[0:00] Well, they have been trying to get me to change pulpits, and I have told them no, and so they have pulled a coup and changed it anyway. I think if I was going to Malachi chapter 2, Malachi chapter 2 verse 14, I would like to ask you to really, really consider being a part of the marriage retreat that we'll have in July.
[0:23] I personally believe you should work on your marriage more than you work on any other thing. It's a good thing, except your walk with God, and after your walk with God, it ought to be the second most important thing.
[0:36] The first thing is your walk with God. The second thing is your walk with your spouse, and if you don't go to the marriage retreat or if you don't participate tonight, that doesn't mean you're not a good guy.
[0:46] I tease Stephen, but I think he knows I'm teasing, but I do want you to know, I hope you'll work on it. If you were one of the missionaries and I were talking to you, I would say to you, you got only one person that's going to live with you from now to the rest of your life.
[1:01] I worked in a church in 1973. We started working at Dykes Creek Baptist Church. I had the privilege of going back there and preaching a couple of years ago, and one of my young people was the pastor of the church, and the deacons were some of my young people, and that was a lot of fun, but I never see them.
[1:19] They didn't ask me to come back. We haven't gotten together, but I was with Betty back then. I went from there to a place in Tarrant City, Alabama, and worked in a church there, and I'm friends with some of the people on Facebook, and so I see them getting old.
[1:35] They see me getting old, but we don't get together, but Betty was there. And then we came to the Atlanta area, joined two churches in Atlanta while we were making a move from Southern Baptist to Independent Baptist, and Betty was there.
[1:47] And then we started a church in Carlsville, Georgia, and Betty was there. I don't talk to any of those people anymore. Every now and then I bump into them. They're friends on Facebook.
[1:58] We went to Peru. We spent 20 years counting deputation and language school and living in Peru for 18 years, and Betty was there, but they're not there anymore. There's a Peruvian family coming to visit this weekend, and I'll see them, and they used to come to things that we did in our ministry that live a long ways away, but the friends friendship's not that strong because we don't see each other, but Betty was there.
[2:21] There's only one person going to be with you. In fact, when Chris was born 41 years ago, he was always there, but as soon as he could, he left. Got him a wife, and we see each other, and we talk on almost a daily basis, but he's not there.
[2:37] And so I just want you to know, boy, your marriage is worth it. Have date time. Go out to eat with your wife or go for a walk in a park. I used to tell the Peruvians, if you can't afford anything else, you can afford to take a hold of your wife's hand and walk around the block and say some sweet things like you used to when you dated, but work on your marriage.
[2:56] So the marriage retreat in July, and if it's a financial burden that you can't handle, I promise you, I'll figure out a way to help you. The church will. The deacons will. We'll try to help you, but we really want you to participate and work on your marriage.
[3:08] And so that's July. You need to get with some of the church guys. Get it on your calendar and mark it off and be ready to go with us. We'll have a lot of fun, especially if Lamar and Natasha go. If they go, it will be a hoot.
[3:20] All I'm going to say is tool belt and tool hat and hard hat, and that's all I'm going to say. If you want more information, come to the marriage retreat. Malachi chapter 2, verse 14.
[3:33] I know what you're thinking. We're preaching on protecting our marriage, and we're going to the buck of Malachi. But look at what he says. Yet you say, wherefore? This is one of them arguments again.
[3:43] He said, because the Lord hath been witness between thee, between you and the wife of your youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously. Yet she is thy companion and the wife of your covenant.
[3:57] And did not he make one? Yet he had the residue of spirit, and therefore one that he might seek a godly seed. I'm not going to preach on that, but you ought to underline that.
[4:08] You know, one of the greatest benefits of a good, godly marriage is godly kids. One of the greatest benefits of a good, godly marriage, and where the man loves Jesus and the woman loves Jesus, and they're working on their marriage, is they raise good, godly kids.
[4:23] And so we had two deacons on the platform tonight with their children. That's a great testimony. And that's what's going on there. A good, godly seed.
