Save America Ministries

Guest (Male): This is Viewpoint with attorney and author Chuck Crismier. Viewpoint is a one-hour talk show confronting the issues of America's heart and home. And now, with today's edition of Viewpoint, here is Chuck Crismier.

Chuck Crismier: How does sin sneak into your life? How does sin sneak into our lives? Well, the number one way that happens is by dancing with the devil. Dancing with the devil. And today on Viewpoint, we're going to do a little—well, you might call it almost an R-rated program here today for relationship-oriented.

But it's very serious. Did you know that if you read the scriptures, you go to the Old Testament, you find out how often God relates the issue of sin and righteousness to walking with Him in spirit and truth, or in adultery and fornication? Over and over and over again, God uses the sexual metaphor as a means of communicating the seriousness of the relationship that He's looking for and how Israel actually rejected it.

Even though Israel was married to God, betrothed to God at Mount Sinai, God said, "If you will do this, then I will," and the people responded saying, "I do." In other words, they entered into the marital covenant, the betrothal covenant there at Mount Sinai, and then proceeded to dance with the devil. It really is true; they proceeded to dance with the devil.

Now, how did they do that? What is it that causes one to dance with the devil? Well, one of the ways this happens, friends, is through what you might call sexual foreplay. Sexual foreplay. And we're going to talk about that here today on Viewpoint, and you might have some kids under 10 you don't want to necessarily have them around, but today on Viewpoint, this is going to be talk that really speaks to our hearts.

Five tricky ways sin sneaks into our lives. Alicia Searle wrote this piece. It was in Christianity.com. And I want to just go over this very briefly in summary. She says there are these five tricky ways that sin sneaks into our lives. One is falling into complacency. Falling into complacency. We often become complacent in areas of our lives where we feel safe and trusted. So, there's no need to strive anymore, and we may check out, become emotionally unavailable.

So, life becomes routine, cumbersome, or in some cases, boring. While that's not sin in and of itself, it can lead to sin and neglect. In other words, we're not aware. We're not aware of what's happening and affecting our lives. That actually during that time when we are feeling relatively safe and even bored, the enemy is knocking at the door and seducing us in ways that we never contemplated.

The second point she brings up is tolerant versus intolerant. There is a lot of buzz these days about these two words. Many claim the modern-day church is tolerant or that intolerance is a sin. We're essentially arguing and dividing over words rather than focusing on the real issue at hand. It's not about being tolerant or intolerant; it’s about where we need to be seeking God's truth and living accordingly. In other words, it's not about toleration of anything. It's about agreeing with God.

So, when we don't agree with God, it doesn't matter how tolerant we seem to be of anybody else or intolerant. The real issue is, am I in agreement with God or not? So, tolerance can be a virtue if we embrace others with love, grace, and forgiveness, choose to understand, and so on. But if it sways us from obeying God and agreeing with God's viewpoint, we've got a problem. And we begin the dance with the devil.

Next, entertaining the world's view of acceptance. Acceptance. Well, it's another word that has gathered quite a bit of confusion. It comes with a lot of misconceptions in our society today, says Alicia Searle. The truth is everyone wants to be fully known, fully loved, fully accepted by everyone else. But God almost never enters that equation.

So, it's all become relative, and you accept me and I will accept you sort of deal. And that's how it works. But that isn't how it works with God, she says. And that isn't how we should choose to see acceptance either. The world may accept many things that are not of God and are in fact truly evil. So, it's a very slippery slope to sin. The seeking of acceptance is one way that we begin to dance with the devil.

Getting defensive and defiant. It's easy to become defensive or even defiant when we feel hurt or betrayed by others, or even by God for that matter. But there's a way of defending what is right without becoming defensive. As believers, our mission is to win people over to Christ. We can't do that if we build a barrier rather than a bridge. So, sometimes it's hostility. We live in a hostile and divided world, no question about it. But if we desire so much to be to win the world that we become like the world, well, our defensiveness and defiance actually leads us to embracing the world and doing a dance with the devil.

