“I Never Touched Her!” – Getting Concrete about “Abstract Sin” - Purity 1267

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Uh, today's photo of the painting of the Assumption of the Virgin by Sebastiano Ricci, uh, comes to us from yours truly as I captured this work of art on my iPhone, uh, back on December 9th, 2023, during my visit to the Michelle and Donald D'Amore Museum of Fine Arts in Springfield, Massachusetts. Well, it's Tuesday, and I'm not touching the Assumption of the Virgin with a 10-foot pole, because despite my Roman Irish Polish Catholic upbringing, I'm simultaneously proud and ashamed to say I really don't know much about it. And I think that might be a good thing. Mariology is the theological study of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the Catholic tradition has some beliefs about the Blessed Mother that I'll say it as kindly as I can, are not necessarily clearly drawn from the Bible and maybe a tad bit idolatrous. Anyway, I don't intend to bring up— I didn't intend to bring up Mary at all, and we will leave her alone. The topic of today's message surrounds sexual immorality and the fact that some men, and women I'm sure, consider the expression of their sexuality regardless of how they express it, to not be a sin. As we rely on God's word for wisdom and moral standards, we stand on the fact that sexual immorality is any sexual activity that is not between one man and one woman who are bound by a marriage covenant. So be it solo, homo, or heterosexual sex, outside of what happens between a husband and a wife in their marriage is sexual immorality, and the Bible calls us to repent of it. That is, we are to be sexually pure, to turn from our masturbation or fornication and to not do it again. If you can't, uh, believe it or not, you can rightfully consider yourself to be in bondage to sexual sin and perhaps even consider yourself a sexual addict. Of course, the world and even the body of Christ can excuse their sexual immorality as quote-unquote normal, and they may only agree in the abstract that it is a sin that can't reasonably be overcome. The attitude towards sexual immorality is permissive in, in our culture for sure, and then some, but is even present in the church to the point that pastors won't preach too much on it because they may offend the multitudes in the body of Christ who are not married, or who are open about their alternative lifestyle, or who are secretly in bondage to quote-unquote porn, the seemingly Christian or polite code word for masturbation. The permissive attitudes towards sexual sin is on a sliding scale. In some circles, homosexuality is to be rightfully condemned as sin, but so is sex outside of marriage and Preservation. Sin is sin. Rather than developing some hierarchy of sexual sin, we should rightfully encourage repentance of them all. And I hate to say it, uh, Jesus rose the bar even higher in terms of sexual purity. He said in Matthew 5:27-30, uh, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you, for It is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. I bring all this up because of the permissive attitudes towards sexual sin and the damage it can do to our souls. Our hearts become hardened when we fail to crucify the flesh and resist sexual temptation. Recently, I counseled a brother who was going through a divorce. In our discussions, it was revealed that he had an quote-unquote emotional affair, a friendship with a woman who was not his wife, who was fit, who was, that was physically pure, uh, and I'll put that in quotes, um, but was emotionally bonding. And even though this man and woman supposedly never had sex, I didn't press for details about hugs or kisses, uh, this man's heart and thoughts were with this, with this woman intimately. When questioned about whether he ever masturbated to the thoughts or images of this woman, he admitted he did. So was this man guilty of adultery? He never touched her, but his heart and his mind did, and he touched himself to completion towards her. While he could claim that he never committed adultery, Jesus' words in Matthew 5:27-30 would expose him as a liar. He didn't— he did commit adultery in his heart, and that's what matters to the Lord. Otherwise, Jesus would have never said it. So yeah, what we do matters, but what we think matters too. What our heart burns for matters. And if our hearts and minds lead us beyond temptation into the contemplation or completion of sexual sin, we need to repent and pursue purity. Even though my friend never touched her, his emotional affair was discovered, and the betrayal and the doubt that his wife experienced was real. He broke his marriage vows. He sinned against himself, his wife, and the Lord, and it's something he shouldn't take lightly. It's something he should be ashamed of and something that should drive him to examine his life and how he has given himself over to sin. The good news is that through faith in Christ, our sexual sins can be forgiven. But when we fail to repent of our sins, we will suffer from guilt, shame, or a hardened heart as we disrupt the relationship we have with the Lord through our wanton sin. Or in the worst case scenario, we may eventually be exposed as someone who never gave his heart to the Lord. Because we wouldn't surrender it from the lust of the flesh. Jesus didn't tell, tell us to pluck out, uh, you know, pluck out our eyes or to cut off our hands to keep us from