Can Christians Really Live Holy Lives?

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You'll get it automatically starting in January. All right. So, we've had to live through so many scandals. I never say this to throw stones at others.

I know the mercy and grace of God in my own life. When I teach about sexual immorality and adultery, I say, it could happen to any of us. It could happen to any of us. And every one of us has some area in our lives where we've had to be more careful with attitude, with thought life, with actions, with something. Every one of us has one area of our life where the flesh can try to dominate and we have to be careful and have to deal with things and make things right with God, et cetera.

So, I'm not here throwing stones, but we've lived through so many scandals. And then so many believing couples that we knew that on fire for God and now one spouse fell away from the Lord and divorced the other. It's like, how'd that happen? Or kids that we knew that were raised in the faith and now they completely deny the gospel.

How'd that happen? And then sometimes we look in our own lives, it's like, yeah, this junk here, there's pride here, or unkind thoughts here, or lustful thoughts there, or desires, where they come from. And I don't know, maybe it's not even possible to live a godly life.

Maybe we should be realistic. Years ago, I got into a mini debate with an editor at Christianity Today, Mark Galli. I mean, we interacted about this.

I'm not using his name in a defamatory way. We interacted on this, but he made a statement that we've got to get over, I'm paraphrasing, we've got to get over this notion that many evangelical Christians have that we're any different than the world. Paraphrasing again what he said, that just accept the fact we're sinners like everybody else. That's why we need grace. That's why we need the mercy of God, because we're sinners like everybody else.

Just face the fact. So we have impudent righteousness through Christ. God sees us as righteous because of the cross. But really, we're like everybody else. We have problems like everybody else. We have ups and downs like everybody else. We have divorce and remarriage like everybody else. We have adultery and affairs like everybody else. We get drunk or we, you know, DWI ticket, you know, in our driving. Our kids are rebellious.

It's just we're like everybody else. Accept the fact. And I said, no, sir.

No, sir. I don't accept that fact, according to the word. Yeah, on the one hand, we know only in part our own depravity outside the Gospel. We know our lostness, our blindness outside the Gospel only in part. Only God knows how depraved and worthless and sinful we are outside of Jesus. But doesn't Jesus change us? Isn't there something that happens with the new birth, not just forgiveness of sins, but doesn't it say in the word, 2 Corinthians 5.17, that everything becomes new, that we are in new creations in Christ?

Doesn't the word call us to live a holy life? You say, oh, come on. Like, what are you talking about? What did Paul say in Romans 7? He said that the things I want to do, I don't do.

The things I hate, that's what I do. And Paul was realistic. He said, wretched man that I am. In Romans 7, I understand this rut and I understand there's no way out of it, except God saves us.

So now spiritually I'm saved, but in this life, in this world, in this body, I still sin like everybody else. And didn't Paul say in 1 Timothy 1 that he was the chief of sinners, that Jesus had mercy on him, the chief of sinners? Well, actually 1 Timothy 1 in context, he's talking about who he was before he was a believer. He was a violent man, that he was a blasphemer and God had mercy on him, this sinful man. God had mercy on him as an example to others that he could have mercy on anyone.

So that's the context there. And we know elsewhere, for example, to the Thessalonians, in 1 Thessalonians, he said to them, you know, the holy lies we lived among you. He's not saying I'm the worst sinner everybody. Unless he meant because he knows the Lord so well that he's more than aware of his own sin and shortcoming even more than the rest of us. But again, the real context of 1 Timothy 1.15, even though he says presently of whom I am chief, he means my history. That made me the chief of sinners. And God had mercy on me, the one who was the chief of sinners. Not saying I'm the most sinful person. Otherwise, how could Paul say in 1 Corinthians 11.1, follow me as I follow the Messiah? Oh, you mean sin like you, Paul?

Do what you're doing? How could Paul be outraged by all the sin in the midst of the Corinthian church? The gossip, the divisions, the sexual sin, the drinking, getting drunk at the Lord's table. How could he be outraged at their sin if this is just what everybody does?

Yeah, I mean, think about this. And how can he say in Philippians 4.9, whatever you've seen in me, what have you heard from me? Whatever you've seen, just watch me and do it and you'll be blessed. Oh, I guess we like sin the way Paul does. We're into porn the way Paul is into porn. Or we get drunk the way Paul gets drunk or we lose our temper.

