Thank you, Lord.
Father, this truth, this message is so powerful
and so explosive, Lord, the message of your
Word.
God, I pray that I would adequately and
faithfully deliver what your Word says, and that
there might be supernatural spiritual penetration, that all
the walls that people have unconsciously put up
would fall, that any resistance, any hardness, any
pull towards the flesh and the world would
be broken this morning by the power of
your Word.
May your Word come, O God, as a
piercing sword that will wound the heart and
bring great healing.
May it produce death to the flesh and
life in the spirit.
May it bring out for you, Lord, a
people wholly dedicated, free, O God, from the
wiles of Satan, overcoming the works of darkness
by the power of your Word.
May Jesus and his truth be exalted in
our midst.
Lord, may your Holy Spirit anoint these words
to the changing of lives eternally.
In Jesus' name, amen.
I want you to open up to the
book of Proverbs, the 19th chapter.
It's a real blessing to me to see
the love that you people have for the
Old Testament.
Because of the history of this church, there's
also a love for the Hebrew language.
I was blessed to meet people last night,
several that tell me they subscribe to the
Jerusalem Post.
Well, this is a life and death message,
but it starts with a Hebrew lesson.
And I want you all to repeat one
word with me.
It's the Hebrew word, acharit.
Say it with me, acharit.
Once more, acharit.
What does acharit mean?
Well, I'm going to give you a Hebrew
lesson first.
In Hebrew and the Semitic languages, many of
the words having to do with direction, prepositions,
and different things like that, can come from
parts of the body.
For example, the word for beginning in Hebrew
comes from the word for head.
Because the head is what's on top, or
the head from the top down is what
comes first.
And if you want to talk about the
top of a mountain, in Hebrew, the Semitic
languages, you talk about the head of the
mountain.
We do that with a class.
Being at the head of the class means
being at the top.
If you want to talk about somebody being
right next to you, you would literally say
it's by the hand.
If you want to talk about someone being
right before you, you'd speak of them as
at the face or to the face, facing
you, right before you.
Well, the Hebrew word acharit comes from the
word for back.
What's the principle?
Now, I look, you know, I look fine
here this morning.
I've got my, you know, jacket and tie
on.
I look fine, but you can't see what's
behind me.
You can't see what's on my back.
Now, I don't know if you kids have
ever done this, so you can remember doing
this when you were younger, but you ever
have something that you stick on somebody's back,
some sticker, you know, and the person's walking
around and you're, you know, everybody's laughing at
you and you don't know why.
Well, there's something on your back, but you
can't see it.
And when, when I'm walking towards you, you
can't see what's on my back because that
is that which comes after, but it's hidden
from this side.
And it's only if I turned around and
let's say the thing was splattered with mud
or ripped, everyone would, I guess, but you
don't see it from this side.
It's only from the other side.
So, the Hebrew word, literally means that which
comes after, but the principle is you can't
see it from this vantage point.
So, for example, this word can refer to
the after effects of something.
This word can refer to offspring of parents
because it's the next generation, that which comes
after.
And then it comes to mean the end.
When the prophets would speak of the end
of days in Isaiah, the second chapter, it'll
come to pass in the end of days.
It's in the aharit of days.
And you see, one of the principles of
God's wisdom is He shows us that which
comes after, which we cannot see from our
present vantage point.
He shows us the final consequences of sin
and righteousness, but we, from our own vantage
point, can't see them.
And the word aharit occurs about 65 times
in the Old Testament, but 13 of those
times, it's found in the book of Proverbs.
In other words, it's out of all proportion
in the book of Proverbs.
20% of its occurrences are found there
because it's the whole purpose of Proverbs.
And look in Proverbs chapter 19, verse 20,
Proverbs chapter 19, verse 20, listen to advice
and accept instruction so that in your aharit
you will be wise.
Listen to advice and accept instruction so that
you will be wise in your aharit.
That's the whole purpose of the book of
Proverbs.
The problem is that this world and the
devil, with all of his guile, are constantly
presenting to us that which you can see
instead of that which comes after.
The devil is always trying to present things
to you in the most appealing, attractive way
so that you need it, so that you
have to have it, so that you can't
live without it, and at the same time
blinding you to the consequences.
And the whole message of Proverbs is to
open your eyes to that perspective that you
can't possibly see.
Open your eyes to the divine perspective so
that you will live right in the here
and now, and in your aharit, in your
final end, you'll be wise.
Now, I want you to turn back to
the fifth chapter of the book of Proverbs.
As you're turning there, I want to tell
you a tragic story that I read about
years ago when I lived on Long Island.
There was a 15-year-old girl, lived
on the island, attractive young girl, looked older
than she really was, was having real problems
and hassles with her parents, and finally decided
that she was going to run away.
She couldn't take the fighting anymore.
So, she and a friend decided to hitchhike
from New York down to Texas, and they
were picked up by a trucker, and this
trucker paid them money to perform a sexual
act with him.
On a certain level, it was fairly minor,
but they were so ashamed of it, when
they got out of the truck, they just
cried in shame.
Well, the one girl gets down to Texas,
the 15-year-old, family doesn't hear much
from her, then they hear that she's a
waitress and this and that.
Well, little by little by little by little,
her life was getting more and more caught
up with sin.
Little by little by little, she was depending
more and more on her good looks and
sexuality to get along.
Before long, she ended up becoming a prostitute.
Now, remember, this is the same girl that
had cried after being paid to do something
by this truck driver.
She didn't let her parents really know what
was happening, but she worked in this place
that was just the lowest of the low.
There were porno movies on a huge screen
in this restaurant, and then the waitresses would
just come out and men would pick who
they wanted, go to bed with them.
