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Isaiah chapter number five, the Bible reads, Now while I sing a song to my well beloved, a song of my beloved touching his vineyard, my well beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. And he fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof and planted it with a choicest vine and built a tower in the midst of it and also made a winepress therein. And he looked that it should bring forth grapes and it brought forth wild grapes. Now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge I pray you betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore when I look that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes. And now go to I'll tell you what I'll do to my vineyard. I'll take away the hedge thereof and it shall be eaten up and break down the wall thereof and it shall be trodden down and I'll lay at waste. It shall not be pruned nor digged, but there shall come up briars and thorns. I'll also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. But the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah his pleasant plant. And he looked for judgment, but behold oppression, for righteousness, but behold a cry. Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth. My near said the Lord of hosts, of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair without inhabitant. Yet 10 acres of vineyard shall yield one bath and the sea of Nomer shall yield an ephah. Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong drink. They continue until night to wine and flame them. And the harp and the vial, the tabret and pipe and wine are in their feasts, but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands. Therefore my people are gone into captivity because they have no knowledge and their honorable men are famished and their multitude dried up with thirst. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure and their glory and their multitude and their pomp and he that rejoiceth shall descend into it. And the mean man shall be brought down and the mighty man shall be humbled and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled. But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. Then shall the lambs feed after their manner and the waste places of the fat one shall strangers eat. Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart rope, that say let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it. Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine and men of strength to mingle strong drink, which justify the wicked for reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him. Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness and their blossom shall go up as dust, because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people and he hath stretched forth his hand against them and hath smitten them. And the hills did tremble and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far and will hiss unto them from the ends of the earth. Behold they shall come with speed swiftly, none shall be weary nor stumble among them. None shall slumber nor sleep, neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed nor the lashes of their shoes be broken, whose arrows are sharp and all their bow is bent. The horses hoofs shall be counted like flint and their wheels like a whirlwind. Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions, yea they shall roar and lay hold of the prey. They shall carry it away safe and none shall deliver. And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea. And if one look unto the land behold darkness and sorrow, the light is darkened in the heavens thereof. Let's pray. Dear God, just thank you for this day, thank you for our salvation and for your word. Just ask that you would be with our pastor now as he preaches it, please fill him with your spirit. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Amen. All right, we are in Isaiah chapter number five. Let me get set up here. The title of my sermon this morning is Cutting the Unbiblical Cord. Cutting the Unbiblical Cord, let's see if I can just, that's my version of an unbiblical cord there. And I'll tell you this, you'll never forget this sermon. All right, we'll put it this way, there you go. Cutting the Unbiblical Cord. Look down at your Bibles at Isaiah chapter five and verse number 18. The Bible reads, woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart rope. The Bible says here in the book of Isaiah, much like any other time in Israel's history, God's people were backsliding. We know that they were getting involved in idolatry. More specifically, according to this chapter, we see that they're involved in covetousness, okay? And here we see that they were so attached to their sin that God described it as them drawing iniquity with cords and sin as it were a cart rope. That's what the Bible tells us and he's basically saying that they're so fastened to their sin, they're so attached to their sin, it's as if they're pulling it, they're pulling in their transgressions with cords and with a cart rope, a strong, stout rope or cord, and that's how involved they were in their sin. Now go to chapter one if you would. Isaiah chapter number one. We see this throughout Israel's history and we see that even though they're involved in sin, they're kind of still going through the motions, okay? Because in chapter one, we see that they're still assembling together, they're still offering their oblations and their sacrifices and they're honoring God with their lips and their mouth. And in fact, later on in chapter 29, we see that God says of them that they honor him with their mouth, they basically praise them with their lips, but their heart is far from him. So even though they have this outward expression of being religious and acting like they're right with God, inwardly they were far from God, inwardly they were still coveting and doing things that were wicked in the eyes of the Lord. But look at chapter one in verse number four, it says, "'O sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, "'a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters, "'they have forsaken the Lord. "'They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger. "'They are gone away backward. "'Why should you be stricken anymore? "'Ye will revolt more and more. "'The whole head is sick, the whole heart faint. "'From the sole of the foot even unto the head, "'there is no soundness in it. "'But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, "'they have not been closed, neither bound up, "'neither mollified with ointment.'" What is God saying? He's saying this nation has become so sinful, it's not just the leadership that's guilty, it's even the layman. Because