BREAKING THE CHAINS OF SEXUAL IMMORALITY| DR. BILLY GRAHAM

and now I want you to turn with me to the 14th chapter of Matthew's gospel Matthew's gospel the 14th chapter and we read these words beginning at the first verse at that time Herod the Tet Rock heard of the fame of Jesus and said unto his servant this is John the Baptist he is risen from the dead and therefore Mighty works do show forth themselves in him for Herod had laid hold on John and bound him and put him in prison for herodes sake his brother Philip's wife for John said unto him it is not

lawful for thee to have her and when he would have put him to death he feared the multitude because they counted him as a prophet and when herod's birthday was kept the daughter of of herodias danced before them and pleased Herod whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask and she being before instructed of her mother said give me John the Baptist head on a platter and the King was sorry nevertheless for the oath sake and them which sat with him at meat he commanded it to be given her and

he sent and be beheaded John in the prison and his head was brought in on a platter and given to the young woman and she brought it to her mother and his disciples came and took up the body and buried it and went out and told Jesus all across America and Canada and in Western Europe there is sweeping a new craze among teenagers it's called loins they've had one in Toronto recently they had one in Montreal now the one in Toronto was quite harmless the one in Montreal got a little bit out of hand the

police had to come in but in some parts of the Western World they've become sex orges and they're they're expressing themselves and saying we want sex freedom and this is their way of asking for it and this is the way of showing their feelings now tonight I I want to talk as frankly as I've ever talked on the subject of Sex and the Bible there was a time when I first started preaching 20 years ago or 25 years ago that you wouldn't mention that subject in public certainly from the pulpit I think we made a

mistake I think the clergy made a mistake now I think the pendum has swung too far and it's too much a subject of discussion but the Bible has a great deal to say about it and it's certainly the great problem that young people are facing today you're discussing it in the home you're discussing it in the school it's discussed on television it's discussed in the magazines why shouldn't we in the Pulpit tell you what the Bible has to say and that's precisely what I hope to do tonight now in this passage we find John the

Baptist that that great prophet that was the Forerunner of Jesus Christ losing his head he was killed because he would not compromise the moral law you see the children of Israel of ancient Israel also had somewhat of a love in they were at the foot of Mount Si dancing and making marry some of them taking their clothes off around a golden calf and Moses came down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments written on those tables of stone and he thundered The Ten Commandments to them and one of those Commandments said Thou shalt not commit

adultery I believe today we need another Moses to descend with the law and say once again th Thou shalt not commit immorality now John the Baptist wouldn't compromise that law he said to the king you're living in immorality and you're sinning it's wrong for you to have your brother's wife oh he could have compromised he could have said like some Modern even clergy is saying today if it's a meaningful relationship it's all right there is nothing wrong with it of itself the Bible says and the Lord said it is not good that man should be

alone I will make a helpmate for him and the Bible says that Adam knew his wife Eve and that new carries with it the deepest intimacy and God gave sex for three reasons first it was given to propagate the human race secondly it was given for a climax of true love within marriage and thirdly it was given so that a man and a woman could express the unity between them and God Likens it to Christ and the church we are members of the body of Christ as Believers in Christ just as a married couple are

one flesh it expresses Unity the Bible teaches that marriage is Honorable to all and the bed undefiled but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge now after that early marriage which God performed in the Garden of Eden and God Sanctified sex within marriage something happened a tragedy took place man rebelled against God you see man has a will of his own and God never meant that we would have suffering and hate and lust in the world he never meant that we would have war and death look at the world tonight War trouble difficulty hate prejudice death

God never meant it to be that way it was a wonderful world a paradise but something happened man rebelled against God and that Rebellion caused a wall to be built between God and man sin came Rebellion against God is called sin it's a disease and the Bible says all have sinned every one of us are infected with the disease of sin it affected man's intellectual life you see your mind is affected by sin that's the reason when you come to the Bible it's a closed book to you until you know Jesus Christ and the Holy

