All right, I hope you guys had enough time to be able to look through the passages before you came. Again, and you're going to hear me say this over and over again, Leviticus is not a book that you can just study casually. This is not a book that you can just stroll in in the middle and then hear about the different laws that are going on.

It will definitely go over your head. This is one of those books that you at least need to know the content, what are the questions. After you read it, what are the tension? What are the problems? What are some issues? What makes sense? What doesn't make sense? And you kind of have to come in with those questioning or else when we begin to expose it, the chances are it's going to go over your head.

So again, I just want to strongly encourage you at least try to read it, read it thoroughly, read it slowly. And then so at least you can catch the content of it before you come. Okay. So we're looking at chapter 18 today. And as you guys know, the primary thing he talks about is the immoral relations.

And so let me pray for us and then we're just going to jump right in. Okay. Gracious Father, we thank you for this evening. We pray, Father God, that your word would truly make sense and come alive. That the study of your word would not just be seeking knowledge or putting in our time, but especially Lord Leviticus and the importance of how it connects us to all that you have done in the New Testament, the sacrifice of Christ, what it means to be pure and impure.

What has required Lord God of sinful people to be in the presence of a holy God? We pray this evening as we discuss the importance of sexual morality and its ramification, what it means and how you view all of this. I pray, Father God, for strength, for openness, for tools, Lord God, to be motivated, convicted and strengthened that we may be resolved, Lord, to honor you in this way.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to go over chapter 18 in parts, in section. The first section that I'm going to be looking at is in verse 1 through 7. Okay. Where it begins by God calling Moses and telling him, telling the nation of Israel not to adopt the culture or the status of the nation they left in Egypt or in Canaan.

So Egypt is obviously where they came from and then Canaan is where they are headed. This is actually repeated seven times in this passage over, right? Seven separate times. It says, "Do not adopt the culture that you are entering. Do not look back and imitate where you came from." Because this is a common theme, not only in the Old Testament but also in the New Testament, in the New Covenant, our constant challenge is to look back from the culture that we came from and then to look with envy or wherever it is that we are headed, right?

So when you're young, when you first become a Christian, there's a lot of baggage that you bring from the past before you became a Christian. But after you become a Christian, there's a lot of temptations, especially when you're young. You know, when you have money, the temptation is to not, is to be so worried not to lose money, but when you don't have money, your temptation is about the money that you may or may not get if you make certain decisions, right?

This is a common theme that we see in the Bible, Ezekiel 20, 18-19, where it says, "I said to their children in the wilderness, 'Do not walk in the statues of your fathers or keep their ordinances or defile yourselves with their idols. I am the Lord your God. Walk in my statues and keep my ordinances and observe them.'" So over and over again in this text where it says, "Do not live by their standards, but my standards.

Do not live by their ordinance, but my ordinance," right? So after having said that and having said that over and over again, what is the primary thing that he says not to repeat, which is already in the title, right? He said, "Do not follow their ordinances. Do not follow their statues.

Do not imitate where you are heading," and what is the primary sin in this chapter where he says not to imitate? Sexual sin, right? So of all the things about greed, about coveting, idolatry, all of these things are obviously there, but of all the things that he highlights not to imitate, the primary thing that he says is not to imitate their perversion, the sexual perversion.

So if you've read this chapter, you know, right, especially in our sinful, sexually open culture where almost any perversion you can think of, you probably either heard of it, maybe even seen it. But I'll bet you there are certain things in this chapter that you probably didn't even think of, right?

The perversion in here. So he goes in and says, "Make sure that you do not copy them," but the primary sin that he brings up is their perversion, and he says this phrase over and over again, "You shall not uncover," and it is specifically referring to sexual relations. This is repeated 17 separate times.

You shall not uncover. You shall not uncover, right? This clearly is speaking about sexual immorality, right? And why didn't he just say, "Do not commit sexual immorality"? Why does he use the word uncover? Because the word, "You shall not uncover," it covers a lot more than just intercourse. You guys are, most of you guys are too young, but many years ago, our former president, Bill Clinton, he got caught in sexual relations, and they were interviewing him and said, "Did you have sexual relationship with this young woman, Monica Lewinsky?" And he said, "I did not have sexual relations." Again, you guys are too young to remember this, but he was on national TV, and he denied it many times, and then when it finally, it came out that he could not deny it, they asked him, "Why did you say you did not have sexual relations?" And he basically said, "I did not have intercourse." I'm not going to describe what he did, but he did everything else, but he did not have intercourse.

So when he said, "I did not have sexual relations," it means, "I did not have intercourse." That's how he explained it. And so at that time, there was a big debate, like, "What does it mean to have sex? Can you have oral sex? Is that considered sex? Can you fondle each other?