he says from the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it. And when he says the sole of the foot, he's referring to the common people. When he says the head, he's referring to the religious leaders, the political leaders. And he's saying, when you look at that entire spectrum of people within this nation, they're all guilty of sin. They're all guilty of this, they're all covetous, they're all sinful, they are all far away from God. And what was gonna be the result of that? Well, he was gonna judge them. He was gonna destroy them, he was gonna allow them to be conquered by a foreign nation. And in fact, in chapter five, he says this famous statement that you'll see throughout the book of Isaiah, my hand is stretched out still, okay? Now, I know a lot of liberals will try to put that in the calendar and make it seem like, oh, my hand is stretched out still. But actually what he's referring to is his hand of chastisement. So because he's chastising them, he's spanking them, he's saying, look, I'm not gonna retrieve my hand, my hand is still stretched out, you're still gonna get a whooping, you're still gonna get chastised, you are still gonna be punished. That was the result of the rebellion against God. Now, let me ask you this, do you think God wanted to destroy them? No, you know, God loved his people. The Bible tells us that he loved them with an everlasting love, and with loving kindness, he wanted to draw them. He wanted them to get right with God, but they were unwilling to, they were being rebellious. He wanted to restore them. Now, look at verse 15. So we see that they are sinful from the sole of the foot to the head, and what was the solution? What did they have to do? Did God just say, well, I'm just gonna overlook all your sin, I'm just gonna act like I didn't see it, I'm just gonna give you a free pass. No, he says there's something you have to do on your end in order to get right. In order for me to bless you, in order for me to restore you, in order for God to help them get back to where they need to be, it required something on their part first. Look at verse 15, it says, and when you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you. Yay, when you make many prayers, I will not hear your hands are full of blood. Now, how would you like to be in that position right there? Where God says, look, when you pray, I'm not gonna listen to you. You can spread forth your hands and act like you wanna get right with me, but I'm just gonna hide my eyes from you. I'm not even gonna look upon that. Look at verse 16. Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes, cease to do evil, he says, learn to do well, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow, come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. So what is he saying? Hey, if you want to be restored, you gotta cut the unbiblical cord. If you want for me to bless you again, then something has got to go. You have to cease from doing evil and you have to learn to do well. He is expecting for them to do something on their part, why? Because his restoration would be reciprocated once they repent, okay? And this is similar to what we see in the book of James, for example, in chapter number four, where he says, draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded, okay? So basically, you have to be the one to initiate getting right with God and God will take care of the rest. He wanted them to cut the unbiblical cord. He wanted them to cut that cart rope, okay? That cord of vanity that was drawing all that sin, all those transgressions, he wanted them to cut it, okay? Because it was gonna cause them to die, it was gonna cause them to be judged. He wanted them to sever that attachment to sin. Now go with me if you would to the book of Colossians, chapter number three. Now I have this as an illustration, obviously this is not the best illustration of an umbilical cord, okay? We have doctors in our church, forgive me for the plumpness of this, it's typically pretty flat and very gray, okay? If you've actually ever seen one. But an umbilical cord is the fleshly tube that connects an unborn baby to his mother's placenta, right? And basically, it's known as the baby supply line. That's what they use to receive blood and nutrients and oxygen. And basically they're fed through that too, okay? Opinions as to when you cut it. If you have fallen prey to the industrial birthing complex, they seek to cut it right away, right? Because they need a good turnaround on that bed. And sometimes people will go to a birthing center or they have a midwife and they'll let you keep it for like an hour or something. My son, Isaiah, when he was born, that thing was attached to him for like an hour and then I cut it or whatever. But here's the thing, you know, regardless of what you opinionate, when it should be cut, you would expect to look at my son right now and not find an umbilical cord attached to him, right? It's like, yeah, you know, you keep it on for an hour, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, it really doesn't matter, or cut it off right away or whatever. But here's the thing, you know, he's getting older, okay? He is two years old, you know, it's time to have cut the umbilical cord at that point, okay? He said, where are you going with this? Well, think about this. Now, obviously no illustration is perfect, but think about this. You know, when we're born again, at that point, you know, we come to the Christian life with a lot of baggage, do we not? Sinful baggage. The Bible says, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin, wherein in time past he walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom we also had our conversation in time past, walking in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath. So we come to the Christian life with sin, we come with bad habits, we come with things that are not pleasing to God, but when we're born again, when we get saved, what does God expect us to do? To cut that umbilical cord, the unbiblical cord. Now here's the thing, if a child keeps that umbilical cord for two hours, does that mean he was just like never born? No, right? Well, in like manner folks, you know, Christians, they get saved sometimes and they don't get right with God, they don't clean up their life, but guess what, they're still born again. Even if they don't cut that unbiblical cord, that cord of sin that draws iniquity, that cord of vanity that draws transgression and sin, they're still born again. But here's the thing, you still need to cut it though. And we should make an effort to cut things from our lives, sever that unbiblical cord, that cord that is drawing iniquity, that cord is drawing sin from our lives. You know, the Bible tells us, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Knowing that so many of us were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death, therefore we are buried with him by baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead, even so we also should walk in newness of life. So I gotta say, look, when you get saved, walk in newness of life. Start, you know, cleaning up your life, start repenting of your sin, start getting right with God, cut that unbiblical cord from your life. And look, just as the unbiblical cord is a supply line to an unborn child to feed them, to give them nutrients, one like manner, every Christian has some sort of supply line from their flesh, right, that makes provision for the flesh, it feeds them, you know, whether that's a group of friends that you have, the environments that you hang around in, the places you go, the things that you see, those things are feeding your flesh, and the Bible says, make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. What are you supposed to do? Cut it off. Cut it off. Look at Colossians chapter three and verse number one, the title of the sermon is cutting the unbiblical cord. Look at verse number one, it says, if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God, set your affections on things above, not on the things on the earth, for ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Look what it says in verse number five, mortify, therefore your members which are upon the earth. Now what does it mean to mortify, it means to kill. Think of a mortician, the person who deals with dead people, okay? Corpses, he's saying, mortify, put to death, therefore your members which are upon the earth, and then he goes through a list here, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence and covetousness, which is idolatry, for which things sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience, in the which ye also walked sometime when ye lived in them, but now also, but now ye also put up all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication, out of your mouth, he says. Now, let me make something very clear. Even though the Bible tells us that we need to cut these things from our life, we're never fully gonna get rid of all these things in our life, right? I mean, it's gonna be a constant struggle, this side of eternity, to live a life that's pleasing unto the Lord, why? Because the flesh lusteth against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh, these are contrary to one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. And there's a group of people out there in churches that will try to teach you that once you get saved, batteries come included, you should sin no more. No more sin, no more this, and if you sin, you're not even saved, that's false, folks. The Bible says that for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, there's none that doeth good, no, not one. The Bible says there's not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not. So, you know, you must be calling God a liar if you put that in the Bible to say there's not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not, okay? And so, what I'm not saying is this, is that once you cut off the unbiblical cord, you're just good to go. No, because this is also a process in life, right? A process of sanctification, getting right with God, cleaning up your life, doing that which is pleasing unto the Lord. Now, go to Judges chapter 16, if you will, Judges chapter 16. I'm gonna give you an example of this. Title is cutting the unbiblical cord. Hey, if you're saved, now that you're saved, now that you're in church, now that you know the truth, now it's time to clean up your life. Now it's time to put off the fornication, right? What is fornication? Having physical relations with the opposite sex before marriage. That's fornication. And you know what? It's a grievous sin, it's a wicked sin that God does not approve of. And in fact, the Bible specifically says that if an individual is involved in fornication in the local church, they cannot be in that local church. That's what the Bible says. According to 1 Corinthians 5, people who commit fornication are to be excommunicated from the church, to put away the leaven from among them, lest the church becomes a cesspool of sin. You know, hey, if you were involved in weed, you do a little recreational drugs, local church, if you're involved in those things. And look, even if you weren't in church, you should quit doing that stupid nonsense. Why? Because I'm sure everyone here doesn't wanna be a stupid person. And you know what alcohol does to you? It makes you stupid. Yeah, I said it, it makes you an idiot. It makes you stupid smoking weed, it makes you stupid doing drugs, makes you stupid doing true previous. Therefore our benefit. God's not saying don't drink cause he doesn't want you to have any fun. There's no fun waking up on Sunday morning with a hangover throwing up, wondering what you did the previous night cause you don't even remember cause you blacked out. That's not fun. Samson, of course, Samson was one of the strongest men in the Bible. And we obviously understand later on, he gets, you know, he is deceived by Delilah and he ends up getting his eyes plucked out. He ended his life really bad, okay? Got his eyes gouged out, was made fun of, ultimately committed suicide, and it was really bad for him. But he was one of the strongest men in the Bible. It's not because he had muscles or because he was able to deadlift a whole lot. It's because he was filled with the Spirit. And that Spirit, when they would come upon him, would give him this supernatural strength to do these amazing tasks. And he was able to accomplish much even in his lifetime. But we see that he meets a woman by the name of Delilah. And Delilah is trying to wrap him with cords and trying to, you know, get him killed and he breaks through the cords. And, you know, we see that done a couple times. And sometimes when I read the story of Samson, I'm like, you're an idiot, man. Like, after the third or fourth time of her trying to figure out where my strength lies, it's like, I don't think you really love me. You're trying to kill me. But any parent knows when their teenager falls in love, it's over. It's like, you know, they can't see beyond anything else, even if that spouse, or even if that person's trying to kill them. We won't be able to see it. Look at Judges 16 verse 18, it says, when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, come up this once, for he hath showed me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her and brought money in their hand. And she made him sleep upon her knees, and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head, and