[4:34] That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore, take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the Lord God of Israel saith that he hates putting away.
[4:47] Write divorce there. Put a circle around that. He hates divorce. He hates divorce. He hates it when you put your wife away. For one covers violence with his garment, saith the Lord of hosts.
[5:00] Therefore, take heed to your spirit that you deal not treacherously. Father in heaven, I ask you to help now. As I open your word and ask you to speak to us and help us to learn some biblical principles about protecting our marriage.
[5:15] I will give you praise and honor and glory for all the truths that we can gain from your word tonight and put in practice in our lives. Now, thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen. Now, if you didn't participate in the vows, that's okay.
[5:28] And if you're not married, that's okay. And because this message will work for all of us because we ought to protect our marriage. If you're not married yet, you ought to go ahead and protect it.
[5:39] Because you're going to have it one day, Lord willing. If you have it one day, you want to protect it. And if you don't ever get married, you still ought to protect your testimony about loving Jesus. And here's what. Go back in your Bible to Malachi 2.14 just so you see.
[5:50] That's pretty obvious we're talking about marriage here. God has come as a witness between them and the wife of their youth. Now, I'm 62 years old today. Betty will soon be 63 in just a few days.
[6:03] And we've been married 43 years. And she's the wife of my youth. We got married when I was the ripe old age of 18. Three days later, I turned 19. She's the wife of my youth.
[6:15] And God doesn't want me to mistreat her. God doesn't want me to be unfaithful to her. God doesn't want me to commit treason against her. That's what the passage is about.
[6:26] He said, y'all have dealt treacherously. Then if you would, in verse 15, go back to the last four words of 14 and underline this. She's the wife of your covenant. You made a promise.
[6:38] Wife, covenant. The covenant is a pact. It's an agreement. It's not a contract. Contracts are based on not trusting. Covenants are based on trusting. Go down, if you would, to verse 16 and go back several words and see this.
[6:53] Don't deal treacherously against the wife of your youth. Be faithful to the wife of your youth. Verse 16, God hates divorce. God hates divorce.
[7:06] That's not his will. We don't have an option here. We get in to stay in. Now, if you've been divorced, you can know that God loves you, but now that you're married again, he hates divorce.
[7:17] Don't do it. Say amen. We don't do that. We're going to stay together, and we're going to not deal treacherously with the wife of our youth or with the husband of our youth, which I could not get straight in the wedding.
[7:29] But it was a blank, and I don't do well on filling the blank test. And so I couldn't figure out who I was talking to. And I haven't had a tequila, for those of you that were wondering. I never have yet.
[7:41] Be careful. We need to be careful with our spiritual life. You know how you protect your marriage? You are very careful with your spiritual life. The most important ingredient in my marriage is how I walk with God.
[7:55] The most important ingredient in my marriage is how I walk with God. So we need to be careful with our spiritual life. And we do that by engrafting the Word of God in our heart. You see, Americans don't think clearly, and they don't think right.
[8:09] We have wrong ways of thinking. And so we want to engraft the Word. Look at James 1.21 with me, if you would. The Bible says in James 21, Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness.
[8:21] I need to stop. And every TV show that we watch, where everybody's got a lover, and everybody's messing around, and everybody's doing it, whether you listen to it, whether you read it in a novel, whether you watch it on TV, or whether you see your neighbors doing it, that's superfluity of naughtiness.
[8:35] That's filthiness. And we put that aside. We don't want that stuff. And then we receive with meekness, we receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save our souls.
[8:47] That means we take the Word of God, and we cut out the other stuff. We lay apart the filthy stuff, and we cut out that, and we stick the Word of God until it becomes a natural part of us. So it's who we are.
[9:00] We are to fill our heart with the Word of God to avoid sin. It's not a youth meeting message. It's truth. The Bible says in Psalm 119, Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?