Is that sexual?" How far can you go in your sexual encounter, and then say, "No, I didn't have sex because we didn't cross the boundary and actually have penetration and intercourse." I know it's graphic, but it's necessary because the term that he uses here to uncover covers any sexual immorality, not just intercourse.

And that's why this term is used, to describe sexual immorality, because again, when sexual immorality is being rampant, you kind of start to get technical. "No, but I didn't actually, right? I didn't actually have sex. I didn't actually do this." So even though it talks about sexual immorality, "I never committed adultery because that didn't happen.

I didn't take it that far." Well, this particular phrase covers that. Any kind of sexual activity that is inappropriate outside of God-ordained marriage relationship. So this would include being naked, fondling, touching, anything that you, your wife, your spouse would consider inappropriate, anything outside of marriage. Again, I'm not going to go through all the lists.

Just in case there's anyone thinking I'm going to wiggle it, all I did was watch. All I did was touch. All I did was that. This covers all of it. The ancient Near East cults all contain some kind of cult sexual perversions as a part of their worship ritual.

You ever wonder why the Israelites were so tempted? I mean, they worshiped a God that provided miraculous bread, food, that parted red seeds, performed miracles, had clouds over them. And was such a magnificent God. But as soon as they forgot God, they ran to these idols. What was the attraction of these idols?

I have a picture of a couple of these idols that were very popular in the Old Testament, and you probably heard their names. And it's just, on the surface, it's like, why would you be attracted to that? Why was this so tempting? One of the main reasons why the idol worship was so attractive is because there was always some kind of a sexual activity attached to the idol worship.

Remember the golden calf? Why were they so eager to establish the golden calf and worship it? Remember when Moses goes up, Aaron creates his golden calf, and he says, "Oh, it just popped out of the fire." This is Yahweh that delivered you out of Egypt. The golden calf worship was believed to be an influence from Egypt.

And the bull worship, which promised great fertility if worshipped. So obviously, even to this day, when you think of bull, you think of power, you think of fertility. And so that's basically what their temptation was. Because at that time, in order to be rich, you need to be able to reproduce a lot, right?

Not just have one or two children, maybe 10, 20, 30 children. Your calf, if you're going to have, you know, if you're raising goat or bulls, in order for you to be rich, they need to be very reproductive. If you're going to plant seeds, they need to be able to produce well.

So you were completely dependent upon whatever it was that you were raising, whatever it was you were planting, to be fruitful. And so this calf worship from Egypt basically represented virility. That if you worshipped it, the promise was that you're going to be very, very fruitful. You're going to have many, many children.

All your cattle is going to reproduce, like, in a ridiculous amount of number. So the temptation for the calf worship was a desire to be rich, right? That was the temptation. But not only was there a desire to be rich, along with this was, because it represented fertility, part of the calf worship ended with orgies.

And if you look at the New Testament, again, I'm not going to go too deep into the New Testament, but much of the temptation of idol worship in the New Testament was the same. That at the end of the worship, there will be some kind of sexual relationship. So that's why everyone's talking about the temple prostitution, both male and female.

There's a lot of warning about that because the idol worship and sexual immorality went hand in hand. The chief male deity was Baal in Canaan, and the chief female deity was Ashtoreth. Both of them, again, represented fertility. Baal worship involved licentious sexual activities, which often ended in orgies. They would get drunk and have what was called sacred orgies to celebrate fertility.

So sexual immorality was embedded. And so, again, if you've read the Old Testament any number of times, you'll know that Baal worship was at the center of the temptation that Israelites constantly fell into. Asherah was the name of a goddess originated in Assyria. She was the goddess of fertility that promised health and wealth through sexual perversion.

So you can imagine, again, that the attraction of these idolatry was related to desire for wealth and desire for sex, right? For both. I mean, think about the temptations that we fall into. Again, as a pastor, I can tell you that one of the greatest challenges of leading a church in our generation is so many people are struggling with sexual purity.

You can be so committed to God, and then either you get caught in pornography or you start dating and you start having inappropriate relationships, and all of a sudden, your spiritual life is destroyed. You cannot worship God with a clear conscience if sexual immorality is a regular part of your life.

You just cannot. No matter how much you've compromised it, no matter how much you've justified it, you cannot. It absolutely destroys your walk with God. I don't care how much time you spend in reading the Word of God, how much time you spend in evangelizing or counseling or serving the church or giving, if sexual immorality is a regular part of your life, it absolutely destroys your ability to worship.

The other part of it is constant temptation to be rich. The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and fear of not having enough money or desiring money or having money and fear of losing the money is a constant, because the Scripture says wherever your treasure is, your heart will be.