Spirit illuminates this book the Bible says we have a veil over our minds we're blinded by the God of this world it affects our intellectual life sin affects our religious life it affects our relationship to God it separates between between us and God so that now we're spiritually dead physically alive but your soul is dead toward God that's the reason many of you don't find happiness you don't find peace and joy you go to the bottle you go to narcotics you go to sex experience you try to forget you try to escape but you cannot

Escape you're dead toward God separated from God you were made for fellowship with God and without God you'll never find true happiness that's the reason so many film starss so many wealthy people it would seem that they would be the happiest people in the world but some of them are the most miserable they're separated from God sin affects the intellectual life it affects our relationship to God it also affects the sexual life now why does God say thou shalt not commit immorality does God not want you to have a good time is God just against

you having a good time why does he say that first he says it to protect your future marriage did you know that one half of all teenage marriages in America are shotgun weddings they have to get married and they're incompatible and over one/ half of all those type of weddings they break up within years you see it's to protect your future marriage if you commit immorality before marriage it affects your marriage later as any psychiatrist will tell you that has to deal with it or clergyman that has to deal with it will tell you secondly

God said Thou shalt not commit immorality to protect your body Dr Arthur Curtis dermatologist at the University of Michigan and a member of the American social health association's venial disease committee said recently the venial disease epidemic has now reached a momentous size in America illegitimacy has doubled in the last 10 years promiscuous sex relations contribute to cancer for women and 64% of all those that get cancer in that way die so says the Canadian Cancer Society you see God has built in your body certain restrictions and if you break the law you hurt yourself and

then God said Thou shalt not commit immorality to protect you psychologically guilt a Radcliffe student was quoted in a magazine recently saying every time I have sex relations I feel guilty emotional disturbances insecurity you often feel unlove in the readers's digest recently it says this and I quote among the unmarried teenagers I talk to nearly all who have lost their virginity regret it afterwards often these girls come to realize that their Rebellion against parental Authority are a desperate search rather than who is using sex to work out problems that have little to do with sex

and her solution only creates deeper problems as for security hardly anything is less secure than a teenage Affair I talked to a head psychiatrist one of our greatest te University some time ago and he told me that one/ half of all the students that come to see him are suffering from guilt in the realm of Saint you see you have a buil-in moral law God has not only put it in the Ten Commandments he's made an eternal thing out of it that's written into our very nature and then third fourthly God gave this commandment to

to protect Society the moral problem can destroy the security of a Nation this is one of the reasons that Rome fell in other nations of the past they became so immoral that it affected every area of their lives and it certainly brought the Judgment of God upon Sodom and Gomorrah those are just some of the reasons why God said Thou shalt not commit immorality God was doing it to protect your future marriage to protect your body to protect protect you psychologically and to build the nation but we say we can break God's law we can

get away with it but we're not getting away with it we have more troubles more unhappiness more boredom than ever before it doesn't solve problems it creates problems well you say how do you commit immorality well the Bible says you can commit it by evil imaginations how many young people just sit in daydream in the wrong way Daydreams are wonderful if they're clean and pure you can commit immorality the Bible says by a look the Apostle Peter talked about eyes full of adultery Jesus said if you look upon a person of the opposite sex and

lust you've already committed immorality job said I've made a covenant with my eyes why should I look upon a maid you can commit immorality by the way you dress yes we have depraved men but we also have careless women that entice men and then wonder why men attack and assault fourthly going to sex shows and looking at pornographic literature you can commit immorality many way way besides just the act and God will hold you responsible are you guilty are you guilty are you guilty well how can a young person today in this sex filled atmosphere

in which we live have victory over this sin the Bible says flee immorality the Bible says Thou shalt not commit immorality you know I believe that this should be an invisible flaming banner across the door of every Factory every office every school where both sexes work and over every place that young people gather there should be a banner Thou shalt not commit immorality the mark of a Christian is self-control and self- displine I don't believe there's any way that a modern young person today can keep pure outside of Jesus Christ I think some do by