And she became the most popular in the
whole place.
Although she was young, she looked a lot
older, she became the most popular, and soon
she noticed that the other ladies were starting
to get jealous.
Finally, she realized that her life was in
danger and she was going to try and
make a run for it, but she got
caught by the pimp and his wife.
And a policeman that had been involved in
fishing her body out of the river said
that when they pulled her naked body out
of the river, it was the most brutally
tortured body they had ever seen in all
their experience.
She had cigarette burns from head to toe.
Her jaw was broken.
She had been shot through the mouth and
then thrown into the river.
Now, I want you to understand something.
If for one split second she could have
seen her Aharit, if for one split second
she could have seen herself being tortured and
abused and screaming out that her life would
be spared, if for one split second she
could have seen her body dragged out of
that river, she never would have left her
parents' home.
If she could have seen her Aharit, no
temptation would have been so great to pull
her down that path.
She would have rather sat home and been
cursed and abused by her parents every day
of her life than to step out of
that home.
Yet the thing is, she did not see
her Aharit, she did not see her final
end.
And that's the whole seductive way of the
devil, to show you how good the thing
is, to show you how nice it's going
to feel, to show you how much you
need it, for that pull to come in
the flesh where you feel like you can't
live without it and to completely blind you
to the consequences.
Years ago, I realized that one of the
great incentives in my life to keep me
from sinning was if I could remember how
I felt after I sinned.
If I could remember that and then the
next time temptation came, say, wait a second,
remember how miserable you felt, remember the destruction
that it brought, remember the conviction, remember the
shame.
If you could remember how you felt after
you sinned, before you sinned, the next time
you wouldn't do it.
But you see, we know better.
Oh, we're smarter than all that.
I remember being junior high, high school, before
I fell into drugs, I should say dove
into drugs.
And this police sergeant came into our school
and he had all this drug paraphernalia that
he was showing off.
You know, and they had all these things
from, you know, showing you what, you know,
a joint looked like for, you know, smoking
pot to all the way, you know, all
things having to do with shooting dope.
And he had all this stuff up there
and he began to talk.
He said, now you see it starts with
a marijuana joint.
You know, and all this terminology seems so
stiff to me, you know.
Starts with this, he said, but it leads
to this.
And if you start smoking pot, you'll end
up shooting heroin.
I said, right, come on, give me a
break, man.
I mean, I knew plenty of people that
were smoking pot that never in their wildest
dreams would shoot heroin.
Man, this guy didn't know what he was
talking about.
Well, sure, most of the friends that I
knew and most of the friends that I
hung out with in high school did certain
drugs and never ended up shooting dope.
But for me, the one that sat there
and mocked and laughed and said he's stupid,
within a year or two, I was doing
that very thing, stealing money from my own
father, breaking into a doctor's office, just for
the fun of it, see what we could
find, shooting every possible thing I could into
my veins, coming within an inch of death
numerous times, several times at least.
For me, one thing led to the next,
led to the next, and all the while
the devil was there saying, hey, look, it's
not so bad.
I mean, look, so you do this drug,
you're never going to do this real bad,
I mean, you're never going to shoot heroin,
you're never going to become a junkie, but
it's not so bad if you do the
next thing.
And then you go to the next thing.
Well, you're never going to shoot heroin, become
a junkie, but it's not so bad to
go to the next.
And before you know it, I remember right
before God saved me, you know, shooting dope
and doing every drug I could, the thought
hit, that wouldn't be so bad to just
be a junkie and totally addicted dead, it
wouldn't be, it's so bad about that.
Something that would have been totally unthinkable, totally
impossible in my mind, little by little by
little, the devil had pulled me in.
Now, look at what it says here in
Proverbs the fifth chapter.
My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen
well to my words of insight, that you
may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve
knowledge.
And there are more warnings in the book
of Proverbs about adultery, sexual immorality than anything
else.
The sections are so long and full.
Look, this is why I'm telling you, this
is what Proverbs is saying, this is why
I'm telling you these things, because the lips
of an adulteress drip honey and her speech
is smoother than oil.
Listen to me, nobody looks as good as
they're presented as looking.
You see all these pictures, you know, all
these displays, you know, magazines and pornographic stuff,
some cities just in open view, newspaper stands
and this and that.
Oh man, all the women look so beautiful,
all the men look so perfect.
If only you could have that, think of
how unsatisfied you really are, if only you
could have that.
Think of how much more fulfilled you would
be, if only you could have that.
Boy, that speech, that seductive speech, that seductive
look, oh boy, it just draws you right
in, you need it.
The lips of an adulteress drip honey, her
speech is smoother than oil, but her acharit,
the final end associated with her, the final
consequences of consorting with her are bitter as
gall, sharp as a double-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death, her steps
lead straight to the grave, she gives no
thought to the way of life, her paths
are crooked, but she knows it not.
Listen, you never see the picture of the
people wasting away with VD, you don't see
the picture of the people who've been infected
with AIDS, you don't see the picture of
the marriages who've been destroyed and the little
kids crying because they can't see daddy anymore,
they can't see mommy anymore, you don't see
the people looking for forgiveness, but they can't
find it because the husband or wife has
been totally betrayed.
No, the devil doesn't show you that, just
some beautiful seductive picture, just something that you
have to have, and he puts within you
this spirit of dissatisfaction.
You know the whole problem that we have
with divorce in the United States is certainly
coupled with this notion that there's someone better
out there, that there's something better, that there's
a better experience, that there's something more fulfilling,
that there's someone who'll love you more faithfully,
or he'll serve you more, or he'll be
a better partner, it's out there, as opposed
to being content with what God has and
letting God's blessing be the thing that fulfills.
