Three weeks ago, we started a series entitled "Stand in the Gap", based upon Ezekiel 22:30 above. In short, God looked at Israel and found a very corrupt nation with no man that would "stand in the gap" and stand for what was holy and right. Today, we see the same thing in our country; there are many, many more that stand for what is wrong that what is right. My challenge to you was and is simply this: as a Christian, are you willing to stand in the gap--to stand for what is holy, true, just and righteous?
Last week, we studied 1 Corinthians 5. We saw how the church in Corinth had accepted the grossly immoral lifestyle of one of it's own living in sin with his stepmother. Instead of grieving and addressing the issue, they proudly accepted this man's "lifestyle choice" instead of dealing with the situation.
Paul stated that the sin would infect the church as a whole, and if accepted in one person it would become the norm for all people. Paul was addressing the behavior of the saved and redeemed only, and not those "of the world" or unsaved and was quite clear that this man, if he were not contrite and turned from this sin, were to be removed from the church.
We are, however, to take a stand against not just incest and homosexuality as sinful (and yes, those lifestyles are) but against all illicit sex. This week, we will discuss the following:
1) What is "fornication" or "sexual immorality"?
2) What about "cohabitation", "living together" or "common law marriage"?
3) What about homosexuality?
4) What about lustful thoughts?
As I mentioned before, not pleasant things to discuss. However, because this is a topic that is so violated by professing Christians and ignored by the church as a whole, and because it is so damaging to the church, we must discuss and identify the problem.
Unless we make it plain and clear that the church stands against such sin, then we are no different than the church of Corinth in not dealing with the incestuous man: puffed up, proud and an insult to God and His holiness.
Sex In The Bible
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?
Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites,
nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Cor 6:9-11, NKJV
The Bible addresses the topic of sexual sin literally hundreds of times from Genesis to Revelation. In fact, adultery--cheating on one's spouse--is used as a metaphor for idolatry in different places in the Bible. In other words, when we allow something to become more important to us than God it becomes an idol to us, and we are in effect cheating on God.
But before we get into the idea of what wrong sex is, we must first and foremost ask ourselves a question: why did God create sex in the first place? The purpose for sex is to procreate (Genesis 1:26-28). Why did God make sex a pleasurable thing? Now give that some thought. I don't mean to be gross or off color but if sex was not enjoyable then there would be few people on the earth! Let me be plain and clear about one thing: sex is a gift to a wife and her husband. When you get outside of those boundaries is when you get into trouble. So then, let's refer to this as "marital relations" so as not to be confused.
Paul had just established that incest was dead wrong, even among those outside the faith and he goes on to explain another area that went outside the faith: settling disputes, in this case suing each other.
Paul's point is pretty simple: why are you suing each other, allowing the unsaved to make the decisions about your life? You will judge angels one day, and you will let them make decisions about you? You are better off to take a loss than to allow this! In short, Christians should settle their disagreements among themselves instead of suing each other in court and having unsaved people making decisions that are, by nature, not "Christian" decisions.
Then Paul, in verse 9, Paul explains that these judges will not go to heaven, and then explains the behavior of those of the world, the unsaved.
The Conduct of the Unsaved
What Paul now does is explain what the fruits are of the unsaved; Jesus says "You will know them by their fruits" (Matt 7:16a, NKJV) Paul states that "the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God". This does not mean that one is saved or not saved by their works, but instead that "you will know them by their fruits".
Paul then says "do not be deceived". Folks, there is a lot of deception going on in churches today; the behavior and characteristics of men and women that follow that statement in this passage are largely accepted in many churches. Many churches concentrate on love and grace, and that is actually a good thing as long as we temper that love and grace with truth.
We best exemplify love and grace by loving with the truth. For instance, if a good friend of yours is on drugs and don't actually realize what it is doing to them, would you not try to help them to see how destructive it is? Would you not tell them that you love them too much to see them destroy their family and their own lives? The church has fallen asleep to this concept of love through truth, and it is corrupting the church's witness in the world, and it is disobedient to God.
While many people are self deceived in this world, and--especially in the case of the unsaved--want to stay that way, Christians should have in their minds first and foremost to be pleasing to God. A lot of people--saved and even the unsaved--are quick to state that they love Jesus but won't honor His teachings. They are self deceived; they do not pay attention to what Jesus Himself said: "If you love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14:15). The proof of being saved is found in obedience to God's Word; the proof of not being saved is the lifestyle that is shown in what follows the statement "do not be deceived" in the rest of verse nine and in verse ten.
The Awful, the Bad and the Ugly
I think that today we see a great deception going on with the unsaved but also with the saved as well, and that is a confusion of love and lust, of real true love and sexual passion. This is not new; it is a view that is projected by our society and is fueled by television, by the music that we listen to, by the movies we watch. I saw a movie the other day and really loved it but it had to be messed up by a scene of a man and woman going on a date and the next morning waking up in bed together.
The term for sexual immorality is porneia, and is means "to commit fornication or any sexual sin. Fornication, lewdness, or any sexual sin" (Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary), found in verse 18. It is the overarching term used to describe sexual sin. Perhaps the best way to think of sexual sin is this: any means of sexual gratification. This can mean physical or mental; it can be by an actual act or can be through what we see such as viewing pornography (the root term actually being porneia) either in a magazine or on the Internet.