No, he's saying, let me be an example to you. Again, follow me as I follow the Messiah. As for Romans 7, there's been a great debate through church history in terms of the meaning of Romans 7. Some church leaders seeing it as ongoing, making this confession.

Yes, yes. And in an ongoing way, in an ongoing way, I do the things I hate and things I want to do, I don't do. And that's just the Christian life. Others understand it to mean that living under the law, this was his experience, or when he falls back into legalism, this is his experience. So, there's been a debate there, but here's what settles the issue to me.

This is what settles things. In Romans chapter 6, chapter 6, and we're going to open up these scriptures in a moment. In Romans 6, he tells us that in Jesus, we've died to sin and says, how can you live in it any longer? Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God and Messiah Jesus. That's Romans 6. In Romans 8, he says that we're not debtors to the flesh, but to the spirit. And that by the spirit, we fulfill the law's requirements.

So, Paul has made it clear, whatever your method of interpreting Romans 7 is, that we have been empowered to live godly lives by the spirit. Now, I want to say this out of the gate. I want to lay this out clearly. And in my book, Go and Sin No More, which I wrote, come out of 97? When I wrote that book, and Bill Bright graciously wrote the foreword to the late Dr. Bill Bright and referred to as Grace filled holiness, that I went out of my way to have a whole chapter dealing with the dangers of legalism. Legalism is externally imposed religion. Legalism is trying to change someone from the outside in. Legalism is laws without love.

It's rules without relationship. It's standards without a savior. Legalism is judging somebody by what they don't do by externals, rather than helping them come to know the Lord and be changed from the inside out. I have a whole chapter on no condemnation in the book, Go and Sin No More, because I want to emphasize and underscore that in Jesus, we are not condemned. We are not doomed. We are not damned. The Holy Spirit convicts us, which is God drawing us near to him because we've sinned so we can receive forgiveness and cleansing. Condemnation is pushing us away guilty as charged away from me. Conviction, God says, come near me. Condemnation, God says, away from me. There's a whole chapter dealing with condemnation. There's a whole chapter entitled It's All Grace, right? I talk about the supernatural empowerment of grace.

Again, again, I wrote this, what, 25 years ago. The supernatural empowerment of grace that enables us to live different lives. At the same time, I'll be totally candid. I thought by the time I write that book, that I will be at a different place of holiness in God, that I won't struggle in certain areas, that I won't battle in certain areas because I will have arrived at another level and then I can write the book.

And I felt the Lord urging me, write the book now, write the book now. In other words, we're all growing. Sanctification is instant and it's progressive and it's future. It's instant, meaning the moment we're born again, God puts us in the holy column, says, boom, you're in this column, set apart as holy.

Then it's progressive. We grow in holiness. We become more and more like Jesus on a daily, weekly, monthly, annual basis.

And then it is future. The day will come when we will be totally, completely sanctified, when we will be forever set apart without sin and resurrected bodies in a perfect world. So we are all going through a process. And every day we receive cleansing through the blood of Jesus, even when we don't know it, even when we're not aware, if we're seeking to live lives honoring the Lord and glorifying Him, we go through daily cleansing, washing of our feet, so to say, based on John 13, as we walk in this world, we can take a bath in the river, but as we walk back home, our feet get dirty. So walking in this world, having been saved, walking in this world, there still is cleansing.

There still is washing. That's all true. And friends, we can and should live lives different in the world. And our life should be very different after we came to faith than it was before faith.

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They'll answer your questions, tell you what they recommend. Okay, Psalm 15. Psalm 15. Are you ready for a lot of the Word as we talk about, can Christians really live holy lives? And by the way, before we read from Psalm 15, I did a little poll on X, formerly Twitter. I did a little poll there, and I asked the question, should we expect people to live on a higher moral plane after coming to faith in Jesus, or is that an unrealistic expectation since all of us are sinners?

Look at this. 92 plus percent said yes, we should. Thank God we got the right answers there. 4.3 percent said no, that's unrealistic.

3.5 said not sure. So to get that type of response, over 92 percent as I'm reading the survey results right now, saying yes, we should live differently. That's encouraging. And by God's grace, we can. So let's look at the Word together.

Are you ready? Psalm 15. This is Old Testament. Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and cast no slur on his fellow man, who despises a vile man, but honors those who fear the Lord, who keeps his oath even when it hurts, who lends his money without usury, and does not accept a bribe against the innocent, he who does these things will never be shaken.