I remember when I worked teaching in New
York City, teaching Korean students, training for ministry,
that there was a Christian bookstore down the
block, but in order to get to that
bookstore, you walk past all these porno movies,
and on one side of the street were
all these ungodly, despicable things, lives, sex acts,
girls, girls, girls, and on the other side
was the exact same thing, except it was
all male, it was all homosexual, and I
remember saying to myself, if the devil can
get you in this one place soon enough,
he'll get you in the other.
That constant degeneration, and then before you know
it, the ones that he's got in the
homosexual place are going to be seeking out
child pornography, and if they give themselves over
to that, then all types of violent pornography,
and if they give themselves over to that,
soon you'll be reading about them in the
newspaper headlines, serial killer, child molester.
Oh, the devil doesn't show you that.
The devil doesn't show you some sick, demented
human being, withering away in a prison cell
for life, with a tortured memory of all
the people's lives they destroyed.
No, he just shows you this beautiful woman,
or this gorgeous man, and he doesn't show
you the Aharit.
One time I was going into the city,
and I found a newspaper on the train,
when I lived on Long Island, going into
New York City, and I opened up the
paper, and I read a story.
I'll tell you, that whole day, my stomach
was in knots.
That whole week, I couldn't get over it.
The memory of it just kept shaking me.
There was a rich businessman on Long Island,
and this group of people got together, and
they were going to kidnap him and get
a ransom.
What happened was, they set it up.
They knew there was one way they could
get to him.
This attractive young woman invited him over to
this house, and that was the bait.
Boy, he was married, but he was some
young girl.
He really wanted it.
He went into the house where she was,
and next thing, got attacked by the rest
of the people.
They kidnapped him, and then they brought him
to this apartment in a desolate area that
was specially made.
It had thick boards so that he couldn't
be heard screaming, and they abused him, and
they tortured him.
Unbelievably, every type of thing you can imagine.
Here's a grown man.
They made him relieve himself in a diaper,
and then they got his wife to agree
to give the money, but they were so
demented that they beat him to death before
they even got the money.
In the last five days, when they did
an autopsy, they found he hadn't had food
in his body at all for the last
five days.
And you think, if he could have seen
the Akhirite?
I mean, look, you may say, well, that's
extreme.
That doesn't happen every day.
Well, this is nothing compared to the Akhirite
of hell and destruction, and being cast out
of the presence of God forever.
If he could have seen it, if he
could have heard his tortured cries, if he
could have seen the fear in his eyes,
if he could have just one glimpse, one
split second of that, there could have been
10 million gorgeous women.
He wouldn't have gone near them.
It wouldn't have been worth it.
It wouldn't have been worth it for all
the pleasure in the world.
Not with an Akhirite like that.
The lips of an adulterous drip honey in
her speech is smoother than oil, but her
Akhirite is bitter as gall, sharp as a
double-edged sword.
I want you to look down.
Let's keep reading.
Verse 7, Now then, my sons, listen to
me.
Do not turn aside from what I say.
Keep to a path far from her.
Do not go near the door of her
house, lest you give your best strength to
others and your years to one who is
cruel.
Lest strangers feast on your wealth and your
toil and enrich another man's house.
And in your Akhirite, you will groan when
your flesh and body are spent.
You will say, how I hate it, discipline.
How my heart spurned correction.
I would not obey my teachers or listen
to my instructors.
I have come to the brink of utter
ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.
Drink water from your own cistern, running water
from your own well.
Should your springs overflow in the streets, your
streams of water in the public squares, let
them be yours alone, never to be shared
with strangers.
May your fountain be blessed and may you
rejoice in the wife of your youth, a
loving doe, a graceful deer.
May her breast satisfy you always.
May you ever be captivated by her love.
Why be captivated, my son, by an adulterous?
Why embrace the bosom of another man's wife?
For man's ways are in full view of
the Lord and he examines all his paths.
The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare
him.
The cords of his sin hold him fast.
He will die for lack of discipline, led
astray by his own great folly.
You know, there was a man that traveled
internationally.
People referred to his ministry as apostolic.
From what I heard, God used him, planted
churches in some other countries.
I don't know what happened.
I don't know what discouragement set in.
I don't know what the factors involved were,
but he ended up completely falling into sin
at least one night.
He went to New York City, he got
drunk and he ended up in a homosexual
orgy.
One night, years later, he found out that
he contracted AIDS.
You tell me you're going to have faith
for healing when you know how you brought
that on?
You tell me the devil's not going to
play mind games with you all the time
to condemn you and say you'll never be
healed?
Well, he wasn't.
He died.
Not only did he die, but before he
died, he infected his wife.
Not only did he infect his wife, but
the baby that she bore is also infected
with AIDS.
In your aharit, you will groan when your
flesh and body are spent.
You will say, how?
I hate it.
Discipline.
How?
My heart spurned correction.
I mean, look, you have to understand, young
people in particular, the devil has nothing good
planned for you.
His only goal is to destroy you.
And to the extent that you will go
his way and yield to the lust of
the flesh, that quickly will he destroy you.
That quickly will he make your aharit ugly.
But you see, we don't see it from
this perspective.
From our vantage point, we can't see that
which comes after.
That's why the word of God has to
warn us and tell us.
That's the purpose of divine wisdom.
I remember growing up, they used to have
commercials for Marlboro country.
You know, get on this horse, you know,
big macho cowboy.
Get on this horse and ride off into
the beautiful horizon.
And all you need to make that dream
come true in your life is a Marlboro
cigarette.
I mean, they don't show you, you know,
they should have showed you Marlboro country and
go into a lung cancer ward in the
hospital.
There's somebody withering away.
