Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Two Become One Pt.7

Let's turn to Genesis; we want to continue along the study we've been on. I know it's stirred a lot of conversation, and there's a lot of fellowship coming from it; it's a good thing. So, we're trying to really establish, in the midst of all of this world that's literally upside down from a biblical perspective, how we can be in the world and not of it, as the Apostle said. The Lord's coming. Amen? That's exciting! We see all of the signs of the times; you see, again, what's going on in the Middle East. The generation that sees these signs shall not pass until the Lord comes, and we believe we are the generation that's going to see the coming of the Lord. John says that every man that has that hope in him will then purify himself even as He is pure (1 John 3:3).

It's interesting. I was talking to [a friend] on the phone yesterday, and I talked to him for the first time in 35 years. I was just sharing with him a little bit, after we caught up on where he's been, and tried to bring him up over the last 35 years of my life- I haven't done a lot, but a few of the things we've done-I was just sharing with him what God's doing in our midst. Here's a young man, he's been in a church there in Seattle for the last 35 years. And it got silent on the other end of the phone for a minute, and then he said, "Man, we don't have that." He said, "Probably for the last 20 years I haven't heard anybody say anything about Jesus coming back." The Scripture speaks toward that, doesn't it? It says, "And this shall come upon all those that dwell upon the face of the whole earth..." That's what Revelation says, and in Thessalonians. That word in the Greek means, "those that are earth-dwellers." Too many Christians have become citizens of this world. We're just passing through. Amen? This isn't our home; this isn't what it's all about, we're just in preparation to go home. He's gone to prepare a place for us, and He said, "...I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:2, 3). Praise God! Are you homesick? That will help you with all of the decisions you're going to be making that we've been talking about: Just stay homesick, ready to leave here, praise God. Don't make your decisions based upon this temporal life. This life is just a vapor, here today, gone tomorrow. I'm talking to a guy that I hadn't seen for 35 years, and it was just like yesterday. Should the Lord tarry, the next 35 years will go just like that (snap). Then it's all over and we'll see Him, praise God, and we'll be like Him. Amen? I just so want to see Him, I'm just ready to go home. You get tired-don't you sometimes, just laboring here-but the Scripture says that if we don't faint, in due season we're going to reap, praise God!

So, what do we do since we've got to hang out here? Well, Genesis says, "...It is not good that the man should be alone; [and all the men said, "Amen." So God said] I will make him an help meet for him" (Genesis 2:18). And we know how the story went; all the animals came before Adam and he named them. I don't know if he named them the same things that many of the biologists of today name them, all the different names, but he named them all. The Scripture said, "...there was not found an help meet for him." (Genesis 2:20) I'm sure after a little bit of time had gone by maybe the Orangutan was looking pretty good, I mean, it's like, beats the hippo, "Uh, is this all my choices?" There wasn't found a help meet for him. So God put him into a deep sleep-we know the Scripture-reached into his side and pulled out a negative. Somebody reminded me the other day that when I give this illustration I'm talking to a digital generation. Most of you don't even know what a negative is, a lot of you. For those of you who are old enough that you know what I'm talking about in the film, the negative, the exact opposite, the same image from the opposite perspective. Men, that is are what our wives are, they are seeing the same thing we are, but how come we don't communicate the same? "I mean, we saw the same thing, and you're seeing it from the opposite side." That's what they are for. We get so frustrated, as men, we say, "Why can't you be more like a...a man?" It's because they are a woman, and they are supposed to see things that way, and thank God for the feminine, emotional, irrational many times-not all the time ladies, don't turn on me-many times irrational, but correct perspective. We want it to be rational, many times we're not concerned about the emotional aspects of it. We don't want to discuss it, we don't just want to observe it and assimilate it, we want to fix it. We want to fix everything, and go on to the next thing. You [ladies] want to lay 20,000 words on it. Thank God, men, for that feminine perspective, that blessing that God's given you, for Scripture says, "Whoso findeth a wife findeth [say it] a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord" (Proverbs 18:22). We're so thankful for you ladies, we're thankful for that great gift of God, that completion that's been brought to Adam, that he has now a help meet. The Hebrew word help meet means, "one that stands alongside to give assistance, to give ballast." Not the head, as it is in our generation. Tragically, around the planet today, we are living in primarily a maternal environment, and it's totally perverted; it's the opposite of God's will. "...the head of the woman is the man...[the Scripture tells us] Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man" (1 Corinthians  1:3-9). The Scripture goes on to tell us, and society today sneers at that, not only sneers at it, it's abhorred at those kinds of statements. The secular world mocks, says that these thoughts are antiquated, primal, and God says it's His wisdom that brings divine order, strength and union, each member fulfilling its role.

