Jim Van Gelderen: 1 Thessalonians chapter number 4. 1 Thessalonians chapter number 4 if you want to go there. And again some of you may struggle finding that so find 2 Thessalonians and you'll find it right in front of it.

Okay, I gave it away there. I was just doing that for our freshmen here at the college. Okay, so they know where to go.

Okay, so hey, it's great to see you. I haven't had a chance yet to preach to you and I'm certainly looking forward to an opportunity to be able to give God's Word to you. And I hope you'll pray that God will lead exactly the passages that need to be dealt with.

I'm just kind of curious out here. I know, how many of you are in junior high? Let's just say 7th and 8th grade.

Can I see your hands please? 7th and 8th grade. Okay, you can put your hands down.

How many are underclassmen, 9th and 10th? 9th and 10th? Okay, great, 9th and 10th.

And where are they? There they are, the upperclassmen, 11th and 12th. There it is.

Yes, can't you feel it? Maturity oozing out of them. Isn't that unbelievable?

You can feel it, right? Okay, and of course, we know there's graduates here as well who are in college, but right now, we're just kind of paying attention to you all. And I'm just curious, how many of you came from the state of Illinois?

Came from the state of Illinois? Okay, that is where I grew up. You put your hands down.

Spent many years in Illinois. All my sports loyalties happen to be in Chicago. That's a bummer.

But anyway, just the way it is. And it was great in the 90s if you're a Bulls fan. But it was great in the early 2010s if you're a Blackhawks fan.

But it's kind of a little hard time right now, particularly if you're a White Sox fan. But anyway, so that's pretty much bad. Okay, so Illinois.

And then Iowa. I know we have some Iowa folks here. Okay.

I was just over in Iowa. Beautiful cornfields over there in Iowa. Okay.

Don't ever mess with an Iowa kid. Don't arm wrestle them. They'll beat you.

Okay, but anyway, those farm kids have, their muscles don't show. Okay, they just, they can just do it. Okay, how many are from Minnesota?

Anybody from Minnesota? Okay, got a few from Minnesota. Okay, and how many are from Michigan?

Anybody from Michigan? Oh, we do have some Michiganders, however you call that. Hoosiers, who are we?

We have the Hoosiers, the Indiana folks. Where are the Indiana folks? Okay, several Indiana folks.

And here it is, Wisconsin. Wisconsin. Swing state, Wisconsin.

Swing state. We'll see which way it goes here in just a few weeks. But anyway, I think all the other states are pretty solid which way they go, but not Wisconsin.

Okay, unpredictable. But anyway, and I know a lot of Wisconsin people around here, if you wonder why they look so sad, because the Brewers lost. That's why.

Okay. And they lost in an unbelievable fashion. I don't know if I was listening to that game.

came in the ninth inning, I thought, wow, that's great. The Brewers are going to finally, you know, get past the opening round. I mean, all they got to do, they got their best reliever on the hill.

They got two to nothing. I mean, it's done. And they lost four to two.

Okay, but anyway, that kind of reminded me of the Cubs. I thought, man, the Brewers are kind of learning from their neighbors down south. But anyway, if you're not a baseball fan you don't get some of that stuff, but that's okay.

But anyway, it's great to have you here. And I don't know what God's going to do in your life, but I trust you'll let Him do something. And, you know, Brother Bowser and myself, we travel a lot in ministry, and we do a lot of preaching to young people.

And I'm extremely encouraged, not necessarily with all the situation that we're involved in, because we're certainly facing some major challenges. But here's what I'm encouraged with. The truth that changed lives 50 and 100 years ago still doesn't.

Still changes lives. The truth that brought revival years ago can do it now. And every one of you young people has a wonderful opportunity to allow God to use you to literally touch hundreds and thousands of people as you allow the Lord to work through your life.

But obviously there's things that the enemy tries to do to keep you away from full usefulness. And I'm going to deal with one of those issues today because it certainly is a barrage that we experience on a regular basis. It's an issue I preach on every week.

I would say probably in two hands of 25 plus years of preaching in Christian schools almost every week. I would say on two ends, I could probably name you the Christian schools I did not preach on this end. So I preach on it every week.

I have several messages to deal with it. And I'm going to deal with one of the messages I think I preached here a few years ago. But I believe we need to be reminded of it.

So we're going to do a simple message that asks a question and we'll try to answer it. And here it is. What is moral purity?

What is moral purity? Now the Bible tells us in 1 Timothy 5 and verse 22, it says, keep thyself pure. Now I think that's pretty obvious that purity is important to God.

And he's telling his son of the faith, Timothy Paul is, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I want you to keep yourself pure. Now here's something I've learned about the Bible. When God commands you to do something if you don't know what He means, pretty good chance you may not do it.

So the question is, what in the world does that mean? When God tells us keep thyself pure, what is He talking about? Hey it doesn't matter if you go to public school.

It doesn't matter if you go to Christian school. It doesn't matter if you're homeschooled. God says your purity is important.

He wants you to keep yourself pure. So what does that mean? Now we live in an impure age.

You don't have to have much of an understanding to recognize that we're constantly in our culture bombarded by sensual immoral messages. You can hardly check out groceries at a grocery store without there being inappropriate magazines there. You can hardly drive down the road sometimes without there being inappropriate billboards.

certainly in the summertime there's improper dress. We recognize we live in a culture that is so far strayed from Bible understanding that we're living constantly confronted with those messages and images that try to pull us toward impurity. So what does it mean keep thyself pure?

Now when I was your age growing up I heard a lot of preaching, heard a lot of good preaching. And I remember going down to Bill Rice Ranch hearing Paul Levine who's, though I really spent very little time with him, he deeply shaped my ministry to teenagers. But I remember Paul Levine would deal with that issue every time I heard him preach.