So you don't have to have money to seek after money. All you have to do is desire it. So we're not talking about that part of it, but at least the part of the sexual immorality. Just how much power it had. Those are the actual pictures of Baal on the left, and this is, again, findings that they found through archeology, Asherah.

The pictures of Asherah vary based upon which area of the world that you found it in or what era. But most of the Asherah figurines have basically larger breasts representing females and Baal worship. So in and of itself, physically, what attracted them to this? Why would Israel forsake the living God to worship this?

So it wasn't anything physical, what they represented, that if they bow down to this, that the promise was that they're going to be fertile, they're going to reproduce. And then the act of worshiping these idols in and of itself was a temptation. So you get pleasure by coming to it, and then if you come to it, you're promised all these things that your heart's already desired.

Sexual sin, even in the New Testament, is highlighted above all their sins. In 1 Corinthians 6.18, it says, "Flee immorality." The word "immorality" in the NIV says "sexual immorality," because the word there is "pornea," where we get the word "pornography." It's a general word that refers not only to pornography, but in this context, because it's written to the Corinthians, it has the idea of sexual immorality.

So it says, "Flee sexual immorality." Do you remember any other part in the New Testament where it tells you to flee? Where to fight, where to have accountable, memorized scripture. But when it comes to sexual immorality, we are told to flee. This is not something you mess with. This is not something that you say, "You know what?

I'm going to try harder this time. I don't need accountability because I have willpower." It's assumed that everybody is vulnerable to this. So again, I'm going to go off a little bit. If you are in a constant issue with pornography on the internet, figure out a way to have accountability on your internet.

It is better for you not to have internet than to be constantly struggling with the same thing. But if you say, "You know what? I have to have internet," then figure out a way to have some sort of covenant eyes or some sort of accountability. But you cannot, no matter how much you've compromised, no matter how much you've justified in it, you cannot worship God and have sexual immorality as a regular part of your life.

It is not possible. It's a flea sexual immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but immorality, man sins against his own body. Now, what does it mean to sin against your own body? When you steal, I mean, that hurts other people. Typically, when you think of sexual immorality, the reason why people don't take it seriously is because they think it only harms me.

Other things I do, I harm others. If I slander, I hurt other people. I murder, obviously, I'm hurting other people. But sexual immorality is like, "Well, no one's hurt but me." But here it says, "It's a greater sin because you sin against your own body." So what does he mean by that?

Is your body more precious than your neighbors, that if you steal from them, but then if you hurt your own body, it's a greater sin? Is that what he means here? If you look at the context of what he is saying, when he says it's a greater sin because you sin against your own body, he's not simply talking about your own body.

The very next verse says, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own, for you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your own body." The second part of it in 19-20 is talking about the church.

Previously, before in verses 16 and 17, he's talking about how we have been united with Christ. And when you unite your body to a prostitute, he says you are becoming one. So when he says, when you have sexual immorality, he's not simply talking about how it affects your body, he's talking about how that affects whatever body that you've also become united to.

Do you understand what I'm saying? So he says, how can an individual who has been united together with God, in the Holy Spirit, take that and unite that with a prostitute? Meaning, if you unite that body that had been united with Christ, and you unite it with a prostitute, in a sense you're uniting the Holy Spirit with a prostitute.

And then, individually, we are one in the body of Christ. We've been united together as one. So the body here, you, is in plural. So when he says sexual sin, in particular, is a greater sin, because we are a part of the greater body of Christ. So my sexual sin doesn't just affect you, what does it affect?

It affects your body. Meaning, whatever you've been united with, it affects the church. Even though you think it just affects you. Remember what the scripture said, if one hurts, we all hurt together because we are one. If we stub our toe, it's not just our toe, it's just a toe.

He said, no, because we're united, the whole body hurts. So your sexual sin plays a part in decreasing the quality of fellowship, decreasing the quality of witness, decreasing the quality of worship that we can collectively give to God. That's why he's saying this particular sin is so harmful, because it really erodes the church.

That's what he means. He's not simply saying, it affects you, all other sins it affects other people, but this particular sin affects you more, so it's a greater sin. No, the damage is greater. That's what he's saying. He says, I am the Lord, and he repeats this over and over again for the purpose of emphasis and authority.

In other words, everything he says comes with authority. But when God himself places emphasis on his name, it's just like repeating, saying, Peter, Peter, Simon, Simon. In other words, pay attention. What I'm about to say to you comes with great authority. It comes with great consequence. He says, I am the Lord.

This expression is a claim of divine ownership. In other words, you are mine. You are not to do with your body as you please. Later on, Leviticus 25, 55, for the sons of Israel are my servants. They are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt.