she began to afflict him, and his strength went. And finally, he basically told her, it's in my hair. You know, the power of God that I have is attached to my hair. And so when he finally damps in, so she starts hitting him, she's like, wake up, wake up. Go move the car. You know, it's like, the street sweeper's coming, or the Philistines. She said, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep and said, I will go out as other times before and shake myself. And he wished not that the Lord was departed from him. But the Philistines took him and put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with fetters of brass, and he did grind in the prison house. Go to Proverbs chapter number five. So what's interesting is that, even though he was bound in times past because he had the Spirit of God upon him, it did nothing. He was able to rend those things they used to bind him up. He was able to tear through them. It didn't affect him. It wasn't until the power of God left him that he was bound, not with literal cords, but with spiritual cords. Now look what the Bible says in Proverbs chapter five, verse 15. Referring to the concept of the sin of adultery, in order to prevent it, it says in verse 15, drink waters out of thine own cistern and running waters out of thine own well. Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad in the rivers of water and the streets. Let them be only thine own and not strangers with thee. Let thy fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Let her be as the loving, high, and unpleasant roe. Let her breast satisfy thee at all times and be thou ravished always with her love. And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman and embrace the bosom of a stranger? For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all his goings. Look what it says here. His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself and he shall be holden with the cords of his sin. Isn't it interesting that Samson was holden, not with physical cords, but with the cords of his sin. And that's ultimately what got him killed, right? He says he shall die without instruction and in the greatness of his folly, he shall go astray. The Bible says, go to Matthew chapter number five, Matthew chapter number five. I'm gonna read to you from Ecclesiastes chapter seven and verse 26 says, and I find more bitter than death the woman, whoa, whose heart is snares and nets and her hands as bands, like cords. Whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her, but the sinner shall be taken by her, the Bible says. Look at Matthew chapter five and verse 28. So we see Samson was drawing iniquity with cords. He was drawing sin as it were with a cart rope and that eventually bound him and destroyed his life and they ended up gouging out his eyes, right? Look what the Bible says in Matthew five verse 28. But I say unto you that whosoever looketh upon the woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart and if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. You see, one of Samson's biggest problems was what? Lust, right? And what he should have done is plucked out one eye, but what happened is because he was bound by the iniquity, the cords of his sin, both eyes were gouged out. Now go to James chapter one if you would. We're talking about cutting the unbiblical cord. You know what Samson should have done is that as soon as she tried to bind him once, said I'm cutting this relationship off. This is not for me. God is not pleased with this. I need to get away before things are gonna get worse and the power of God is gonna leave my life. I'm gonna die. He should have cut it off at one point. He should have cut off that unbiblical relationship, that unbiblical sin. He should have cut it off. And that's really what I want to talk about this morning is cutting the unbiblical cord from your life, okay? Now let me say this is that there's a cutoff point to these things. Look at James chapter one in verse 13. It says, let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. Try explaining that to the Calvinists who thinks that even pedophilia is done by the hand of God. Nonsense. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Folks, take this thing serious. Don't view this sermon as well. This is just another sermon on sin. Folks, it's a sermon on sin that can save your life. It's a sermon against the sin in your life that can save your life. It can save your marriage. It can save your children. It can save your reputation. It can save you from falling prey to the snares of Satan. Take it serious. And he's saying here, don't err, my beloved brethren. Take this thing serious. So the first thing we see here is this matter of temptation. Now, brother Maury, you'll be temptation today. Go ahead and stand right here. Right there, turn around. You're temptation, okay? So what is temptation? Temptation is when you are a Lord, okay? Whereas the Bible would say you are being enticed. It says in verse 14, but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed, okay? Now, let me just say this is that there's two types of temptations in the Bible. Let me explain this, all right? Temptation, number one, has nothing to do with sin. Temptation, number one, is referring to a trial, a difficulty. God can bring temptations into our life. He can allow trials and tribulations. He can allow afflictions into our life. He can bring them upon us in order to teach us something, in order to help us to clean up our lives, in order to help us to reflect upon our spiritual state and kind of take revenue and understand what's going on and get right with God. So temptation, that type of temptation, God can bring that upon you, okay? The second type of temptation is let no man say when he is tempted that he is tempted of God. God doesn't come to you with alcohol and try to tempt you with alcohol, try to tempt you with adultery, try to tempt you with covetousness, sinful things to see if you really love him, okay? No, in fact, he tempts you with trials and tribulations, difficulties in your life, all right? But not with sin. Who tempts you with sin? Satan. Who tempts you with sin? Your flesh. Who tempts you with sin? The world, okay? This is the type of temptation that the Bible's actually referring to here. So temptation by definition means to be enticed, okay? And let me just say this is that temptation is not a sin. So being tempted is not a sin. Now how do we know that temptation is not a sin? Well, this is how we know. Because the Bible says in Hebrew chapter number four that Jesus Christ was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. And what does that mean? He experienced every single temptation that you and I have experienced, the difference being