Every week I went to camp I heard Paul Levine deal with this issue. Of course, dealt it through the lens of the 60's and 70's which was what was going on at the time. But nonetheless, I noticed that he was passionate about it and burdened about it because he knew it was robbing a lot of young people of effectiveness in their Christian life.

So it is today. So, but when I was growing up and heard preachers preach, I don't know how to explain this, they would sometimes give an illustration of a young person who got into moral failure, sexual sin, and they would say about that young person, they lost their purity. Almost giving you the idea that purity and virginity were the same thing.

And I remember as a kid thinking about that, but as I began to study the Word of God I found something quite different. I want to tell you something young person, you can be, how do I say this, you can be completely innocent in that aspect, be a virgin, but be extremely impure. And a lot of young people are today.

A lot of young people, Christian young people are. Extremely impure. So let's investigate what is the Bible talking about when it tells us to keep ourselves pure.

What is moral purity? Now there's a variety of young people in this room, and it makes preaching extremely difficult. There are some of you in this room that are extremely innocent, very naive.

And let me tell you, that is a tremendous thing. I tell young people all across this country as I preach on this issue, the greatest protection for moral filth and moral bondage, the greatest protection is innocence. It's the greatest protection.

I don't know how to say this. When you lose it, you can't get it back. And there are young people I'm preaching to all across this room that wished like crazy you could go back before you looked the first time and go like it was before you allowed yourself to get into stuff that has polluted your mind and brought you into some aspect of moral bondage.

So the greatest protection, I want every young person in this room to understand that if you have innocence and you have naivety, you have a wonderful thing. God tells you to be simple concerning evil. That's what the Bible says.

God wants you to be that way. And so it's a good thing. And I hope you'll value that.

But recognize if you are innocent and naive, there are going to be people who will take it upon themselves to try to take that from you. Misery loves company. And you mark it down, I don't care where it is, you're going to have somebody try to drag you out of your innocency and pollute you with knowledge you don't want to know about.

And I'm just going to tell you when that happens, if you've got a brain between your ears, you'll do what Joseph did. You'll take your two good legs and you'll run to somebody that cares about you and loves you and say, hey so-and-so is trying to show me something. He's trying to get me to look at something.

And if you really care about that, you will go. So I want to warn you ahead of time. So you definitely have some young people who are innocent, and I'm certainly trying to encourage you in that innocence.

You need to be aware that you live in a world that is trying to attack that, but nonetheless, that's a good thing. Now, across this spectrum, unfortunately, in a room this size, It doesn't matter what homeschooling you have. I found homeschoolers who are into filth, Christian schoolers, and obviously public schoolers are into filth.

It doesn't matter what school you go to. There are young people all across the spectrum that have made very poor choices and find themselves in bondage in the moral arena. And as a result of that, you sit here this evening, this morning, this afternoon, we'll get there, and you perhaps, as a preacher, I definitely want to help you, but I have to address your situation.

same time recognize, I want to be extremely careful, because the last thing I want to do is help any young person who's innocent and naive to lose that. I don't want that to happen. So, we're going to try to be as careful as we can, but be as blunt as we can to try to help those of you that need help, because some of you need help.

And I want to just tell you right now, if you have made some poor choices and find yourself in bondage to filth, I want to just tell you right now, there is a way out. There is a way out. You don't have to stay there.

Now if you want to, you can stay there, but you will never get out of it until you're sick of it. Until you say, I'm done man, I'm out of here, I don't want this. And that would be the first step.

And then there's other steps that need to be taken. We'll address some of those as this meeting goes on. Some of them have already been addressed.

Now let's ask the question, what is moral purity? Because I remember at the Bill Rice Ranch, as Paul Levine would preach, I made some decisions. I would have called myself innocent and naive at that time.

And I was grateful for the protection of my parents and particularly my mother. And I'm grateful for that. But I made some decisions while Paul Levine preached.

I would call it preventative. Preventative. Now as a preacher of the Gospel I've learned something.

There's two things that happen when you preach the Bible. Sometimes it's called damage control. You know what damage control is?

There's already a problem. It's already in motion. And you trying to, okay, this kid's already messing up his life.

Let's get into damage control because the Holy Spirit's got to fix this thing. God's got to fix this thing and he needs divine intervention. Okay, that's a lot of times the obvious thing that happens when a preacher preaches.

It's damage control. But I want to tell you something. As a preacher, there's something else that happens that you never see and may never see until you get to heaven.

You know what that's called? Preventative. That's what happened to me as a little 7th grader hearing Paul Levine preach.

You know what I mean? Decisions. I'm not going there.

I'm not doing this. That's dumb. Why would you say that?

Why would you go there? And I will tell you friends, I went to public school. It was all around me.

And Chicago public schools. But I want to tell you something friends. Preventative is what I hope happens in some of your hearts this morning or this afternoon.

You just say, by the grace of God I want to keep myself pure. And recognize that you're going to have to be proactive. There are certain things you're going to have decisions you have to make.

You want to make a decision before ever the temptation comes. What are you going to do if the temptation comes? Where are you going?

What's your plan of attack? If you don't understand how serious this nature is. I'm not trying to be unkind and I'm certainly not trying to overstate things.

But some of you are making decisions that one day will put you in the divorce court. I'm talking to some of you who've already destroyed your marriage, and you haven't even met the person yet. You're making very selfish, poor decisions, and you're destroying a foundation for a future marriage, because a future marriage solid foundation is based on one real simple ingredient.