There's the family at the grave site mourning,
you know, the wife and four children as
the husband's being buried, dead of lung cancer.
But they don't show you that part.
No, the devil lies.
Oh, sure, there's some pleasure in sin for
a season.
You know, I tell people, listen, especially with
drugs, they used to call me drug baron
Ironman.
I used to put such huge quantities of,
you know, doses of things into my system.
I mean, the fact of the matter is
I did everything that I could possibly figure
out how to do.
You know, the pleasures of sin, especially, you
know, with this drug abuse.
And when I met the Lord, I mean,
it went instantly.
Do you understand?
I didn't go through some up and down
battle for months and months.
I had a couple of weeks of wrestling
it through.
And when I surrendered, that was it.
God freed me.
And it wasn't, I've never for a split
second since I've been walking with the Lord,
never one time regretted abandoning all that or
wished I could have it back.
Sure, there's pleasure.
Sure, there are things that cater to the
lust of the flesh.
But if you don't give in to the
lie, if you yield to God, you find
out that God's blessing is the only thing
that fulfills and brings life and true satisfaction.
And the other stuff may stimulate for a
bit, but it destroys.
I'm not saying that if somebody did the
drugs that I did, that there wouldn't be
some pleasure.
I'm not saying that when I shot heroin,
it was misery.
No, the sin or the pleasure of sin
is not the misery.
It's the consequences.
And there are always consequences that destroy.
Sin is never the right thing.
Sin is never the good thing.
Sin is never the helpful thing.
Sin never benefits you or benefits the kingdom.
Look at what it says in Proverbs, the
sixth chapter.
Start in verse 23.
For these commands are a lamp, this teaching
is a light, and the corrections of discipline
are the way to life, keeping you from
the immoral woman, from the smooth tongue of
the wayward wife.
Do not lust in your heart after her
beauty, or let her captivate you with her
eyes.
For the prostitute reduces you to a loaf
of bread, and the adulterous preys upon your
very life.
She may look beautiful, she may look tempting,
it may look like what you want, but
don't be drawn after it.
In the end, it's going to reduce you
to nothing.
Young women, in the clearest possible way I
can address you.
Do not ever make yourself into a temptress.
Do not act and dress and walk and
live in such a way so as to
draw attention to your flesh, or so as
to make other men desire your body.
You be godly, you be holy.
There's a beauty that excels words for anyone
who will be beautiful and holy in the
sight of God.
And God will bring into your life the
one He pleases to bring into your life.
But I'll tell you something, you may have
blood on your hands if you find out
that you have woefully made yourself into an
object of lust for other men.
Sisters, maybe you're struggling in your marriage.
Maybe your husband is really not being a
husband and a man in your home.
Don't play games with flirtatious friendships.
Don't play games with your eyes and draw
other men in, or just satisfy your ego
by knowing that somebody else would want you.
Don't play games.
Before you know it, the thing that's just
an impossible thought in your mind might become
reality and you might find yourself trapped.
Jesus said, yes, there are going to be
stumbling blocks.
Yes, there are going to be things that
cause offense, but woe be to the man
or woman that causes the people of God
to stumble.
Do not lust in your heart after her
beauty.
Go over to Proverbs, the 23rd chapter.
I want you to see something amazing.
Proverbs, the 23rd chapter.
We're starting verse 29.
The writer says, don't lust after some prostitute's
heart.
Don't lust after her beauty in your heart.
Don't be drawn after her.
Look at what it says here.
Proverbs 23, 29.
Who has woe?
Who has sorrow?
Who has strife?
Who has complaints?
Who has needless bruises?
Who has bloodshot eyes?
Those who linger over wine.
Who go to sample bowls of mixed wine.
Now, look at what it says.
Do not gaze at wine when it is
red, when it sparkles in the cup, when
it goes down smoothly.
Same thing.
Don't lust after the prostitute's beauty in your
heart.
Don't lust after that drink.
Boy, just glistening in the cup.
You know, I don't know if it's still
the case now, but as long as I
can remember anyway, it was illegal for beer
and wine commercials on television, whatever was allowed
on television, it was illegal to advertise it
in such a way that the person would
actually drink.
Remember my father, who was a lawyer, told
me that years ago, and I'd notice it.
Here's a beer commercial.
You know, in the days when I had
a television, here's a beer commercial.
I'd see this, and they'd, you know, pour
that beer in, and boy, that ice-cold
looking glass, and that beer comes in, and
that foamy head just comes and, you know,
pours over the side, and they take it
to their mouths, but they don't drink.
They weren't allowed.
I don't know if it's still the case,
but they were not allowed to show the
person actually drinking it in an advertisement.
So, what you had a highlight on was
how this thing looked in the cup, how
it looked in the mug.
And the same thing, you may see some
commercial.
I remember getting on the train one day,
and there was a poster.
You know, this gorgeous couple.
I mean, the most perfect looking male and
female you'd ever seen, sipping some liquor together,
and the message was to you.
I mean, you could be sitting on that
train.
You could weigh 400 pounds and have warts
from head to toe.
You can be the type that no matter
how crowded the train is, nobody will ever
dare sit next to you, but if you
can just get that drink in your hand,
you'll be just like that couple.
I mean, male, you'll get a woman like
that.
Woman, you get a man like that.
And what do they do?
I mean, they show that scene, and they
show that drink, that wine, that liquor, just
sparkling, just sparkling in the cup.
And I remember as a youngster that I'd
see those commercials, and the idea of drinking
beer really appealed to me.
Please stop your machine at this point and
turn the tape over.
And I remember as a youngster that I'd
see those commercials, and the idea of drinking
beer really appealed to me.
And even in the days of just real
sin in my life, I would not get
drunk as much because I didn't enjoy drinking.
