EPISODE · Feb 20, 2026 · 12 MIN
The Epstein in Us All: Lessons from a Sex Scandal Every Man Must Master
from Truth In These Days · host Pastor Heath Lambert
The Shocking Scale of a Sex ScandalMore than six years after his death, the scandal surrounding Jeffrey Epstein’s horrifying sex crimes continues to shock many with the incredible scale of the scandal.Epstein is responsible for the victimization of thousands of women. Some of those women died as a result of their abuse. Many others have horrifying stories that threaten to haunt them for the rest of their lives. And Epstein did not act alone but was joined in his crimes by many of the world’s elite.Just the most recent headlines look like the results of a Google search about the world’s most rich and powerful. Bill Gates has been humiliated by his public connection with Epstein. Former president and first lady, Bill and Hillary Clinton, agreed to testify to Congress about the scandal, and the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, was under fire in Congress for the way the Department of Justice has handled documents related to the case. The controversy also has international implications. The involvement in the scandal of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, is creating instability with the British Crown, and the involvement of Lord Peter Mandelson is causing massive problems for the British government.Sickening sex crimes, shattered lives, vast wealth, and rich and powerful men are more than capable of generating the level of interest and intrigue we are seeing from this moral disaster. In that sense, the shock of the scandal makes sense. But in another sense, our shock is a bit insincere. The fallout from the scandal has been absolutely catastrophic, but the core principles that led to it are not foreign to humanity at all. The scandal actually represents something very basic to humanity that, when we ignore it, only lays the foundation for the next massive sex scandal that may involve us.Men in particular must fight to avoid this by mastering three basic lessons from the Epstein scandal.Men Love SexThe first lesson is so basic that many are tempted to miss it or to fail to grasp how profound it is. The lesson is that men love sex. In fact, most men really love it a lot. Of course, it is true that many women also love sex. But we all know the average man loves it a lot more than the average woman. This love of sex is actually a good thing when the sex men love happens exclusively with their wife (Proverbs 5:19-20). But too many men do not limit sex to marriage. Too many men cannot imagine limiting sex in this way. Too many men do nearly the opposite and pursue sex in any context at almost any cost.This truth may feel uncomfortable to say out loud, but it is absolutely basic to human life. You should make no mistake that Epstein knew this lesson by heart and lived it out to the devastation of everyone who knew him. He learned the lesson on his rocket ship to riches that carried him on the journey from a public school teacher to a fabulously wealthy financier. Epstein observed how rich and powerful leaders in the New York world of elite finance made women sexually available to men for the purpose of building their client base. His heart mastered the truth that many men will trade money and power for the sex they love so much.Epstein took the lesson and implemented it in ways that broke the law, destroyed countless lives, and purchased his apparently permanent address in the headlines. Others have mastered the lesson but operate quietly in secret scandals all over the world. As just one example, different criminals live out the lesson by capturing untold numbers of women in a global sex trade that services deviant men and generates billions for contemporary slave holders.It is also possible to learn the lesson without being a criminal. For example, Andrew Tate has become famous for calling men to a perverse life of sexual domination, adultery, and fornication. The lesson that men love sex has also been mastered by the proprietors of every pornographic website on the Internet.This most basic of lessons is one we ignore at our own great risk, at the risk of those around us, and at the risk of the larger society. This basic lesson guarantees that at this precise moment, men are engaging in shocking sexual behavior not visible right now, but just waiting to be revealed to the world when their perversion becomes public. One of those revelations may just involve you.Men, right now, other men who perhaps do not even know your name have figured out that you love sex and are working on a plan to lure you into a trap that will rob you of life, money, reputation, and joy. You must not let them use this lesson to outwit you. You must learn the lesson as well as they have and refuse to be trapped by it.Sinful Sex DestroysThe second lesson is just as basic, but fewer people know it than the first. The lesson is that sinful sex destroys. Most of the men who understand that men love sex are not helped by the information because they misunderstand it. The misunderstanding is the result of a lie that grows from within their own hearts. That lie is that it is good for men to have the kind of faithless and uncommitted sex they so often want. This lie has spread from the hearts of individual men and has saturated our sinful society. That saturation is a great delight to the perverse men who prey on the lives of