Gratifying Sexual Desires without Negative Consequences - Self Deception Series 5 – Purity 1094

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of the sun setting over the Oswego West Pierhead Lighthouse on Lake Ontario comes to us from Celestial Blue Photography, as Rocco Seja shared this— well, he, he shared it, he captured the scene, he shared it and captured the scene back on April 15th of this year. Our prayers have gone out to Rocco over the last few days as he reported mysterious symptoms of ill health, with the initial diagnosis of a possible blood clot. But we are happy to report that Rocco reported that he was being released from the hospital after it was determined that he had suffered from an unknown insect bite. Rocco thanked everyone for the kind words and prayers that he received and commented that it was rather ironic how he had photographed insects for over 2 decades with no instances of being bitten, only to be sent to the hospital after camping in the Adirondacks. Rocco's story tells us that you never know what is going to happen, and that if you are not feeling well, to do the wise thing and to go get it checked out by a doctor. Well, it's Friday, and I know all too well how you should go see a doctor when you're not— when you are suffering, because years ago 'I ignored persistent headaches until I was stricken with Bell's palsy, as half of my face was paralyzed due to Lyme disease.' Rocco's story came to mind to me this morning because yesterday afternoon I was attacked by what must have been hornets or ground bees while mowing the lawn at my place down by the river. I didn't see anything but had some quick-shooting stinging pains in to the backs of my legs and just toughed it out until the weather shifted to winds and rains, allowing me to only get 90% of the lawn done. But it's a good thing I quit when I did because I'm pretty sure I was in shock as the stinging sites broke out into hives, causing me to take some allergy medication to treat it, which put me out for the count around 8:30 PM last night. Like I said, I didn't really see anything before getting stung, and after the pain only had a vague sense of some insect 'Flying near me,' showing us that even the unseen things can cause you harm. As a Community Freedom Ministry associate for Freedom in Christ Ministries, I know all about how the unseen spiritual forces of darkness attempt to deceive and tempt us to sin. But we also have to be, uh, be aware of the unseen dangers that can come from our own worst enemy at times— ourselves. And the lies we have believed and told ourselves over and over again to keep us stuck in bondage or from being less than the people God created us to be. That brings us to our current series on self-deception, where we have decided to begin this investigation with— into the ways we deceive ourselves by walking through step 2, Deception Versus Truth, of the Steps to Freedom in Christ, to see what ways we may have been deceived by the world ourselves and in what ways we have wrongly defended ourselves. So we present the fourth way you can be deceived by the world, which is believing that gratifying sexual lust will bring lasting satisfaction without any negative consequences. The scripture references for this point are Ephesians 4:22, which says, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. 1 Peter 2:11, that says, dear friends, I warn you as temporary residents and foreigners to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. Here scripture points out, oh, our old sinful natures, our pre-Christ existence, was defined by lust and worldly desires that waged war against our souls and were a form of deception. How? Why are our quote-unquote natural desires for sex deception? Because if we dwell on or have done, uh, or have had sex outside of a marriage covenant between a man and a woman— here we go— because if we dwell on or, or have sex outside of a marriage between A man and a woman, any sex, solo, hetero, or homo, goes against the truth of God's word. So it's deception. It goes against his truth. Any sex outside of marriage is sin. It's wrong and can only lead to— can not only lead to unwanted pregnancies, venereal disease, sexual addiction, and broken hearts. It separates us from a harmonious relationship with God and does damage to our very souls. Our bodies are not our own. God made us and gave us life, and he will reclaim us and judge us by what we have done with our bodies and by what we put our faith in. If we are consumed with gratifying our sexual lust, we demonstrate that we have rejected the Lord's wisdom on the matter and relationship with him, as our lustful actions demonstrate our lack of respect for him. Those scary verses in the Bible where people who thought they had a relationship with God are told that Jesus never knew them highlight that no matter what they had professed or had done, quote unquote, done for the Lord, they are practicing lawlessness, revealed that their sin had separated them from God. Regardless of outward appearances, they had more faith in themselves and their sin than in Jesus. Our sex lives matter to God. They demonstrate