sheer will power but very few but with Christ you have Supernatural forces at your disposal to help you to overcome the Temptation Paul wrote to Young Timothy and said keep thyself pure a void he said all appearances of evil do you have Christ in your heart do you know Christ is your savior well I want to tell you this Christ loves you you say but Billy I'm afraid that I'm guilty I might not have done the ACT but I know I've had it in my heart and I know that I'm guilty every one of us

is guilty when God gave the Ten Commandments he knew we couldn't keep it God knows you can't keep the seventh commandment you don't have the strength by yourself to do it why did God give the law then God gave the law as a mirror so that when you read it it makes you feel and sense your guilt and this becomes a school Master said Paul in Galatians to drive you to the Cross of Christ where you find forgiveness of all the past and you find a new power and a new Dynamic to live every day

you remember the woman that was taken in adultery brought to Jesus and she received him as her Lord and her Savior and Jesus said go thy way your sins are forgiven he'll say that to you tonight because you see he died on the cross for you he shed his blood for you that's the reason he died so that you could find forgiveness of the past sins and there is no forgiveness apart from Christ you have to receive Christ for yourself and how many young people tonight are going on the religion of their parents you've been

brought up in the church but you've never really received Christ for yourself you're not sure your sins are forgiven you're not sure that if that you're ready to meet God but then Jesus said something else to that woman he said go and sin no more in other words words he was giving her assurance that she would have a supernatural power to face the Temptations of Tomorrow you see she had to go back to those same companions to the same address to the same old crowd to the same job to the same home and he was

going to be with her his Spirit would be there to give her Supernatural power to overcome the sin of tomorrow remember the woman at the well she had had five husbands and she was living in adultery she was converted to Christ on the spot and went out to become an evangelist to win others to Christ that's how quick Christ can change you you can make that commitment and that decision tonight now intellectually you may have problems because you see intellectually your mind has been affected by sin you can't understand it all you might not receive

it all you may be in Rebellion against part of the message of God submit your intellect to Christ come by faith you can't come to God intellectually Alone by wisdom man cannot find God said Paul to the Corinthians now emotionally give your emotions to Christ say Lord you control my ability to love and to hate I give my emotional life to you submit your sex life to God I don't believe anyone can be a dynamic Christian unless his sex life is totally in God's hands and then it becomes a supernatural power Dynamo within you give

your life to Christ and see what he'll do for you what do you have to do you come by faith he said you must be born again he said unless you are converted and become as a little child you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven what does converted mean it means change that's all just turn around I'm going to change my way of living I'm going to change my attitude I'm going to let Christ have my first loyalty from this moment on that's what it means and you need Christ tonight to let him come into

your heart I'm going to ask you to receive him by fath fath but as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name and I'm going to ask you to do it publicly publicly every person that Jesus called in the New Testament he called publicly he said if you're not willing to acknowledge me before men I'll not acknowledge you before my Father which is in heaven I'm going to ask you to get up out of your seat all all over this Stadium

hundreds of you and come and stand publicly in front of this platform and say tonight I receive Christ I want him to have my first loyalty I want to March for him I want to follow his flag I want his forgiveness I want a new life I want Christ you may be a member of the church you may not be a member of any church you may be Catholic or Protestant or Jewish I don't know who you are what you are but you need Christ I'm going to ask you to come and after you've all

come here's what we're going to do I'm going to say a word to you have a prayer with you give you some literature then you can go back and join your friends but coming forward is a simple Act of your will by which you say I will receive Christ and if you're outside listening by amplification you come forward where you are Grady Wilson is out there and he'll say a word to you you come forward and stand in front of the crowd outside and make your commitment with these many people that will come here you

get up and come right now young person father mother whoever you are you need Christ you get up and come men women you may be in the choir you may be in Usher here I don't know who you are or what you are but you need Christ tonight maybe you've never committed this sin but you need Christ just get up and come and stand here and say tonight I want him in my heart if you're with friends or relatives they'll wait if you come in a delegation they'll wait on you just get up and come

right now quickly we're going to wait going to ask that every head bowed all of us quietly praying as many people are already on the way