he never gave in to any single one of those sins. Temptation, should I say, okay? He never sinned once, he was a perfect man. Now we know he bore our own sins on his own body in a tree, but he himself never gave in to any type of temptation whereby he would sin. This is how we know temptation is not sinful, okay? And all of us experience temptation to a certain degree. Depending upon how you grew up, depending upon what doors of temptation you've opened up in your life, every single person has temptation, okay? But temptation is not a sin. Now here's the thing though. Even though temptation is not a sin, it doesn't mean we should be around temptation all the time. Because temptation is a step prior, then even though it's not sinful in and of itself, I should stay clear away from temptation. And this is where the concept of standards comes into play. Standards are preferences, they're safeguards that you place, you have, the more buffering zone you have that if you are weak and you fall, you're still far away from temptation. But see, the person with no standards, the person with no safeguards, they're nice and close up to temptation, they're gonna get involved in temptation and ultimately get involved in sin. Get out of my way, Morgan. I'm just kidding. They're gonna get involved in sin. So what's the answer to that? The answer is this. We need to stay as clear away from temptation as possible. Now how do you do that? Well, temptation can come with the friends you hang out with. If you hung out with a bunch of people that drink and they party and they smoke and that was like your life back in the day, it's probably not a good idea to go to the party on Saturday night to go witness to your friends. Well, I'm gonna go be a light to my friends. I'm gonna go be a light and a testimony and ambassador for Christ. Yeah, yeah, you're gonna drink a Bud Light is what you're gonna do eventually because if you're hanging around with those people, if you're hanging around with temptation, you may be able to resist it for a time but eventually you're gonna give into that temptation and you're gonna sin. So temptation is not a sin but it is the step prior to sinning. Maybe it's an environment that you go to. Maybe it's the things that you watch, the things that you say, the people you hang out with. You need to be able to examine yourself and see what it is that will cause you to be tempted. If your thing is covetousness, probably going to the mall is not a good idea so much. Why just go there to do a little window shopping? Well, that's called coveting, right? Now, some people can handle that. Some people, that's not even their thing but other people, they can't even watch a program because the advertisements just tempt them to covet something that they don't need but now they know that they want. Stay away from temptation. Set up standards in your relationships so as to not to give into temptation. That's why, and look, I know this is gonna go over like a screen door in a submarine. That's why I don't encourage people who are dating to drive in the same vehicle together. I know it sounds like hokey or something like that but I'm just saying that's a good buffering zone so as to not give into temptation because look, any red-blooded, warm-blooded man who's close to the woman that he potentially is gonna marry one day is gonna be tempted. Not me, I'm just, I walk with God, I'm spirit-filled. I love the Lord. Yeah, you know, David was a man after God's own heart. Beat that. He's a man after God's own heart and yet he said, bring me this woman, right? He saw, he coveted, he took, okay? You know, by the way, the godliest man in the Bible, the strongest man in the Bible and the wisest man in the Bible all fell into sexual sin. Think about that for a second, okay? So, you know, if you're not godlier than David, if you're not wiser than Solomon and you're not stronger than Samson, then I suggest you just create a buffering zone so as to not be close to temptation because they couldn't handle it. What makes you think that you can't? Temptation means to be enticed. And again, it's not sin. The Bible says, put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh. So what do you do with temptation? What if, you know, you're put in a situation where you're tempted. Well, the Bible says this, flee fornication. You run from it. You think about Joseph in the Bible, who when he was tempted to commit adultery to Potiphar's wife, what did he do? He ran, but God knew that he was righteous. God knew that he was innocent. God blessed him in the long run. The Lord was with Joseph, but he did the right thing. He fled that sin. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 9, flee fornication, every sin that a man doeth is without the body, but he that committed fornication sinneth against his own body. 1 Corinthians 10, 14 says, wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. 2 Timothy 2, 22 says, flee also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them to call on the Lord out of a pure heart. So over and over again, we see this concept that you need to run away from temptation. Now look, if a lion just walked in here today, none of you would just get up and just kind of slowly walk away. You'd be shoving people to get out the door. Your charity and brotherly kindness would go out the door. You'd be like, you'd run as fast as you can, because you know the danger that that lion could devour you. And what does the Bible say about Satan? That he is as a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour. So what should you do? Flee, run, just as you would run from a physical lion, because he's gonna eat you in like manner. We should run away from the temptation. We should run away from Satan. We should seek to resist him and flee from the temptations that he sets before us. So cut the unbiblical cord. What happens though, if you don't cut that unbiblical cord of temptation? Well, now you have what's called lust. John, you're lust. Come on over here. Stand next to Maury. I'm gonna embarrass every single one of you guys today. I'm just kidding. All right, lust. So if you don't have a buffering zone, if you don't have standards and you don't take care, if you're not far away from temptation, what's gonna happen is you're gonna be nice and close to temptation, and then what's gonna happen is you're gonna commit the sin of lust. Now lust is a sin. But lust is a sin of the heart, not necessarily an outward expression of sin as of yet. So you have temptation, then you have lust, excuse me. And lust basically means when you begin to covet, okay? We know this because Paul said in Romans chapter number seven I had not known lust except the word of God said thou shall not covet, okay? Except