Compromising or justifying behaviors is point number five. She says, "I nearly fell into the TV trying to prevent my eight-year-old from seeing an inappropriate scene. I recall how she looked at me with a straight face and said, 'What was so bad about that?'"

So, what was so bad about that? Well, you see, we have that kind of thinking. In fact, as time has gone on during my lifetime, which has covered from 1945 to this current day, I have watched that term become more and more risque. And the more risque, the more we're likely to say, "What's so bad about that?" because we've become inured to that which was not righteous before God. Why? Because we adopted the ways of the culture. We drifted with the culture.

We drifted with the insertion of ideas, maybe Satan himself, like he did with Eve in the garden. Said, "Hath God said?" Eve responded saying, "Yes, that's what God said," and Satan put a spin on it, said, "Yeah, but. Yeah, but you know the reason He did that," and so Satan supplied the deception that allowed Eve to dance with him. And the result, friends, is that you and I have been dancing with him ever since, in one way or another. So, when we become Christians, we're supposed to be a new creation. The old self is dead, gone. We shouldn't even want to return to it. So, why is it we want to?

Because our "want-tos" are a problem. And that, my friends, is where Satan enters the picture with spiritual foreplay. That's what he does. He enters the picture with spiritual foreplay, and that involves speaking, the insertion of ideas. And did you know that experts say that about 90% of sex is in the mind, not the body, but in the mind? And if that be true, then maybe Jesus was right. In fact, He was when He said, "You've heard it said of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say unto you, whoever looks upon a woman with lust in his heart has already committed adultery in his heart." So, have you been doing a dance with the devil through pornography? Men, women, pastors? Are you beginning to get the point? We'll be right back.

Guest (Male): Once upon a time, children could pray and read their Bibles in school. Divorces were practically unknown, as was child abuse. In our once-great America, virginity and chastity were popular virtues, and homosexuality was an abomination. So what happened in just one generation? Hi, I'm Chuck Crismier, and I urge you to join me daily on Viewpoint where we discuss the most challenging issues touching our hearts and homes. Could America's moral slide relate to the Fourth Commandment? Listen to Viewpoint on this radio station or any time at saveus.org.

Satan wants to have intercourse with you. That's right. Now, I'm not talking about sexual intercourse here because the word intercourse actually did not come to actually mean sexual relations until the late 1700s. Before that, the word intercourse had to do primarily with communications, back and forth between people, an exchange of thoughts, feelings, or ideas between individuals or nations. Business trade, social interactions, relationships. So, older texts often use the phrase "social intercourse" simply to mean friendly conversation or community gathering.

So, the whole idea of physical intimacy was not part of the original meaning of the word intercourse. Satan wants to have intercourse with you. And quite frankly, he is. Now, I'm not here to tell you exactly how he's doing that, but I'm going to give you some ideas, some thoughts here today because it has to do with dancing with the devil. Dancing with the devil. And I hope you'll stay tuned today, friends, because this may be a life-changing program for you today.

Sometimes you just have to put things in ways that people can understand and take them out of their normal way of thinking about something in order to get a point through. Because we're so used to hearing, "Well, I know about that. I heard that in the Bible. I know about that." Okay, I'll bet you never heard anybody talk about spiritual foreplay. I'll bet you never heard of anybody saying that Satan wants to have intercourse with you. But he does. And he is. And that's the problem. And the more intercourse he has with us, the more we do the dance. And the more we do the dance, the more we're seduced, until finally we just accede, just as foreplay is intended to do.

So, I looked up in the great wisdom of Google. Actually, it's the AI overview. Foreplay is a broad term for any physical or emotional activity that builds sexual arousal. While petting is a specific type of physical touch, often involving caressing or fondling, that can be part of foreplay. Well, the interesting thing is, as the article goes on to tell us, that the whole idea of petting has kind of passée now. It used to be something that was referred to young people, teenagers, and so on, getting involved in petting. Today, the only thing we know about petting is petting zoos.