people destroyed by the lie.Perhaps the best non-criminal illustration of the lie is Hugh Hefner. Hefner spent his entire life propagating a lifestyle of free and open sex by pursuing as many sexual partners as possible and publishing his lies in a once-famous magazine. Hefner was celebrated bycultural luminaries as a man who unshackled society from its prison of repressed sexuality. He was heralded by countless immoral men who celebrated him as a role model living a life beyond their most perverse fantasies.The problem is that Hefner was a liar, aided and abetted in his dishonesty by a corrupt culture that spent decades helping him peddle his deadly deceit. The fact is that Hefner, though celebrated in life, died a lonely, pathetic, disgusting, perverse, dirty old man. The fact is that the pornographic world he helped create is filled with women who mostly despise the work they do and are completely disgusted by the perverse men for whom they do it.The countless millions who swallowed in one gulp the lie that faithless sex is good are responsible for all the guaranteed consequences we currently experience: masses of young people have emptied their souls with rising body counts and decreasing joy, men have become so pornified that many find it physically impossible to enjoy intimacy with a real woman, women have been trained to deny their virtue and act like porn stars in order to have a chance at a guy, young men have learned they no longer need to work hard and be responsible to win the physical affection of a woman, families have been split wide open by sexual sin, millions of our daughters have been kidnapped and forced to fulfill the sexual fantasies of men old enough to be their fathers and grandfathers, our society is so numb to sexual sin that it takes an Epstein-level disaster to make us pay attention. The list of these appalling problems is growing, not shrinking.The fact that men like sex is a basic piece of information, but it is not neutral. Unlike the sex that happens in a loving marriage between a man and a woman, the sinful kind of sex will destroy you. The authors of Scripture make this clear in places like Proverbs 5:32-33, “He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself. He will get wounds and dishonor, and his disgrace will not be wiped away.” These words have warned against the sexual sin of the human race for millennia. The lesson is clear and available to anyone who wants to see it.Unfortunately, it is possible to live your life mastering the first lesson and ignoring this second one. That is exactly what Jeffrey Epstein did. That is exactly what some of you are doing. If you want to avoid the destruction that found him, you must master more information than he did. You must be completely convinced that sinful sex will not help you. It really will destroy you.Men Need HelpIf you are a man who becomes truly persuaded of the first two lessons, you will begin to feel overwhelmed by a devastating problem. That problem is stated by Jesus in John 8:34 when he says, “Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” That means that every man, including you, is trapped in sin. Sexual sin is not the kind of thing you can think your way out of. Knowing the truth won’t help you break free from the lie. You need the information and cannot solve the problem without it. But information about the problem is not thesolution to the problem. Knowledge of how locks work on prison doors only makes you feel more trapped in your confinement. You need more than knowledge to break free. You need a key.That key is the third lesson that Jesus alone gives men the power they need to break out of their enslavement to sexual sin. Hebrews 13:20-21 says, “Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ.”That passage says that Jesus Christ makes it possible for you to do the will of God and to be pleasing in his sight. When you confess your sin and trust in Jesus, his death on the cross pays for your sexual sin, and his perfectly righteous life equips you to live in a godly way that is impossible without him. You can possess overwhelming spiritual power to break free from any sin when you trust in Jesus to give the power to you.New Headlines and Ancient TruthEveryone involved with Epstein’s sexual sin thought they were having a blast. No one thought it would end the way it did. They were culpable fools. God is using the ongoing saga of the Epstein scandal to display before the world the everlasting truth of the destructive nature of sexual sin. You should pay attention and learn the lessons it has to teach. These new headlines are revealing old truths about the destructive nature of sin and the God who loves sinners so much that he sent Jesus to rescue us from the danger.If you are truly honest, you will have to admit that, like most men, there is a little bit of Jeffrey Epstein in you. You might not have his money, his power, or be guilty of his egregious violations of the law. But deep in your heart, you know you’re guilty of sin against God. Right now, you should go to God in prayer, confess your sin, ask forgiveness, and call out to Jesus for help. You should believe he will do it. Then you should find someone else to help you walk with him. Reach out to a pastor, godly parent, or wise friend. Contact us here at First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida. But at all costs, don’t follow sexual sin to your own destruction. Find Christ and live.