As we go on and we talk about how God brings two of us together-"and these two shall be made one flesh," the Scripture says-how to know who our life's mate is going to be, how God brings us together, all of these things we've been talking about; I want to go into one other aspect as we pull these pieces together and try to paint the picture for you. We were dealing with it a little bit on Wednesday night. Turn over to Ephesians and we'll look at that. What I want you to see is you'll never be able to relate to a life's mate until you learn how to relate to the body of Christ; this is practice, this is training. You'll never know how to relate to the body of Christ, many of you young people, until you learn how to relate to your parents. Interpersonal relationships don't manifest themselves naturally because of man's selfishness and pride, so after regeneration, when we learn to die to ourselves to prefer others better than ourselves, this is practice for living, for life's mates. The natural tendency is toward selfness, it doesn't take any training to go up here into the nursery and watch these little babies, and you put a little toy down and both of them lay claim to it, "Mine!" And they don't really necessarily even want it, it's that the other guy wants it; and as soon as they take possession of it, what do these children usually do? They set it aside and look for something else, because lust is insatiable, and so now, "I have to have that one, and that one, and that one." They want every toy in the toddler room and they especially want the ones that the other kid has. That's who we are, we've just grown up a little bit, learned how to refine it, make it socially acceptable, but unregenerate man is absolutely self-serving, selfish, prideful: "...your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods..." is what was said to Adam and Eve, and so man, in his divine perspective of self, lives this way.

Now, we're born-again and we come to Ephesians, Chapter 4, and as new creatures in Jesus, where old things have passed away and all things have become new, He places us into this body and He says, "Okay, here's what I have for you, here's the will of God for your life, even your sanctification," the Scripture says. How are we sanctified? By iron sharpening iron, we're sanctified by our continual choice to prefer others, to embrace the cross, and so he says, fourth chapter, "[You need to realize I want you as the prisoner of the Lord as I am, I beseech you from that role] that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love..." You see, this is practice for marriage for those of you who are not married. This is the fruit of what makes a good marriage: every one of us thinking less of ourselves than we do. He said you think of yourselves more highly than you ought, but think soberly and discreetly, Paul said. So, we enter into relationships, and if you're going to have good relationships, enter in with lowliness of mind and meekness and a spirit of longsuffering, patience, forbearing, being able to endure these relationships. We're in a marathon. Amen? We're learning to endure one another. How many of you realize that most of you need to be just endured? Most of us think we're God's gift to the world, that we're special, but really not everybody sees things the way you do, and most people are just enduring you, but that's what we're called to do. It says-and here's what's cool, you say, "Well that's kind of harsh." No, we endure. What's the last phrase say? "[enduring] one another [what?] in love..." Oh, you mean there's an endurance that can be offensive, and carnal, and natural, and then there's an endurance of love, there's a longsuffering of love, there is a lowliness that finds its source in love? John says, "God is love," God is love. We're talking about relating to one another, then, in love, with Jesus as Lord of our lives. So, that becomes the origin of our community, of our relationships: God! Just trying to please the Lord, just realizing that freely we've received, freely we're supposed to give. He says, once you've approached relating to one another with lowliness and you've, by love, chosen to forbear, you don't feel like it, but love chooses.