But petting refers specifically to tactile physical contact and stroking and various levels of that. But foreplay includes non-physical actions like texting, talking, emotional bonding. It describes the purpose of a phase of intimacy that is getting ready to know and prepare somebody. So, today on Viewpoint, as I've said, we're talking about spiritual foreplay. What does that look like? Well, if you want to find out what that looks like, if you want to find out how to deal with it, we'll put it in another framework. You need the power to overcome.

There's something to be overcome. And we don't quite understand what it is that we have to overcome. Just before this program, I was interviewed in Florida by telephone concerning the book, "The Power to Overcome." And the talk show host wanted to know, "What do you want to tell us about the power to overcome? What is it we have to overcome?" Well, we know we have to overcome the world and the flesh and the devil. Well, guess what? The devil doesn't isolate himself from the world and the flesh. He uses all of those tools, and he's very, very adept at it. He knows how to commit spiritual foreplay. He's expert at it.

And one of the things that he does is tell you what you want to hear. And he seduces us in order to want to hear what we want to hear. Let me give you an illustration. In the field of law practice, many times in certain kinds of cases, a lawyer will do everything he can to try to position a case before a particular judge or in a particular court. Why is that? Because he's wanting to get the best possible opportunity for his client, where he thinks the likelihood is going to be best. So, he engages in what is called forum shopping. Forum shopping.

Did you know that in the Christian community, among Christians, forum shopping is a very common practice? Let me tell you how it happens. First of all, people want to go to a particular church. Why do they want to go to a particular church? Because it tells them what they want to hear. That's usually the reason. Because if they didn't want to hear it, they wouldn't go there. So, they want to hear what they want to hear. Well, what tells them what they want to hear? The thoughts of their own mind and their heart.

Are they the thoughts pursuing the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, or are they thoughts about their feelings about something they're wanting to do in their life? About whether they're wanting to marry a certain person, whether they're going to divorce somebody, whether they're going to get remarried, whether they're going to become a partner with someone who is not a believer? Oftentimes those are the things that are lurking in the background of a person's mind and heart when they're out forum shopping for a church.

They're listening very carefully to hear words that tell them what they want to hear. Then again, there are so many ways to go about doing that. Let's suppose that you have found a frisky filly somewhere, maybe you're not married. You found a frisky filly or a guy found a handsome dude and you're really drawn to that person. Well, what is it that's drawing you to that person? You need to ask yourself that question. Is it the flesh? That's a very important question. Is it the flesh that's drawing me there?

Now, I'm not saying in and of itself that that's a bad thing because God has created men with an eye gate that is drawn to see and be moved by a woman's face, eyes, and everything else. That's part of the system that God created for a reason, for procreation. But not for recreation. Not for promiscuity. So, we have to test our motivation. Why am I looking for what I'm looking for? What's in the back of my mind as I'm dealing with this?

So, now you found this person and you're drawn to that person and you say, "Okay, well now what do I do? The person's not a believer." Not really a believer. But then we try to convince ourselves that they're a believer or that they believe in God. How many times have I heard this kind of thinking? Unbelievable. Heard this kind of thinking, "Well, they believe in God." Well, the devil believes in God, friends. That's no rationalization for engaging in spiritual foreplay with somebody, with the devil, just to enter into a relationship that you know really in your heart is not right. Right?

You knew in your heart it wasn't right. Or how about the situation where a person is having struggle in their marriage? Everybody has struggles in their marriage from time to time, everybody. My wife and I have been married for 60 years and we'll talk about it. We talked about it in our book, "Lasting Love: Seven Secrets for Marital Success." I urge you to get a copy of the book. It'll encourage you. Right there on the website, saveus.org. Very simple book, "Lasting Love: Seven Secrets for Marital Success."