William Guernol, author, Puritan author of the classic book, The Christian in Complete Armor, said, Say not thou hast royal blood in thy veins, and art born of God, except thou canst prove thy pedigree by daring to be holy. So more scripture. Let's see what the Word of God says.

When Jesus is talking to Jewish listeners, Jesus is talking to them in John the eighth chapter. He says, If you continue in my word, then you'll be my disciples indeed. You'll know the truth, the truth shall set you free. It doesn't just set us free intellectually. It doesn't just set us free in terms of religious convictions and wrong mindsets, but it sets us free in terms of sets free from sin. Jesus said, whoever the son sets free, speaking of sin, is free indeed.

How many of you right now could say I used to be this and I'm not anymore? Oh, we're still works in progress. We're still works in progress. And again, compared to the holiness of God, we're all wretched. We understand that. Compared to the holiness of God, we're wretched.

You know, R.C. Sproul would do this demonstration. He'd have one person stand on one side of the stage that represented Hitler, and another person stand on the exact opposite side of the stage that represented Jesus. And he'd say, you know, at our most sanctified, we're more like Hitler than Jesus. Well, on the one hand, on the one hand, in terms of how God sees us, in terms of if he looked at the corruption that's still within us, or if he looked at where our thoughts can go sometimes, or things that we've done secretly that no one knows about.

Yeah, he knows the evil that's there. On the other hand, I'm not like I used to be. In so, so, so many ways. Not just outward conduct, but inward attitude.

And the same with you. You're saying, yeah, I used to be this, I used to be this, and I'm not anymore. 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 11. 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 11. When Paul's laying out, some of you used to be like this, and like this, and like this. If you live like this, he says, if you live like this, he says, the fornicators, the adulterers, the extortioners, the drunkards, men who have sex with men, they will not inherit the kingdom of God. He says, but, he's just using those as examples.

That's what some of you were. You've been washed, you've been sanctified, you've been justified by the Spirit of God, by the blood of Jesus. It's not just that God says you're my children, and I see you as righteous through the cross.

Yes, he does that. It's not just that he doesn't focus on our sins, he focuses on our relationship with him through faith. At the same time, when Jesus rebukes the churches in Asia Minor, in Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3, he says over and over, I know your works, I know your works, I know your works, I know your works. And Jacob, James, says the second chapter of his book, show me your faith by your deeds.

In other words, we should live lives that are different. God calls us to, and God empowers us to. There's the old little poem, it may have gone back to John Bunyan and then been revised, to run and work the law commands, yet gives us neither feet nor hands. But better news the gospel brings, it bids us fly and gives us wings. God set me free from heavy drug use. God set me free from hateful attitudes that used to be there. God set me free from things that would have been fleshly, bondages and other ways. God set me free, and by his power, he's empowered me to live differently. By his power, by his grace, the same grace that works in you works in me, that same grace empowers us every day to say no to sin and yes to God.

Think of this for a minute, think of this. Do you think if we were just left to ourselves, we'd live the way we live? Do you think if the Holy Spirit was not regularly drawing us to God, we would live the way we live?

No, we'd fall short. We wouldn't pray, we wouldn't be in the word. We yield more and more to the flesh. We wouldn't be growing in holiness. But Romans 814, as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God.

They are children of God. It's not just hearing the voice of God, the Holy Spirit's leading me, it's the most fundamental leading of all that's being spoken of there. The crucifixion of the flesh, the saying no to the flesh, no to the devil, and yes to God. All right, let's look at some more scripture here.

Oh, where do I want to jump in? We know what Jesus tells the man that's been crippled for 38 years in John the fifth chapter. He tells him, go in sin no more, lest a worse thing come on you. In other words, whatever you were doing before, there were some you were doing before that brought judgment of God on you, that brought sickness on you. So don't do that again.

Don't walk in that again or a worse thing will come on you. In that case, there was a connection between the sin and the sickness. The adulterous woman that Jesus forgives in John eight, he says, go in sin no more. I'm not accusing you. I'm not condemning you. I'm forgiving you of adultery. I should die for adultery. I'm forgiving you because I represent God here right now. I am forgiving you.