I'd do it every so often, but I
didn't enjoy it.
But I'll tell you, I remember being younger,
and I'd see those beer commercials, and the
idea of, you know, that beer with some
big fat pretzels.
It just appealed to me.
And I don't know how old I was.
My friend and I were, you know, we're
over at my house, and my parents were
going to be away.
And my dad used to have some friends
come over and play cards with him, and
he didn't drink beer much really, but he'd
have some in the house every so often
for some of the guys.
And we just got this brainstorm.
I mean, we'd plan it out.
All right, they're going to be away, and
we're going to go out, and we're going
to play ball, and we're going to get
real, you know, work up a real sweat
and a real appetite, and we're going to
come back, and we're going to get some
of that ice cold beer, and we're going
to pour it in there, and we have
some of those pretzels, you know.
And we'd sit, and we couldn't wait, and
we'd take a sip and go, and that
was as far as it went.
It just, oh, it didn't, it didn't live
up to the expectations.
But look at what it says here, though.
I mean, it is laughable, but not when
it leads to alcoholism.
Look at what it says.
Don't gaze at wine when it's red, when
it sparkles in the cup, when it goes
down smoothly.
In the end, it's after effects.
Bite like a snake, and poison like a
viper.
Look at this description.
Your eyes will see strange sights, and your
mind imagine confusing things.
You will be like one sleeping on the
high seas, lying on top of the rigging.
They hit me, you will say, but I'm
not hurt.
They beat me, but I don't feel it.
When will I wake up so I can
find another drink?
You know, there are people in the streets
of our cities, winos, alcoholics, laying on the
streets, sleeping on the streets at night, and
you can go talk to them, and some
of them used to be doctors with, you
know, practices in the hundreds of thousands, happily
married, and alcohol came in and destroyed them.
And now, I mean, you look at that
person and say, what a wretch, and you
find out here's some well-educated person.
Now they're doing everything they can just to,
you know, drinking the most despicable things, just
because there's a little alcohol content in it,
to just try and get high.
You mean that they would have given up
everything to be laying in the street somewhere?
You tell me one alcoholic that is thrilled
to be bound by alcohol.
No, you don't see the akhirith, you don't
see the final consequences.
And let me tell you something.
It's real important to hear this.
A lot of times we're smarter than I'm
making it out to be.
We're fully aware of the consequences of sin.
We know what's down the pike.
We know the danger.
We know what could happen.
There have been times when I've prophesied over
somebody I didn't know, just had a word
for some teenage girl, and it was a
word of warning.
And, you know, it's happened a few times,
so I've learned, you know, exactly what it's
about.
Here's some word of warning, put down the
idol in your life, or here's some word
of warning that I know is just clear
that this person's involved with an unsaved guy,
or it's just clear that they're flirting with
the world.
And I remember the first two times God
gave me words like that.
Shortly thereafter, all the people heard one time
the girl cried, but neither of them fully
received and repented.
Shortly thereafter, they were both pregnant at a
wedding.
And I think that a lot of us
are wise enough to know just one minute
of sin can destroy a life.
Now, all of a sudden, there's a whole
blemish on you.
Now, there are these things you have to
live with the rest of your life.
But what happens is, the way the enemy
gets a lot of people is really simple.
He gets a lot of people by slowly
putting them to sleep.
You see, the standards of the world have
fallen so far, we hardly realize it.
So, we as the people of God set
our standards a little higher.
You know, let's say 50 years ago, the
standards of the world were 6 and the
standards of the church were 8.
Now, the standards of the world drop to
4 and we adjust ours.
You know, we look around in our society,
we've got to be a little bit more
holy, so we set ours at a 6.
And then it goes on, the standards of
the world go down to a 2.
You know, we set ours a little higher,
we go to a 4.
Before you know it, our standards are far
lower than the world used to be.
But we don't realize it.
You know, it's like this notion that I
talk about, how saved are we?
With the standards dropping, dropping, dropping, dropping at
our beaches, you know, through the decades, through
the century.
Now, you get people going to the beach
in a modest bikini.
You know, that's being godly.
You know, the question came up to me
when I began to think that in other
parts of the world, in some parts of
the states, you know, there's nude bathing and
in certain parts of this nation, you know,
it's recognized and not prosecuted.
So, in all effects, legal.
Now, I wonder, what if nationally, nude bathing
was legalized?
Would the believers come up with a modestly
nude look?
But see, we don't realize, see, we adjust
our standards.
We adjust our standards.
And the clearest illustration I can give of
this, and please, especially younger folks here, you
know, I know your hearts are after God,
and some of you here and there are
struggling, but remember, I'm not some 80-year
-old preacher that was raised in a monastery
somewhere, you know.
I'm not speaking to you as some old
fogey who has no understanding of what's going
on in the world.
You know, I messed up my life for
a period of time more than I hope
and pray most all the rest you'll ever
dream of doing.
So, you know, don't say, well, that's just
some old-fashioned warning.
Listen, I'm right.
You don't heed this message, you'll destroy your
life.
I'm right.
I'm just telling you what the scriptures say.
I've kept my eyes open now for 20
years in the Lord, and I've seen people's
lives destroyed.
I've warned people.
I've warned people in ministry and warned others
to get their lives in order.
Destruction was coming.
I've seen friends fall into adultery, people in
ministry that I work with, that I prayed
with, that I laugh with.
I've seen them destroy their lives.
But listen to me, the devil's goal is
to put us to sleep.
The clearest illustration I can give you is,
and not to glory in this, but I
just want to explain it.
Before I was saved, I told you I
used to be really sicko, and I would
love to just do as much of a
drug as I could to see what would
happen, to see how far I could go
to the edge without overdosing.