So, we all have problems in marriages. But then we have a thought that's interjected, and that is the "D-word," divorce. The moment you entertain the D-word is the moment you are dancing with the devil. Period. Why? Because God says He hates it. So, what now you're going to do is dally around, do a dalliance with a word that God says He hates. Do you see how this works? So, you're playing around. You're going to allow the devil to seduce you with foreplay with your mind. He's playing upon your mind.

He can't control you, but he insinuates thoughts into your mind and allows you to play the game with your flesh and with the culture. So, the culture says, "Hey, there's no problem. Divorce is fine. Everybody's doing it." Then you have your brothers and sisters in Christ who—everybody seems to be doing it. No problem. Your pastor then is divorced and he's justifying it too. So, you say, "Okay, I figured it out. It's okay with God." No, friends, you're dancing with the devil and you know it. You knew it from the beginning, but you wanted it that way.

You see, the problem is with our want-tos. Our want-tos are located in the flesh. So, the Apostle Paul writes to us about that in Romans Chapter 8. He said, "Look, that's carnal thinking. That's the carnal or fleshly mind." He says the carnal or fleshly mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So, we're to walk in the spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So, if we're walking in the spirit, then we will not be tempted to yield to the tempter who comes in and insinuates different ideas and thoughts through the culture and through our flesh to cause us to disagree with God's viewpoint.

The moment we are tempted to disagree with God's viewpoint is the moment Satan has us. We're dancing with him. And we're not just doing a waltz with him now; we're into it big time. We're being seduced. And we were willing to be seduced. We weren't seduced against our will; we were seduced because that was our will. We wanted to find something that told us what we wanted to hear. We forum shopped.

Here's another way that we forum shop. We go to our Christian friends. Ladies may go in a women's group somewhere and they'll present their issue or situation, and the women all say, "Well, there's no problem in getting divorced. Look, you deserve better." That's the word you always hear: "You deserve better." Well, maybe you do deserve better. But that's not the situation you're in. The situation you're in is you're married. And God knows you're married, and you're married till death do us part. Because you said so. And because God heard it and all the witnesses heard it.

But now your Christian friends tell you that, no, God knows your heart. That's exactly the problem, friends. God does know your heart, and Satan knows it as well. And he's playing on it like a fiddle. He's playing your heart like a fiddle, and you're doing the dance in time to his fiddling. It's spiritual foreplay. There are many ways in which we're seduced to do that.

I remember a situation practicing law. 80% of my clientele come from the broader body of Christ, and the issue came up concerning whether or not a Christian businessman should engage in a partnership with a non-Christian. It was presented by the Christian Businessmen's Committee newspaper or magazine that went out every month. Notice: Christian businessmen's publication for Christians. Asking the question if you had the opportunity to go into a partnership with a non-believer, what would you do?

The answer came back three months in a row from every single person that responded: "I'd pray about it, I'd do my due diligence, and then I'd do it." There was no question about what God had said about it. No question whatsoever. Why? Because it was already in their mind. They were already engaged in spiritual foreplay with the devil on the issue. He already had them in their mind. They were not willing to seek what God had to say about it because if they had been, the Bible's very clear: "Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." That's not talking about just marriage, friends; it's talking about all relationships.

Are you beginning to see how this works? Spiritual foreplay is a gradual thing until it culminates. We'll be back.

Guest (Male): There is so much more about Chuck Crismier and Save America Ministries on our website, saveus.org. For example, under the Marriage section, God has marriage on His mind. Chuck has some great resources to strengthen your marriage. First off, a fact sheet on the state of the marital union, a fact sheet on the state of ministry marriage and morals, saveus.org. Marriage, divorce, and remarriage: what does the Bible really teach about this? Find all of this at saveus.org. Also, a letter to pastors, the Hosea Project, saveus.org, and many more resources to strengthen your marriage. It's all on Chuck's website, saveus.org. Again, you can listen to Chuck's Viewpoint broadcast live and archived at Save America Ministries' website at saveus.org.