It's called faithfulness. Faithfulness does not begin when you say, I do. Faithfulness began years ago when you make a decision, I'm keeping myself for my future mate, and I'm going to fight the battle to do that.

And recognizing I live in a very immoral world, and I'm going to have to make decisions, hard decisions at times. Now, I know some of you are saying, well, preacher, I've already blown it. I've already done stuff, things I regret.

Can I say this? You can make it worse. And what you need to do is you need to get right with God here, if you haven't already, and you begin to need to take Bible steps of restoration.

I want to tell you something, friends, God is a restoring God. But I will tell you of every person in this room that has ever struggled with moral failure in their life, whether it was simply viewing filth on the internet, or even sins of action, will tell you that although God's grace is a wonderful thing, and He can build a solid foundation for a future marriage, and you can have a wonderful marriage, there are still regrets, and there are still scars.

So my burden for you this morning, this afternoon, I'm going to say that more than I should, but is that you would make some Bible decisions, to put up some walls and fences in your life, you really do. You don't want those scars and regrets, and you don't want that to characterize your life. Now, let me just tell you this.

When I preach a message like this, I want you to understand here's how I'm looking at it. I'm looking at it as the fingerprints of the love of God. Now, my wife and I were married in 1984.

I know it seems like a long time ago, but we were married in 1984, and we had 11 years of marriage, five miscarriages, until our firstborn, Stephanie, was born. There was one young man in this room this morning, this afternoon who's extremely grateful that Stephanie made it in as number six. Okay.

But anyway, that's Ryan back there. Okay. But Stephanie was born.

And when Stephanie was born, I don't know how to explain this. We loved her more than life itself, still do. And I remember as a result, we weren't helicopter parents, but we were very, very protective in the sense that I wouldn't let her go out in the street.

We lived on a side street there in Greenville. And we wouldn't let her go out on the street and play in the street. Do you know why?

I don't think many parents would that love their kids. Why? Because we didn't want to get harmed.

Didn't want her destroyed. So we put fences in her life. You know why?

Because we loved her. Do you know why God puts Bible fences in your life? Because He loves you.

But you will understand about fences, you can step over them, particularly when you're your age. And when you do, I will promise you this, scars and regrets. I will promise you that.

You will not avoid those. So a message like this is twofold. Number one, damage control.

And I'm hoping if there's a problem in process that you'll be willing to take steps this week, say, okay, I've got to deal with this. It's only going to get worse. And number two, preventative.

I'll probably never know about the preventative. But I trust it will last you a life long and you'll make decisions that will protect you from the filth of our world. So now to the message, What is moral purity?

Now, 1 Thessalonians chapter number 4 starts with a verse. It says, For this is the will of God, even your sanctification. Now, right after this, it gives five infinitives.

Now, aren't you pumped up about that? How many like English? How many like English?

Oh, that's good. We have a few people that have some understanding of the importance of English. Now, I'm going to just tell you this.

How many plan to go to college? How many plan to go to college. Okay, we can do better than that.

Okay, but anyway, those of you who plan to go to college, I just need to tell you this. Three things you need. I say this, I think, almost every year.

Grammar, critical thinking, and composition. You know where you learned that? English and literature.

Aren't you pumped? I'm telling you, next time you go into English class after the The Generation U Summit, walk up to your English teacher and say, man, I am so grateful that you are teaching me English. Okay, but anyway, she'll fall over.

I'll have to call 911. It'll be great. Okay, but here it is, right following this, for this is the will of God, even your sanctification, five infinitives.

Five infinitives in the Greek language, and all five infinitives are the will of God. You know, a lot of times young people, particularly, pretty anybody, say, man, what's God's will? God's going to tell you five things that are God's will.

Now, I can't preach on all five of them, because that's not the text I'm going to use, but I am going to use this to set us up. I want us to look at infinitive four and infinitive five. For this is the will of God, now I'm going down to verse number six, because that's exactly where it's going.

This is the will of God, that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any manner, because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we have also forewarned you and testified. Now here's what God is saying. He's saying, listen, I've got God's will for you, and that's for you to not go beyond.

You say, what does that mean? Don't go beyond the boundary. Don't go out of bounds.

Of course, last few hours, Tampa Bay has been in the news, and some of you may know that a central command of our armed forces is right on Tampa Bay.

for some of the people that I've known I have told me that they're on the Central Command and of course some of you know Colonel Willis who used to work at Central Command that out back on the bay part of Central Command they have a perimeter they have a boundary and the boundary basically says this not in these words but the boundary basically says if you transgress this boundary the military will use you for target practice you know what I'm talking about they'll shoot to kill.

That'd be a bummer of a boundary just to float by. Can you imagine getting in their tube and falling asleep? That would be a bummer.

Okay, yeah. That's a bad boundary to transgress. You know what God's saying?

Don't go beyond the boundary. We all know about boundaries. Some of you from Chicago ever gone by where they're building some kind of skyscraper and sometimes they have big walls up and they'll say danger, don't transgress.

It could result in death. Okay, we understand that some boundaries are very serious. Now, I recognize in sports, there are boundaries as well.

They're not quite as serious, life or death, that is, but they can be win or lose boundaries, and they can be important that way. I remember back, of course, I don't know why, I got bit with the baseball bug when I was a kid. How many liked Major League Baseball?

There were the three or four of you. Okay, more than that, unbelievable. Okay, yeah, I got bit by the baseball bug when I was a kid.

The Chicago Cubs in 1969 acted like they were going to win the World Series. But they didn't. Okay, but anyway, the Mets won it instead.

It kind of looks like the Mets are having another year like that. But anyway, I remember over the years watching baseball games, one of them is an iconic moment. The Boston Red Sox were playing the New York Yankees.