Let me give you the definition of love so you'll know where we're coming from. We know that God is the source of true love, God is love but love is not God. There's natural love, there's love that is eros or "erotic;" there's phileo love, "brotherly love, family love;" and then there's agape, "the love of God." We have all three of those that are operating in us as His creatures. Now, every aspect of these loves has God as the source. Two of them can be perverted and be used in the natural mind and for selfish reasons and for other than Kingdom edification. Agape always edifies the body of Christ, always glorifies God. Phileo and eros can give honor and glory to man, can be used for selfish reasons. So, the source always has to be God; in other words, true love. Love that's going to be acceptable to God always originates in agape and then works it way through phileo and into eros. The proper biblical order for marriage, for physical relations-it is illicit, according to the Scriptures to experience erotic love before you've experienced agape love-it always goes from agape, the love of God; to phileo, the soulical love, relational love, the knowing of one another the building up of one another's lives, the contributing to the good of each other spiritually; and then it is now able to express itself in the eros aspect, that's God's proper order, and most of the world is trying to arrive at this thing backwards. When I say eros, I'm not just talking about sexual relations, I'm talking about even giving away of our emotions; we've talked about don't give your heart away illicitly, don't give your affections and your emotions away illicitly without God sealing it in agape and building it in the phileo realm. You are not ready to take anybody as a life's mate until you've experienced the Philadelphia love, the phileo love, the family love, the coming together and learning to interact and to know one another as brothers and sisters and to have knowledge of the needs in that individual's life and what you can and have over the years contributed.

That's what Paul's speaking of here in Ephesians and he's saying, "Look, you guys, you've got to come together, you've got to come together in lowliness and forbear one another and be longsuffering with one another in love, and endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, for don't you realize there's only one body, and there's one Lord, and there's one faith, and there's one baptism." And he comes down and he's telling us, "None of us live to ourselves or die to ourselves." It's not just about you; finding this life's mate is not just about the two of you coming together and living happily ever after, "Sorry about the rest of you." When you marry somebody-listen very closely to me-when you marry somebody, you don't rip them out of the body of Christ and possess them to yourself; you join and become one in the body of Christ. Two are made one, and you're made stronger, and you're made better, and one puts a thousand to flight, and two put ten thousand to flight, and it's about edifying the body. It's about glorifying God, it's not about taking this person to yourself and possessing them for your own pleasures. That's the perverted perspective that even many Christians have today.

Paul's speaking here and he's talking about the unification of the body and the building up of the body and how to relate to the members of the body with lowliness, and meekness, and longsuffering. Then he goes down and he begins to embellish on this. He says, "In fact, let me tell you how important these interpersonal relationships are in building up the body; to make these things work, God gave gifts to men," and he goes on and he says down here in the eleventh verse, "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers...for the edifying of the body of Christ [to build up the body.]" We won't spend a lot of time on this, we've taught on it much in the past, but just to reiterate for you this aspect: To prepare each one of us to be able to minister to the others. See, we don't just come to get built up, that's not why we come to fellowship with the saints. We don't come just to get edified. We don't come for the sole purpose of being prepared for the coming of the Lord and our lives for eternity in God's presence, that's part of it, but we're coming to be prepared to take others with us, to help brothers and sisters be ready when the Lord comes, to make them more Christ like. So, the ministry gifts are for the purpose of edifying or perfecting, verse 12 says, the saints who do the work of the ministry who edify the body of Christ. "Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine..."

Now, how is this done? We're all edified, we're all being built up, we're coming into the image of Jesus, it comes by, verse 15, "speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: [and then of course this classic verse, verse 16] From whom the whole body..." Let me tell you something: Before you are biblically eligible to find a life's mate, to be married, you've got to become part of the body. You can only marry part of the body. The Scripture says, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers..." (2 Corinthians 6:14). You can only marry a member of the body. Don't make marriage bigger than it is-as great as it is, it's the will of God; we've said it's the second greatest decision that you'll ever make in your life, who you're going to make a life's mate; making Jesus as Lord is your first decision-but, you know, many of us have made marriage, children, vocations, greater than the Kingdom of God, the body of Christ; and for these things to be put into proper perspective we've got to see this. He's talking about finding your place in the body and being prepared, as a member of the body, before you take on a mate to multiply your effectiveness for the body for the glory of God. He says in verse 16, "From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted [We know what that word means, fitly joined together, compacted meaning, "to be intertwined." Our lives are being knit, just as the strands of a cable, as we're being intertwined and all becoming one and multiplying our strength. So, we're made stronger] by that which every joint supplieth, [so that ] ...every part, maketh increase of the body [finish the phrase with me] unto the [what?] edifying of itself [say it] in love." You cannot love a life's mate until you've loved the body. God is not going to just supernaturally drop some kind of love in there that comes out of nowhere, and now, "Here I am and, oh, I have all of this love for this person!" You'll never be able to love that individual until you love the community, until you realize that you're called to love, not be loved. "I'm called to love, not be loved." But what do you think the reciprocation of love is? What do you get when you love? If you sow love what are you going to reap? Love!

