If you'll take your Bibles, we'll be in first Timothy four and then in Proverbs chapter five. So just gonna read first Timothy four twelve, and then we'll be over in Proverbs chapter five. Amen. Alright. First Timothy four twelve.

Paul writing to Timothy encouraging this young man who had just taken this new ministry as pastor of church in Ephesus, which was a growing and active church there. It was quite the daunting task for Timothy. He was still a young man and, had, the oversight of a fairly large ministry, in a large city with many souls who needed a savior. And Paul encourages him in this letter in in regarding many different aspects of the ministry in his own personal life to challenge and encourage him. In verse 12, he writes this, let no man despise thy youth but be thou an example of the believers.

In word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you again for the this day. Thank you for the opportunity to gather here to worship you today. Thank you, Lord, for all those that have come and that we pray, Lord, that each would receive a blessing from your word today.

Each of us would be challenged in in our service for you, convicted of sin in our life, might be comforted and encouraged in our path. And we pray Lord if there be one here that is yet to come to know Christ as Lord and savior of their life that today indeed may be their day of salvation. In Jesus name, we do pray. Amen. So, what is Paul challenging Timothy with?

He's challenging Timothy not to give others a reason to despise his youth, but rather to be a sterling example of what a believer ought to be before them, to dispel any doubts they may have due to his youth by being a mature example of what a Christian ought to be. An example meaning a pattern or a model that they can observe and follow themselves. Paul was challenging Timothy to continue to become a better role model for those to whom he ministered so that they could see Christ in him and pattern their lives also after who? After Jesus Christ. What Paul requires of Timothy as a minister is the same thing that God expects of his children in general.

God expects all of us to be an example in these areas of our life and ministry. God expects all of us to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, his son, more day by day as we walk with the Lord in prayer and in his word and by the power of his spirit. To be like Christ in our love and faith and conduct and words and spirit and impurity of life. Part of Timothy's responsibility of child of God and particularly as a minister to others was to be a good example of Christ this morning in his purity, in his sexual morality, both of the heart but also in public appearance to be blameless. This is an important aspect of Paul's and Timothy's character and of every child of God's that we must be weary of, that we must be determined, and that we must be depending on the grace of God to help us to be pure in a world where impurity is the norm.

One of the most tragic problems facing the church today from its youth to its ministers is the problem of sexual impurity or immorality. This is sadly quite evident, not only in the world but also in the church. And though it is a huge problem today, it is not, however, a new problem. It is a very old one. A problem that was very evident in the world of Paul and Timothy's day and one that could affect and influence Timothy and others in the ministry.

Satan has long used the issue of sexual lust and immorality to lead people down a path of sorrow and woe and children of God from a life of spiritual blessing and effectiveness for Christ. Remember, the devil is a roaring lion, roam with about seeking whom he may devour and how who is he seeking to devour? He's seeking to devour those who have put their allegiance and faith in his enemy, in God, in Jesus Christ. We are enemy number one because we are on the Lord's side. And he wants to destroy our joy and he wants to destroy the blessings of of of being in Christ.

He wants to destroy our effectiveness for Christ in the ministry so that others won't see Jesus in us. And this is one of the things, the lust, the desires that he uses. When misplaced, to hurt to destroy rather than to bless and bring happiness and joy. Solomon had some words to say about this to his son. In Proverbs five and in Proverbs seven.

So if you would turn there back there with me to Proverbs five and Proverbs seven. We're not going to read the entire chapters, though. For the most part, these both of these chapters in their entirety deal primarily with this issue. Why would Solomon spend almost two whole chapters worth of material in Proverbs on this issue? Because it was a great danger he felt for his children as it was a great danger for him and had been for his father, David.

So, Proverbs chapter one, we're going to read verses one through 13 and then we're gonna jump over to seven and verse 21. My son, attend unto my wisdom and bow thine ear to my understanding. Please, please listen, Solomon says, that thou mayest regard discretion that thy lips may keep knowledge. For the lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb and her mouth is smoother than oil, but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two edged sword. Her feet go down to hell, her steps take hold on hell.

Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are movable that thou canst not know them. Hear me now therefore, oh you children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. Remove thy way far from her and come not nigh the door of her house. Lest thou give thine honor unto others and thy years unto the cruel. Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth and thy labors be in the house of a stranger and thou mourn at last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed and say, how have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproof and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers nor inclined my ear to them that instructed me.

Turn, if you would, over to chapter seven, and we'll begin in verse 21. Again, on the same subject. In chapter five, he's describing the harlot of sorts. In chapter seven, the adulteress, but with the same conclusion in verse 21, the same warning. With her much fair speech, she caused him to yield.

The young man with flattering of her lips, she forced him. He goeth after her straightway as an ox goeth to the slaughter and as a fool to the correction of the stocks. Till a dart strike through his liver as a bird hasted to the snare and knoweth not that it is for his life. Hearken unto me now therefore, all ye children, attend to the words of my mouth. Let not thine heart decline to her ways.

Go not astray in her past for she hath cast down many wounded. Yea, many strong men have been slain by her. Her house is the way to hell going down to the chambers of death. The word of God, as you see, does not sugarcoat the danger or the ills of harlotry, adultery, and fornication. And many a young man in particular can attest to the addiction and power it wields over the heart and mind of those who succumb to its power and temptation.

The world treats it as child's play today, but it is not. It is dangerous. It is destructive. It destroys lives and families and ministries. Solomon is writing as though speaking to a son, so he emphasizes it from the viewpoint of a son.

But certainly, it is just as dangerous for the daughter as it would be for the son. Thus, Paul warns his son in the faith, Timothy, in second Timothy two twenty two, to flee youthful lusts, not to toy with them, not not to give them a pass because he's young. How many young people go off to college today and they're encouraged in this behavior? Because, well, they're what? They're young.

So that excuses it. No, it does not. Not only does it not excuse sin, but it sets them potentially on a path of destruction for the remainder of their life should they not come to God in repentance? Timothy flee youthful lust. To the Thessalonians, Paul writes to abstain from fornication in first Thessalonians four three.

That means don't do it. Stay away from it. Don't toy with it as the world does. Peter warns believers in first Peter two eleven, he says, to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Paul points out in first Corinthians six in participating in this kind of sin and immorality with your body, it also affects your what?

Your soul and your relationship with the Lord because you are the temple of the Holy Ghost that lives within you. The world treats it as a small matter, but God does not. He challenges Timothy, warns him not to trifle with these immoral laws and practices for the sake of his own soul and well-being, but also for the sake of his ministry and those to whom he ministers. Because it will not only affect him, but it will also affect them and his ministry. Thus, the devil is so busy and active trying to get Christians and leaders to succumb to these temptations.

How many a ministry has been destroyed by men, young and old, who succumb to illicit and harm the testimony of the Lord and their church and the trust of those who looked up to them. And one must not settle for better morality than those around us. There's a temptation Paul warns about in comparing ourselves with other people, particularly the lost world. Well, look, they I may be doing this, but boy, I'm nowhere near as bad as that, so it must be what? That's okay.

It's just a small, you know, it's not as who are you deceiving? You're deceiving yourself. The devil's good at this. The world keeps getting worse and farther from God. And rather than Christians saying put while the world moves, what happens?

Oh, we're still, you know, we're still separate from the world, but yes, where the world once was, now we are in our behavior and our morality. And it's wrong and it's destructive. Certainly dangerous for the ministry, but also dangerous for the young people that are growing up and looking up to role models who are not the role models they ought to be. Because we're judging ourselves in comparison to the world around us and not to Jesus Christ and the word of God. One must not settle for better morality than those around us, but a morality and purity which begins in the heart and mind with a covenant such as the one Job made here in Job thirty one one where he says, I made a covenant with mine eyes.

Why then should I think upon a maid? Job made a covenant. He he determined. He purposed in his heart like Daniel did in Daniel one eight. When Daniel purposed not to defile himself with the king's meat, Job purposed not to defile himself with lust and pornography that again is tearing our society apart.