And if you know anything about Major League Baseball, that is the rivalry. There's no rivalry that comes close to that one. And there was a catcher for the Boston Red Sox by the name of Carlton Fisk, and his nickname was Pudge.

You say, why did they call him that? Because he was fat. That's why.

Okay, but anyway, and so Pudge was at the plate, and the Yankees, of course, it was, I think, game six. I could be wrong about that, and Carlton Fisk, they were playing in Fenway Park, and Carlton Fisk got a hold of that baseball, and as soon as it left the bat, you knew this. It's leaving the yard, okay?

The question is, is it going to stay fair, or is it going to go foul? And one of the iconic moments is simply this. They got a picture of Fisk facing the baseball.

Now, first base is down there. He's facing the baseball. He's not facing first base.

And he's kind of running down this way, and he's doing this. He's doing this. Like that's going to do any good, okay?

But he's doing this. And all of a sudden, Carlton Fisk jumps in the air like that. You know why he jumped in the air?

Because it was a fair ball. Boston Red Sox won. If it had been a foul ball, the Yankees would have won.

You see, friends, boundaries can make a huge difference. They're win or lose. And God is telling us right here in the moral arena, don't go beyond the boundary, don't do it.

And then He says, and don't defraud. Now, the word defraud is a very interesting word. I guess the essence of the word means to have more.

Perhaps you've listened to the radio and you've heard some kind of announcer say something like, maybe talking about the news, some Fortune 500 company got defrauded. And you know exactly what that means. They got scammed, they got ripped off, they got conned.

So the word defraud has the idea of taking more than is rightfully yours to take. Now, let's just imagine, and I know for some of you, you probably wouldn't have to imagine this because it's probably happened. Let's imagine your mom gives you a $100 bill and sends you grocery shopping down to Walmart.

Do you remember the days when you could walk into Walmart and the prices were the same as the last time you were there? Do you remember that? Okay, because every time I go to Walmart, I'm thinking, what in the world?

I will tell you, everybody needs to go to Walmart before they vote. Okay, but anyway, you can just take that for whatever it means. Okay, but anyway, so let's imagine, back in those days, some mothers knew exactly what it costs.

Okay, so she has a list, and of course, she says, get great value, don't get the brand name, and she says, if you get everything on this list, it'll be $99.98, I mean, with tax. I mean, she has it down. Some of your mothers, back in the day when the groceries were pretty static, she could have probably done that.

So she gives the $100 bill, and you go down to Walmart, you fill the cart, and you're standing in line, you know how it is, and you got that $100 bill, that's all you got.

You're going to get two pennies back, $99.98, and you're about to check it out, when all of a sudden you're in that aisle, and you know how that is, they put stuff in the aisle to try to tempt you, you know what I'm talking about, try to buy it, get it, buy it last minute, and you look up, and there it is. There's a new flavor of bubble gum. New flavor.

I mean, you've never seen it before. Salsa, guacamole, sour cream. You know what I'm talking about?

Whoa. You're thinking, man, I love that. I'm going to have that.

And so you're sitting there looking at that gum. You're thinking, I don't have any money. Now, I hope nobody in this room would do this.

Well, let's just imagine you kind of reach up. Nobody's looking. Grab it.

Stick it in your pocket. You pay $99, $98. You give that $100 bill, get two pennies in your pocket?

You know what you just did? You just defrauded Walmart. You say, wait a second, how could I have defrauded Walmart?

I gave him $100. You took more than was rightfully yours to take. Are you understanding what defraud is?

Now don't miss this. Here's what God's saying. When you step out of bounds in the moral arena, you're a thief.

Every single time. Every time, young man, you look at something you have no business looking at, you're a thief. Every single time.

When you allow your mind to go in the garbage pit, you're a thief. You're taking what is not rightfully yours. You get in a guy-girl relationship, and there begins to be a kindling of passions.

You're a thief. You're stealing. Now, we'll make some application here in just a moment.

I'm preaching to thieves, I'm sure, all over this room. And yet, for some of you in this room, have never really gotten before God and said, God, I'm a thief. You say, why is that important?

If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And confess simply means, God, you're right, I'm wrong. I am a thief.

I agree that what you say is true. It doesn't matter what I think. That's where 1 John 1.9.

Okay, so somebody gets the idea. So if we can kind of get the picture of a ball field, if you step out of bounds, you're a thief. You're out of bounds in the moral purity arena.

You've moved from purity to impurity. Okay, so you say, preacher, I get that. Now, that brings us to a very important point, and that is this, that God, can you imagine playing a soccer game or a football game, and the referees all have infrared glasses.

They can see the lines, but you as a player can't. Would you like to play a football game like that? Would you like to play a soccer game where you can't see the lines?

The referees can, so as soon as you step out of bounds, out of bounds, you know, thinking, wait, there's no, I didn't see any line. None of us would want to do that. You'd want to see the lines.

Now, can I say this carefully? If God gives us boundaries, He's not going to, how do I say this? He's not going to hide them so that when we step over the line, He can wallop us with a heavenly baseball bat.

God's not going to do that. You know what He's going to do? He's going to tell you the line.

He's going to tell you exactly what the line is, and that's why the title of the message, What is Moral Purity? Are you interested in keeping yourself pure? If you are, you can't do it in your own strength.

That certainly is inferred here. That's not my point of this message. But I do want you to see something here.

Go to James chapter number four. Go to James chapter number four. And let's look, if we could please, and try to answer that question, what is moral purity?

Because you can have a double life. I'm talking to people in this room who have a double life. You have a secret life nobody knows about.