Chuck Crismier: One of the words that is so familiar to us in the area of sexual behavior is the word compromise, right? Compromise. Well, what does that mean? Well, it means that you're agreeing to participate in something that you know in your heart is not right, but you're willing to do it anyway. Why? Well, there are a variety of reasons why you're willing to do it. Maybe because you've just been seduced with spiritual foreplay.

Maybe you put yourself in a position to where you knew as a matter of common experience that you were likely to compromise your virginity, for instance, if you put yourself in that position, but you did anyway. How do you think most children are born out of wedlock? How do you think unwed child conception and birth take place? That's how they take place, friends.

Now, suppose that you had entered into a relationship with someone and you were drunk. I know of some people right now who are professing Christians that got drunk and ended up having sex and ended up having a child. How did that happen? It didn't just happen. It happened because you put yourself in that position. You engaged in sexual or spiritual foreplay with the enemy of your soul because you placed yourself in a position to become intoxicated.

That's the first thing you did, so it would remove your ability to have self-control. You knew what you were doing, but you did it anyway. Why did you do it? See, the question is always: why did I do it? I did it because I wanted to. It felt good, or everybody was doing it, or whatever. There's always some rationale. I'm trying to help us to understand, friends: this is real life. This is why Christians are not overcomers. Because we have been overcome by the world or the culture, the flesh, and the devil's insinuations through spiritual foreplay. That's why.

And the statistics of our time for the past 40 years are proving it. When George Barna or George Gallup, the pollsters to the church, pollster to the nation, have come out over the past 25, 30 years and said over and over and over again that the way that Christians live is not that much different than the rest of the secular culture. What are they actually saying? They're saying that the proof through statistics of life behaviors indicates that Christians have yielded to the flesh, the world, and the devil and are living just like it.

And then we can't understand why we have the problems that we have. Then we can't understand why our families are disintegrating. Then we can't understand why our children are rebelling. And then pastors can't understand and don't know how to deal with the ramifications of it in their congregations, so they play along with it and become participants to try to make the people feel better in their sin.

As I share some of these thoughts with you, friends, I really have tears in my eyes. I really do. Because I know how real this is. There's a reason why I wrote the book, "The Power to Overcome: How to Triumph in Troubled Times." The times that we're living are not troubled because of Iran or because of Ukraine or Russia or China. Those are troubling enough. But from God's perspective, that's not the real issue. The real issue is how are you and I living according to God's will and ways? And the problem is we're not.

And most of the teaching in our churches is about information, religious information, and we think the more religious information we have, the more spiritual we are. It's not true. The Bible is not about religious information; it's about transformation. The information is for one purpose and one purpose only, and that is that we be transformed by the renewing of our minds and hearts that we might prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Do we care?

Get a copy of the book "The Power to Overcome," friends, because it's so practical. I don't even talk about spiritual foreplay in there, believe me. And this is an idea that God gave to me last night as I was contemplating how to deal with this issue in ways that people could really understand viscerally. And if we can't understand it this way, we can't understand it at all. Because this deals with it in a way that this is where we live.

I put in the question: "Dancing with the devil: what's the meaning?" The worst dance of all is the proverbial dancing with the devil. To dance with the devil is to engage in risky, reckless, or potentially immoral behavior. And any behavior that is contrary to the word, will, and ways of God, friends, is risky, reckless, and immoral and called evil by God. It's very simple. You may think, "Well, this just sounds so legalistic." No, it's not legalistic at all. It's about relationship.

Would you consider it legalistic, my male friend out there, if your wife went out and danced with somebody else that was trying to seduce her with various levels of foreplay? Would you take that lightly? Neither does God. Ladies, would you take it lightly if your husband's out there frolicking, maybe at the workplace, and is being drawn in by a woman there, and she's touching him and saying wonderful things about him, and he's being gradually seduced and then succumbs to that? What's your thought about that?