I'm serious.
I did it all the time.
And if a friend would say to me,
how much should I do of this particular
drug?
I would always give them too much.
Always.
Thank God I didn't kill myself and kill
anybody else, but it could have happened.
One time it should have happened, if not
for the mercy of God intervening.
Well, this friend came over and he had
never done this particular hallucinogenic drug and wanted
to know how much he should do, so
I gave him a big overdose, way more
than he should have done, just for fun.
Remember I said I was a sicko.
S-I-C-K-O.
And no conviction, no conviction about it until
people began to pray for me right before
God saved me.
I had no guilt of any of the
things I did.
When I stole money from my father to
help out some of my friends that had
some needs, I felt no guilt.
When I did all the things I did,
all of a sudden, no guilt at all.
Even though I was raised in a good
moral home, it was only towards the end
that conviction began to set in.
Well, I went with my friend.
We were going to hitchhike to another town
and hang out over the weekend and spend
the night at this guy's house.
And my poor friend was, he couldn't, he
was in another world.
He was almost beside himself.
Some guy picked us up hitchhiking and offered
us a job just to make a few
bucks, to stop at this parking lot of
this college and to put flyers on the
front of every single car, and you know,
this massive parking lot.
So we, you know, we said, sure, we'll
do it.
And by the end of this thing, my
friend was in another, I mean, he didn't
even look like his mind was in his
brain or his brain was in his head.
I don't know.
I mean, he was just so delirious.
And I thought it was great.
I just thought it was so funny.
Well, we get over to this friend's house
and we did more drugs and we were
going to spend the night there.
And then this guy who would get terribly
paranoid and fearful when he did drugs said,
look, you can't stay at the house tonight.
Why?
He said, because my mother's boyfriend's going to
come.
He's big, he's strong, he's vicious.
If he sees you down here, he'll kill
you.
So at this point, we're like standing against
the wall, trembling, you know, ready for this,
you know, this, you know, massive thing, you
know, with smoke coming out of his nose
to come down the steps.
So we said, all right, you know, what
do we do?
What do we do?
I mean, this guy used to get so
fearful that he would do drugs that would
just keep him up all night.
He just bought a motorcycle and he would
stand.
This was his great drug experience.
He gets so paranoid that he would stand
and look out the window motionless the entire
night because someone was going to steal his
motorcycle.
Like eight hours, just stand there and watch
the motorcycle.
So he had us scared.
We wanted to get out before the boyfriend
came.
So what do we do?
He said, look, there's a tree house.
This is one of my friends.
He said in the back of the house,
they have a tree house.
He said, so we're going to go.
I'm going to take you over there.
He said, and you just got to be
real quiet.
I mean, the friend didn't know there was
anybody in the backyard in the tree house.
Just got to be real quiet so nobody
hears.
You go up there, he said, and you
stay there all night and I'll come get
you in the morning.
I said, okay.
So we go in this little tree house.
You go up this little ladder and there's
a little table, a chair on one side,
a chair on the other, and that's it.
That's it.
And my friend named Ron is sitting there
like that, just swaying.
I mean, he cannot sit still.
Now, if I do this long enough, it'll
get to you, but you picture being in
a tree house with this, just the two
of you with this little desk in between
and two chairs.
And I said, Ron, Ron.
I said, I can't take it.
You're driving me crazy.
You got to stop.
So he's just got this silly grin on
his face.
Okay.
He's gonna stop.
Well, he got himself together.
He got a hold on himself.
And the night goes on.
I don't remember what we talked about or
what happened.
Every so often a squirrel would run over
the tree house and it was the most
wild experience, you know.
And finally, you know, early in the morning,
sun's starting to come up.
This guy, Kevin, comes back to get us.
Now, my friend Ron had been doing real
good.
I mean, everything was just fine in the
room, little shack in there.
Kevin comes up and he says, what's with
you guys?
What's the matter?
I said, what are you talking about?
He said, both of you were sitting there
like this.
I had no idea, but that thing just
got so overwhelmed.
I mean, I had no conscious idea of
it whatsoever, but I just fell into it.
I just joined into it.
He didn't change.
I became like him.
You know, students used to come to Christ
for the nations and say, boy, the school
has changed a lot since I got here.
I said, the school hasn't changed, man.
You changed.
You just became like us.
You were all stiff and couldn't dance and
celebrate before God and all uptight about everything.
Now you're just free.
We didn't change.
You changed.
We didn't become stiff.
You just got free.
But see, we have almost no idea how
much we've just started to sway with the
world.
Hey, things aren't so bad anymore.
Things aren't as bad as they used to
be.
You know why?
Because our level of conviction has dropped and
we're oblivious.
You know, we go on this campaign with
these food stores to get them to remove
magazines like Cosmopolitan from the checkout areas.
So that as you're walking out with your
kids, that your families are not bombarded with
this trash.
And people think we're crazy, fanatical, nuts.
You know, the headlines, you know, supermarket smut.
People say, this is sexual smut.
What does Brown think he's doing?
This is holy crusade.
I mean, they're mocking it.
They can't realize that all these things are
despicable.
They can't realize that that a generation ago,
you'd never have this stuff in public view
of youngsters.
Never have women just being presented as sexual
objects like that for every eye to look
at, you know, in a grocery store.
We don't realize.
Listen, you need to get set in your
heart that sin is never the right thing
to do.
You know, as someone in ministry, I have
set it in my heart.
I love my wife.
My wife loves me.
We have never, you know, had a battle
to be unfaithful one to another.
We're committed to God and committed one to
another.
But I have just made the assumption.