And it's a very impure life. And may I say this? You're not going to get away with it.

It doesn't work. it's the kind of thing that will corrupt a foundation for a future marriage. It'll take a walk with God, just take it out of your life.

And it puts you in a bad place. And so let's look at it, because you don't have to live a double life. But let's begin in James chapter number 4, and let's look at verse number 4.

The Bible says, Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that friendship with the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Now, that's an interesting passage, and it's very interesting, but probably what's most interesting is how James uses the words, you adulterers and adulteresses.

Man, that's strong language. Clearly talking about spiritual adultery. Now, the picture would simply be this.

Obviously, if you're saved, you're part of the bride of Christ. One day, the bride's being trumpeted out of here, and one day we're going to stand before God, and go to heaven, and there's going to be the marriage supper of the Lamb. One day, the bride and the bridegroom Jesus are going to be married.

So, couldn't I say this in a certain way? If you're saved on your way to heaven, you're collectively a part of the bride of Christ. Now, several years ago, I met a guy and a girl that were married, but they had a very unusual courtship.

I mean, very unusual. What happened? They were in North Dakota, and the guy went to the girl and said, will you marry me?

And she said, yes. Okay. Have you ever wondered why in the world the girl said yes?

Okay. You know, that usually happens. Most guys marry up.

Okay. But anyway, and so she says yes. And he says this to the girl.

He says, I'll tell you what, you're not going to know the wedding day. I want to illustrate Christ in the church. And since the church does not know when the wedding's coming, you're not going to know the wedding day.

Now girls, isn't that romantic? Wouldn't you absolutely love to not know the He says, I want you to get ready for the honeymoon, pack, be ready to go, get ready for the wedding. Now, it sounds worse than it is because everybody in the church knew what day it was.

She didn't, but everybody else did. And she went along with it. She did.

She actually did go along with it. And so I said, what day of the week did you pick? I'll never forget.

He said, I picked Monday. He said, Monday? I've never in all my life known anybody to get married on Monday.

I said, why did you pick Monday? He said that was the one day I was pretty sure she would think I would never pick. Nice guy.

You know what I'm talking about? Great way to start with a wedding, a marriage with your bride. Ticked off at you.

Okay, but anyway, so they got married on Monday. Okay, so what happened was, whole church knew she didn't. One Monday morning, he called her up.

Say, honey, today's the day. Wow. Wouldn't you have loved a hidden camera on that thing?

That girl probably freaked out. You know what I'm talking about? Some of you girls can't imagine that.

And I'm telling you, it's going to take five years, five hours just to get the face ready. You know what I'm talking about? Let alone the hair and the sprinkles and all the other stuff that you guys do.

I don't know. Yeah. And so I'm sure I'd love to see that secret camera.

But anyway, fortunately, I called her in the morning. She had all day long to get that thing ready. And when the wedding started, guess I'm telling you, you know what?

The bride wasn't there. Have you ever known of a wedding where the bride wasn't there? That's what it was.

The bride wasn't there. I mean, folks, these were dispensational. They were, I almost said Calvinist.

That would be bad. Okay, dispensational, hermeneutic, just a littlest. Okay, and so they started the wedding, and the father said to the groom, you may get your bride.

So he gets in his car, drives over to the bride's house. Now, I gotta just keep the guy honest, so I look at him, I said, okay, fess up to me, bud. I said, you break the speed limit on the way over to get your bride?

He didn't tell me, he just smiled. Okay, but anyway, I don't know.

when he got there he made one failure he should have he blew it you say what did he do he didn't blow a trumpet don't you think he should have blown a trumpet okay I mean if you're going to be literal on the ding let's get literal okay but anyway and he gets his bride comes back they got married now you say preacher what's the what's the picture okay the picture is this here in James chapter 4 the picture is here we are engaged that's not

a bible word we'll use it because we're used to it in our culture here we are engaged as the bride of Christ but we don't know when the wedding is going to be. And the Bible is saying right here, hey you adulterers and adulteresses, here you are engaged to Jesus and you're flirting with the world. You've got two loves.

Earlier in the book you know what he called it? Double-minded. Did you know there's a number for double-minded?

Yeah, the number two. Now that's a significant number. We're going to come back to it in a moment.

Now let's stop for a moment, give a parenthesis, and we'll come back to the picture that God is giving us in James chapter number 4. How many out here have ever taken chemistry? Can I see your hands please.

You have taken chemistry. Okay. Now you can put your hands down.

How many of you chemistry took you? Like to the cleaners. Okay.

Like you flunked. No, don't raise your hand. Okay.

But okay. So here it is. I want you to think about this.

In chemistry, if you have pure gold, how many elements do you have? How many elements? And the answer is, you just have one.

If you adulterate, did you notice the verb? If you adulterate the gold, how many elements do you have? And the answer is two or more.

Oh, two. Yeah, that's interesting. Okay, so in this passage of Scripture, he's calling it double-minded.

So back to the picture. Unfortunately, this happens more than we'd like to admit, and it's tragic. But here's a young soldier.

He's about to be deployed. He goes to his girlfriend. Will you marry me?

She says, yes. He says, man, I don't know if we can set a wedding date, but as soon as I get back from deployment, we'll get as married as quickly as we can. You get ready.

So he gets deployed, let's imagine last longer than both of them wanted to, and you begin to notice this young lady is flirting with other guys, you then begin to notice she's dating other guys, and then you begin to hear worse. Do you know what the world even has a word for that? You know what the world calls it?

Two-timing it. You know what the Bible calls it? Double-minded.

Engaged to Jesus, flirting with the world, God says, nope, spiritual adultery. Okay, you are adulterating the purity of a future marriage. Now here's what I want you to see.