It begins with a pure heart. That's where it needs to start. Being faithful in action, but also by the grace of God in mind and heart, and it does take the grace of God. It can't simply be in the power of the flesh. We have to lay our heart open before the Lord.

We have to seek in prayer and in his word, his power to live a godly life in an ungodly world. In Jesus' day, the religious leaders did not practice very well what they preached, and the problem was where? The problem was in their was in their heart. Jesus said here in Matthew five, he said, you've heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shall not commit adultery. But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his what?

In his heart. So do you have to physically commit adultery to commit sin? The answer is no. You can commit sin in your heart. Sin that needs to be confessed.

Sin that needs to be recognized and forsaken. Sin, though it may not be exactly the same thing as the physical act, is nonetheless sin that defiles the mind and heart and homes of young people today and leads to worse sins. Do not trifle with it. Do not play with fire. You will get what?

You will get burned. Once again, the preacher of Proverbs says this in Proverbs four twenty three, keep or guard your heart with all diligence. For out of it are the issues of life. The key to purity in actions is purity of heart. If we justify impurity of thought, eventually, it will begin to affect our actions, our testimonies, our ministries.

So pro Solomon writes, guard your heart. That is where the battle really is. And that is where by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, we who are children of God can get the what? Can get the victory. It won't be easy.

For some, it will be very difficult. For those who have been addicted and brought under the power of these things in the past, it will be a battle, but it is a battle that you can win by God's grace. Do not buy the lies of Satan that you cannot win. But it begins by first acknowledging that it is sin. Sin of the heart and mind and sin of the body, it is sin.

In a world which takes these things so lightly, we who know the Lord must not and must not excuse undisciplined lust or thoughts or actions. We must protect ourselves by setting guidelines in our lives. Guidelines to live by which honor the Lord and protect our ministries and families in our hearts like like Job's. I made a covenant with my eyes. Set guidelines.

Have a conviction. Follow through with it. We must not excuse impure behavior or thoughts as the rest of the world does, but confess them as sin and forsake them by God's grace. We must not condone them in our ministries either by our silence or outright justification. We must call it as God calls it.

And what does God call it? He calls it sin. Sin in our lives and sin in the lives of others. Sin for which he died. Sin that cost him his life to redeem us.

Sin that is destructive and destroying. Sin that turns the heart of God, the stomach of God. Sin which needs to be confessed and repented of. We in our society have in many ways returned to the paganism of Rome of Rome and Greece as in the days of Paul, as in the city of Ephesus where Timothy ministered even to the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah in the days of Lot. But with even greater access than they ever had.

The access to immorality today is at our fingertips, on our TV, on our phone. And in a world that turns aside and treats it as nothing, It is a trap that is looming all around us, but we must see it as a what? As a trap. We must recognize it as a trap of the enemy. We must call it what it is, not just in the lives of others, but in our our own heart and life.

It's awful easy to point out others and to point the finger at them. We need to start by pointing the finger at us. The Lord has a lot to say in the New Testament about this plague on humanity. This perversion of the beautiful relationship between man and woman in marriage. And it is a beautiful God ordained relationship between husband and wife, but not outside of that.

Hebrews thirteen four, marriage is honorable in all in all in all aspects of marriage, including the physical relationship of marriage. Marriage is honorable in all. It is good. It is beautiful. It is wonderful.

It's established by God. And the bad undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers, God will what? God will judge. Whose words? God's words.

Does God change? No. I am the Lord. I change not. God does not change in his opinion of right and wrong.

Praise God. Jesus Christ died for those wrong things I did. Praise God. There is the grace of God and the forgiveness of God who all to come to him in through faith in Jesus Christ and repentance for salvation. Praise the Lord.

There is freedom and forgiveness and salvation. But wrong is still wrong and right is still right. In other words, what God created and condones within the confines of marriage, commitment, and bond between a husband and wife, he calls honorable. But outside of that, he calls it sin and rebellion and wickedness, bringing judgment upon the heart and the life and the home. And our world is facing that judgment and consequences over and over and over and home after home after home, in life after life after life.