I am the Lord, your God. And over and over again, he says to obey my statutes, my judgments, my statutes, verse 4, verse 5, 26, verse 30, that you are not to follow theirs. You are not to follow yours, but my statutes, my standards, not your standards, not Egypt's standards, not the Canaanite standard, not what you think is right, but what I tell you is right.

Again, you and I live in a generation where if it feels right to you, why is it wrong? Because our standard of right and wrong is based upon if it bothers you. So if you hear a particular sentence, if it doesn't gross you out, if it doesn't gross you out, it maybe grossed people out in the previous generation, but it doesn't gross you out because they are trying to normalize certain kinds of sin.

So if it doesn't gross you out, then why is it so bad? And that's a problem that a lot of even Christians have because their certain kind of sexual sin has become a normal part of our society that we become weird. God's standard has become weird. So over and over again, he says, I am the Lord, you are to follow my statutes and my judgments, and he repeats that over and over and over again.

God is the standard of righteousness, not us. All of that was the introduction and then verse 6 through 9, and we're going to go over this real faster. Verse 6 through 9, he's going over various incestuous relationship. All of this is an abomination to the Lord. And I'm going to go over some of that later on in a chart so you can see it in all one page.

He talks about sexual relations between parents and children, parents and stepchildren, between siblings by birth or by marriage, and on and on. So just in case you say, you know what, maybe what your child is wrong, what your mom is wrong, your aunt is wrong, maybe your brother. So he just goes down the list in case there's any relation, in case anybody is thinking oh, he didn't say this, right?

I mean it's almost kind of like he wants to make sure that nobody is looking at these laws and saying well, he didn't say this, so maybe he's okay with this. So he just thoroughly goes down every relationship you can possibly think of to make sure that nobody wiggles out of it, that all of this is a perversion, an abomination to the Lord.

It is not just sinful. It doesn't just make you unclean. It says it is an abomination to the Lord. The reason why he does this is because this perversion, this incestuous perversion is very common. We may hear it and say, if you've read it, you look down at the list and you say, what, with your mom, your dad, your children, your sister, your brother?

But if you look at and you study and if you've been around long enough, you know that most sexual immorality or molestation of any kind usually happens within the family. Sixty-three percent of all sexual assaults on females take place within family members. Sixty-three percent. One in five girls and one in 20 boys is a victim of child sexual abuse.

And 63% or more usually takes place within the family structure. So we may read something like that in chapter 18 and say, oh, that's perverse. Which land did that? Maybe the Assyrians, maybe the Canaanites, maybe the Corinthians. Sin is not logical. Sin is not planned out. When you are burning in lust, you express it in a way that is the most convenient.

And so that's why it happens in the context of family, because they are the closest. It's not calculated. So when lust is not tempered and you just express it without limit, it gets expressed with whatever is near. So as perverted as it is, if you live long enough, you know just from experience, from hearing, from counseling, that this is very true.

So everything that he says here are not talking about some weird groups of people. This is a description of how far our perversion has gone. So when the scripture says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," when he says, "All have sinned," he doesn't describe every single sin.

But chapter 18, he goes into detail of the perversion of sin. As a pastor, I can tell you when I was younger, I would say, "Oh, you know, I could…" When you even just a thought of or hearing about it, it's like, "Oh, that's gross. That's perverted." But after all these years of just talking, counseling, and talking to other pastors, everything that is talked about here in chapter 18, I've heard it.

I've heard it practiced in some context. So this is not some weird thing far away. This perversion is inside of us in this room. You say, "Oh, maybe those perverted people." No. Sexual perversion is inside of all of us. When we sinned against God, when we are away from the author of life, everything, your idea of right and wrong has been perverted.

Your sense of justice and fair has been perverted. What you consider to be fun, it's been perverted. Everything that God has intended has been perverted. Our idea of marriage has been perverted. Our idea of authority has been perverted. Our idea of union has been perverted. Everything has been perverted.

So when Christ came and he redeemed us, he didn't just redeem us so that we wouldn't go to hell. He's redeeming everything that's been perverted and bringing us back to what he intended. That's what sanctification is. Sanctification isn't simply you becoming a better person. Sanctification is restoring what got perverted.

And one of the key things that got perverted is our sexuality. Think about it. At the core of when he created us, he said to be fruitful and multiply. How are you to be fruitful and multiply? You're supposed to have sexual relations with a man and a woman. God created that.

He made it enjoyable to be fruitful and multiply. And then when perversion came in, all of a sudden, what God created to give you as a gift, all of a sudden, it became an act of rebellion against God. At the very core of what he gave us as a gift for our enjoyment and for the purpose of reproducing, now the very core of our rebellion is expressed in our sexual perversion.