God uses the word adultery to describe someone who is not married. You see, adultery is simply this. When you introduce someone in the intimacy God created for a husband and wife who is not the husband and wife.

You are adulterating the purity of a future marriage. You are two-timing it. You are double-minded.

Now God has a solution for that if you go to verse number 8. Look what it says. Draw not to God, He'll draw not to you.

Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and here it is. And purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Okay, so let's ask yourselves a question, and so see if you can come up with it.

Here you are engaged to Jesus, flirting with the world. God says you're double-minded, you're two-timing it. You need to purify your hearts, ye double-minded.

If you purified your hearts, you'd no longer be double-minded, you'd be? Let's try it again. engaged to Jesus, flirting with the world, God says you're in spiritual adultery.

You're double-minded. You're two-timing it. You need to purify your heart, she double-minded.

If you purified your heart, you'd no longer be double-minded, you'd be? Double-minded. That's purity.

Purity is keeping all aspects of intimacy God created for a husband and wife for one. In the bonds of marriage. And anything else is adulterating the purity of that future marriage.

Now that brings us to three applications and we're done. Number one, application number one is going to be this, physical purity. Physical purity, I would put it this way.

Physical purity, keeping your body for one. I find the Bible to be absolutely so practical and so helpful. But there's a verse of Scripture in Proverbs chapter number 6 that gives us a picture.

God gives us a picture of passion. And it's a picture that we're all familiar with. It's the picture of fire.

Fire. Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned?

So he that goeth unto his neighbor's wife, whosoever toucheth her, don't forget that word, shall not be innocent.

Now, all of us here in Wisconsin, most of you are in the upper Midwest, you get the fact that we like fire this is about the time of year when we start to really like fire you know what i'm talking about on a cold morning you like it in the fireplace yes and as it gets colder you like fire in the furnace uh you like fire in the hot water heater yeah i've told some of you this before but i remember one time i was preaching

i mentioned hot water heater i had a teenager come up to me very smug i know this is going to shock you a little sarcastic a little I know that you can't imagine a teenager doing this, but he came up to me and he said, Now, Brother Van Gelderen, it's not a hot water heater. It's a water heater. It doesn't heat hot water.

It heats water. Now, aren't you grateful for teenagers who are so wise that they just exude their wisdom on some of us adults who don't get it? I'm just calling it a hot water heater, okay?

But anyway, I don't know about you. I like fire in the hot water heater. I like fire in the furnace.

In fact, here in Wisconsin, I'll tell you, there's some days we could not survive without fire. Fire is very important, but every year in the Milwaukee area, fire gets out of its proper place, and people die, and people get scarred. Several years ago, I think it was about 2010, one of my daughters was with me, and we were getting off an AirTran flight.

That's an old airline, and I think we were in DCA and Washington, D.C., and as we were getting off the plane, a lady about three rows up opened up the overhead bin. and she was pulling out luggage, and as she was pulling out luggage, she kind of turned in our direction. And I noticed that every bit of her neck, every bit of her face, was the awful scarring that comes with fire.

Pretty sure she was wearing a wig, because every square inch that I could see was that awful scarring that comes from fire. And I say this as carefully as I know how, and I say it as compassionately as I know how. But every bit of her feminine beauty was gone.

And what we saw was grotesque. Now I want to tell you friends, that's what fire does when it gets out of its proper place. Just down Appleton Avenue a few years ago I had an old clunker car that I was constantly taking to the mechanic and one time I was picking it up and I looked up in an apartment building.

Some of you know what I'm talking about. An apartment building was burned down. And I said to the mechanic, man what happened?

He said, didn't you hear about it? All over the news. He said a bunch of people got hurt.

He said I'm pretty sure some people died. Fire. Got out of its proper place.

Now God's created fire, and in its place it's a wonderful thing. But here's what God says. You get it out of your proper place, you will get burned.

Can a man take fire in his bosom, his clothes not be burned? And the answer is no, you can't do that. Can one go upon coals and his feet not be burned?

No, you can't do that either. So he that goeth unto his neighbor's wife, whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent. Now the word touch is obviously a Hebrew word, but it is translated in the Greek Septuagint, which is the translation into Greek from the Hebrew Old Testament.

And the word that is translated touch is found in the Greek New Testament in 1 Corinthians 7.1. It's interesting. And here's what it is.

It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Wow, isn't that interesting? Same word, opto.

It's in the middle voice there in 1 Corinthians. And as I've studied that word, there are several definitions, but the one that kind of intrigues me because it fits the picture of Proverbs 6, is the definition, kindle. Kindle.

In other words, God is saying this. He's saying, you touch in a way that kindles a fire. You're not innocent.

I'm not trying to be in kind, but I'm telling you, young man, you get a girlfriend, you begin to mess around and kindle one another's passions, you are a thief. You're stealing from yourself, you're stealing from her, you're stealing from your future wife, and you're stealing from her future husband. And God says in this passage of Scripture, it's a big deal.

In 1 Thessalonians, He says it's a big deal. Yeah, that's defrauding. And we live in a world, and even a Christian world that thinks nothing of it.

So God is telling us that the border, He's saying don't touch in a way that kindles a fire. And so God says any kind of touch that kindles a fire is only for what I created, marriage. So if we can put it this way, physical purity is keeping all aspects of touch that kindle a fire for one.

That's what I call physical purity. I hesitate to say this, but I think I am because some guy probably needs this. Remember I had a young youth pastor came to a camp I preached at.