Now don't go do this again. Do you think that she had to commit it? Well, she's just always going to commit adultery. You're always going to get drunk. You're always going to use drugs. You're always going to gamble. You're always going to hate people. You're always going to be violent. You're always going to be guilty of sexual perversion.

No, no, no, no. That is not the Gospel. We're changed by the power of God. So Paul, totally clear to the Romans about this. After teaching that where sin had abounded, God's grace abounded all the more, Romans five, 20. He asked Romans six, one and two, what shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means. We died to sin.

How can we live in it any longer? Oh, that this is a spiritual reality. You don't have to be a slave to sin in Jesus.

You don't have to be a slave to sin. It's a lie. It's a lie that your mind's telling you. It's a lie that church traditions told you. It's a lie that the world tells you.

It's a lie that the devil himself tells you. In Jesus, you no longer have to be a slave to sin. It doesn't mean that we'll be perfect. It doesn't mean that we'll never sin in any way. It means that sin is no longer the rule of our lives. It means we're no longer controlled by it.

It means the old you, sir, you watched porn by the hour and didn't think twice about it. Now you watch five minutes and you're grieving, you're crying, you're fasting, God, I'm so sorry, I defile myself. Why? Because you're not who you used to be. And those things that beset you, if you keep growing in God, they won't beset you anymore. We'll be right back.

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Okay. How about some more scripture? Matthew 1.23.

What, what does the angel say? What, what is Joseph told in terms of what the child is to be named? You shall name him Jesus, Yeshua.

Why? For he will save his people from their sins. Not just forgiveness, but deliverance from sin. John 1.29. What is John the Immerser?

What does John the Immerser, John the Baptist say about Jesus? Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. What does it say in 1 Peter 1?

Oh, it's a glorious passage. As he who called you is holy. Peter's quoting from Leviticus, that bad book, that legalistic book. Leviticus know that life-giving book about holiness that we are now empowered to live out.

And what it speaks of physically, we're spiritually empowered to live out, offering our own bodies as living sacrifices. As it's written, be holy because I, the Lord your God am holy. This, this is New Testament. This is grace application.

Yes, sir. His blood not only cleanses us from sin. 1 John 1.7, frees us from the dominion of sin. Galatians 1.4. But he frees us from sin as well. Cleanses us from sin, frees us from the dominion of sin and frees us from sin itself.

Revelation chapter one, verse five. Romans 8.13. Paul says this, for if you live according to the flesh, according to the sinful nature, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. Here's what John Owen, the greatest of the Puritan theologians said, to kill a man or any other living thing is to take away the principle of all his strength, vigor and power so that he cannot act or exert or put forth any proper actings of his own.

So it is in this case. Indwelling sin is compared to a person, a living person called the old man with his faculties and properties, his wisdom, craft, subtlety, strength. This, says the apostle, must be killed, put to death, mortified. That is, have its power, life, vigor and strength to produce its effects taken away by the spirit.

As I wrote in Goingson No More, this is not the language of peaceful coexistence, but of ruthless annihilation. Look at sin like an enemy. Look at sin like an intruder.

Look at sin like you would if rattlesnakes had entered into your house. Well, they probably won't bother. No, you're not going to live like that.

Well, they probably won't go after the kid. No, you're going to do whatever you can and call the exterminator, get friends over that specialize in killing snakes. And once you get rid of them, are there eggs anywhere? You're going to, you're going to get, you know, just put them outside. No, you're going to get rid of them.

You're either going to kill them or you're going to recycle them somewhere 30 miles from your house in the middle of a forest somewhere or whatever. No, you don't. Well, it's just in the bedroom.

It probably can't climb up on the bed. No, you deal with it ruthlessly. Jesus said, if your right hand caused you to sin, speaking metaphorically, cut it off, throw it away. You don't cut it back.

You cut it off. When worldliness crept in among the Corinthians, what did Paul say? You know, they had a wrong view about the future resurrection. He said, do not be misled.

Bad company corrupts good character. Come back to your senses as you ought and stop sinning. For there are some who are ignorant of God. I say this to say in 1 Corinthians 15 verses 33 and 34. What does Jesus say in Luke 6 46? Why do you call me Lord?

Do not do as I say. What does he say in Matthew 7 21? Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, I went to the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father. We have been empowered by the grace of God to live different lives.

We have been empowered by the grace of God to say no to sin. And this is something that we must renew our mind to. In other words, there are things that we can do.