The Lord said, "You didn't love Me, I [what?] loved you." Now, while we were unlovely He loved us, we didn't love Him, He loved us. He were unlovely and He loved us, and because He loved us in our unloveliness we, then, did what? Loved Him. See, this is what we're learning here, we're learning that marriage-the church, Christianity, the body of Christ-is not about self-serving, it's not about me; it's about serving others, it's about giving. Because here's what love is: I told you we're going to give you a definition, not the definition of love. Love is continually expressing well-being-expressing being verbally and literally, physically, materially and every other way-upon the object of our love. I'm taken up with finding ways to please you, not your selfishness, but as a Christian what pleases you is God being edified, the Word of God being obeyed. I'm finding ways to, in your life, help you accomplish the eternal goals, I'm doing those things that are pleasing to you, I'm looking for ways, I'm searching for ways, to make you happy, to lavish upon you good all the days of your life. So we see here, then, that this is the training process, as we're members of the body of Christ. My job, then, is to let these ministry gifts in the Spirit of God build me up, strengthen me so that I can increase the body in love.

Now, I want to talk more specifically about our relationships here, but I want us to constantly go back to these foundational truths; because this is what it's all about, this is what it's for, this is why we get married: for the body of Christ, for the Kingdom of God. God brings us together and we're fruitful and we multiply and we raise up a godly seed, the Scripture says. Men, you assume your roles of teaching your children and training them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, Paul goes on and says in this epistle. He goes on in this same epistle, in the next chapter, and he says, "Your job is to take your life's mate, your wife, and wash them with the water of the Word, men, constantly being able to speak the truths of God's Word into their lives so that they are clean, without spot or wrinkle, chaste virgins, ready to be received into the presence of the Lord." That's your role. Your role isn't to use this woman up for your own pleasure and purposes, but to prepare her for the coming of Jesus, to love her as you love your own body, Paul goes on to say in Ephesians. But before we can make that step, go back to 1 Corinthians with me for just a second, Chapter 7, and I want to give the transitional relations here now. I don't want to get off into marriage yet. We're still talking about preparation: finding that life's mate. The first preparation is: Become a productive member of the body of Christ. If you are not edifying the body of Christ, you are not ready to be married and bring edification to an individual.

Ephesians makes it very clear. Men, your job, the reason you marry, you take that woman into your life so that she can strengthen you, you're looking for a woman who can be a help meet, not a play-mate. A help meet that can build you up, that can give you ballast and stability; you're looking for a woman who loves God with all her heart, that you can even wash, and purify, and make better, a bride of Christ. The two of you, then, in your union producing a godly seed, and you raise these children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And the older women teach the younger women how to love their husbands and love their children and keep their homes. Again, something the world today just kind of mocks and sneers at: "Women aren't homemakers, they are astronauts, and engineers, professional basketball players." There's nothing wrong with any of that, if, as Christians, they are keeping their homes first, loving their husbands, preferring their husbands; because that's what they are called to, not a secular vocation. If you can accomplish all that and have a vocation on the side, go for it. If it's not robbing from your family and the body of Christ, then do it, but that's what God created you for. God created you to be a help meet to a man, God created you to raise children and to keep the home, and then all of these other peripheral aspects, if it's not stealing from the body of Christ, is very acceptable.