What this episode covers
The Shocking Scale of a Sex ScandalMore than six years after his death, the scandal surrounding Jeffrey Epstein’s horrifying sex crimes continues to shock many with the incredible scale of the scandal.Epstein is responsible for the victimization of thousands of women. Some of those women died as a result of their abuse. Many others have horrifying stories that threaten to haunt them for the rest of their lives. And Epstein did not act alone but was joined in his crimes by many of the world’s elite.Just the most recent headlines look like the results of a Google search about the world’s most rich and powerful. Bill Gates has been humiliated by his public connection with Epstein. Former president and first lady, Bill and Hillary Clinton, agreed to testify to Congress about the scandal, and the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, was under fire in Congress for the way the Department of Justice has handled documents related to the case. The controversy also has international implications. The involvement in the scandal of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, is creating instability with the British Crown, and the involvement of Lord Peter Mandelson is causing massive problems for the British government.Sickening sex crimes, shattered lives, vast wealth, and rich and powerful men are more than capable of generating the level of interest and intrigue we are seeing from this moral disaster. In that sense, the shock of the scandal makes sense. But in another sense, our shock is a bit insincere. The fallout from the scandal has been absolutely catastrophic, but the core principles that led to it are not foreign to humanity at all. The scandal actually represents something very basic to humanity that, when we ignore it, only lays the foundation for the next massive sex scandal that may involve us.Men in particular must fight to avoid this by mastering three basic lessons from the Epstein scandal.Men Love SexThe first lesson is so basic that many are tempted to miss it or to fail to grasp how profound it is. The lesson is that men love sex. In fact, most men really love it a lot. Of course, it is true that many women also love sex. But we all know the average man loves it a lot more than the average woman. This love of sex is actually a good thing when the sex men love happens exclusively with their wife (Proverbs 5:19-20). But too many men do not limit sex to marriage. Too many men cannot imagine limiting sex in this way. Too many men do nearly the opposite and pursue sex in any context at almost any cost.This truth may feel uncomfortable to say out loud, but it is absolutely basic to human life. You should make no mistake that Epstein knew this lesson by heart and lived it out to the devastation of everyone who knew him. He learned the lesson on his rocket ship to riches that carried him on the journey from a public school teacher to a fabulously wealthy financier. Epstein observed how rich and powerful leaders in the New York world of elite finance made women sexually available to men for the purpose of building their client base. His heart mastered the truth that many men will trade money and power for the sex they love so much.Epstein took the lesson and implemented it in ways that broke the law, destroyed countless lives, and purchased his apparently permanent address in the headlines. Others have mastered the lesson but operate quietly in secret scandals all over the world. As just one example, different criminals live out the lesson by capturing untold numbers of women in a global sex trade that services deviant men and generates billions for contemporary slave holders.It is also possible to learn the lesson without being a criminal. For example, Andrew Tate has become famous for calling men to a perverse life of sexual domination, adultery, and fornication. The lesson that men love sex has also been mastered by the proprietors of every pornographic website on the Internet.This most basic of lessons is one we ignore at our own great risk, at the risk of those around us, and at the risk of the larger society. This basic lesson guarantees that at this precise moment, men are engaging in shocking sexual behavior not visible right now, but just waiting to be revealed to the world when their perversion becomes public. One of those revelations may just involve you.Men, right now, other men who perhaps do not even know your name have figured out that you love sex and are working on a plan to lure you into a trap that will rob you of life, money, reputation, and joy. You must not let them use this lesson to outwit you. You must learn the lesson as well as they have and refuse to be trapped by it.Sinful Sex DestroysThe second lesson is just as basic, but fewer people know it than the first. The lesson is that sinful sex destroys. Most of the men who understand that men love sex are not helped by the information because they misunderstand it. The misunderstanding is the result of a lie that grows from within their own hearts. That lie is that it is good for men to have the kind of faithless and uncommitted sex they so often want. This lie has spread from the hearts of individual men and has saturated our sinful society. That saturation is a great delight to the perverse men who prey on the lives of people destroyed by the lie.Perhaps the best non-criminal illustration of the lie is Hugh Hefner. Hefner spent his entire life propagating a lifestyle of free