Is that something to be overlooked? Is that something that doesn't make any difference? Friends, it makes just as much difference to God as it does to you. More so. And that's why God had such problems with Israel. They continued to submit to Satan's foreplay. The Bible, the prophets said they were seduced on every high hill and under every green tree. They committed fornication, they committed adultery. In other words, they played the game with the culture, the flesh, and the devil.

The whole Old Testament is explaining this so that we can't miss it. And Israel was the testing ground. God chose Israel, but they, while they pretended to choose Him, they didn't. And only a small remnant ultimately will. The same is true of professing Christians. They profess to be called by God, profess to be chosen, but don't live like it. They don't live in the spirit of chosenness. They live in the spirit of the world, the flesh, and the devil. They dance with the devil and submit to his spiritual foreplay.

And it's—we see it happening everywhere. Your church is filled with people like this, and maybe you. Get a copy of the book "The Power to Overcome: How to Triumph in Troubled Times." It's going to be so practical. My wife, she almost wept when she told me, says, "Chuck, I've been reading your book and it is so helpful. There's just no way you could read this book and not be touched." "The Power to Overcome: How to Triumph in Troubled Times." $25 will put it in your hands. It's on our website, saveus.org, saveus.org. Give us a call, 1-800-SAVE-USA, 1-800-SAVE-USA, or write to us at Save America Ministries, P.O. Box 70879, Richmond, Virginia 23255.

Writing a check, add $6 for postage and handling. And by the way, you can go on the internet if you want and find out how to seduce somebody. That's right. But are we really interested in how Satan seduces us? Not so much. Why? And the road to hell is paved at compromise corner. Are we dancing with the devil, indulging in and submitting to risky or immoral behavior? Things that God says He hates. Things that are contrary to His word, His will, and His ways. Contrary to the creation order of God right there in Genesis Chapter 1 and 2.

Look, let's put this in another context. We believe that Jesus is coming soon, right? We say it's the blessed hope of the church. Is it your blessed hope? On what basis do you have such hope if you're dancing with the devil? What's the basis of your hope if you're engaged in spiritual foreplay with the enemy of your soul? While singing on Sunday how much I love Jesus. It doesn't mean anything. That's why Jesus' brother James said, "But be ye doers of the word and not just hearers only, deceiving your own selves."

This is where life really meets—where the rubber of the Christian life meets the road. It's not about what we say we believe. It's about how we live. No, you can't save yourself by your good works; you'll never do enough good works to save yourself. But God's grace is His enabling power to enable us to obey His voice and to do His will. Right? That's what Jesus came to do. And then after He did it, He said, "Now, as the Father sent Me, even so I send you." What about that don't we understand? This stuff is not difficult. It's actually more simple than we care to believe. We'll be right back.

Guest (Male): Have you ever considered what the early church was like? Many people are developing a hard longing for a greater fulfillment in our practices as Christians. A recent study shows 53,000 people a week are leaving the backdoor of America's churches in frustration. What is going on? Why has there not been even a 1% gain among followers of Christ in the last 25 years? Could it be that God is seeking to restore first-century Christianity for the 21st century? Jesus said, "I'll build my church." Is Christ by His spirit stirring to prepare the church for the 21st century? The early church prayed together and broke bread from house to house. They were family and it was said by all who observed, "Behold how they love one another." Incredible. But the same can be found right now. Go to saveus.org and click Cell Church. We can revive first-century Christianity for the 21st century. It's about people, not programs. It's about a body, not a building. That's saveus.org. Click Cell Church.

Foreplay is a broad term for any physical or emotional activity that builds sexual arousal. Now, the same would be true with spiritual foreplay. It doesn't necessarily have to be physical; it can be emotional. Any physical or emotional activity. And as experts say, 90% of sex is in the mind. It's fascinating the way God made us. There's nothing to be dismissed about that. It's not evil. What is evil is when we don't control it. When we decide that we're going to do what we want to do because our flesh leads the way.