But how do we now relate? Ephesians says we relate to one another as brothers and sisters, we relate to one another as mutual members of the body of Christ. No man lives to himself, no man dies to himself, we're all members of one body, we're living to edify each other in love, seeking the good of others, Paul goes on to say. We weep when they weep, we laugh when they laugh, when they are promoted, we rejoice in their promotion. So, with all of that going on and manifesting itself in proper order-Now, I don't want to discourage any of you, but Paul goes on and says in that passage in Ephesians: "Till we all come... unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:" None of us are there yet, but that's why the ministry gifts are there, in other words, you haven't arrived yet, keep growing. Amen? You don't have to be perfect to get married; in fact, if you get married to the right person, they will increase the rate of your perfection as you two edify one another in love. That's why it's so good. That's why the Scripture says that two are better than one; when one's down the other's there to lift him up. Thank God for our help meets, our spouses that are always looking to build us up, not tear us down, not be complaining: "Why can't you be like..." but just go to that life's mate, "I'm just so thankful for you, the gift that God gave me, I appreciate your pursuit of God and your love for myself, for the family." You're always speaking words of edification and love.

But here we are now as the body of Christ, we're growing together, we're being mutually edified, and now those of us that are looking for and ready for a life's mate, Paul was sent a letter from the Corinthian church that said, "What do we do about our young adults?" See, the church in Corinth had a young adult group like us, "What do we do about our young adults and how do we really relate to one another and interact and prepare ourselves to come together?" He said, "First of all [the end of Chapter 6] by realizing you're not your own; you've been bought with a price..." You can start at verse 11 and just glance down through that, and I'll just speak briefly toward the principles he writes there. He said, "[You used to be part of the world but now you are part of the body of Christ, you've been washed, you've been sanctified in the name of the Lord. Don't get caught up in the world, being seduced by the world's desires, and pleasure, and goals-Now], All things are lawful...but all things are not [necessary]...but [you] will not be brought under the power of any... Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord... [verse 13 says]." Strange that he would have to be writing this to Christians, isn't it? Not really. Illicit sexual relations are just about the same in most Christian churches as it is in the world today. I don't want to get into different specifics, but tragically many of our Christians today define sex the way our President did a few years ago. Fornication is not just a physical act, fornication is a heart attitude: "He that looketh upon a woman to lust after her," Jesus said, "has committed adultery in his heart [if he's a married man] or is in involved in fornication." And your body and the body of Christ is not for fornication. "Know ye not [verse 15] that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid...But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication... What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, [say this last phrase of verse 19 with me] and ye are not your own?"

We've got to come to grips with that; you don't have a choice as to what you're going to do with your body and use it for yourself. It's for the glory of God; it's not yours to offer to somebody. Your body is not yours to offer to somebody, ever! And those of you that are married, you are not offering your body to your spouse, for your body is not your own, it's theirs. Amen? You see, when you get married, your body isn't yours, it's your spouses; it's never yours in this Kingdom, to give. So, it's very important for us to understand how all of this stuff works. "For ye are bought with a price[the precious blood of Jesus]: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

So, we begin to see the value of our physical beings, our bodies, and in a greater way we'll talk about our lives as a whole, but right now he's actually talking about our bodies and fornication. Now, we know what was going on in the Corinthian environment at that time: Corinth, as we shared with you, was a very prosperous city, it was given over to lasciviousness. They had on the Acrocorinth-Many of you who traveled with us to Greece saw up on the Acrocorinth, the temple there that was used for the temple prostitution-both male and female-Many Christians were being told by the Gnostics of that day that you can love the Lord and be a Christian and still involve yourself in the temple fornication and these different areas; because, after all, the physical being, the matter is not really-its origin is sin; you can love God with your heart and do whatever you want with your body. Paul and John, both combating the Gnostics, say, "Not so; your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. Glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are the Lord's." So, in the midst of all of this he, then, says in answer to their question-See, look what he says in Chapter 7, "Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me..." They asked him some questions, and it's obvious what one of the questions was: Is it okay for a man to touch a woman? Paul writes back and he answers this thing, and we know that "touch" doesn't mean we can't have co-ed activities in kindergarten because one of the boys in playing Ring Around the Rosie might touch one of the girls and rub their elbow against theirs and Ichabod! The glory has departed from us! That's not what this is talking about, it's not "touch." The word in the Greek here is a very interesting word, it means, "to attach itself to for the purpose of kindling a fire, of inciting passion." That's why we tell you young people, and why we don't allow holding of hands. That's a sensual thing, holding hands, when there's affection involved, when there's an intent to show emotion, affection, commitment. That's why there is no hand-holding, kissing. It's amazing to me today, if you'll go to your average church today, you'll see kids just sitting around, making out, and you wonder why the rate of the loss of virginity is so high in our churches today, and they don't understand. The Scripture makes it clear: you cannot take fire into your bosom and not be burned! (Proverbs 6:27) Anything, anything that lights their fire, if it kindles their passion, Paul said, "That's not good."