So I clear my throat here. There are things that we can do. We can renew our minds. We can spend time with God.

Here, you know it. You spend time with people, with a group. You become like them. You become accustomed to who they are. You take it on their mannerisms and character.

If you spend a lot of time with them. Well, as we spend time with God, as we spend time meditating on his word, as we spend time reading his word, if we memorize a key verse and just keep it in front of us, as we spend time in worship and prayer, just look at it like you're out in the rain. You're getting wetter and wetter and wetter. So the presence of God, the holiness of God, the goodness of God, the beauty of God pours into you. Second Peter one, Peter says that we partake of the divine nature. That we don't become God.

Let me say it again. We do not become God. But we partake of his holiness, of his holiness, of his character, his goodness, by his promises. And sometimes we go through a crisis. Leonard Ravenhill said to me one day, and I don't have the exact words, but is that holiness is like gradual growth, gradual growth, gradual growth, crisis.

Gradual growth, gradual growth. In other words, we're walking with the Lord. We are, we are little by little by little, our character changing little by little by little, we're becoming more compassionate or more long suffering or more filled with goodness or more sexually pure or whatever it is, we're growing in holiness. We're not who we used to be.

We're becoming more and more who God wants us to be. And then we hit a wall. We have some crisis. There's something in our lives that's just not right.

And we don't seem to know how to break through it. Whatever the habit is, whatever the stronghold is, and you pray and you seek out earnestly, maybe fast, maybe you get prayer from friends for, to get set free, whatever, you go through this crisis and then boom, you come out on the other side different. And then you go back to that gradual growth. So, so it's like little by little, by little, boom, a spur of a spurt after you hit that wall. And then little by little, by little, by little, and then boom, maybe another spurt, another point in life. But we're by God's grace on that trajectory. And if we'll spend time with Him, and if we'll seek to cultivate the beauty of holiness in our lives, He does change us.

Just like I said, you stay in the rain, you'll get wet. Stay in the presence of God, not just as a routine, not just rote, not just tradition, but of relationship and devotion. As you do that, you will grow. As you do that, you will see grace flooding your life.

You will see change come. Titus 2 11, 2 11 to 2 14 tells us that the grace of God has appeared to all men, teaching us, the believers, to say no to ungodliness. The grace of God, not just forgives us, but empowers us, teaches us to say no to all types of ungodliness and to live upright and disciplined lives in this present age as we wait for the return of our God and Savior, Jesus, who will rescue us from this present world. How about these words from the apostle of love, John, in 1 John?

Can I read them to you? Just the word. We're talking about can Christians really live holy lives, and we're saying yes, by the grace of God, transformed, empowered by God, we can. Not holy the way God is holy. In the same way He's set apart as holy, we want to be set apart as holy. In the same way, He embodies characters of absolute purity and absolute goodness.

We want to embody those, but our embodiment of them, how do you compare it? It would be like a one-year-old counting, right? How far can they count? How many? One, two, three, four. Can they get that? One-year-old? Can they do that?

Can they do that? Compared to Albert Einstein's genius, right? So our holiness compared to God's holiness, they're different universes. And yet, for who we were, to who we are becoming, and then to the standing we have with God as holy people, we've been transformed. So here's 1 John 3, verse 6, and verses 8b to 10. Straight scripture.

Are you ready? No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him. He cannot go on sinning, because he's been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are. Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

Hmm. Can I be totally candid? Some of you I'm talking to have never been born again. You were raised in a Christian home or a Christian traditional religious expression.

You may have gone through certain rites, baptism as a baby or confirmation when you were 13 or so, or you may have gone through these different things. You may have participated in church services, but you've never actually been born again. You don't know God for yourself. And that's why you struggle as you do, because you've never come to know God for yourself. And you realize that you don't know that your sins are forgiven. You don't know if you were to die right now, you go straight into the presence of God. You don't know that you have a relationship with God, that you can really call God your Father and that you know that you're his child. But that's the good news, because you can come to know him right now. That means there's a whole different life you never knew about.

So the bad news is the good news. Right where you are, you can say, God, I recognize I'm a sinner. And I recognize I'm lost without your mercy. And I deserve hell and judgment.

I recognize it. And there's nothing I can do to change that myself, but I believe Jesus died for me. I believe he took my place on the cross. I believe he took what I deserve. And I believe he rose from the dead, God. You sent him. So I'm asking you through what Jesus did.

