We see back in Mark, Chapter 4, that expression used in this passage, talking about the thorny ground.  Thorny ground people are those that hear the Word, verse 19, “And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches,” and then just a general statement of the condition of man, “and the lusts (plural) of other things entering in.”  Entering in—we give access, we give a place to these things.  Every man sins when he is drawn away of his own lusts.  We turn to pursue these things.  We become one with them.  They begin to grow in our lives now.  We all know that a little leaven will leaven the whole lump, amen?  “Well, it’s just a little bit of disobedience.  It’s just a little bit of carnality.  It’s just a little bit of pride.  It’s just a little bit of self-will and self-indulgence.”

Lot said, “It’s just a little city; let me go there instead of obeying what you commanded me to do.”  God delivers us from Sodom, and we want to go to Zoar, where there’s just a little sin.  It’s not as bad as it was over there at Sodom.  Over in First John, the Spirit of God speaking so clearly, all that is in the world is lust, lust, lust, amen?  Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life.  When we really look at what the world is about and what those who are under the authority of the god of this world, the god that—I mean, it’s very interesting, when we look at the temptation of Jesus, if the devil really believed that that would work on Jesus, do you think it won’t work on you?  To live lives presumptuously, “Cast yourself off this pinnacle.  Isn’t it written that He’s given His angels charge over you?”  It’s written, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”  Amen?  Presumptuous living, dangerous living.

Flee youthful lusts; depart from the very appearance of evil.  I’m an adult now; I’m not one of the kids in high school that needs to be chaperoned.  Dear God, you need to be chaperoned by the Holy Ghost!  Amen?  We had people here in the fellowship that were interested in one another and thought that because they were old that they were free from the laws of lust.  They would text one another, and they would meet one another.  Beloved, the same rules that God set to protect us when we’re younger are still to be applied when you’re older.  Just because you’re sixty doesn’t mean that you can’t be tempted.  Just because you’re sixty doesn’t mean you don’t have lust, self-will, self-indulgence.

These laws are eternal that apply to citizens of the kingdom of God.  Tragically, most of us don’t believe that.  We think that as we get older we should be more independent.  The older, especially when we look at different aspects of body ministry, as we look at different women, the more mature women are to be teaching the younger, amen?  It’s not to teach them that you get more independence as you get older.  It’s to obey your husbands, amen?  It’s to be a keeper of the home.  It’s to be very careful that you don’t go from house to house as a talebearer.

We’re talking about the lust; all that’s in this world.  It deals with the whole man: spirit, soul and body.  When I talk about lust, it’s not just lust for material things and wealth.  It’s not just the appetites of the flesh and sexual lust, the pride of life that wants to just have more and better than everybody else has. This is all that’s in the world.  Any time you’re motivated to think that something external will promote you in the eyes of man and make you better, you’re living in deception.  Some of you are facing that quite regularly.  We’re living in a transient world; people are getting new jobs every year and a half or two years.  I mean, it’s amazing.  I’ve never seen or experienced anything like it.

Of course, when I was growing up, you got a job, and you worked there till you died and were thankful for it, praise God!  Now we have young people going in, interviewing, making demands, and all of these different things with this image of how great we are, how much we’re worth.  You see, you have your opinion on what you’re worth, and you don’t want to know what you’re worth without Jesus, amen?  But for a lot of people today, that would be a shock.  Our children being doted on—they think the world owes them.  That’s just natural within children anyway.  How childish it is to think that the world owes you something.  We could go on and on and see the lies that sin causes in the hearts of men.  So, we have to know the Word of God.  We have to know what His promises are to us.