the law has said thou shall not covet. And what he's referring to is the fact that in the Old Testament in Exodus chapter 20, the Bible says thou shall not covet, and then it goes through a various list of things that you shouldn't covet. Your neighbor's manservant, maidservant, your neighbor's ass, or your neighbor's wife, okay? He's basically saying don't lust after those things. To lust means to desire something that doesn't belong to you, okay? So when you allow yourself to be tempted, now what happens is that you create lust in your heart for that which you should not have, that God doesn't want you to have, okay? Now we read the verse, Matthew five says, but I say unto you, whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery, where? Already in his heart. It says you're committing adultery in the heart, it's not a physical adultery. You say, well, they're both bad. Yeah, obviously they're both bad, I know that. But both of them are different degrees of sin. Because one act, the actual act of adultery will actually get you the death penalty in the Old Testament himself, okay? And so obviously they're different because of the fact that we see the repercussions of physical adultery is actually the death penalty in the Bible, okay? And so when you don't stay away from temptation, then you get involved in lust. Now go to Proverbs chapter number four, if you would. Proverbs chapter number four. What does this mean? Well, this is when you begin to entertain the thought of having that which you should not have. You begin to entertain the possibilities of what may come to pass if you play the lottery and you make a million dollars. Oh, man, if I just had a million dollars, I would tithe to the church. Hey, I would bypass your billing, therefore they're gonna have to blow up his billing. And you come up with all these reasonings in your mind like, you know, God, I would do something with it, righteous with it. You begin to entertain the possibilities of that temptation and that is referred to as lust. Now, you say, well, you know, what's wrong with a little lust in my heart? Well, here's what's wrong with it is that once you've entered into this stage, you're pretty much very close into entering into the next stage, which is sin. And every single person, I mean, well, not every single person, there's many examples in the Bible of people who were tempted, they lusted, and they took. Let me give you an example. Eve, right? She saw, she desired, and she took, and worst of all, she gave to her husband. Well, what was the problem with that? I don't know, you know, she just basically damned all of mankind, condemned all of mankind, right? Now, all of mankind, you know, for thousands of years, people have been dying and going to hell, and, you know, we have all this crazy nonsense going on because of Eve's sin. You know, obviously, there's some major repercussions. When you are tempted, you give into that temptation, you lust, and then you give into sin, okay? How about Achan? If you remember Achan, in the book of Joshua, what you have is the children of Israel, God instructed the children of Israel to go into the Promised Land, and he said, look, take over these cities, don't touch of the accursed thing. Don't touch of the gold, don't touch the garments, don't touch anything, that is sanctified unto the Lord, okay? And he's basically telling them, but after that, you can have anything you want because there's a bunch of cities you're gonna conquer anyways. So they go into Jericho, they win that battle, Achan goes into this tent, and he sees this nice Babylonian-ish garment, he sees silver and gold, and what does he do? He takes of the accursed thing, okay? What happens after that? Well, after he takes of the accursed thing, no one knows about it but God. They go and fight against Ai, which was a lesser population, a city with less population, and they basically get their rear ends handed to them. Okay, they get smitten, they die, and Joshua's like, why are we doing this? Children of Israel, that happens to the children of Israel because you guys disobeyed me. So get up, go fight, well, then it's Achan who took of the accursed thing, and Achan confesses, and he says, look, when I saw, I coveted, and I took. Now, here's the whole thing that's really lame about Achan. What good is a Babylonian-ish garment? I mean, he took it, and then he buried it under the earth. You would think if you take something like that, you'd wanna wear it, you know? And someone asks you, where'd you get that? Like, my mom got it, she used to be from Babylon or something, you know? But instead, he takes the silver and gold in the Babylonian-ish garment, and he hides it under the earth. And he says, I saw, I coveted, and I took. Now, he said, well, what happened to Achan? Well, let's just say this. He got stoned to death, and he was Achan. He was stoned to death, his family was stoned to death. They made a heap of stones upon him and his children for a testimony unto Israel to not take up the accursed thing. They suffered the consequences because of it. But what do we see? He saw, he coveted the sin of the heart, and eventually he took. How about David? Talked about David already, David and Bathsheba? Goes up into the roof, sees Bathsheba bathing nude, and what does he do? He sees, he desires, he takes, and when sin hath conceived, it bringeth forth death, and in fact, in his case, the death of his son. Sons as well. Because the sword did not depart from the house of David because of his sin with Bathsheba. Why, because he saw, he coveted, and he took. It all started when he gave in to temptation, and then lust came into play. Lust in the heart. You say, well, what do I do in order, at this step, if I didn't cut the umbilical cord here, I gave in to the temptation here, now I'm here, what do I do? Should I just give in to the sin, just go in all the way? No, just cut it off here. Cut the umbilical cord, the unbiblical cord here. Out of it are the issues of life. Now, in its most literal sense, that's true, because the issue that it could be referring to is blood, and the life of the flesh is in the blood, but from a spiritual sense, it's basically saying, protect your heart because out of it are the issues of life, and keep it with all diligence. You say, man, that requires work. Yeah, but here's the thing, it's less work to keep your heart than trying to fix your heart after you've given in to sin. It's less work to stay right with God, to keep sin out of your life, than to give extra marriage after you've committed adultery. It's less work to keep your heart with all diligence, so as to not get involved in drunkenness, and smoking weed, and doing, you know, whatever, keep your heart with all diligence. Cut