Forgive me. Wash me clean. Make me your child. Get each other life. And I'm yours. Forever. Go do it, friend.

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1-800-771-5584 or online at trivita.com. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks for joining us today on the Line of Fire. Michael Brown here as we talk about Christians, believers, followers of Jesus being empowered to live holy lies, being empowered to live godly lies. I want to take you to Proverbs chapter 7. This is one of those chapters where you say, well, God's Word really gets it. The authors of Scripture were inspired to speak in ways that are relevant to us.

The people that were writing it, they lived in the same world in which we live. I would read verses from Proverbs to our daughters as they were coming into their teen years to say, hey, God's very wise. He knows the world you live in. And this is what he says. Look at the way the temptation is laid out here. In this case, it's a man being tempted by a woman.

It can go in any direction. But look at this in Proverbs chapter 7, beginning in verse 1. My son, keep my words and store up my commands within you. Keep my commands and you will live. Guard my teachings as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart.

Say to wisdom, you are my sister. And to insight, you are my relative. They will keep you from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words. Again, here it's the picture of the man being seduced by a wayward woman. It could go in any direction.

Temptation can come from any side to any of us. Now, look at this. Look at the description here as Solomon, writing this, sadly not heeding his own warnings, but understanding human nature, says this. At the window of my house, I looked down through the lattice. I saw among the simple.

I noticed among the young man, a youth who had no sense. He was going down the street near her corner, walking along in the direction of her house. At twilight, as the day was fading, as the dark of night set in, then out came a woman to meet him, dressed like a prostitute and with crafty intent. She is unruly and defiant. Her feet never stay at home. Now in the street, now in the squares, at every corner, she lurks.

She took hold of him and kissed him. And with a brazen face, she said, today I fulfilled my vows. So it's, I'm religious like you are. I'm spiritual like you are too. I've gone through my cleansing process.

I'm good. And I've food from my fellowship offering at home. So I've been worshiping at the temple and now I've got some food. I'm spiritual like you are too. Can't you feel the Lord in this? So I came out to meet you. I look for you and I found you.

I just want to stop there. A friend of a friend of mine many years ago was praying for a couple and they came up to him and they asked him, pray that God would bless our relationship. So he was about to pray, but something felt funny. So he said to them, are you married? And they said, oh, yes, yes.

Okay. So we went to pray for them again. And then he said, are you married to each other? And they said, oh no, no, but we're in the process of getting divorces. And we know the Lord's in this, but because before we're intimate, before we're together, we pray in tongues together.

We feel the Lord's presence. Talk about deception. Talk about deception. Oh yeah, I fulfilled my vows. I did my fellowship offerings. The Lord's really going to bless our relationship. And I'm spiritual. I'm clean.

It's amazing how deceptive deception can be. I've covered my bed, she says, with colored linens from Egypt. I've perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, let's drink deeply of love till morning. Let's enjoy ourselves with love till morning.

Let's enjoy ourselves with love. My husband's not at home. He's gone on a long journey.

He took his purse filled with money and will not be home till full moon. She's got it all covered. She's got all the angles covered. And it feels good.

Sounds good. It's just what you want. It's just what you need. Your body wants, your mind wants, your emotions want. It even feels like God's saying, do it.

I mean, that's how far deception can go. But look at this. At once, he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose till an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare, little knowing it will cost him his life.

Now then my sons, listen to me, pay attention to what I say. Do not let your heart turn to her ways or stray onto her paths. Many are the victims she has brought down. Her slain are a mighty throng.

Her house is a highway to the grave leading down to the chambers of death. You know, there's the old saying, sin will cost you more than you plan to pay. It'll keep you longer than you plan to stay. It'll also take you further than you plan to go.

That's what it does. And, and the guy that's laying on the street of San Francisco with a homeless community, just got his teeth kicked in in a fight with another drunk. He was a CEO. He was a successful businessman at the top of his game, started relying on drink and started experimenting with drugs.

Next found himself going through a brutal divorce and found himself out of a house and out of a job. And now on the street, oh, it happens. It happens.

You know, there are people that they're at the top of their game that are highly regarded, highly praised, highly honored. And, and next thing, everything is a disgrace. That's what sin does. But you see here, here's the lie about sin. The lie about sin is if you'll just do it, you'll be satisfied.