The next section, verse 10 through 18, covers anything else that might have been missed in many different family relationships. So he goes through grandparents and grandchildren by blood, talks about uncles, aunts, nieces, and nephews, parents and spouses of their children, siblings and the spouses of their other siblings, children of a spouse, siblings of a spouse.

I mean, he wants to make sure that nothing is left out. So here's a general chart to cover every relationship. And this basically covers chapter 18. Not only does he talk about the blood relationship, he's talking about legal relationship with sister, sister-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, that all of these things are perversion before God.

So it's thorough. So chapter 18 is thorough. God wants us to know that this is an abomination. Like in other words, when he says it's an abomination, you know like in the New Testament, he says how he despises a lukewarm church and he says he will spew you out of the mouth?

It's like disgusting. So whenever we see the word abomination, it means like God sees the stench and what he sees and he's disgusted, right? That's more of a biblical way of saying God is disgusted with this. That's what he means when he says abomination. This is disgusting in God's eyes because again, it is at the core of human rebellion.

The only lawful sexual relation ordained in Scripture is between a husband and wife. Any other sexual contact is considered an abomination to the Lord. Think about when there is sexual perversion, which of the 10 commandments, you know how the 10 commandments is broken into two, love God and love your neighbor?

The first four is about God, right? Have no other gods, don't make any graven images, don't use my name in vain and keep the Sabbath holy. Next six is about human relations, right? Honor your father and mother, do not kill, do not covet, do not steal, right? The next six.

Which of the six does sexual perversion break? Think about it. Tell me, what do you think it breaks? Huh? Huh? Commit adultery? Okay, that's one. What else? Thou shalt not covet, right? Because you want something that doesn't belong to you, God didn't give you, thou shalt not covet. What else?

Okay, you honor your father. I mean, clearly you're breaking that in that perversion. What else? I mean, if you're coveting and then you go after something that doesn't belong to you and you take it, what do you do? You steal, right? Does it cover anything else? Thou shalt not bear any false witness, right?

Clearly you're corrupting the other person in some sense. How about murder? We'll get to that. He actually even covers that, okay? The sexual perversion actually even leads to murder. So unlawful sexual relations breaks most, if not all, of the horizontal aspect of the Ten Commandments, right? You can make an argument about slander, about gossiping, but pretty much if you give in to sexual immorality, it has greater consequences, right?

It's not just one, it's all of it. Verse 19 to 23, just in case we missed anything, he goes into further sexual intercourse during menstrual cycle, right? Again, he covers. This was already covered in Leviticus chapter 15, 19. Adultery. Again, this was repeated in Exodus chapter 20, verse 14.

Here's one. In verse 21, he says, "You should not give any of your offspring to offer them to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God. I am the Lord." Everything that he says here is about sexual immorality. Why does he bring in child sacrifice? Do you understand my question?

The whole chapter is about sexual immorality, right? Adultery, having sex during menstrual cycle, homosexuality, bestiality. So everything he talks about in chapter 18 is sexual immorality, and yet here he says, "Do not offer your child as a sacrifice." Why is that here? The gift of Molech consisted of heating a metal statue representing Molech until it was red hot.

Then by placing a living infant on the outstretched hands of the statue while beating drums drowned out the screams of child until it burned to death. That's what they did. Now, why would a parent do that to their kid, right? Even if you're tempted. Again, and why is this here in the context of all the other sexual immorality?

Often the infants that were not wanted were discarded in this way, much like modern day abortion. Basically, if you're going to have rampant sexual immorality, and I'm not saying that all abortion is done for that purpose, if you're going to have rampant sexual immorality, you have to be able to discard the consequences of that.

Unwanted, untimed. And so, not all abortion is done for that purpose, but again, this child sacrifice, what was the motivating factor behind it was sexual immorality. They would go to the temple and have orgies, right? Some of them would have children. And then they didn't have abortion pills, they didn't have abortion clinics, so they have to wait until the child is born.

And when the child is born, how do they discard a child? They sacrificed it to Molech, right? So this was related to sexual immorality. It's not random. So we talked about which commandment is broken. Even murder was related to this sexual immorality. Homosexual intercourse, this is something that again, if you're being raised in this generation, almost universally, successfully, the world has been convinced that this should be normal.

This was not so. When I was back in high school, Christian or non-Christian, this was not a Christian debate. It's just like today, if you say, what about child porn? I mean, I don't think anybody, I mean, no one would have the guts to be able to stand up and try to argue that in court.

There was a period in majority of the world, in majority of world history, where arguing homosexuality would have been received with the same kind of disgust. Again, even for me to say that, I have to say it carefully, because it's been sold so effectively that this should be accepted.

Homosexuality is not like every other sin. It is highlighted in scripture as an abomination. Homosexual sin is emphasized, especially egregious sin, both here and in Romans 124. Again, I know you and I live in a culture where bakeries are being shut down, TV, newscasters, actors are losing their jobs simply by saying homophobic slurs.