and open sex by pursuing as many sexual partners as possible and publishing his lies in a once-famous magazine. Hefner was celebrated bycultural luminaries as a man who unshackled society from its prison of repressed sexuality. He was heralded by countless immoral men who celebrated him as a role model living a life beyond their most perverse fantasies.The problem is that Hefner was a liar, aided and abetted in his dishonesty by a corrupt culture that spent decades helping him peddle his deadly deceit. The fact is that Hefner, though celebrated in life, died a lonely, pathetic, disgusting, perverse, dirty old man. The fact is that the pornographic world he helped create is filled with women who mostly despise the work they do and are completely disgusted by the perverse men for whom they do it.The countless millions who swallowed in one gulp the lie that faithless sex is good are responsible for all the guaranteed consequences we currently experience: masses of young people have emptied their souls with rising body counts and decreasing joy, men have become so pornified that many find it physically impossible to enjoy intimacy with a real woman, women have been trained to deny their virtue and act like porn stars in order to have a chance at a guy, young men have learned they no longer need to work hard and be responsible to win the physical affection of a woman, families have been split wide open by sexual sin, millions of our daughters have been kidnapped and forced to fulfill the sexual fantasies of men old enough to be their fathers and grandfathers, our society is so numb to sexual sin that it takes an Epstein-level disaster to make us pay attention. The list of these appalling problems is growing, not shrinking.The fact that men like sex is a basic piece of information, but it is not neutral. Unlike the sex that happens in a loving marriage between a man and a woman, the sinful kind of sex will destroy you. The authors of Scripture make this clear in places like Proverbs 5:32-33, “He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself. He will get wounds and dishonor, and his disgrace will not be wiped away.” These words have warned against the sexual sin of the human race for millennia. The lesson is clear and available to anyone who wants to see it.Unfortunately, it is possible to live your life mastering the first lesson and ignoring this second one. That is exactly what Jeffrey Epstein did. That is exactly what some of you are doing. If you want to avoid the destruction that found him, you must master more information than he did. You must be completely convinced that sinful sex will not help you. It really will destroy you.Men Need HelpIf you are a man who becomes truly persuaded of the first two lessons, you will begin to feel overwhelmed by a devastating problem. That problem is stated by Jesus in John 8:34 when he says, “Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” That means that every man, including you, is trapped in sin. Sexual sin is not the kind of thing you can think your way out of. Knowing the truth won’t help you break free from the lie. You need the information and cannot solve the problem without it. But information about the problem is not thesolution to the problem. Knowledge of how locks work on prison doors only makes you feel more trapped in your confinement. You need more than knowledge to break free. You need a key.That key is the third lesson that Jesus alone gives men the power they need to break out of their enslavement to sexual sin. Hebrews 13:20-21 says, “Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ.”That passage says that Jesus Christ makes it possible for you to do the will of God and to be pleasing in his sight. When you confess your sin and trust in Jesus, his death on the cross pays for your sexual sin, and his perfectly righteous life equips you to live in a godly way that is impossible without him. You can possess overwhelming spiritual power to break free from any sin when you trust in Jesus to give the power to you.New Headlines and Ancient TruthEveryone involved with Epstein’s sexual sin thought they were having a blast. No one thought it would end the way it did. They were culpable fools. God is using the ongoing saga of the Epstein scandal to display before the world the everlasting truth of the destructive nature of sexual sin. You should pay attention and learn the lessons it has to teach. These new headlines are revealing old truths about the destructive nature of sin and the God who loves sinners so much that he sent Jesus to rescue us from the danger.If you are truly honest, you will have to admit that, like most men, there is a little bit of Jeffrey Epstein in you. You might not have his money, his power, or be guilty of his egregious violations of the law. But deep in your heart, you know you’re guilty of sin against God. Right now, you should go to God in prayer, confess your sin, ask forgiveness, and call out to Jesus for help. You should believe he will do it. Then you should find someone else to help you walk with him. Reach out to a pastor, godly parent, or wise friend. Contact us here at First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida. But at all costs, don’t follow sexual sin to your own destruction. Find Christ and live.
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The Epstein in Us All: Lessons from a Sex Scandal Every Man Must Master
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