I have this happen almost every summer because I always preach on moral purity. Youth pastor came up to me afterwards and said, Brother Van, I get this all the time. Brother Van Gelder, I wish I'd heard that when I was a teenager.

And he said, you know, when I was in high school, he said, my mother couldn't control me. My dad was nowhere to be seen. He said, as a result, I made a lot of decisions I regret.

He said, I was in and out of relationships with young ladies. He said, I did a lot of things I regret. He didn't tell me what they were.

He just said, I did. He said, I've been married for one year now. Now I'm going to be careful and not use the words he used, but I'll use the Old Testament Bible word sport.

I kind of like sport, okay? When Isaac was sporting with Rebecca, everybody knew they're married. You get the idea?

You say, what is sporting? I don't know, but if you do it, everybody thinks you're married. Okay, you get the idea.

Okay, this is not the word he used, but I'll use it. He says, when I began the sport with my wife, he said, all the memories of those other girls come rushing back. Now I'm going to tell you this, young people.

It would not have been appropriate. But do you know what I wish I could have done? Video done.

And I wish I could play it right here. You say, Preacher, why? Because I'd love for all of you to see the regret.

And the remorse. You know what he's telling me? Preacher, I'm a thief.

I've stolen from myself and I've stolen from my wife. I'm a thief. And he'd been exactly right.

You see, God's not out trying to burn you. God's trying to bless you. He gives you fences not because He hates you, but because He's crazy about you.

Physical purity is keeping your body for one. All aspects of touch that kindle a fire, keeping them for one. Number two, mental purity.

If physical purity is keeping your body for one, mental purity is keeping your mind for one. Now most of you know that inside your cranium is an unbelievable computer.

now of course AI is trying to take us past the human mind but nonetheless really we are God's created unbelievable computer up there now when you are born that hard drive is blank some of you look like it's still blank but anyway yes okay uh but anyway you got you got a blank hard drive and what you spend life doing is downloading on that hard drive now if you have a really good teacher, you know what he's trying to do?

She's trying to trick you to download good stuff onto your brain. That's a good teacher. You know what I'm talking about?

You get excited about learning, and you start downloading stuff on that hard drive. Now, the Bible tells us there's a certain part of your sensory being, you have five senses, that is especially effective in downloading on your hard drive. And everybody knows what it is.

It's the eye. How about Job 31, 1, I've made a covenant with mine eyes. Job said, why then should I think upon a maid?

Job understood the power of eyesight. Jesus said, Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. See the connection?

Solomon said, Lust not after beauty, clearly eyes in thine heart. Solomon also said, Hell and destruction are never full, so the eyes of man are never satisfied. Every young man in this room or young lady who's looking at filth, I will promise you, the Bible says, you're not going to be satisfied.

It keeps taking you deeper. And I'll have time to go in the physiological reason why. We'll just believe it because the book says it.

But the eye gate. So if you're going to be mentally pure, then there's decisions you have to make about the eye gate. Now other things I'm sure will be said as time goes on here, and there's wonderful tools that God is providing.

One of them here, Ryan's here with the Cord app, and there's other things that can help you if you say, Preacher, I need help. I need help. That's just one of many tools.

And we are working on a series called Renew to help on these kind of things. But the point is, every single one of you out here recognizes the importance of being careful what you look at. Because what you look at is what you think about.

If left unchecked is what you think about. And the Bible says what you think about if left unchecked is what you do. It's very clear, as he thinketh in his heart, anybody know, so is he.

Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Jesus said, for from within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, murders, adultery, fornications, thefts, fall, what long list of sins? Greek scholars tell us the way that is framed up, that evil thoughts is the origin of the whole list of sin.

Well, that makes a lot of sense. And all I'm going to simply say is the eye gate, obviously, what you see, you think about, what you think about, if left unchecked, is that what you will one day do? That's why you've got to be careful about your entertainment.

Used to be we could talk about movies, but now there's so many venues of entertainment or of visual issues. You can't even name them all. Social media and YouTube and movies and television.

There's just so many different. The issue is this. When you're not careful, when you look at that which is essential or provocative, you pollute your hard drive.

I'm not trying to be in kind. I'm just trying for some of you guys to wake up.

some of you guys can't walk across warm acts five minutes without total slime crawling across your brain I'm going to tell you why because of the junk you've looked at and I'm just talking to some of you got polluted brains and you say yeah preacher I said I'm never going to do it again yeah I'm 24 hours later you're doing it maybe 48 hours Bible makes it real clear there are ways to deal with this and one of them is blowing your cover yeah the great

You've heard me say it before. The greatest, I believe one of the greatest weapons Satan has to keep you in bondage is secrecy. Got a whole message that's on the power of light.

I know I preached that within the last couple of years. There's something powerful about turning the lights on and telling the people you love, I'm not hiding this anymore. I'm done.

I need help. And that's one of the things that's powerful about the court app. Every day you turn the lights on.

People love you and care about you and say, I need help. I need out of this.

so mental purity is keeping your mind for one which means you keep your eyes for one now I know I'm addressing the guys obviously uh I understand uh they understand the guy battle uh and but I understand there's a girl battle and there's some dear young ladies in this room struggling with this issue made some poor decisions and you have polluted your mind as well I don't totally understand your battle but I know some of you are facing it and if you're out here thinking I'm

the only one. You're not the only one. There's a lot of other young ladies struggling too who have made very poor decisions.

And I don't have time to go into all the reasons why. It fuels that in your life because there are a lot of reasons why. And it's like the perfect storm Satan knows how to use different things in your life as catalysts.

But bottom line they are never the root. There's only one root. And that is self.

That's the root. And once you realize that you realize I'm not a victim. I made some poor choices.