if we respect his word and authority, or they demonstrate that we reject them. So, don't believe the lie that you are free to gratify your sexual desires without any negative consequences. Beyond using and hurting other people and damaging our own lives and souls, gratifying our sexual desires could have the negative consequence of being separated from God for all eternity in Hell. So instead, choose to live by the truth of God's Word and do not give into the lust of the flesh. God directs us to be good stewards of our bodies and has reserved sex for the expression of love and pleasure for a man and a woman in marriage. So get thee a wife or husband, or choose to be celibate. It is possible to demonstrate that you understand what God says about sex and that your relationship with him is more important than gratifying lustful desires. Today's Bible verse comes— verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on adultery, and today's verses are Proverbs 23:26-28. In the ESV, the word of God says, my son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways. For a prostitute is a deep pit, an adulteress is a narrow well. She lies in wait like a robber and increases the traitors among mankind. Today's verse falls under the 14th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on adultery, number 14: Beware of the seductive woman or man. Uh, today's verse warns us to follow the Lord's ways and to not be lured into sexual temptation to betray ourselves or our spouses. Adultery is rebellion against our marriage covenant. A literal breaking of vows to be faithful with our sex lives to one person only, but it is also rebellion against God. The church is the bride of Christ, and so when we give into temptation and gratify our sexual desires outside of marriage, we are also being unfaithful to God because it is implicit that when we claim a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, that we will love and respect him and obey what he says. Adultery, or any sin, is rebellion against God and demonstrates we have betrayed him and ourselves. So avoid the seductive man or woman because adultery is a very serious matter, and even though it promises pleasure, it always leads to pain. As always, we invite you to go to M.t. Clark.org, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink's The Holy Spirit, and, uh, chapter 13, The Spirit Convicting, with a summary of the differences in convictions. So if you want to see a summation of, uh, a summary of what A.W. Pink had to say about the Holy Spirit convicting power and what it is, what it isn't, go to mt4christ.org and you'll see that resource at the end of today's blog post. As always, we recommend a lifestyle of Christian discipleship, uh, because when we marry the Lord in our covenant relationship of faith, we are to obey him and follow the way he, he leads. And, um, that's called living a life in the Spirit, where we do not gratify the lust of the flesh and where we discover the peace, love, joy, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, patience, and self-control, uh, the fruit of the Spirit that results from a life of Christian discipleship, of faithfully following the Lord and being real in our, our surrender, uh, to live all of our lives, uh, in the context of our faith in Christ. We invite you to check out our discipleship teachings from Freedom in Christ Ministries on Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ, which are based on Dr. Neil Anderson's work and the Word of God. And we invite you to develop a daily spiritual practice that includes Bible study. To do that, we have a Bible study that we offer on our podcast called Bible Study with the Cinkatis, where Arthur and Susanna Cinkati join me and my wife, Tammy Lynn, each week to discuss different matters of our faith. And yeah, if we're gonna— if you want to have freedom and victory in Christ, you You have to decide to live with him and live for him every day. And when you do that, you discover that the word of God is true and it holds all the answers to all the questions we can ever have. And it can solve, you know, all of our problems because the Lord cares for us. All right, well, it's Friday and I'm very happy because I'll be reunited with my wife later today, God willing. And, um, I'm gonna enjoy the weekend. So we, uh, we pray. Uh, let's pray. Uh, Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all that you do for us. Uh, Lord, we pray for anyone who's listening or reading, uh, today's message, that you'd come alongside them and their prayer request and their walk of faith, as we need you, Lord. Uh, we need your wisdom. We need your guidance and we need your presence in our lives. And so we're just praying for you to go before us today, Lord. Open our eyes to the things you want us to see and lead our steps in the things you would have us do. Um, yeah, because all we want to do is represent you and your kingdom on earth and show other people that that you're alive, you're well, and, uh, you're here for us and you care for us, um, and you'll show us the way we should go. Um, Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.