[9:11] By taking heed, paying attention, obeying, putting in practice the Word of God. In Psalm 119, it says, Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against you. So we are careful, and the first way we're careful is we get the Word in us.
[9:24] That's why Vision Baptist Church is such a Bible church. We've always got the Bible out. We're always talking about it. Number two, we seek God through prayer. We seek God through prayer. In the Bible, we are told that we can pray about not getting messed up in sin.
[9:39] The Bible says in Matthew 6, 13, in the Lord's Prayer, we call it the model prayer. He said, lead us not into temptation. Lead us not into temptation. In Luke 22, verse 40, he said, Pray that you enter not into temptation.
[9:53] He said, you ought to pray, God, keep me away from temptation. God, keep me away from the things that might mess up my life. Luke 22, verse 46, he said, Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.
[10:05] Get up, get in touch with God, so that you don't get messed up and get into temptation, into a place where you might fall in sin. Then we should separate ourselves from sin and sinful attractions.
[10:17] And I want to say a couple of things here that you probably won't really like me for. But in 2 Corinthians 6, 14, which I have referenced lately, he said not to be unequally yoked.
[10:28] He said, what fellowship, what communion, what concord, what part, what agreement do the people of God have with sin? We're not like that. So, you know, you and I need to, like, we need to stay away from people, places, and things that would take us to divorce, that would take us to fornication, that would take us to adultery.
[10:49] We need to say, if I go over that way, I notice what they do. I'm not going over there. You know, I'll be honest with you. Don't, don't. I love, if you've been through a divorce and you are trying to serve God, I love you and I'm all for it.
[11:01] But anybody promoting divorce, I'd stay as far away from them as I could. All right, listen to radio announcements. When I'm going, I'm coming into the church in the mornings, and I'll hear a radio announcement and say, you know, we help you get out of your marriage and still be a nice guy.
[11:16] What? We help you get out of your marriage and we help you still be a nice guy. What in the world is that? I'm staying away from that yahoo. I don't want to know him. I don't want to go out to eat with him. I don't have anything to do with him.
[11:26] I don't want you promoting that stuff around me. So I need to worry about me. Betty's a very kind and sweet lady. And honestly, we have fights at our house, but our fights are usually me getting my voice up and her crying.
[11:41] And so she doesn't fight for her. So if we have an argument, she just goes, and I'm like, shut up, fight like a man. And she's like, and I hate that.
[11:53] I don't know. Why can't she just punch me? I can punch her back. Amen. But you know what she'll say to me occasionally? She'll say, you having some spiritual issues?
[12:05] What's that supposed to mean? She says, because when you're really walking with God, you're always nice to me. Aren't you glad you're not married to a woman who would play such devilish tricks on you?
[12:15] She pulls the preacher stuff on me. She even said back when I used to preach quite a bit of marriage stuff, she'd say, I love it when you preach on marriage. I said, well, thank you. She said, it makes you such a better husband.
[12:28] Because you know, I'm feeling convicted I have to behave because I'm preaching it. But here is the truth. No joke. Nothing Betty's saying. When I'm walking with God, I'm a far better husband. You know, if you want to be a good husband, just get right with God.
[12:39] You want to be a good wife, just get really right with God. Because when you're really right with God, it'll affect the way you treat your spouse. Number two, be careful with your thoughts. Number one, my spiritual life. Number two, my thought life.
[12:51] Number two, my thought life. In Philippians chapter 4 and verse 8, we're taught to think on these things. In 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 3 and 4 and 5, we are told to bring every thought into obedience to Christ.
[13:07] And so I am to keep my thoughts in obedience. Now, listen to what I'm going to tell you. Every one of us have crazy thoughts that come into our head.
[13:19] Thoughts about sin. Thoughts about being ugly. Thoughts about not being what we ought to be. And we need to understand those thoughts are of the devil and they're not right. And you know, for you to think a thought the first time is not really your fault.
[13:32] But if you entertain the thought, it is. So you know, a thought comes to your head about how you're angry or you're bitter or you're upset about something and it knocks on your door. And then you invite the thought in.