When that happens, we are in the process of being overcome. The Bible says to be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good. How do you overcome evil with good, the temptation to evil? By doing what God wants you to do. By agreeing with His viewpoint. By refusing to dance with the devil. By refusing to come along and sidle alongside him and become ever closer to him. Foreplay includes non-physical actions like texting, talking, or emotional bonding, but it also includes physical touch.

Foreplay describes the purpose of a phase of intimacy that's getting ready for something else, that's building connection. And that, friends, is what Satan is trying to do. That's what he did with Eve in the garden. He built a connection. She was not seduced against her will. She was willing to be seduced. She knew what Satan was saying was inconsistent with what God said. But she liked what he had to say better than what God said. So, it was her will; she chose to be deceived.

Now, Satan went after her because she was an easier mark than Adam. Women are often easier marks in this regard. Why? Because they're more emotional beings. But God created women that way for a reason. There's nothing wrong with a woman being emotional. It's whether or not her emotions are under control. God created men to be leaders. There's nothing wrong with that. But if the men are using their leadership ability to seduce women or other people or anybody to do contrary to the word, will, and ways of God, that's a problem.

We all have our giftedness, we all have our sense of purpose. But those purposes have to be aligned with God's word, will, and ways. I'm thinking about what happened when I was practicing law. 40% of my clientele, 40% of my practice was in the area of family law in the largest family law court in the nation, the Los Angeles Superior Court system consisting of nine major courts around the Los Angeles County area. 80% of my clients came from the broader body of Christ. They were looking for a Christian lawyer, they said.

When they came to my office and I heard their stories and listened carefully, what I found is that they had in large measure already made up their minds. They just wanted me to fulfill their will. What was their will? To divorce. Why did they want a divorce? Well, there are a variety of reasons. They wanted a divorce because they weren't happy with their husband or their wife. They wanted a divorce because maybe there had been some infidelity, some infidelity. Lots of that in our country today, lots of it among pastors. It's unbelievable.

Infidelity. But in many respects, we've just been indulged in infidelity with Christ by spiritual engagement in spiritual foreplay with the devil, dancing with the devil. That's spiritual infidelity. And Jesus knows it. You say God knows my heart. That's exactly the problem. He does know your heart. He knows my heart. And that's what I'm concerned about. When I wrote this book, I'll tell you, people asked me, "Chuck, when you wrote this book, did you have to deal with any of this yourself?" Absolutely. Absolutely.

Because I put my pants on one leg at a time like everybody else does. I don't stand here puritanically like anybody else. Neither did the Apostle Paul. But that doesn't mean we don't need to tell the truth. That doesn't mean we don't need to encourage people. And I'm sitting here today behind the mic like a coach to my brothers and sisters in Christ saying, "Let's get this team in order." You can't be out there frolicking, fornicating, adulterizing with the team on the other side and expect to win.

How many times did I have somebody tell me that they had gone and remarried after they were divorced? Their spouse was still living, and so now they've got the problem all over again, they've got double trouble. Because now they want to get divorced again because they're not happy with the second marriage. Which is not really the issue. The issue is this: they tell me oftentimes that when they remarried, they kind of thought in the back of their minds—this is how they word it—"In the back of my mind, I didn't think it was right."

Now, why did they not think it was right in the back of their mind? The reality is they knew it wasn't right. But they wanted what they wanted. And so they went out and forum shopped with their Christian friends or some Christian counselor or a pastor to tell them what they wanted to hear. "Oh, no problem, you can go ahead and get remarried. It's no problem. God wants you happy." Well, it's not that God doesn't want you happy, but He wants you holy more. "Be ye holy for I am holy," said Jesus.