In the previous administration, there were talks about shutting down churches that refused to accept it. If you say we're not going to perform gay marriages, that you can lose your license and your non-profit status. You can practice this in your home. Up in Canada, if you try to teach your kids, even in your home, that homosexuality is wrong, but the government is trying to go after homeschooled kids so that they can't teach their kids.

They have been so successful in brainwashing the world that you can't even mention it. It's been equaled with civil rights. That's why it's a challenge today. Where do we get our morality? Does it come from you? Whether it disgusts you or not, whether you think it's wrong or right, or does God determine that?

Is it my statutes? Is it my laws that we obey? Are we renewed in the renewing of our mind based upon his word? Or our sense of righteousness comes from whatever generation that you've been born in. I was born maybe in a previous generation, so that's why I have those morals.

You were born in this generation, so therefore you have those morals. And then when you have kids, what will be accepted in that generation, who knows? Considering the sexual perversion that's on the internet, and they're younger and younger that are exposed to all of these things. So by the time you have kids and you're in your 40s and 50s, what is going to be okay to them?

Is that how we determine right and wrong? And then what's going to be by the time you have grandkids? Is sexual immorality going to be redetermined by this slippery slope? That's why he says over and over again, "It is my statutes. It is my judgment." What does the scripture say?

Even bestiality. I've never heard of anybody arguing for bestiality because they have not pushed this. But why not? And again, you've probably heard this argument before. It's like, "Well, what if they were born this way?" There are people born with extra testosterone, which makes them extra aggressive, and they get angry more easily.

But we would never say being angry with people is acceptable because I'm born with extra testosterone. There are certain things that we determine to be right or wrong, no matter how you were born. In fact, the scripture says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Every inclination that we had in our sin was perverted.

Even our heterosexual sexuality is perverted. It's not just homosexuality. It's not just homosexuality. It's just that homosexuality is highlighted, and it is being pushed. And that's why there's an argument, that's why there's a debate going on. That study in itself is questionable, but even if that study was true, just being born with inclination doesn't make it right or wrong.

Morality is not determined by our society. It's not determined by what you think, what we think, or majority thinks. It's determined by what God says. You may have talked to somebody who tried to wiggle scripture and pervert it to say what it doesn't say, that that's not what it says.

That's not how this word should be translated. That is not—no person who knows any Greek will argue for that. Unless it is done for a specific agenda. That's not what the scripture says. It is plainly written in scripture. Even bestiality, there's records of it. Idol worship and Yugra involve bestiality as part of their worship ceremony.

All of these things are very practical prohibitions because it is embedded into history, even today. The Romans 1, 24-28, "Therefore God gave them over in their lust of their hearts to impurity so that their bodies would be dishonored among them." So stop right there. God's ultimate judgment is you continue to go down that path.

He said God gives them over. How does he give them over? He just lets you do it. If you're going to keep watching pornography, if you're going to keep practicing sexual immorality, okay, I'm not going to stop you. It's like your kid fights, fights, fights, then at some point, I said don't touch it, don't touch it.

I was having this conversation with a brother today and he was saying like, yeah, you tell your child, don't touch that, don't touch that, don't touch that. They just determine. I said, then, okay, then touch it. Then they touch it like, and they start screaming their head off. I told you.

That's basically what God is saying. I'm telling you not to do that because of the damage it's going to do to you, to the church, to your wife, to your children, to your husband, to your kids. But if you're going to keep touching that, keep touching, see what happens.

And you're going to experience the pain that I was trying to prevent you from. And so he says, "So that their bodies would be dishonored among them, for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever.

Amen." "For this reason, God gave them over to degrading passions. For their woman exchanged the natural functions for that which is unnatural." So you notice how he said the first, when God just gave them over, right? So sexual perversion. And he said when he gave them over, saying express it any way you want, he says homosexuality, right?

Now, I'm not saying that all homosexuality is a result of just rampant perversion, right? I've met, I met homosexuals who just in tears didn't want to be, but they had these desires, right? But I've also met plenty of people who came into homosexuality through perversion when they were young.

I had a good close friend of mine who told me that his child, who's a college sophomore junior now, he came confessed, not to argue with his parents because his dad's a pastor. He said that he was having homosexual attractions. And so his dad sat him down and says, "Tell me what happened because I want to understand." And he basically told him the story how he was in sixth grade, went over to his friend's house and his friend had access to pornography and they just started watching pornography.

Every time he went over to their house, he was watching pornography. And then by the time he was seventh, eighth, ninth grade, it started getting worse. So just like perversion, like whatever it was you started with isn't enough. So you would get more and more with different kind of fetishes.