Our battle is not just against one type of sexual sin, it is ALL sexual sin, and this is where I do believe that the church is losing the battle in just addressing homosexuality. It is indeed sin, and perhaps it is more of an affront to God than others but both are damaging to the cause of Christ. Now lets look at these different terms and what each means.
Fornicators: whoremonger or male prostitute (Zodiates). Zodiates further notes that there is a difference between this term (pornos) and a similar term (pornoi) in that the latter is for pay and the other is, frankly, someone that sleeps around with anyone for no charge.
Idolaters: "Refers to those who worship any false gods and false religious systems, not simply to those who bow down to images. Our society has never been so engulfed by and enamored of false religions and cults as in our day. No belief, claim, or practice seems to be too bizarre to get a following." (John MacArthur, MacArthur New Testament Commentary – 1 Corinthians)
Jesus addressed the idea of adultery in the mind in Matthew 5:27-28, and also stated: For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man." (Mark 7:21-23, NKJV). In other words, all sin starts in the mind so don't fall for the idea that sins "just happen". You will follow your heart, and if your heart is turned toward godly things it will turn toward God, and if it is not it will turn toward the dark side. Let's now look at the other definitions in this week's key passage:
Adulterers: One whom is unfaithful to his or her spouse. Interestingly, this term can also be used to describe a Christian who is unfaithful in action to Jesus Christ as well. When we buddy up to the world and it's attractions, we commit spiritual adultery.
Homosexuals/Sodomites (effeminate/homosexuals, NASB). These are two separate terms but are in the same category, each with a different spin. The term for effeminate means those that seek to appear as someone of the other sex (cross dressers) and homosexuals or sodomites, well, the term is pretty much self explanatory.
John MacArthur states the following: "Confusion of sex roles, like adultery, is particularly evil because it attacks the family. It corrupts the biblical plan for the family, including the standards for authority and submission within the family, and thus retards the passing of righteousness from one generation to the next. The most ungodly societies of history have been plagued by sex role perversions, no doubt because Satan is so intent on destroying the family. Churches who, in the name of love, defend homosexuality and condone homosexual ministers, "marriages," and congregations not only pervert God's standards of morality but encourage their members in sin. Encouragement in sin has no part in love. True love of others is not doing for them what they want but doing for them what God wants." We must never, as a church, condone such sin.
The rest of the terms we see here do not deal with sexual sin, but instead deal with sins of greed, power and indulgence.
Thieves, covetous: These two terms are practically inseparable; a person does not become a thief unless he is covetous (wanting what someone has) first. What strikes me about the church today is that we are becoming less and less thankful for what we have and that we want more stuff. It's important to remember that we are more like God when we are satisfied with what we have and invest in things of God instead of stuff.
Drunkards: This is pretty much self explanatory. I think that we have all seen homes destroyed by alcohol; it is one of Satan's tools to destroy the family unit. Alcohol is a de-inhibitor; there are things that a person would never, ever do sober that they will do when they are intoxicated. We have all heard the stories of "dancing on a table with a lampshade on the head" as an example, and also how many times have we heard of people getting drunk and waking up with someone other than their spouse?
Revilers: "Revilers are those who destroy with their tongues; they wound with words. God does not consider their sin to be mild, because it comes from hearts full of hate and causes misery, pain, and despair in the lives of those it attacks." (John MacArthur)
Extortioners (swindlers, NASB): I think that the term swindlers hits the mark better here, because we have all heard of people that take advantage of others using "theft by deception". We see it common today for older people to be swindled by fast talking men with get rich quick schemes, and it is fueled by greed.
Will inherit the kingdom of God: John MacArthur states that all of the people that exhibit these actions are "outside the sphere of salvation". It is important to note that this refers to people that make these habits their lifestyle. We all sin. We all fall short. In fact, there are some people that fall into one of these manners of living for a time, but God brings them back out and back to fellowship with Him.
No Turning Back
How often have we that have been forgiven so much go back to the sin that we lived in before? Sometimes we look at the lives of abused women, who leave their abusive husbands then are startled when they return to them; it makes no sense to us. But do we not do the same thing? How many times do we stumble and fall? How often do we return to the cesspool of sin from which we were saved?
And such were some of you. But... This speaks to not only the Corinthians, but to you and I as well. How could we go back? Life is not easy. Life is hard when it comes to defeating sin in the life of the believer.
It is important to remember that you and I have the Holy Spirit within us, and we do not have to sin. You either listen to the Holy Spirit within you, who can help you to get beyond any sin, or you choose to sin.
One of the most misquoted scriptures in God's Word is the following:
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. 1 Corinthians 10:13 (NKJV)
You will notice that the key word here is temptation. Some folks will tell you "God will never give you more than you can handle", but that is not what this says. It says that God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear; you do not have to sin, and God can and will give you triumph over sin if you allow the Holy Spirit to do His work in you.
You see, you and I have the Holy Spirit with us, and we have the ability to turn from sin. Those that do not have Jesus Christ, that are not indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the unsaved, will sin and that is their nature. They do not have what the saved have.
It's a matter of choice in the life of the believer.