the unbiblical cord, the unbiblical cord from your life if this is where you're at right now. Now, if this is where you're at, cut it off here. Get away, cast down imaginations, and every high theme that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, bring it to captivity, every thought to the obedience of Christ. Get your heart right with the Lord. Cut that cord that is drawing iniquity, cut that cart rope that is drawing the transgressions and the sins in your life, get it right. How do you do that? Well, the Bible says, Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. You know, one thing I've noticed in my 14 years of being saved, I've noticed that just coming to church helps you to stay right with God. Coming to church, obviously reading the Bible helps you to stay right with God. Reading the word of God daily helps you to stay right with God, but coming to church helps you stay right with God. Why? Because you're something to say, yeah, I'm right here, okay, it's time for me to get right with God then. Instead of getting a sermon on, you know, grace, grace, and more grace or something, you're gonna actually get the truth. You're gonna hear some preaching that is gonna motivate you to get right with God and get the sin out of your life. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. So if you're here, clean up your heart. Get right with God. It's not too late. If you're here, you're breathing, you haven't committed that sin, and you're pondering and entertaining that sin in your heart, you can still get that right today. Now I need sin. I don't need sin, but I need someone to represent sin. All right, Glenn, no, no, you're doing, you got a responsibility. Come here, say hi, sin. I'm just kidding. So now we got sin, okay? Now again, hey, let's teach our kids to be over here. Let's teach believers to be over here. Not even like mess with those guys over there. Don't even mess with Maury. Definitely don't mess with Paul and definitely, I mean, definitely don't mess with John, but definitely don't mess with Paul. Okay? Is that personal testimony there? Okay. So teach people to be here. Teach our kids to be here. Teach church members to be here. But you know, we live in this corruptible flesh, and sometimes we just inch our way over here, we inch closer, and now we're rubbing shoulders with temptation. It happens. And now you're being tempted. Now you see, you know, whatever. You see the Teslas or something, or you see whatever you struggle with. You know, you see the woman at your job. You see the man, you know, across the street or something. You see the clothing, you see the money, you see whatever, and now you're entertaining it, now you're lusting towards those things. You desire those things in your heart. And you're entertaining, you're playing with it every single day. Well, you know, if you don't cut it off here, then you have what's called sin. Now this is sin, but the sin that this is referring to is the outward expression of that sin, committing fornication, committing adultery, drinking that out, sin, committing sin, whatever that means for you, okay? And this is really bad. The Bible says that sin is the transgression of the law. This is a very dangerous zone to be in right here. Because now, you're one step closer to death. James 1.15 says, then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth death. So now lust, once you have lusted, you get sin, and now that you have sin, it's working on conceiving death. Now you sin and you get out of church, you get involved in drugs, you get involved in alcohol, you get involved in that ungodly relationship, you get involved in something that you know does not please the Lord, and here's the thing, you can still get right right here, though. You can still cut that unbiblical cord. But let me say this, if you don't, it actually is harder to get right with God if you don't take care of, referring to a very strong cord. And let me say this, the more you give into that iniquity, well, just this last time, just this last time. I'll just do this just one last time, I'll get involved in this just one last time, but here's the thing, that last time is not your last time. Hope will become more stronger and stronger, and you know what, you're gonna get to the point where you wish not that the Lord departed from you. I'll shake myself off, just like other times, but you wish not that the power of God has already left you. And you know what you can do to basically forfeit the power of God in your life? Be right here. Live right here all the days of your life, and you will forfeit the power of God in your life. Now look, we're sinners, we have a corruptible flesh, but there's certain sins that we don't have to do. Yeah, you know, we have corruptible flesh, yeah, sometimes we battle with this guy right here, but you don't have to be right here. Christians actually don't have to live right here. That's why it says, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound, God forbid. It's basically saying you don't have to do this. You can cut it off. You can get right with God. You still have hope. The Bible says, wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word. So what do you do if you're at this point right here? You're like, man, that's me right now. I'm involved in sin. You know, I'm involved in sin. I know I have sin in my life. I'm doing wrong. What do I do? Translate ass. Stop! Just stop! Stop it! Cease from sin! Anything that, whatever it is that you're doing, now you have to replace it with something else. What's something else? Something good. Replace your Saturdays of partying with soul winning. Replace your Sundays of, you know, trying to overcome your hangover with coming to church to do well. Yeah, those things are boring. Yeah, you gotta learn how to like it though. So it says learn. You have to add to your faith virtue. And giving all diligence, the Bible says. So if you're here, you need to cut the unbiblical cord, get right with God, cease from doing evil, learn to do right. And here's the thing. Our church is a great church to go to. What's that? Or we'll kick you out! Right? Like you're involved in fornication, drunkenness, you're involved in railing, extortion, you're involved in covetousness or idolatry. You know, the Bible says you can't be in our church. You're like, you kick people out of your church? Not every week, you know. But you know, if it calls for, if a person is unrepentant, you know, they're involved in those things, they're involved in fornication, and they don't wanna stop fornicating, we just say then you can't come here then. You see, that sounds like a weird punishment. Like, they like being around the people, and they get great fellowship, and they have an