And the conclusion of many so called Christians is to justify it and say, well, it's okay if you love each other. Oh, it's okay if this and it's okay if that. And we'll just we'll just, you know, we'll just, you know, kinda turn and look the other way. We're doing them a disservice by not standing for what's right in the truth, not just in what we say but in what we do. The New Testament has a lot to say concerning this sin in various names throughout the New Testament scripture.

Some say, well, that's an Old Testament thing. No. You just haven't been reading the New Testament if you're not finding it there. And we won't take the time to go to all those passages today, but there are several of them. Here's one of them.

First Corinthians six nine and ten. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind shall inherit the kingdom of God. He goes on to say, but such were some of you, but you are washed, sanctified, saved in Jesus Christ. There is forgiveness and salvation from the but these are sins and sins as Christians that we should avoid and know better because we've been saved from them.

Why go back to them? But the temptation is still there, still in this body and don't kid yourself that you're above temptation. That's why Paul mentions it. He's writing Christians. He says, you were these things, you're not now, so don't let them creep back into your what?

Into your life. They don't belong. He calls them adultery, meaning sexual unfaithfulness in marriage. Fornication, a word from which we derive our modern word pornography, porneia, meaning any kind of sexual activity outside of the marriage bond. It's quite general in its use in scripture of immorality.

Concupiscence, it's you this word is used in first Thessalonians four in the King James version. It means unbridled passion or lust of a sexual nature. Hebrews thirteen four, we just read that. Whoremongering describes those who go from woman to woman in contrast to monogamy within marriage. That happening in our world today?

Woman to woman, man to man? Hook up culture. Ever heard of that? Maybe not, I hope. But but it it used to be we went from courtship to dating and now dating to hookup, which means involving themselves in this kind of activity on the first, the second, the third, long before what?

Anything called marriage and treating it as a game. Effeminate and abusers of themselves with mankind. Now what do those words mean? Well, these are words which describe those who nurture and indulge homosexual lust and partake in all sorts of unnatural sexual activity. And, yes, same sex sexual activity is unnatural and it is immoral.

According to who? According to God. There may be many that accept it. There may many that excuse it. Say, well, I was born this way.

Yeah. Well, some people were born with a proclivity to steal. Some were born with a proclivity to violence. Does that give them a free pass on stealing and violence? The answer is no.

Some people are born with a proclivity to lie. Does that give them a free pass on lying? The answer is no. We're all born with a sin nature, and we are weak in certain areas that does not give us a free pass in those areas, neither does it in the sexual arena, whether it be heterosexual or homosexual. In Romans one, Paul points out such men as transgressors and reprobates, but he mentions also women.

For this cause, God gave them over to vile affections for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise, also men leaving the natural use of the woman burning their lust one toward another, men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense their error which was meet. What is God saying? God is saying this. These activities are wrong.

It doesn't matter if it's men with men or women with women. It is a violation of God's creative order, and it is sin. And it must be recognized as such. For sinners need a savior. And one thing sinners need to recognize is that they're sinners so they will come to a savior.

Whether you're a thief or a murderer or a liar or you're an immoral person. We have since come up with a myriad of other names for sexually immoral people who defy God's declared will from bisexual to pansexual to transsexual to demisexual to minor attractive persons, which is the new word for pedophile, and we can go on and on and on. As the world tries to paint these things as not so bad, they're just kinda normal, they're not. They're sin. All terms which can mainly be boiled down to sexual immoralities since they disregard any moral law or created order regarding sexuality.

These are devices of Satan to destroy us as people in society, particularly any image of God that remains. Satan wants to wipe it all away so that no one sees God in humanity, so that no one sees the right so they might recognize the wrong. Why did Cain kill Abel? Because he was jealous? Maybe a little bit.

But Abel made Cain feel what? Guilty. He made Cain feel guilty. Yeah. Interesting timing.

What does Satan wanna do? He wants to erase the right so people can't see to differentiate between the right and the wrong. And he would love for Christians just to go along with the program. If just a little bit, just to go along with the program. So Paul tells Timothy, you're surrounded by this in Ephesus.