Then, of course, he talks about the end of this thing, he says, "Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband." It's not lawful, and when you do begin to relate to one another in this way, it's to be under covenant. And we shared before, marriage is not a contract, it's a covenant. Contracts can be broken, covenants can't; covenants are for life, covenants are sealed in blood. Hence the Levitical maiden's cloth; the assumption being, then, that when a husband and wife come together there's going to be the shedding of blood. Have you ever wondered why the hymen exists? What's that all about? You say, "I don't know, maybe it's something like appendix or tonsils. Never could figure out really what it's about." It's that aspect of what's offered up, the cutting of the covenant, the shedding of blood, the two becoming one, that eternal covenant cut when that blood is shed. We realize that when Paul's writing here, he begins to talk about these things, he says, "You can't involve yourself in this kind of showing of passion." Turn to Proverbs for just a second. Chapter 7 of Proverbs, the wise man said, "For at the window of my house I looked through my casement, And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding, Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house, In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:" Let's say it another way: in the hand-holding, in the kissing. You see, passion is progressive. "Well, we were just holding hands, and I'm convicted that just holding hands is wrong, so I'm not going to do that anymore." And now you get back in the flesh and you get a little bit weary, and carnal, and tired, and these different areas. And do you want to know what? You don't start back up where you left off because that doesn't do it anymore, you've already tasted that. Now you're going to start at the next step, and it's a progressive thing; passion is progressive, sin is progressive. Every man sins when lust begins to be given place, when he is enticed and there's the thought, and there's the desire, and then there's the opportunity, and sin, when it's finished, brings forth death. Every man sins when he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Progressiveness: That's why it's best not to get involved at all. "Well I'll control it." Really? You think, huh? Let me read to you the last of this chapter: "Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her." I want to tell you something: Better than you have gone down, and you're going to control it, huh? How many of your other appetites do you control? There is no force that you're going to deal with stronger than this, do you have the rest of them in check, then how wise is it to give place to this?

So, as we're talking about abstinence, as we're talking about not just abstaining from physical relations, but building ourselves up in the Word of God, by serving others, by loving one another with a humble heart, and a meek spirit, and longsuffering, as we're building our spirit man and we're seeing what it means to really love and why these relationships exist in the first place, by busying ourselves with becoming more Christlike, we're not giving ourselves to these natural appetites, there will be a time for that, and it will be done properly and in order and better than anything the world offers. But don't minimize, foolish young man, the power of this thing. Now, the wise young person, man and woman, will hear what we're saying, because you know what? We're talking about a power that we know something about that you've never experienced, and I'm telling you you're no match for it. Oh, you might be able to be at a place where you're able to discipline to a certain point, but there's a point that will come where you are no match for that. Now, in the process, here's the wisdom of God. He said, "[I saw this young man] In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night: [Progressiveness: once you give yourself to it, it's going to progress.] And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart. (She is loud and stubborn [the Scripture says] her feet abide not in her house...)" You've got to watch these women that are on the prowl, man, that are not keepers at home, that are not delighting in their husbands and in their role. You've got to watch and be very careful about the covenant with your eyes and what you look at and the way women dress. The psychologists will tell us, "Well, you know, most women, they don't dress that way to be seductive; they just think it's cute. Its men that have the problem, because men are always lusting after women [that's true], and women are innocent, they just think it's cute and that's why they wear it." Yeah, you think I'm going to buy that? I understand that's a part of it, and I understand that could be in the heart of some, but there's enough of these folks around out there, there's enough women like this. They know what they're doing, they know why they dress the way they dress, they're able to take men with their eyes, the Scripture says.