sinning for nothing. Our sins can separate us from the Lord, and Jesus was telling us to cut it out of our lives completely. Remember, Jesus gave mercy to the woman caught in adultery. But before she left his presence, he said in John 8:11, "Go and sin no more." So seek to surrender your bodies as a living sacrifice and to treat them like the temples of the Holy Spirit by taking sexual sin seriously and seeking the life of goodness and purity that only Jesus can make possible. Jesus was tempted in every way. As we are, but without sin, including sexual sin. So follow him. Today's Bible 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 communication, gossip, and lying. Today's Bible verses are Psalm 34:11-14 from the New Living Translation. The word of God says, come, my children, and listen to me. And I will teach you to fear the Lord. Does anyone want to live a life that is long and prosperous? Then keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling lies. Turn away from evil and do good; search for peace and work to maintain it. Today's verses are the second of two passages of scripture that fall under the 8th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on communication, gossip, and lying. And that 8th point is: The Lord detests lying. Today's verses tell us to fear the Lord, to turn away from evil, and to do good. They also tell us not to speak evil or to tell lies. In my friend's case, stating, "I never touched her," may have been true in the flesh, but it was a big lie in the heart and the mind. In the spirit, it was evil. So, Look at your sin honestly, tell the truth, repent of the evil, and do good. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Alford, which is a collection of devotional journals from 1940 and '41. Today's entry, the morning reading is Matthew 27. So from that chapter of the New Testament, Alford draws from verse 54, which says, "Truly this was the Son of God." And Stephen Alford writes, the rest of the verse qualifies this great statement. So when this— when the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and the things that happened, they feared greatly, saying, 'Truly this was the Son of God.' They watched Jesus. They saw his wonderful behavior from Gabatha to Golgotha. They saw the sorrow and love flow mingled down. They heard his words. They saw the earthquake and the things that had happened. The veil rent in twain 2 or 3 miles away. This was in fulfillment of his own word. The earth did quake. The very universe trembled in his presence. The dead arose. He was resurrection and life. They feared greatly. Here was reverence, awe, and trepidation, for they were in the presence of the Son of God. And Alfred closes his, his journal entry with the prayer, 'Your presence always brings reverence and awe. Truly, you are the Son of God.' Um, yeah, and so Jesus was different. He wasn't just a wise teacher. The earth quaked and he rose from the dead. And so he's not just a philosopher or a good moral teacher. He's not just a prophet. He was the Son of God, and it's not just like some, you know, demigod. He was God, and, uh, fully God, fully man. The Trinity, um, God the Father, Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It's a mystery, and so I won't speak too much on the Trinity, but yeah, he's fully God. You know, Jesus is God. You know, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. That's That's Jesus. He's the Lord. Throughout Scripture, there's, you know, verses for the Trinity that stand out. And so there's a particular faith stream that, you know, says He was only the Son of God. You might want to stay away from them because they're not acknowledging the fact that Jesus was God. And that's sort of important. You know, I don't know if your theological understanding will keep you from that, but, you know, the Word of God tells us Thomas, you know, after seeing Him resurrected, said, "My Lord and my God." And, you know, I think we can take that and, you know, follow the apostle's teaching, right? He was God. Anyway, and He points out our sin. He knows our hearts. And he doesn't want to beat us up, but he doesn't want us living in bondage to anything. And the word of God tells us to surrender ourselves, to crucify the flesh, to surrender ourselves to what's good and pure and holy. And, you know, sex is a topic that's not often talked about, but it's all over the Bible. You know, my story of sexual purity began in 2018 upon the, you know, the brokenness of my marriage and how it ended. in divorce because of adultery. And, you know, basically we, we were entering a new life, and how was I going to live? Was I going to live like the world and have, you know, sexual liberty to do whatever I want, look up the old girlfriends, get myself into, you know, masturbation? Because my faith, you know, was a big part of the divorce because I followed the Lord and my wife didn't, uh, you know, she went elsewhere. Um, because of that, I wanted to dedicate myself to following the Lord in earnest, you know, going forward. You know, I didn't know if I'd ever find love again or, or whatever, but I found the love that I have with the Lord. And so I wanted to dedicate myself to follow what the word of God said, Acts 15, basically the commandments to the Gentiles, you know, are very, you know, like there's 3 rules and 2 of them are strange and the 3rd one is no sexual immorality. So the masturbation had to go, any thoughts of