Don't don't go along with the program even just a what? A little bit. Be careful with your appearance of how you deal with women in your ministry. You don't want to send the wrong message even in your appearance because as a role model, even your appearance does matter. Our society not only permits and excuses these perversions, but condones, celebrates, and encourages them in the youth of our society.

It's sad. It is sad. How do we combat that? We combat that by being pure in our heart and life. We combat that with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We combat that with telling sinners there is deliverance from their sin. But you can't do that when you tell them it isn't sin. You see. Those who practice and condone these behaviors like other sinners need a savior. The answer to their rebellious ways and wicked heart is the same as ours.

Salvation in Christ. And Christ died for their sins, the same as he died for ours. And he will save them from their sins and the penalty therein, the same as he has saved us if they will repent and trust in Christ. Amen. For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

But to ignore these sins as sins, refuse to call them those openly those who openly practice them sinners is to do them a disservice. As followers of the Lord and believers in his word, it is incumbent on us to call these sins out for what they are, rebellion against our creator for which there are consequences, both temporal and eternal. And their lives, but careful also what? Arth. Because even Christians who play with fire still get what?

Burnt. You may be forgiven in light of eternal judgment, but you will still face the consequences on earth. God doesn't promise to take those away. God warns us to stay away by his grace and power from these sins in our life. He even tells us he will chase enough if need be.

As followers of Christ, it is our duty to point the lost to the savior that they might be freed from these chains which bind them and they are chains. Even though they may not recognize it, they are chains that bind them and they need to be delivered from them. And who can do that? Jesus. As followers of God, it's also incumbent upon us as it was Timothy to live upstanding moral lives and encourage others including the youth of today to do the same.

Don't give them a free pass. They don't need a free pass. They need somebody to tell them they're made in the image of who? God. To bring glory to him.

And if they'll come to God through Christ, he will give them the power. To acknowledge the God who made them, to confess their sin in the need of a savior, to repent and follow the Lord in that which brings glory to him and good to humanity. We must not bow to their pressure to be conformed to the world but live transformational lives through faith and obedience to Christ and therefore be salt and light in the world. Now, when it needs it most. You placed here for this day.

Do not succumb to the temptations. Do not bow out. Do not give up. Stand in the grace of God. Stand in the love of Christ.

Love isn't telling people what they want to hear. Love is telling people what they need to hear. And love for Christ demands that we judge not only others, but most importantly, we judge who? Ourselves. This may not be a battle we have chosen, but Satan, and yet one we must fight.

To do otherwise would be unconscionable. To bow out and to compromise is a slap in the face of the God who made us. We must be willing not only to call sin out in the lives of others, but also to see it in ourselves. Confess and forsake it that we might be a vessel of honor made ready in the service of the Lord. They say, well, those words don't describe me.

I don't get involved. I stand up against those things that marched down in Saint Pete yesterday and all that mess. But what might you be looking at on this? What might you be allowing to run around in here? Be careful to get the beam out of your eye so that you can see to help somebody else.

Allow the power and love of God to flow through you as those who have confessed their sins to God and are striving by God's grace to be more like Jesus, to help draw other men to the savior. For that's what they need as we did. Let's pray. Dear God, thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you for the clear declarations of your word, the clear revelation of your will.

Lord, forgive us of where we have fallen short. Lord, before we go judging others, let's look inside of our own heart. And Lord, I pray that we would see others as sinners who need a savior, that they would love them with the love of Christ, that we should show them compassion as Jesus did, that we would give them the gospel and tell them there is a way of deliverance and salvation from the bonds of sin and death in Jesus Christ the savior. Lord, start in our heart, we pray today. And if there be one here that is yet to accept the sacrifice of Christ on the cross in their behalf, that is yet to come to Christ in faith and call out to him to be the Lord and savior of their life to save them from sin and hell.

I pray Lord that as we give this hymn of invitation, they might come, that we might show them from God's word today how they might be saved in no way. In Jesus' name, we do pray. Amen.