Oh yeah, sure, somebody may have brought it across my pathway. I never wanted it, but I made some poor choices. Like number one, I didn't run to somebody who cares.

That's why some of you need to make a decision. Anybody tries to get me into talking dirty or looking stuff, I'm running to people that love me and care about as fast as I can. That's a good decision.

You need to make it now. It's called proactive. That's preventative.

Because it's going to happen. Someday somebody's going to try to get you, because like I said, misery loves company. They're defeated.

They want to get you defeated. And you better be proactive about it, because we live in a wicked world. So mental purity is keeping your mind for just one.

For just one. Much more we could say there, but over the years certainly have run across a lot of young people who have struggled with that. And I will tell you the first step, as always, being forthcoming.

Hey, it was just a few weeks ago. You can ask Alex Milosevic if you want to verify my story. I won't even tell you what school we're in, but we're in a Christian school.

After chapel, I can't even remember what day it was. Six foot three, guy comes up to me, probably weighed about 200. He said, preacher, I need to talk to you.

And as soon as he said it, I knew exactly what he was going to say. I've had it happen too many times.

he's about to cry you can tell it big old boy he said can we talk I said absolutely and then he kind of looks around can we talk somewhere private then you know yeah I should sure let's go out so we went outside the picnic table sat down and he began to sob I'm just talking about a few weeks ago just began to sob he said I'm a mess I'm looking at junk nobody knows I'm sick of it and he just began to weep and I

always love that you say why the Lord is dying to them that are of a broken heart and save with such a contrite spirit I love it when kids get honest and they get broken because God walks through the door that's when I got Alex who was his team captain and we both sat down and Alex spent some time trying to counsel him help him but see he took the very first step you know what the first step was I'm done with it man I'm sick

of it I don't care I gotta I gotta get somebody can help me. I'm sick and tired of living a double life. I'm a mess.

I'm so messed up. I'm telling you, some of you need to do that. Your mental purity.

You know why you have a garbage pit for a brain? Because you're looking at a garbage pit. I remember years ago there used to be a stupid cartoon called Shoe.

It wasn't a cartoon, it was a comic strip. You find it in the newspaper and some birds. Any old people out there remember shoe, okay.

And I remember one of them had a garbage can, and the two birds were sitting there looking in the garbage can. And the other third bird came up and said, what are you guys doing? He said, well, TV broke.

We said, this will work just as well. That was like 1980s. But you know what?

I think it was pretty, I thought it was good humor. I thought, yeah, that's true. Yeah, that really is true.

Except garbage won't destroy your life like moral garbage will. So that brings me to one final thing, and we're done, emotional purity. Emotional purity.

I don't have time to develop this. Emotional purity is keeping your heart for one. So how many people, how many spiritual loves does Jesus the bridegroom want you, the bride, to have?

How many? How many? How many loves?

How many? One. In this passage, he's pretty strong about the fact that you fall in love with the world.

And we know the passage is love not the world. And this passage as well, talking about spiritual adultery, which seemed to indicate that the world is trying to allure us away from our love for Jesus, the bridegroom, to the one who's the seductress, or the seductor in this case. And so God is challenging us with the fact that we're to have one love.

So obviously He's the picture. And every young person in this room, please understand that emotional purity is keeping your heart for one. You say, well, preacher, I know this pastor.

He's really being used of God. He got engaged. They realized it wasn't God's will.

They broke up and married somebody else. Okay, yeah, that happens. And I recognize people sincerely, that happens.

Sincerely happens. But I will tell you this. For everyone of you in this room, you know what your goal ought to be?

God, would you just protect me? I want to fall in love with just one. I want to say I love you to just one.

It's emotional purity, keeping your heart for one, being careful with your heart.

and every young person in this room I hope will make a decision I want to keep my heart for one keep my body for one keep my mind for one that's the huge battle today and keep my heart for one I'll conclude with this much more I could say about that but for time's sake we'll finish it up I remember that I was preaching in a large Christian school and I think it was Thursday usually Tuesday I preach on moral issues and I think it was

Thursday the principal said, Brother Van Gelden, he said, could you come to my office? I want to talk to you. He sat down and he said, I think you'd like to know this.

He said, it was actually a good thing. He said, we had a little junior hire, 7th grade boy. He went home after you preached on moral purity on Tuesday.

He sat down with his dad. He said, I hate to tell you this, his mom and dad are in the midst of a divorce. He sat down with his dad and said, Dad, I need to talk to you.

The preacher preached on moral things this morning and I need to talk to you. He said, Dad, I got one question for you. Why is my birthday way less than nine months from you and mom's wedding day?

How would you like to have a question like that? The dad looked at him and said, well son I knew you'd figure it out sooner or later. And then the young man looked at his dad and you can tell he had affection for his dad, love for his dad.

He said, dad you think if you and mom had waited you wouldn't be getting a divorce? Pretty stunning question for a seventh grader. What do you think?

And the dad looked at his son and said, son, you're probably right. You know the problem with moral filth? It takes selfishness to do it.

And you can ask any of these married people back here, and they will tell you, one of the greatest enemies of marriage is selfishness. And moral purity is where you find it. I'm talking to some of you guys, look at filth, you're selfish to the core.

If I could, I'd put a big sign around you and your head and say, don't marry me, I'm selfish. God pity the girl that gets you. You say, preacher, that's pretty rough stuff.

I'm trying to wake you up. You don't have to stay selfish. Jesus can fix you.

If you'll take some Bible steps, but you've got to recognize this is a big deal. What is moral purity? It's keeping your body, mind, and heart for just one.

for just one. Heads bowed, eyes closed, no one looking around. Heads bowed, eyes are closed.