So, we've got the whole thing mixed up. And here we are on the near edge of the second coming claiming that the coming of the Lord is the blessed hope of the church, and it ain't going to be a blessed hope for an awful lot of people because they're going to be judged in unrighteousness because they're not overcomers. Maybe this is the reason why Jesus said that he that endures to the end shall be saved. In other words, he that persists and is faithful to the end shall be saved.

Now, there are different kinds of dances you can do. And I've never been into the dancing mode. There's a reason for that. I was raised in a situation where my parents said, "You know what, Chuck? We're not going to do dancing in our family." And the reason we're not going to do dancing in our family is because it puts you in position with people in locations in circumstances that increase the temptations beyond what you need to subject yourself to.

Now, that may sound strange to you because at that time, dancing within the body of Christ was not very common. For those reasons. But as we began to pander to the world and its systems, we began to accept the ways of the world. And today, it's not just waltzing that's the problem. It's the cavorting and seductive dances out there that are specifically calculated to seduce, whether you want to agree with it or not, that's what they're calculated to do.

To create a connection that is not godly. And is it any wonder then that we can't find a godly partner? Is it any wonder then that we have so much premarital sex? In fact, in 1997, U.S. News and World Report had a cover story in their magazine, a secular magazine, saying premarital sex, the sin Americans wink at. And who are they really talking about? Christians. Premarital sex by 1997 had become a thing among Christians.

How is that possible? Because we followed the ways of the world, the culture, the dictates of our flesh, and we wanted to be accepted not by Christ but by the world. And so we did what we wanted to do. And Satan came along and said, "You're my girl. You're my guy. You're getting exactly what you want, and I'll tell you, you're going to be happy, happy, happy." That is until you're not happy. That's the problem.

So, the foreplay, rather than dealing into some glorious climax, is going to end in an inglorious destruction. Anybody listening today? It may be an R-rated program, but the whole Bible is R-rated in this regard, friends. There are many different kinds of dances. I'm not going to tell you if any particular dance or kind of dance is good, bad, or ugly. That's for you and the Holy Spirit to deal with. I'm just telling you why yours truly and neither has my wife ever engaged in dancing.

Can we see somebody on television engaging in dancing, a waltz or something like that, and it looks very beautiful? Yes, we can see that. But there are reasons why we don't. We know what the flesh is like. We know that the spirit truly is willing but the flesh is weak. That's one reason why we don't engage in alcohol. Why do we need to? We're not here to please anybody else. Does the Bible say you should not touch alcohol? No. So then why don't we? Because it leads to something else that we can't control. And we're not going to put ourselves in that position.

We're to be filled with the spirit, not filled with spirits. This is not legalism, friends. This is real life. Do you think that Jesus would have gone out in His twenties and bumped and grinded with women out there? I don't think so. I don't think so. And you don't either. You know He wouldn't. So, why do you? Why does it seem cool? Because the culture is the dictator. Right? Thanks for joining us here on Viewpoint today.

It's talk that transforms, friends. As someone said years and years ago, you just can't listen to Viewpoint long enough not to be changed. You have to make a choice. It's about making choices. And every day and in every way, we're all making choices. There are so many subtle ways that the enemy of our soul comes in seeking to steal and kill and destroy and devour. Don't give him a place. Don't engage in spiritual foreplay.

Don't dance with the devil. Get a copy of the book "The Power to Overcome: How to Triumph in Troubled Times." $25 will put it in your hands. A transforming book. You'll love it when you read it. It's on our website, saveus.org. Call us, 1-800-SAVE-USA. Write to us at Save America Ministries. Do it today. God bless and be a blessing. And $6 for postage and handling. Become a partner, friends. Now's the time. Let's do it together.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Viewpoint with Chuck Crismier. Viewpoint is supported by the faithful gifts of our listeners. Let me urge you to become a partner with Chuck as a voice to the church, declaring vision for the nation. Join us again next time on Viewpoint as we confront the issues of America's heart and home.