[13:43] And you say, sit down. Let's talk a while. Let me talk about how my wife hasn't been good to me. Let me talk about how my wife's been giving me snide remarks. And you bring that in and you keep meditating on it. When the Bible's really clear, make sure you're thinking things that please God.
[13:56] All that are lovely and pure and of good report. That's what I'm supposed to think about. Did you know that love hopes all things, believes all things, endures all things? And if I was doing that, if I kept my thought life straight right there, wouldn't we automatically be in really good shape?
[14:10] Can I get an amen right there? I need to learn to fill my heart with that Bible that we talked about in the first thing. And then I need to learn to think about that Bible in the second thing, third thing that you mark down somewhere there that goes right along with it.
[14:23] Be careful with your eyes. Be careful with your eyes. Job 31.1 said he made a covenant with his eyes. He said to his eyes, I don't want you thinking on a maid.
[14:38] And that really helps you understand what lust is. You see, you make a covenant with your eyes so that if you look at something, you don't think about what you looked at. You really can't help it that you might see somebody that's not dressed in the most appropriate way and it might cause you to bring up a thought, but you can choose what you're going to think about, which is the last verse.
[14:56] You're going to bring all your thoughts under obedience. You make a covenant and say, I don't, basically this verse means quit taking your clothes off with your eyes. Quit thinking the things you ought not think. Basically, if I make a covenant with my eyes, I'm going to decide I'm not going to look where I shouldn't be looking, which would mean I am going to get something on my phone and on my iPad and on my computer that is an accountability situation so I won't fall into porn.
[15:21] And I know what you think. You think, man, he sure talks about that a lot. If you dealt with what I deal with, you'd know it's a big issue. I'm shocked when I'm dealing with somebody and they say a girl has it.
[15:34] I didn't know girls had those problems. But I'll just tell you something. Every Christian ought to decide. You live in a day and time when the devil puts the filthiest junk in front of you and gets your eyes on the wrong thing and gets your mind on the wrong thing and you start thinking what you shouldn't.
[15:49] So go with me to Proverbs 625. Don't desire another in your heart. Don't lust. Don't be enticed. Don't desire another in your heart.
[16:00] Don't lust. Don't be enticed. Verse 25. Proverbs 625. Lust not after her beauty in thine heart. Let's change the word lust.
[16:11] Because sometimes we don't understand the word lust. And all it really means is desire. All it really means is want. Don't want after her beauty. Don't look at her and say, man, I wish my wife was that pretty. Don't look after her and say, I wish I had a girlfriend that nice.
[16:23] You have just taken a lust step. See, first off, I ought to be satisfied with everything God's given me and I don't need anything but what God's given me. How about an amen right there? So your wife is 40 years older than she was the day you married her.
[16:35] And she might not look like she did 40 years ago. But she's the woman God gave you and you're going to look at her. You're going to think about her and you're not going to think about the other stuff. Girls, it also says that you're not supposed to take him with your eyelids.
[16:49] There are very few preachers going to preach on that one, aren't they? They might preach on the short skirts and the tight clothes or whatever. But this girl here, she's using her eyes. She knows how to flirt. She knows how to flirt. She knows how to get him interested.
[17:02] But I'm married to Betty and I've been married to her for 43 years and I need to keep my spiritual life right, keep my thought life right, and keep my eyes in the right place. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 27, it's better to lose your eye than desire another.
[17:17] It's better to lose your eye than desire another. Now that's a really drastic thing. You know that verse, those verses are just over the top, but they were told by the Lord Jesus, so they're not really over the top.
[17:32] We just like to think under the bottom. Because what he said was, if you can't get your eyes off other people, because when you look at them and think what you ought not think, you're committing adultery in your heart and it'd be better if you just plucked your eyeball out.
[17:44] When they want to make fun of us on TV, they talk about how we believe that kind of stuff. And they like to act like we want to pluck people's eyes out. But can you get something here? He said it'd be better you lost your eye than if you looked at somebody you ought not be looking at and thought what you ought not be thinking.