emotional tie to the church, because it's a great church, amen? And so, they think to themselves, well, I don't wanna leave this church. This church is awesome. I don't wanna get kicked out. First of all, I don't wanna miss out on being in church. And two, you know, I don't want to suffer the shame of being kicked out either. So I guess I should just get right with God, and stop fornicating, stop committing whatever X, Y, and Z sin. Now, other churches, because they don't, you know, have that type, those elements, they're just like, you don't have to kick me out, I'll just leave. You know, I don't really care for this church, and you know, I don't get the fellowship, I don't get preaching, I don't get whatever, but you know, we try to create an environment here where you actually desire to come to our church. And so, it actually feels like you're losing out on something when you get excommunicated from our church. So we give you that motivation. Hey, either you get right, or guess what's gonna happen? You're gonna get thrown out, and suffer the shame of getting thrown out, and lose out on a blessing, okay? So cut it out. Hey, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. All right, Damien. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Well, again, it's best to just stay over here. Enjoy Mirth. Just stay away from Maury. Stay away from John. Stay away from, okay. Teach everyone to stay here. But again, some people just wanna play right here. What happens? Well, now you're tempted, now you're entertaining those desires, you lose your joy. You don't lose your salvation. The joy's right over there. The joy is like, man, I'm happy. I'm serving God. I'm reading my Bible. You know, I'm just, I know I'm right with God. I know God is leading me. But when you're over here, you lose that joy. You no longer have the joy of the Lord as your strength. And it's miserable, okay? Now, if you stay here, and you keep sinning, then you have death. Now, what is death? Well, this could be death to your marriage. We destroy your marriage. Just run it into the ground, and you destroy it. And that happens. There's people in our church who their marriages have been destroyed. I'm not preaching against you. This is a preventative sermon. This point is preventative for those who have vision. You can forfeit those if you allow yourself to get here. You know, DMX just died recently, didn't he not, right? He overdosed on drugs. He overdosed on drugs. That's, you're not being sensitive enough. Well, you know what? I'd rather tell that to the people. You're gonna end up dying from that. You think that's an honorable way to die? How many of us would want our children to get involved and crack, and, well, you don't know what it's like to struggle. Yeah, that's why we tell people to stay away from here. Death is the result of committing sin and not cutting their marriage dies. A lot of people want to play with sin until they have a bastard child. It's the biblical term, folks. It means a child that you had out of wedlock. And before you start getting offended, because I said that word, guess what? Yours truly was a bastard. How do you do that? Get married? Right? A vision of a godly marriage if you keep getting involved in sin. You can bring a death to a vision of your children serving the Lord, getting right with God, winning souls to Christ, potentially being a pastor. Or you can just die. Pray for it. This person, you know, they're. I'm sure. Look, folks, if I'm gonna die, I want to go out guns blazing. I want to die with like a bunch of reprobates just shooting me up. The Bible says in 1 John 5 verse 16, If any man see his brother sin, a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death. I do not say he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death. So look, if you're here and your marriage has already died, but you're still alive, there's still hope. If you're here and maybe the vision for your children serving God has died and you're still alive, you've forfeited your opportunity to do certain things. You know what? Because if you're still alive, there's still hope. There's still hope. And if you've forfeited certain things because of your sin, okay, well maybe your children can have those things. Think about that. But if you're involved in sin, I wouldn't even want to play with that though. I would even say like, you know, God, I hope you're just merciful to me and just allow me. I'd rather just not do that because you could just die. And at that point, it's too late. What's the message today? Well, number one, stay away from temptation. Set up some safeguards in your life so you can stay clear from temptation. But you know what? If you're there and you haven't cut that off, okay, now you're here, okay, now you need to cut it off. Now you need to make sure that you get the lust out of your heart, the covetousness out of your heart. But if you have played with that so much that now you're involved in sin, cut it off. Cut off the unbiblical cord and get right with God before you come here. Thank you, gentlemen, go have a seat. You guys can keep those papers. Cutting the unbiblical cord. Woe unto them to draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as they were a car rope. Get right with God while you can, amen? Spire heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word. And I know that it's a hard truth, maybe for some, but the truth hurts sometimes. And sometimes this needs to be preached in like manner in order to drive in the point as a preventative measure. We have kids in our church. We have little children, we have teenagers who are here. We have young men and young women who are here and they have the right intentions and the right motives. They want to be right with God. And they need this kind of preaching in order to keep your hand upon their lives. Lord, help them to stay away from temptation as much as possible. Help them to get right if they've already been tempted to get right and flee temptation. They have lust in their heart. Help them to get it right, to cast down those imaginations, put the word of God in, come to church, get the right fellowship in. But if they've already given in to sin, Lord, I pray that you would help them to repent of that sin, to learn to do well. And if they've already experienced the death of a vision in their life, help them to realize that there's still hope for their kids, there's still hope even for their own lives. Something can still be done. And Lord, I pray, God, that you'd fill us all with your power and your spirit, help us to live lives that are pleasing to you. We love you so much and we thank you. Pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. ["O Come All Ye Faithful"] ["O Come All Ye Faithful"]