I've made it a life assumption that adultery
for me or for anyone in ministry, I'm
not judging someone else, but I've made it
a life assumption that that destroys your ministry
for life, destroys your family and disqualifies you
from ever doing anything for God again.
You say, that might be exaggerated.
I'd rather exaggerate on the safe side.
In other words, I'm not wrestling with something.
I have to hold that up.
But I just put that as another foundation
because I see enough other people falling and
enough other people destroying themselves.
And at the moment of falling, I'm sure
the devil's saying, God understands.
You want to hear a wild story?
Do you want to hear a wild story?
There was a professor at Oral Roberts University
and a couple came up to him for
prayer and they said, you know, we want
you to pray for God's blessing on our
lives.
And something felt wrong to him.
And he said, are you married?
And they said, oh yes.
He's going to pray, but something still felt
wrong.
And he said, to each other?
And they said, no.
Can you believe the level of deceit they're
operating in?
He said, well, what are you doing up
here for prayer?
You're married to someone else and you're coming
up here for prayer together?
They said, oh yes, well, we know it's
God's will.
And that we're going to, you know, divorce
and marry each other.
You know it's God's will?
He said, yes.
He said, because every time before we're together
sexually, we pray in tongues.
Do you believe it?
Listen, once the temptation comes in, once the
flesh yields to it, you never know what
it's going to lead to.
You never know what type of perverted thinking.
The only right solution is to shut the
door first.
The only right solution is to not give
the devil any place.
The only right solution is to run.
You know, I know some young men say,
man, you know, I must be really weak.
You know, I go to the beach and
I'm just so tempted.
You know, I've got all these filthy thoughts.
I must be weak.
You're not weak.
You're stupid.
You can pray up all you want.
You can pray in tongues six hours and
fast for three weeks.
You go there, you're going to get bombarded
with sinful thoughts because it's a sinful environment.
What does it say in Timothy?
Flee youthful lusts.
There's a time to fight and there's a
time to flee.
The thing to do is use wisdom and
shut the door in advance before the thing
starts to reel you in and before you
find yourself bound by it.
You know, the devil's line of some folks
here, well, I'm going to live right, but
if the right temptation comes my way, I'm
going to follow it and then I'll see
if it's really worth it.
By the time you see if it's really
worth it, you may be looking up from
hell saying it's not worth it, but it's
too late.
There's a positive side to all this.
In Proverbs the 23rd chapter, verses 17 and
18, it says this, do not let your
heart envy sinners.
If you're right with God and doing the
will of God, there's nothing in the world
that you should envy.
Nothing.
Because if even if you could have it
afterwards, it wouldn't satisfy.
The fellow who led me to the Lord
backslid and he backslid so he could be
free with sex and drugs again.
And then I saw him years later.
He had a divorce.
He'd remarried.
He still was not serving God, but he
said to me, you know, all the things
that I backslid for, I did.
And I gave him up again.
Anyway, he left God so he could have
all those things.
And once he had them, he didn't want
them.
Do not let your heart envy sinners, but
always be zealous for the fear of the
Lord, literally in Hebrew, but be in the
fear of the Lord all day long.
There is surely an Aharit for you and
your hope will not be cut off.
Look over the 24th chapter, verses 19 and
20.
Do not fret because of evil men or
be envious of the wicked for the evil
man has no Aharit and the lamp of
the wicked will be snuffed out.
The NIV translates Aharit here as future hope.
The wicked have nothing to look forward to.
There is no future hope.
There is no Aharit aside from blackness and
darkness and gloom and hopelessness and destruction.
But for the righteous, there is an Aharit.
For the righteous, there is something to look
forward to.
And Balaam, who was called in to curse
the people of Israel in Numbers 23, 10
said, oh, that I might die the death
of the upright and that my Aharit would
be like theirs.
Do you think when you stand before God
one day that you were going to have
any regret if you served him with all
your heart?
Do you think when you stand before God
and see the pleasure and joy at the
right hand of God forevermore and the awesome
blessings that he has in store and just
the glory of Jesus himself and the unspeakable
blessing and the satisfaction of seeing all the
lives that you're able to touch, do you
think you're going to have some regret and
wish you could have gone back and sin
more?
The only regret we'd have is if we
were half-hearted.
The only regret we'd have is if we
compromised.
Come on, be realistic.
Once you've been walking with God for a
while, have you ever regretted fasting?
No, but you sure regretted breaking fast.
Have you ever regretted when you separated yourself
to God in prayer?
No, but you regret the times that you
went away the flesh instead.
Have you ever regretted doing the hard thing
and taking a stand for Jesus?
No, but you regret the times you were
ashamed.
There's an Aharit.
There's something we have to look forward to.
I heard a quote from Richard Wurmbrand, a
man famous for his book Tortured for Christ.
He said, I've never regretted a word I
didn't say.
Man, there are times when the flesh wanted
to blurt out and I held my peace
and I've never regretted it, but there have
been all too many times when I spoke
out when I shouldn't have and I wish
that I wish I could have taken it
back.
Let's be realistic.
At the end of your life, when you
look back, are you going to be filled
with regret or gratitude?
At the end of your life, when you
look back, are you going to say, oh,
I wish I could have done it over
again.
All those hours as a teenager, I spent
alone with God, especially the ages of 17
and 18, right before I started college.
All the hours pouring through the word, all
the hours in prayer, all the hours memorizing
scripture, all the time out on the street
witnessing the people and going door to door.
It laid a foundation for life.
I don't regret a single second of it.
There were times when my other friends, after
a church service, we go to church five
times a week and then occupy ourselves with
church ministry the other nights.
I mean, it was just day and night.
That's all we knew.
We didn't have families either to deal with
at that time.
But I mean, after a service one night,
you know, sometimes we'd go out, get something
to eat or just hang out or something.