[18:00] So I need to control my eyes and what they're looking at. David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel chapter 11 and verse 2, David is walking on the rooftop in the evening tide.
[18:12] He looks over and he saw a young woman. He saw a woman washing herself and he noticed that she was very beautiful. He's walking on the rooftop, looking over the rooftop, sees a woman taking a bath and he took Lana to figure out she was pretty.
[18:24] He didn't go, whoa, and turn his eyes. He didn't bounce his eyes as one book put it, where you would look and say, I'm not, no, I shouldn't be looking at it. I'm getting my eyes away quickly. He said, let me check her out and see how pretty she is.
[18:35] And he saw that. And David, that great man, will soon be committing adultery, have a baby out of wedlock, and kill a man and bring great harm on his family.
[18:51] I don't want that to be my story. Can you say amen there? Stop making comparisons. Stop making comparisons. Our lives are made up of comparisons.
[19:09] Who's tall? That's a comparison. Who's short? That's a comparison. Who's fat? That's a comparison. Who's dark-skinned? That's a comparison. Who's light-skinned? That's a comparison. Who's smart?
[19:19] Who's dumb? It's all comparisons. And the truth is, when you make comparisons, you get in trouble. Because it's easy to look at your wife and think she's not as pretty as that guy's wife or his wife is more loving or his wife or his wife.
[19:32] You don't do that. And whenever you do make a comparison, here's what we have in the book of Song of Solomon. He said to his wife, as a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.
[19:44] So when he looked at his wife, he said, baby, you are like the only flower in a whole forest of thorns. You're the only pretty one. When Betty and I were young missionaries 250 years ago, we would go to these big meetings where there'd be tons of missionaries like the young people do now.
[20:06] They come around, and we'd get ready to go in. And, you know, you're kind of nervous because all these other people, you don't know them all very well. You're not sure who they are. And I'd always lean over and I'd say, I feel so sorry for these guys.
[20:17] Well, you feel sorry? I said, man, they all married dogs. Now, you're not supposed to say that. But here he did, didn't he? I mean, that's about what he said. He said, I'm looking around this room, and they're all thorns, baby.
[20:28] You're the only lily in the room. If you're going to make any comparisons, that's the only one you're allowed to make. Now, when we were first married, my mother used to cook green beans until they were well cooked, like soft and mushy.
[20:40] And I married Betty. And, you know, my mama's country lady. Betty's like city folk, Alvaretta style. I'm like Beverly Hillbilly style. And so she cooked green beans, and they were like firm and crisp.
[20:54] And I told her, I said, these beans are not done. And she said, well, some people eat them that way. And I'm like, well, they're weird. Now, that's how I eat them. And if you've served me that mush, I'm like, what?
[21:07] But I told her, I said, you know, you need to learn how to cook for my mama. That really didn't go over too good. Song of Solomon chapter 6 and verse 8, he said, there were three score queens.
[21:18] There were 60 queens and 80 concubines and so many virgins, you can't count them. But my dove, mine defiled is but one. She's the only one of her mother.
[21:30] She's the choice one of her that bear. The daughter saw her and blessed her. Yea, the queens and the concubines, and they praised her. My wife's like the only one like her. You know, that's what y'all be thinking about your wife.
[21:41] It wouldn't hurt if you whispered that to her. It wouldn't hurt if you just leaned over and gave her a squeeze and say, he's describing you. You are that girl. That's what's going on there. Now, I got 10 minutes, and I really want to get to the last thing.
[21:53] So let me say very quickly, don't develop intimate friendships with the opposite sex. You want to protect your marriage? People even say that I hate women.
[22:05] I don't hate women. I'm married to one. I just hate the rest of them. I don't really hate them, but I figure I need to stay with the one I got. You know, we don't need to, in this world, you text other, men text women that aren't their wife.
