SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/11/2014 9:41 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Why Should A
Believer Be Sexually Moral PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1
Thessalonians 4:6b-8
Message of the
verses: “because the Lord is the
avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly
warned you. 7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in
sanctification. 8 So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who
gives His Holy Spirit to you.”
As we begin this SD we are moving into a new main section
in the outline that John MacArthur has in his commentary, and the question that
was probably on the minds of those in Thessalonica was “Why should we be sexual
moral?” This is a good question for them
to ask, and a good question for us to ask and over the next three days we will
try and answer this question. Now as far
as the Thessalonian believer they grew up under a sinful way of thinking about
sexual morality for that is all they knew, and then along comes Paul and by the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit give them the Gospel and tells them about their
need for salvation, and many of them are saved.
Paul stays as long as he can and then leaves because of persecution, and
now he is concerned about these very new and very young believers and so he
writes to them this letter. He wants to
make sure that their culture is not going to be used by the enemy to cause them
to sin and then stunt their growth in the Lord.
Paul is grateful to the Lord that this did not happen, but he wants to
encourage them to continue to excel still more in the Lord.
As for today in our country, a country that was built on
the principles of the Bible, we should know better than to fall into sexual
immorality, but because of the sexual shock that began in the 1960”s and
because of the bombardment of evolution our culture is fast falling into the
kind of culture that Paul saw in his travels giving out the gospel. (See SD on Why the lie of evolution has encouraged
sexual immorality.)
John MacArthur gives three reasons why we should be
sexual moral and we will begin with the first reason that is on this list: “because of God’s vengeance; because of God’s
purpose, and because of God’s Holy Spirit.”
Because of God’s Vengeance:
(1 Thess. 4:6b): “because the Lord is the avenger in all these
things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you.”
I want to give a quote from Warren Wiersbe as we begin
this section: “God is no respecter of persons; He must deal with
His children when they sin (Col. 3:23-25). A church member criticized her pastor because
he was preaching against sin in the lives of Christians ‘After all,’ She said
‘sin in the life of a believer is different from sin in the lives of unsaved
people.’ ‘Yes,’ replied the pastor, ‘it
is worse.’
“To
despise God’s commandments is to invite the judgment of God and also to grieve
the Spirit of God.”
I realize that in my life when I see things happen,
especially in our government at this time, and also in our country at this time
that I want to extract judgment upon them, but that is not what I am to do for
Paul writes in Romans 12:19 “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave
room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL
REPAY," says the Lord.” God is the
only one to extract judgment upon people and on a nation. Even when I see God judging a person or a
nation I am not to shout for joy. There
is a verse in Proverbs (I think) that tells us not to be too happy when someone
is being judged by the Lord or He will stop judging them. This is something to keep in mind.
One of the reasons that God gives out judgment is the
violation of this: “Marriage is to be
held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators
and adulterers God will judge.” This has
happened far too often by believers in the church in this country in our day
and God will judge those who do this, for as the pastor said in Dr. Wiersbe’s
quote “Sin is worse in the life of a believer.”
One of the things that I pray for is that God, through
His Holy Spirit will give me the wisdom to understand when I am being
disciplined by Him, for there are times when a sickness will come upon me and I
wonder if this is just a natural illness, is God trying to teach me something
or am I being disciplined by the Lord. I
have to quote the following verses: “23
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 24 And see
if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting (Psalm
139:23-24).” There is an old gospel song
that goes along with this subject:
“Sin will take you farther than you wanna go
Slowly but wholly taking control
Sin will leave you longer than you wanna stay
Sin will cost you far more than you wanna pay”
Paul writes that sexual sin is a sin that is done in the
body, and therefore if a person continues in this sin and does not repent then
he surely will be disciplined by the Lord, and perhaps even have his marriage
destroyed or weakened. He may also loose
rewards that he would have received from the Lord at the judgment seat of
Christ.
I have read a book on sexual morality written by a couple
of men who were sinning in this way and because of the grace of God were able
to stop this sin and thus got together and wrote a book about it. The book is entitled “Every Man’s Battle”
Winning the War on Sexual Temptation One Victory at a Time.” I wish to quote a couple of paragraphs from the
book, but first let me say that the quotes will be from a section that talks
about believers making a decision to become sexually pure in mind and
body. The section is entitled “All You
Need.”
“As the basis for your victory, did you know that God has
provided you with everything you need for a life of purity? And it’s better than a state-of-the-art GPS
navigational system.
“At Calvary, He purchased for you the freedom and
authority to live in purity. That
freedom and that authority are His gift to you through the presence of His
Spirit, who took up residence within you when you gave your life to
Christ. The freedom and authority are
wrapped up in our new inner connection to His divine nature, which is the link
that give us His power and the fulfillment of His promises:
“His divine power has given us everything we need for
life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory
and goodness. Through these he has given
us his very great and precious promises, so that through the you may
participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused
by evil desires. (2 Peter 1:3-4) (NIV)
“It’s like the situation facing Joshua and the people of
Israel as they prepared to cross the Jordan River and possess the Promised
Land. What did God say to Joshua?
“Have I not command you?
Be strong and courageous! Do not
be terrified; do not be discouraged, for
the LORD your God will be with your wherever you go. (Joshua 1:9).He’d given the Israelites all
they needed. They merely had to cross the
river.
“Regarding sexual purity, God knows the provision He’s
made for us. We aren’t short on power or
authority, but what we lack is urgency. We must choose to be strong and courageous to
walk into purity. In the millisecond it
takes to make that choice, the Holy Spirit will start guiding you and walking
through the struggle with you.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I wish to
remember the consequences of sexual sin in the life of a believer, and remember
the promises that God has given to me as a believer to keep me away from sexual
sins.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Proverbs 3:5-6.
Memory verses for the
week: Philippians 2:5-9
5 Have this attitude in
yourself which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form
of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied
Himself, taking on the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness
of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a
man, He humbled Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted
Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “That Joseph would bury Jacob
in the Promised Land.”
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘the Cretians are always
liars, evil beasts?’”
Answer in our next SD.
6/11/2014 10:54 AM
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