And you know what? He's giving us the personification of this thing into an individual, but I want to talk about the spirit of it. Let's not talk about an individual, let's talk about an environment that we're living in. Look at the way women are dressing today-Or no! don't look at the way they're dressing-Look at the way they're dressing today: The shorts are getting shorter, the tops are getting higher, the pants are getting lower, and pretty soon it's going to be, why bother? Here's the spirit, look, it talks about the attire of the harlot, it talks about the loud, stubborn-loud just means, "drawing attention to itself," you know like a loud Hawaiian shirt. Loud and stubborn, stubborn meaning, "they don't give up, they can't be dissuaded in any way." In the streets, lying at every corner... The point I want to make is, in the generation we're in today it's ever-present, isn't it? It's at every corner. What are we going to do to protect ourselves? You married men, what are you going to do to protect yourselves? You ladies, what are you doing to protect your husbands? Because you want to know what? That's your job! "I can't follow my husband around all day." I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about what are you doing to protect him, I'm talking about what are you doing, Chapter 5 of Proverbs, verse 18, of "Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love." Ladies, what are you doing to seduce your husbands? That word ravished means, "to seduce." "Why should I have to seduce my husband? I already got him! He's already bringing the paycheck home. It's great, man; he goes and lays down on the couch and I go to the mall, great relationship. Yeah I'm keeping the house, I wave at him as he runs out late in the morning with his coffee money to stop at Starbucks and I'm in my house robe with the soaps already on." I know that doesn't apply to us, I know virtually nobody in here watches soap operas, I'm talking about a spirit, and I'm going to the extreme to make the point. What are you doing to protect your husband? He's a guy, he's a dog, he's a bird-dog! "Hey bird-dog..." The Scripture makes it very clear that he is to be seduced by you. "And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings." God is watching what we're involved in here and He's wanting to see us move in an orderly way, and He's wanting us to rejoice with the wife of our youth, and to be seduced by them, and ravished by them, and delight in them, and to know as the Scripture says in Genesis, "The woman's delight is to be toward her husband." Everything that woman does is to please me and to build up my ego, and when that is happening, you are protecting your man! "Stand by your man" and realize that these are our roles and these are things that protect us from all these other temptations and the snares that are out there and the war that's going on. It's not one-sided, we need one another, and so on every corner your husband is under attack, on every corner your young boys are under attack! Fathers, don't let your daughters be one of them that's wearing the wrong attire. Now we're not talking about old traditional Pentecostal holiness, dressing them in full-length gunnysacks. "Well, you know, you go out shopping and that's all there is to buy." It is not! So we realize that that's our role. You want me to just give you fathers a guide line? You look at your cute little thing, and she's your precious little darling, and your little daughter, and she's just the apple of your eye, and you look at her and think, "Oh she's..." How do you look at other women? That's how they're looking at your daughter. She's your daughter; she's a woman to everybody else. "Bless God, they better not be looking at my daughter that way!" What are you doing to protect her, what are you doing to protect the brothers in the body of Christ?

Always present, every corner, So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him...[Scripture says, "strong, hard, determined." This guy's a chump man, he's just prey. Verse 21,] With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him." Ladies, you want to protect your husbands? Flatter them, flatter them! See that old broken down Chevy as a white stallion that your prince is riding on. Pick your husband up; put him on the step stool and say, "You're so strong!" Flatter them, tell them how good looking they are, they won't believe you, but tell them anyway, because if you don't, somebody will, especially in these last days. There are going to be seven women for every man; that's what the prophets tell us. So, we realize that this is part of our life, this is part of where we are and the flattering, she forced him, "He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; Till a dart strike through his liver... Hearken unto me [he says]... Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths." We've been trying to you young people and saying, man, it's dangerous out there; don't even flirt with the world, do not start in the twilight because you're going to come into the evening and into the dark night. You want to go out there and play and think you can handle it, you can't! "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you" (2 Corinthians 6:17).