[22:22] They meet for coffee with women that aren't their wife. They write little emails. They say sweet little cute things to each other. That's just like, you're starting down a road you don't need to be on. Just take it from a guy who's been married longer than you've been alive.
[22:35] That's not the best road. By the way, if she ever saw what you're texting, if she ever saw what you're emailing, if she ever heard the phone call, you might find out she don't think it's a thing. She wouldn't.
[22:46] She'd say, that preacher, the only one thinks that I think it. So I just made a rule a long time ago. No friends of the opposite sex. No friends of the opposite sex.
[22:59] Which makes people say things about me that I don't like women. I like women. I respect women. I believe in women. I think they're great. I just don't think I need to be getting real close to them. Let me give you one more, and then I want to walk you through a verse.
[23:12] Be accountable to someone for all of your conduct. Be accountable. Now, I am not telling you, you know, you'll all figure out what you want to do here.
[23:23] The body keep of when we built the Bible college, it took three keys to get into my office. If they locked the outside gate, I had a key.
[23:34] If they locked the inside gate, I had a key. It was actually the door into the office section that me and a couple of secretaries shared. They had this room, and I was in there. And so it took three keys to get into my office.
[23:47] And the day I got my keys, I walked in the house, and I said, now let me explain to you how to use these keys. You can go all the way into the office. I don't have passwords I don't share. I don't have places locked up she can't get to.
[23:59] When we moved into this building, and I was given a key, I immediately made Betty a key, and I said, you can get into my office anytime you need to get into my office. There is nothing off limits for you. There is nothing off limits.
[24:10] Some of us are a little embarrassed to have something like Covenant Eyes or any of that sort of thing on our telephone or on our, we use, a lot of the guys are using Disney Circle.
[24:23] But any way to try to keep that stuff, well, you don't want to be accountable, but we need to be accountable. I need somebody watching me. Okay, I'd like to finish with this.
[24:33] I want you to go with me to James 1.13. And this is where I'd really like to spend some time with you. So by understanding how it is that we arrive at the point of sin and maybe we can protect our marriage. How do we get to the point of sinning?
[24:46] How do we get to the point of sinning? Nobody, I don't think that Christian people, God's people set out to sin.
[24:57] I really need you to hear this. It's already happened at vision. More than one time where marriages have fallen apart. I want you to feel shocked.
[25:15] And I want it to weigh on you. Because it can happen to you. Pastors, missionaries, Sunday school teachers.
[25:25] Pastors, happens all the time. Preachers that we love and honor and respect aren't loyal to the wife of their youth. One of the missionaries, for about a period of four or five weeks, sent me a letter every week saying, another one of my supporting pastors just bit the dust.
[25:47] Adultery. And he'd say, sorry to tell you about this one. Sorry to tell you that it's just happening all the time. So how could I avoid that? What's the steps? Look at James 1.13.
[25:58] And James kind of outlines how sin destroys us. Let no man say, when he's tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil. Neither tempts he any man. Now we can stop right there.
[26:09] That's a real clear verse. It ain't God's fault. You are not predestined to commit adultery. You are not predestined to look at porn. And you don't have a besetting sin God threw on you so you could struggle with it all your life.
[26:23] If you got a besetting sin, you beset it. So unset it. Quit blaming God. I mean, we're worse than the comedian that said, when I was a kid, the devil made me do it.
[26:33] Christians now say, God made me do it. Maybe they ought to read James 1.13. If you're tempted, it ain't God doing it. But, verse 14 says, but, it ain't God doing it, but, every man is tempted when he is drawn away, underline this, of his own lust.
[26:53] Underline that. His own lust. You see, it starts with desires in our heart for things that aren't right. So I'm already wanting something. I'm already thinking something.
[27:04] I'm already doing stuff in my own self to get me to the place. It's in me. It's not the other woman. It's not the other man. It's not the television. It's not God. It's not the devil.
[27:15] The Bible said, inspired scripture said, it wasn't God, but it was your own lust. Own it. That's step one. Own it. Because it's your own lust.
