did you do? Well, we marched around Jericho for 13 times and we shouted. And Jericho fell.
Oh, bravado to you. You did nothing. God is the one who won the battle. So we need to be very, very careful when we think of ourselves and our victories that we are humble and that we give God the glory.
So A.I. comes. They totally destroyed Jericho and they go to A.I. It's a tiny little village small.
We don't need a whole army. We'll just send a few guys. They'll go in and they'll take care of A.I. All of a sudden Israel gets routed.
What's going on? How, like, and Joshua's angry. And everybody's like, what is going on? God promised us that we have victory.
How do we lose it? What's going on? And they did an analysis and they found out they're sitting in the camp. Someone here amongst us has taken of the devoted things that were dedicated to God.
I saw. I coveted. I buried. I hid.
I deceived. I lied. And hopefully everything's going to be okay. What does this say in Galatians 6?
Be not deceived. God is not mocked. What's whoever a man so's? God, shall he also reap.
And so there's failure in A.I. And the end of that story is very, very sad. Aiken, his family, and all of his connections were completely destroyed. Fortunately, we live in a day of grace.
I can tell you that if you sin against God and you repent and you come back to God, he's not going to wipe you out. He is going to receive you. He is going to forgive you. He is going to cleanse you because 1 John says, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all and righteousness. Don't be discouraged in your Christian life if you fall. Get up, confess your sin, prove behind you, forsake it, and keep on going. It's a process.
Where does the power come from? Certainly not from me and certainly not from you. The power of the Christian living comes from the Holy Spirit within and the Word of God. And this was God's promise to Joshua.
I will be with you. It's a promise to you. Meditate on the Word of God. I will destroy your enemy.
But you must be a willing participant to overcome. Be strong and be disciplined. You know, one of the greatest concepts that I have tried to learn in my life is right here. Okay?
This is not biblical, but this is really good. Elevate conviction over emotion. You know what most of us do? We do what we want to do.
We do what feels good. We are making decisions by emotion. Let me give you an example. This morning at 635, when my alarm clock went off, my conviction said, John, get up.
My emotions say, I just want to sleep here. This is okay. Where's the snooze button? And we hit the snooze button.
Emotion says, I just want to lie here. Conviction says, get up. Am I going to make a decision based on my conviction? Am I going to make a decision based on my emotion?
Let me get real practical. How about when you have that hungry, sinful, evil desire, and you're alone in the room, and you want to do what you know is wrong? Your conviction needs to kick in. This is wrong.
And emotion needs to be suppressed. And conviction needs to be elevated. It's the same thing with diet. You want those right?
Stop eating. That's it. You want to lose weight? Go on an intermittent fast.
How do you do that? You've got to elevate conviction over emotion. It's in many, many principles in your life. And the word of God, if it's in your mind and in your heart, and you have more defined sin, you will have the power to make that decision of conviction over emotion.
This is my last slide. And I want to share with you some new testament scriptures that teach us to modify sin. Anybody at the end, by the way, that wants these slides so you can look at these scriptures? I'd be more than happy to give them to you.
But I just want to run through these because this is critical. New testament scriptures that teach us to modify sin. Matthew 5. And Matthew 5, Jesus said this, you have heard it said, I shall not commit adultery.
But I say unto you, who's to ever look at that woman to lust after her has already committed adultery in his heart? And a few verses later, he says, if your eye offend you, pluck it out, better to go into the kingdom of God named than your whole body be destroyed in hell. If your hand will offend you, cut it off. We might think that's drastic, better to go into life named and be in the kingdom than your whole body be dragged into hell.
You know what I think when I read that? This is a thought that I had this morning. I wonder if Jesus, at the very moment that he wrote that, when technology wasn't even invented, I'm wondering if Jesus looked down through the corridors of time into 2000 and saw that pornography would be an epidemic. And he said, who's to ever looketh has committed adultery?
Who's to ever list this has already committed adultery? If your eye offend you, pluck it out. That's a drastic measure. But the point is, don't let that emotion overcome conviction and destroy your life.
How about the next verse? James chapter 1. This is not if, this is when. It says in James chapter 1, every man is tempted.
Not some. Every man is tempted when he's drawn of his own lust and when lust conceives it brings forth sin. And sin when it is finished brings death. Romans chapter 8 and verse 13.
Mortify the deeds of the body. James says in Romans 8 and 13, a very striking verse. It says that if we live in the flesh, we will die. What?
That is a drastic statement. If we live in the flesh, we will die. But if we mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. What would you do?
Live or die? Duh? Of course we all want to live. Mortify the deeds of the body so that we can live.
You know, this ongoing battle is something that we will all face in our life. And I just want to say this, what do we do when we fall into sin? You know that most church leaders today, if there's somebody in their congregation that falls into sin, most of them are like it is in the story of the good Samaritan. The priest and the Levite, they see a man on the road half dead and they go like this.
Oh, I'm going to see sin. I can't help him. I can't help him. I can't have nothing to do with that.
And then here comes the Levite. And he sees the man who's wounded and half dead. And he says, I can't do that. He crosses over and goes, but then comes the good Samaritan.
You know, if we have someone in our midst or a friend or somebody that you love dearly and they fall into sin, we should be like the good Samaritan. We should go to them where they are. We should pick them up. We should minister to them.
We should pour in oil and wine. We should do what it says in Galatians 6. My brother and if any man is overcome by a sin, you which are spiritual restore such a one with the attitude of meekness, considering yourself also less to be tempted. There is none of us, myself, probably the most, none of us that are excluded from falling into sin.
This is a battle that we will face our whole life and we need to help one another. And the church should be more like a hospital and in that helps people that are battling with this rather than write them off. 1 Corinthians 10 says, with many of them, God was not well pleased. This temptation is common to man, but he gives a way of escape.
In Colossians 3, he says, mortify, put to death your members of sexual immorality and uncleanness and idolatry. Put it to death. How do you do that? Set your affections on things that are above the living.
That's what Colossians 3 is all about. Hebrews 13 says this, keep your life free from covetousness, the love of many things, because he has said, I will never leave you or forsake you. So we may boldly say, even in this battle of sin, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
And so as you go away today this week, think about this, meditate in the Word of God, more if I sin, move in step with God and serve God and him only. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the Word of God. We thank you Lord for the power of the Holy Spirit that lives within every one of us that are saved.
I pray that you would help us to mortify sin. I pray that you would give us victory. I pray that we would be strong in faith. And that as a church, we would live lives that are holy and sanctified.
And I pray that you would bless our homes and our families and the men in this church that have leadership roles for their household. Lord, give them strength. I pray and guide us and help us to be strong when temptation comes our way. We need you every hour.
And so we love you. And we thank you for all your grace and all your mercy and pray that you would bless us as we separate in Jesus' name. Amen.