But I remember enough nights when my friends
wanted to go out, we're going to do
this or that.
And I said, no, I've got to go
back because I just had to spend more
time with God.
I've never regretted that.
I have all the friends I need and
more, but I've never regretted to this day
the times and say, no, I can't be
part of this.
I have to be alone with God.
One last story to tell you.
Leonard Ravenhill shared it with me.
There was a woman in a church, terrible
gossip, terrible, terrible gossip, slanderer.
And a woman told her husband, listen, we've
invited Sister so-and-so over tonight.
He says, oh, not her.
All she does is gossip.
And he said, look, we're going to have
her over.
It won't be that bad.
Well, what happened was this woman had given
her husband a brand new chair for his
birthday or something.
Nice big chair.
And he decided he was going to do
something.
So he took a tape recorder and he
hid it under this chair.
And when the woman came, he said, oh,
why don't you sit down here?
Nice new chair.
So she sat down in the chair and
proceeded to rip apart everybody in the church.
Slander, gossip, ugly rumor, innuendo, you name it.
So, you know, they're sitting there, you know,
having tea, coffee, whatever.
And he says, well, well, I have to
be going.
And he said, no, no.
He said, I just want you to hear
the latest.
And she said, no, I really have to
be going.
He said, no.
He said, I want you to hear the
latest.
He said, there's a scandal you won't believe.
He said, I want you to hear this.
So she sits down and he pulls out
the tape and plays it and she is
in a state of shock.
I mean, her jaw drops and she is
in a state of shock.
And she, she says, I must have that
tape.
I must have it.
He said, I'm sorry, can't.
He said, look, if that gets out, if
that circulates, oh, it'll destroy me.
I must have it.
He said, I'm sorry, it's not for sale.
He said, I'll give you anything for it.
He said, no.
So, finally, she plays it.
Look, I promise I'll change.
I won't say these things.
I'll be different.
Please, just give me that tape.
And he says, all right, I'm going to
give it to you.
He hands her the tape.
And she says, you haven't made a copy
of it, have you?
He said, no, I haven't.
She said, thank God there's no copy.
He said, I didn't say there's no copy.
She said, but you said you didn't make
a copy.
And then he just pointed up.
And the look on that woman's face was,
from what I understand, awful.
Listen, friends, there's nothing hidden.
There's nothing hidden.
Jesus said, the things that are whispered in
the dark, in the closet, they will be
shouted from the rooftops.
There's nothing hidden that won't be revealed.
What if everything stopped right now and God
took out the books of the last week
and publicly read my life to you or
publicly read your life in front of everyone?
How would we feel?
How would you feel if God stopped everything
right now and said, that's it.
This is it.
From here on in, your life is determined
by how you have lived up to now.
The course you have set is set for
life.
And it can't be altered for good or
for bad.
I want to ask you an honest question.
If your life continued on the course that
it's going now.
And remember, you know, when that Korean airliner
was shot down over the Soviet Union, according
to the reports, it had just veered the
slightest bit from the normal path.
But after enough hundreds of miles, it was
over the Soviet airspace.
Just a slight deviation from the path can
end you up in a totally wrong direction
and not too long.
If you continued living the way you're living
now, would you end up in heaven or
in hell?
If your life was fixed right now and
you just continue to develop for all eternity,
would you end up closer to God or
farther from him?
If your life was to stop right here
and now, and that was it, what would
your akhirit look like?
Are you going to be one of those
in the end who groans?
You're going to be one of those who's
so cool and so on top of things
and so doing your own thing in this
world.
And at the end, you wish that you
wish that you wish that you could do
it over, but it's too late.
Are there things that you are harboring in
your heart that when the opportunity presents itself,
you're going to go for it?
Maybe to your destruction?
What is your akhirit going to be?
Will it be one of mourning, weeping, hopelessness,
of darkness?
Will you have some akhirits in this life
that you wish you could undo?
Or at the end, will you say with
Paul, for the good fight, run the race,
finish the course that God set before me.
Henceforth, there's laid up for me a crown
of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge
will give me on that day, not to
me only, but to all those who love
his appearing.
What will your akhirit be?
God has laid out a path before you.
And the choices you make every day of
your life are going to have eternal implication.
And the patterns of living that you establish
now are going to continue to work themselves
out for eternity.
Consider, my friends, your final end.
Everybody bow your heads with me.
Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Father.
Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Father.
Blessed be your name.
Father, fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom.
Lord, your son, Jesus, endured the cross, despising
the shame for the joy that was set
before him.
He went through it.
Father, give us a vision that we can
see clearly.
As Jonathan Edwards prayed, Lord, stamp eternity on
our eyes.
Lord, give us a revelation of what is
good for this life, as well as for
eternity.
May we see through the lies of the
devil.
May we see through the wiles of the
enemy.
May we see through, Father, the seductive temptations.
May we see where they're really going to
lead.
May we remember the consequences of sin before
we go to sin.
Lord, where we've fallen asleep, where the enemy
has lulled us to sleep, where we've become
like the world and don't know it, show
us, O God.
May we have a rude awakening to holiness
once again.
May we not regret our lives, O God.
May we not wish we could do them
over.
May we truly give our utmost for your
highest.
Sold out, turned on, on fire, full of
your Spirit, doing your will.
Lord, not for some thrills, and not for
some little experiences, and not for the satisfaction
of our ego, but for your glory, and
for the true fulfillment of the deepest longing
of our souls.
Father, set your people free from every bondage.
Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Father.
Thank you, Lord God.
Let's just stay still before the Holy Spirit
for a moment.
Hallelujah.
Thank you, Lord.
Blessed be your name, Lord God.