[27:28] Then, we're enticed. There's some bait that attracts us. But bait doesn't attract you unless you want it. You know, if you were trying to trap me and trying to get me to gain weight and eat some food, and you offered me liver, I would have no problem with a diet plan.
[27:51] You said, man, we fixed you up this big chunk of liver and onions. This is the best liver. I'd be like, I smell it. I'm fasting. I don't have any. I mean, honestly.
[28:02] Now, you put a rib eye there. I'm going there. You put liver there, and I just feel like the Lord's leading me to move on. There's a whole lot of other foods you put there. I just feel like the Lord wants me to move on.
[28:13] See, what happens is, it doesn't entice me unless I want it. It doesn't entice me unless I want it. You've got to own it.
[28:24] You've got to accept that the problem's not God, not predestination, not fatalism, not determinism. It is you want it. And then you're enticed.
[28:37] In other words, we allow ourselves to be convinced. We allow ourselves to be convinced. Look at the verse now. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.
[28:50] Then when lust hath conceived, it brings forth sin, and sin when it's finished brings forth death. So watch this. I want it.
[29:02] The opportunity's there. They get together, and sin is conceived. I want it. The opportunity's there. They get together. And sin is conceived. Truth is, porn doesn't have to beat you.
[29:15] If you didn't want it, you wouldn't get it. Yes. The truth is, that other lady, if you weren't dissatisfied and thinking thoughts you ought not be thinking, that other lady, you'd just say no, and you wouldn't.
[29:30] I don't care if you work with her and smell her perfume every day. You'd say, no, no, no, no. That is not me. I've got to move. I've got to quit thinking these thoughts. I've got to get my mind full of the word of God. I am not going to let myself want that. And then I'm going to get away from that temptation.
[29:44] But look what the verse says. You're tempted when you're drawn away of your own lust, and you're enticed. And when lust hath conceived, it brings forth sin. And sin, when it's finished, when it is finished, brings forth death.
[29:59] To me, this is like the perfect picture of a trap. The trap is set. You set it with something the prey wants. The prey walks into it to get what it wants.
[30:10] The spring sprung. The trap collapses on the animal, or whatever it is. And it will soon be dead. And then he says, I just love this verse.
[30:26] Do not err. That's like, so don't make a mistake, my brothers. My beloved brothers, I love you. So don't make a mistake. So here's how we make a mistake. The number one way we make a mistake is we think God's the one doing it to us.
[30:40] I mean, I'm so tired of hearing God made you do it. Where'd you get that junk? Where'd you get that junk? He doesn't tempt you. He's not God doing it.
[30:52] Then the devil made you do it. No, he didn't. You wanted it. It's your own lust. And then you got where there was opportunity. So change where you're going. Change what you're looking at.
[31:05] Get some accountability. Because my beloved brothers do not make the mistake of thinking you're stronger than sin. If any man thinks he's staying, let him take heed, let's he fall.
[31:16] None of us are beyond it. We've got very godly older men that are married for over 25 years in this room, but they are not beyond it. There are people who have been married 18 years and got a divorce.
[31:31] I can think of the name right now. Not at this church. I can think of the name right now. I have known people who have been married 25 and 30 years and got a divorce. Not how long you've been married. None of us get to a point where we're exempt from sin.
[31:41] But we really do. When we're dead, we're exempt. One way or the other. That's about the last, that's only the first time we're exempt. So my brothers, don't make a mistake. Your marriage is worth it. Protect it.
[31:53] Protect it. A sweet young girl fell in love with me. Decided to love me and give herself to me 43 and a half years ago. My God said, Austin, don't you betray her.
[32:11] Don't you deal treacherously with her. Don't you abuse her. She's the wife of your youth. You gave her promises. And just because you're going through a midlife crisis, you do not get an exemption.
[32:22] And just because there's somebody else being nicer to you, you don't get an exemption. But we say, I do, we mean it.