And he said that as he was flipping through the porn site, they had all these gay channels and out of curiosity he went and he started watching. So it was a gradual process that led him there. And all of a sudden he realized he was having these, I mean, his desires were so perverted.

It was done out of curiosity. Again, for the sake of time, I'm not going to get into it, but my experience and talking to people and what I've observed, there is a connection to this. When you allow your lust to be rampant and say, "Well, there's no guidelines. We create our own morals." And you say, "God just lets you do whatever you desire." It's not just about homosexuality.

We don't know where that path is going to go. It's just like pouring water into a sloped ground without any kind of channel. You have no idea where it's going to go. I've talked to pedophiles. And you ask them what happened. Same story. They got into pornography and they just got worse and worse and worse and out of curiosity it just kind of led them down to that path.

So the scripture says they exchanged what God desired, what God intended with a lie and as a result God gave them over. When God gave them over, they started to act unnaturally. And in the same way also men abandoned their natural function with women and burned in their desire toward one another.

This is all as a result of God turning them over. Just allowing their lust to have its full expression, committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to depraved mind to do those things which are not proper.

Verse 25 to 30 in conclusion, the urgency of this, sexual immorality, it defiles oneself. And we talked about already in 1 Corinthians 6, 18 to 20, what that one self, your body is talking about. It's not just talking about your body, but everything else that we're connected to. So it has a defiling effect of anything that we're connected to.

Sexual immorality, it affects our wives, it affects our friendship, it affects the church, it affects our witness, it affects our worship, it affects fellowship, it affects whatever it is that we're connected to. Sexual immorality, it says over and over again, four or five separate times, it talks about how it defiles the land.

Let me get to that passage. In Romans 8, 19 to 22, it says, "For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who was subjected in hope. That the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into freedom and glory of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now." Remember when Adam and Eve falls? It wasn't just Adam and Eve that became corrupt, that was corrupted. Remember what happened? Before the fall, they were being fruitful, multiplying, and it was functioning the way God intended, but after the fall, what did he say?

You're going to work, right? You're going to work and labor, and you're going to buy the sweater of your brow. Basically, your life is going to be hard, and at the end of all your labor, what is going to produce? Thorns and thistles, right? The scripture clearly says, right?

Our sin and where we live, the earth, is connected. That's why at the end, when God restores all things, what happens? How is it described in Revelation chapter 20 and 21? New heaven and new earth, right? New heaven and new earth. You look at all these people who are looking at the world decreasing.

You know people talk about like, you know, global warming, and there's a bunch of people who are saying global warming is not happening. Whether global warming is happening or not, the earth is decreasing, right? It is getting uglier. Whether it's the ozone, whether it's the plastic in the ocean, whether it's overfishing, whether it's over farming, whether it's just rampant population increase, whatever it is, or war or pestilence, whatever it is.

The world that we're living in is not becoming more beautiful. It's getting uglier, right? Physically it's getting uglier, right? The scripture talks about how the land became corrupted along with our sins and is eagerly waiting for the redemption of God's children because when we are redeemed and Christ finally comes, there's going to be a new heaven and new earth that's going to be restored, right?

But he says over and over again that sexual immorality actually perverts and corrupts the land itself. And then finally, sexual immorality is an abomination to the Lord, right? It's as strong of a term that you can get, you can use, that this is how God feels towards sexual immorality.

Having said all of that, there isn't a single person in this room, young or old, that doesn't wrestle with perverted lust. And the way that the enemy uses this against us is that because it is a sin that we don't want to talk about. You know, when you slander somebody or you said something you shouldn't have said or you compromise, you know, we're more eager to share that and say, "Yeah, I shouldn't have done this or I shouldn't have compromised." But when it comes to sexual perversion or sexual immorality, there's shame attached to that so Satan uses that to cause us to hide, right?

And we don't confess it. I mean, we want to overcome it but we don't confess it. And as a result of that, Satan has a hold on that part of our life where we end up creating two separate worlds. We have this world where we present to God and here's a world that we hide.

And if we're not careful, we can create two worlds. That's why you hear all these people who are so powerful in the pulpit and after 20, 30 years, you find out there's all kinds of sexual perversion was happening behind the scene because they've created two worlds, right? Now having said all of that, the goal of this Bible study is not to simply say, "Shame on you," because we're all under that corruption, every single one of us, right?

One, to recognize sin as sin, that if we've gotten in the habit of excusing perversion in our lives, that needs to be seen from God's eyes to recognize what kind of damage it's doing, right? It is not simply a mistake. It says it is an abomination to the Lord.