Get the monkey off your back, man. Lady, just, just give in and have that drink. Yeah, you used to be an alcoholic, but you're not going to be an alcoholic again.

Just have that one drink. Yes, there used to be a porn addict, but one time it's not going to make you a porn addict. It's okay. Yeah. Oh, okay. Right. So you broke up that person.

It was adulterous and you can still be friends. And you, you open the door, you open the door, and before you know it, there's a trap set. And before you know it, you're trapped. Sin tells you, if you do this, you'll be satisfied. But that's the one guaranteed principle. Sin never satisfies. Sin doesn't satisfy. That's the one thing that is sure sin doesn't satisfy. Instead, sin leads to more sins. In my book, Go and Sin No More, I have 20 reasons not to sin.

And these are the first few. Number one, sin doesn't satisfy. Sin doesn't satisfy. Remember the old commercials for Lay's potato chips? Bet you can't eat just one. Bet you can't eat just one.

Well, it was hard to because of the, the soft content. That each one you ate gave you a desire to eat another. I remember when God set me free from unhealthy eating nine and a half years ago. I was flying overseas. One of the early flights. I think it was my trip to Singapore.

And, and it was shortly after the lifestyle change. And it, because it's a long flight, it's like 12, 15 hours. And so you have a counter just between some of the rows where they just have some snacks out. So you don't have to wait for something to come by.

You can grab some, especially if you're upgraded flying up front as I was. And, and I remember picking up the Oreos because they're Oreo cookies. I used to love Oreos and I held them up. I said, you're not my friend.

You are not my friend. Scientific studies were actually done where, where rats were addicted to Oreo cookies and addicted to cocaine. And they were equally addicted. There's stuff in there that, that creates a desire for more. One reason I became known as drug bear and iron man before I was saved was because I had this high capacity for drugs. And what I would do one day didn't satisfy me the next.

And, and that's, it's common with others, but mine went up so quickly and I had this capacity to do high amounts of drugs. It was so destructive, but that's the, that's the general reality of sin. Sin doesn't satisfy. Instead it leads to more sin. So that, that one kiss with the person you're not married to now leads to a desire for more kisses. And then that leads to a desire for stuff beyond that. And next thing you're full blown fornication or adultery. Sin doesn't satisfy. Sin leads to more sin and then sin leads to worse sin.

Why? Well, some of it's just the natural consequence. You open this door, then this door, and now the desire is more intense. Now this, then this. Once you touch the thing you really want it, you get involved in some illicit making of money.

It's like, whoa, I just made that money. Now you want more. Now you want more. The other principle, the other principle is that you become hardened. One, one young man was telling me, a former porn addict, he said that you just keep getting drawn in and you end up not just spending countless hours of wasting time, but you keep getting drawn in deeper. The thing that satisfied you one day didn't satisfy you the next. So sin doesn't satisfy. Instead sin is doesn't satisfy. Instead sin leads to more sin. Then sin leads to worse sin. And then number four, sin and slaves. Sin and slaves. Cigarette smoking is like the worst sin on the planet. But I remember this illustration.

Someone once used that, holding a make believe cigarette to their mouth and just pulled into the way of this. If they're a smokey, it's saying little master and pointing to their whole body. Big slave. Sin and slaves. And whatever you can do to not get enslaved. Oh, it's nice to be free. Isn't it beautiful to be free? When I got set free from drugs, boy, I felt wonderful.

When I got set free from unhealthy eating, boy, I felt wonderful. And many of you are like, yeah, thank God I used to be an alcoholic. I used to be a porn addict. I used to be a gambler. I used to be violent. I used to be angry. I used to steal. I used to do this.

I used to do that. And God set me free. Don't get yourself enslaved again. And if you're on your way down, cry out for help now.

Cry out to someone that can help you. Not to a fellow sinner on the way down, but to someone that you're accountable to, to a spouse or a spiritual leader and say, I need help. And if you found yourself enslaved, Jesus came to set the captives free.

It's a bad situation, but it's not the end of the world. You can be free. You can be delivered. That's what Jesus does. That's who Jesus is. Look to him, cry out to him and he will bring you into new life that is so wonderful and beautiful that you look back and say, I can't believe who I used to be. I can't believe who I'm becoming. That's the grace of God. That's the goodness of God. Let's live it out, friends. Let's demonstrate Jesus to the world. Another program powered by the Truth Network.