fornication had to go, and I surrendered to the Lord, walk into purity. The accountability partner was the Holy Spirit, and, you know, basically we stayed pure until the Lord brought Tammy Lynn into my life, and she became my wife. And even though we've come together as man and wife in intimate means, it doesn't mean I— it opened the door to sexual sin in other areas of my life. It didn't open the door to masturbation again. I've kept everything within the bounds of my marriage. Um, you know, TMI perhaps, but, uh, I share these things because the world would tell you these things aren't possible. I experienced them myself, and I'm here to bear witness that God gives you the power to overcome addictions. And that's it. If you can't quit something, it's an addiction. Now, it might be a mild addiction, but really that's just a qualifier that you make. You know, the fact that you're giving in continually to binge eating, drugs, alcohol, or sexual immorality It shows that you're in bondage to the flesh. And the, you know, last night in the Freedom in Christ course, we taught all about making our daily choice to follow the Lord. And the big, you know, the big choice was to realize that we have the power to say no to sin. And so when we're— and, and really it was all about overcoming because of our faith. If you really believe that, you know you can really live that. You know, the Lord has given you that power. It's true. The Word of God is true. And it highlighted Romans 8:2 that says, you know, the spirit of the law, the spirit of life, of the spirit, basically overcomes the law of sin and death. And so that, that, that's, you know, it's in scripture and it tells you that, that yeah, you are above the law of sin and death. And now As I pointed out last night, that you should look at that as the authority. Like, death doesn't have authority over you anymore, and neither does sin. You know, death— when we have put our faith in Jesus, death loses its authority because we go into God's kingdom where we have eternal life, and we'll be with Jesus, you know, and when he returns, we'll come back to the earth and then eventually experience the new heaven and new earth. Our lives don't, don't end. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. So we're, you know, you got to lose that fear of death because it really is a lie of the enemy, because we have eternal life in Christ. Now, a lot of people can believe that, you know, yeah, I'll believe I can go to heaven. So, but they don't believe they're free from sin. So you have to believe that too. They're right next to each other in the same verse, death and sin. So believe, brother and sister, that you are free, and then start living according to it. And if you need help from the body of Christ, form a relationship to be accountable so you can walk towards victory, make progress, and then, you know, experience your freedom. Um, it's a matter of following the Lord, and we recommend a daily spiritual practice of prayer and Bible study and really falling in love with the Lord to to follow not by the letter of the law, but be by the, by the love in your heart. You know, the fact that Christ died for you and he covers all those dirty sins and, you know, basically declares you righteous. So let's live in that righteousness because he's given it to us. It's not just a legal thing, it's, it's a spiritual reality. Um, yeah, he's made us clear, uh, clean and holy, and we have free will to decide to live in the dirt and, you know, live in sin, but we've given the power to live free. So let's, let's do that, represent the kingdom through it. And, you know, there'll be, you know, there'll be progress to be made. We have to learn, you know, you don't know what you don't know, and you need to know what the word says and realize that you're free. If you don't know you're free, you won't live free, but you are free. The son sets free is free indeed. Believe it. Receive it, live it. Anyway, we're going to live it, but we're not free to do whatever we want because we made an agreement with our employer to go to work. Um, you know, I don't know if I, you know, by getting hired, you know, they more or less agreed to show up. So, um, so let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Thank you the freedom you've given us. Even over sexual sin. Lord, we just thank You for all You've done in our lives and how You bless us continually and how we can encourage other people to find You and follow You. Lord, we need Your help though. You know, we can feel all alone, but that's a big lie because You're with us. And Lord, help us to know that. And we pray for anyone who might be listening or reading this message that they'd be blessed by You, Lord, and that You come alongside them in their prayer request to Show them the truth and lead them into repentance and to the freedom that you give them. And, uh, Lord, we need your help too. I need you to go before me today, open my eyes to the things that you want me to see, and, and help me to walk in the way you want me to walk and do the things you would have me do, Lord. Because all I want to do is represent you in your kingdom, because I love you and you love— and you love me first. So, um, we'll do our best to love you right back. And, uh, enjoy the life of freedom, victory, and purity that you, you give to us through the power of your Holy Spirit in us. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.