So we need to see that from God's perspective, right? One. Secondly, just like anything else, the goal of revealing sin is not to simply be shamed. The goal of revealing sin is to bring us to repentance because the only answer to regenerate and restore and redeem is the blood of Christ.

So recognizing sin as sin is ultimately to bring us to Christ, right? But if you refuse to call it what it is in God's eyes, then there's nothing to repent, right? It's just, "Ah, we all do it. This is something that everybody struggles with to a certain degree," right?

As long as you keep that kind of attitude, there's no real repentance. True repentance requires us coming before God, beating our chest, right? I'm a sinner in need of His grace. So my encouragement is in our small groups, and if not today, at some point, if you are serious about being a worshiper of God and this is a regular part of your life, first find people to confess this sin to, to keep you accountable, to pray, and to run this together with, right?

So that somebody can regularly ask you, "What's going on with you?" And you don't just continue to sweep sin. And any time you sweep sin under the rug, it ends up growing and defiling every other part of your life, right? So it says, "Flee from youthful lusts. Pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Do it not by yourself, but together," right? Together. And again, I can tell you, if you are sitting here thinking like, "Oh my gosh, I'm so, I'm so ashamed," right? Look to your left and to your right, the people to your left and to your right are thinking the exact same thing.

There's not a single person in here who has not been corrupted in our lust, right? So as long as we keep it a secret, it becomes a stronghold for Satan, right? That's why the scripture says to confess to one another, right? It doesn't mean tomorrow it's going to be gone, that lust is still going to be there, but at least you're fighting it together.

We're fleeing together, okay? So we have five discussion questions. In what way does sexual impurity damage your relationship with God and others? Be as specific as you can. I want to, I want to ask you guys to do your best to try to go over all five questions if possible, okay?

In what way have you seen it? In what way does it, right, damage your relationship with God and others? When do you feel the most vulnerable to sexual impurity? At night, when you're by yourself, when you're watching movies, right? If you're dating, right, when you're in a car by yourself, when you're watching movies at home on a couch, like when is sexual impurity the greatest, right?

Has sexual impurity become an acceptable part of your life? Do you catch yourself saying like, well, you know, we always stream, when somebody asks you how you're doing, it's like, well, you know, I'm struggling, or not good, or, but you're never really confessing, right? Has it become an acceptable part of your spiritual life, right?

What practical measures have you taken to combat sexual impurity in your life? What have you done in the past that helped you to remain pure, have some success combating sexual temptations, right? So if you say, you know what, you know, I got covenant life, or I read a book together, I met with a brother, and he called me every week, what did you do in the past that you feel was successful?

Maybe share that in your group, maybe that's something that you can practice again with some other people. Take some time to pray and make commitment to keep each other accountable in this area by being willing to be asked and ask accountability questions each week, right? Again, I can't exaggerate this enough, right, how important this is.

And when I say that if you ask me what is one of the biggest problems in the church, I mean, I could tell you a couple, you know, like constant distraction with entertainment, right, constantly just drifting toward lukewarmness, I mean, that's a constant problem, especially in Orange County, and I would put this as either number one or two, right?

And until we take this in seriously, no matter how much we plan and desire and work, like this sin is always going to be holding us back, right? So I'm going to ask you to take some time to pray and do your best to discuss all five of these questions, and especially in the application part, right?

If you absolutely feel uncomfortable, I don't think I can share this with this particular group, let me know. I'll try to help you find a group, right? I'll try to help you find a group that you can be together. I hope that that's not the case. I hope that whatever group that you're in, that you can be vulnerable with each other enough to be able to be honest, right, and wrestle with this together.

Okay, like I said, we're all in the same boat, right? This is not a mature Christian and immature Christian problem. This is a problem period with anyone who's in the flesh, right, until we get home. So hopefully we can acknowledge that and fight and flee together, okay? So let me pray for us and then take some time to discuss with your group.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this particular chapter. Lord, we live in a generation, Lord God, where the access to pornography has become so easy, just sitting in our pockets at any time in any convenience, all kinds of things, Lord God, that we couldn't have possibly imagined in the previous generation.

We need your help, Father God, that our hearts may be changed, that we would see the damage of this not only to us, but to our families, our wives, our children, our community, our witness. Lord, this particular sin, Lord, we can't do it ourselves. We need you, Father God.

Help us to be vulnerable. Help us, Lord God, to recognize our weakness, that together as a church that we may flee, encourage, strengthen one another. So I pray, especially tonight, Lord God, as we discuss that there will be openness, vulnerableness, and asking for your grace, asking for your Holy Spirit to guide, that you will protect us, Lord God, from demonic influence, Lord, that desires to hold our feet, who is constantly scheming, Lord, to want to protect our reputation more than our true worship.

I pray, Father, that you would guide and lead us for that purpose tonight. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.