Let's go back to Corinthians for just a second so we can stop for tonight. "...It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency" (1 Corinthians 7:1-5). So we want to once again point to the power of this thing. You see, some of you young people seem to think, "Well if I could just get married, have a wife, it will take care of all of my natural desires and passions," and it doesn't! It's a help, but it doesn't solve your problem. Paul says right here, even after there's been covenant and relationships, when there's a separation period, you need to come back together because Satan is able to use these powers against you. I'm stopping here this morning with this just to show you if it's something that can overpower those who are already lawfully engaged in it, what danger are you in? How powerful is this thing that we're talking about? How much do we need to practice this celibacy? When I say celibacy, I'm not just talking about abstaining from intercourse, I'm taking about abstaining from lighting fires, I'm talking about abstaining from anything that kindles a passion in another person, and I'm not just talking about touch, I'm talking about words, I'm talking about "I like you, you're special, you're my boyfriend, you're my girlfriend." Anything that starts causing people to become one illicitly before there's a covenant to be cut; anything that doesn't lend itself to mutual body edification, brothers and sisters growing in grace and strengthening one another, anything that begins to be destructive, distracting in these ways.

We'll start and pick up there tonight and talk a little more about those things that distract. We'll talk a little bit more to the singles here about how to relate to one another. Somebody asked me a question just the other night. They said, "How do I do this?" The guy was being so truthful and I was so blessed by it. It was a young man I was talking to, he said, "You know what, I know everything you're saying and I believe it, and I want to do it, but, you know, I'm just so drawn by physical looks." And I said, "There's nothing wrong with that, that's natural, that's a natural thing, it's natural to be drawn to beauty." I'll show you in the Scriptures, probably tonight, that being attracted to something beautiful is natural, there's nothing weird about that. We need to redefine what's beautiful, that's all that we have to do. I was sharing with this young man, I said, "The problem is, right now, if you're where you are spiritually, your heart's seeking God, you love the Lord, you want to do what's right, but the distraction over here because we've limited this, you know what you need to do, you need to broaden the scope of who you're fellowshipping with, and begin to look for the people that you know..." because I asked this person, "Who in your observation are the most spiritual young women and not so young women [youth challenged] and start hanging out with them." The next thing you know, what's going to happen is they are going to respond this way in a situation, they are going to make this observation of the teachings, the Word of God, the moving of the Holy Spirit, and you're going to go, "Man, praise God, look at that, look at that heart for God," and this person you're watching them, and they're preferring this brother, and edifying the body of Christ, and pouring their lives out, and embracing the cross. All those things in you that you love, but you haven't been able to have dominate your life, because we know that the Scripture says very clearly that what we feed, to whom we lend our members, that's the force that's going to dominate us. So, now I'm lending myself to edifying this brother, this sister, watching these sisters that are being blessed, and the next thing you know, character begins to be more beautiful than physical looks. Then, you know what happens? Their looks even change, because it's a meek and quiet spirit! Not only do their looks begin to change, I want to tell you something; when you begin to prefer the spiritual-you seek it, you sow into it, you delight in it, you're loving it-you will become Shallow Hal." Listen, the problem is we're concerned with what everybody else sees, and it will be what you see that counts, because you're seeing it in the spirit and it's real, and that's what some need to experience.

Father, we thank You for Your Word and we just ask that You order our steps by Your Spirit. Give us that ability, Father, to know that it is Your good pleasure to give us the Kingdom. You want to give us richly all things to enjoy. You want the best for us, Father. You're not trying to hold out on us, You're not trying to keep us from having relations, and love, and companionship, and fulfillment; You're the Author of it. Help us to walk in it legally, to understand that we're not our own, we're bought with a price. Let us glorify God in our body and our spirit which are Yours. It's our hearts' desire, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.

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