Sexual Immorality

I wanted to write to this for all men who struggle in anyway shape or form with their eyes, their minds, and their hearts in regards to this topic. This is dedicated to you, may God bless you with this message.
Sexual immorality has been around with every type of culture. Sodom and Gomorrah has sexual immorality as one of its major problems between men and women, men and men, and women and women relations. The Caananites had it in the OT with their orgies and sacred prostitutes. They had these to entice their gods Baal and Ashtart into having sex so it would rain and provide fertile ground. The Greeks had the same: lustful sexual orgies that involved no love but simply gratification. The Romans had them as well, orgies, some bathhouses were used as places of sex between homosexual men.

With sexual immorality we know that biblically its wrong, but not just biblically we know socially it can be very damaging, and mentally we know it can provide alot of hurt. Statistics today say that abstinence is at one of its highest points in US history, but another statistic says that yes they are not having sex but the % of oral sex has gone through the roof.
ADDED 3-3-05:
On msn.com Dr. Patrick Carns (leading doctor on sexual addiction) talks about the growing concern of internet pornography and sexual addiction states that " it creates relationshional problems, destroys marriage, can lead to jail time, violence, abuse to others." He also states that "50% of people coming to him for help are suicidal".
God said the body was not meant for sexual immorality.......

There are many passages of Scripture on this but these are the closely related parts I want to focus on.
Lets see what the Word tells us about sexual immorality:

1 Corinthians 6:12-20
Paul writes this letter to the Corinthians to settle many different topics that they had been completely confused about. He tackles sexual immorality in chapter 6.
Vs. 12
"Everything is permissible for me" but not everything is beneficial. " Everything is permissible for me"--but I will not be mastered by anything.

-Pauls starts with this because the quotations are the sarcasm that Paul is expressing. These could have been an actual quote from the Corinthian letter sent to him. SOme thought they could do anything they pleased, and Paul is countering with the fact that yes anything is permissible BUT it isnt necessarily beneficial. Not being mastered by anything is Pauls response in saying that people get engrained or addicted to their indulges whatever it may be but especially in sexual indulges.

Vs. 13
"The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord...

-Paul has already cut right to the heart of the matter, our bodies werent meant for this immoral behavoir. Look up 1 Thess. 4:7-"For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life." God never intended for the body that He made for you to used for sexual immorality but yet to live holy. (refer. 1 Peter 1:15-16-- "But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do. For it is written: Be holy for I am holy.")

vs. 14-17

Paul uses these verses to explain that since Jesus was resurrected in His body and we will be raised physically with our bodies, and that our bodies are united in Christ we should treat our bodies with honor and holiness. He focuses on the fact that when we engage in sexual things (sex primarily) we are becoming one with their body. Going back to the verse that explains the proper premise(marriage--Hebrews 13:4) for sexual activity between 2 people and that the best model is how we are united with the Lord.

SO what do we do when sexual immorality strikes:

Vs. 18
1. Flee ( other words are: runaway, avoid, get away, leave, skedaddle, vanish) from sexual immorality.
-Well what do you mean leave, flee? Just that get out, leave the place this is occuring, flee the heat of the moment, run away from the opportunity to involve yourself in any sexual immoral way.
He talks of the committing of this sin being against his own body. Scholar have thought that it might have been a Corinthian slogan but more so the fact that when one sins sexually he hurts himself: physically (STD's, AIDS), mentally (rejection, hurt, never filling the void left) and spiritually ( God never intended the body for its use like this therefore its sin which is a wall).


In 1 Thessolonians 4: 3-8 Paul describes the same issue: sexual sin

vs. 3
"it is God's will that you be santified; that you should avoid sexual immorality"
-its not Paul's will, nor evangelicals, your parents, but God's. His will is that you AVOID (flee) sexual immorality!

Vs. 4+5
"that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen who do not know God."

-look at how personal the Word is, that EACH of you, it just doesnt gloss over and make it general but every single person (each one) should learn. Now I love how it says "learn to control" because sexual sin isnt something that just instantly changes. Its like sanctification, or educational learning, it is a journey. To be able to get to a state of control there must be a state of learning how to control. In order to control the urge of sexual sin whether it be mind, or body must be learned and practiced. We know its wrong because its NOT God's will, well then we must learn if not then we will be in passionate lust in a way that we do not know God! If we continue to indulge (like in the Corinthians passage) in sexual sin we are placing ourselves farther from God so much that we look and act like the ones who do not know God.

vs. 6-8
"and in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him."
-Here Paul talks of how sexual sin affects other people and robs (future spouses) the pleasure of virginity with their partner.

"The Lord will punish men for all such sins as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure but to live a holy life."

-Well said God!


THE POINT:

Well simple
1.- God has called us to AVOID sexual sin.
1 Thess. 4:3,7-"God's will that you be santified; that you should avoid sexual immorality.."
"For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life."
1 Cor. 6:13 "body is not meant for sexual immorality"

2. Any time spent lusting, and focusing on sexual sin is time spend not focusing on God, and His awesomeness.
3. This never means you wont be afflicted, this just means that you must be aware of sexual sin where ever you are: TV, movies, magazines, internet, alone time with someone of the opposite sex, and too much time spent alone. ( Look what happened to David when he didnt go off to war like he was supposed to??)
Be aware and then learn to control your mind and body in a way that is holy and honorable. Why? Well its God's will. May God bless you!

The Exclusivity of Christ : OneTruth in short!

This topic stems from a conversation that I had earlier today. It reminds me of the ongoing debate and study that I have done for 2 years on the exclusivity of Christ. Meaning that our entrance into heaven, our bridge to God must flow through Jesus Christ and CHrist alone. This is where I grab the concept of One Truth. Philosophy teachers and students will have a field day with this because they dont like the claim of OneTruth. ( They would ask what is truth?)

Before we start these things must be understood:

1-The Bible is Gods Word breathed to His disciples
2 Timothy 3:16-"All Scripture is God-breathed."

2-Prophecy nor Scripture was the interpretation of man but of God:
2 Peter 1:20-21 "Above all you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by prophets own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."

Lets begin:
There is OneTruth and Christ is exclusive to the fact that salvation and going to heaven is through Him alone! Any other way is false and does not lead into heaven.

All 3 Gospels agree that during Jesus' baptism a loud voice makes an exlcusive statement saying "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

The Father was acknowledging Jesus as His Son whom he was pleased with. This is an exclusive statement. Can any of the other religious leaders claim this type of relationship with God?? Were any of them claimed as sons? No they were not, God speaks in delight over His unique and one of a kind Son.

Jesus makes His exclusivity apparent:

John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one goes to the Father but through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."

Jesus made himself exclusive. People ask what is truth.....Jesus is, which is the right way...Jesus is the right way, and where can I have true life....through Jesus.
How do we go to the Father in heaven? How do we go to God? Are there other ways to God? What about the other religions: the claims of God?

Jesus answers all of these questions



More exclusive statements:
John 15:1--"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener" ( Jesus is the perfect fullfillment)

John 3:35--" The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. 36Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him"

~Any religion or cult or sect that rejects the notion that Jesus is God, that Jesus is the only way to salvation is "rejecting the Son" and they "will not see life". Those who accept the Son will have eternal life. This is exclusive, Jesus is Life and to believe is to have this life and not to bleive is to not see life.

John 10:1, 7--" I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber." " (Vs. 7)Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.

~This gate is the door to salvation. Jesus talks of the gate and how to climb in another way is false by the representation of theives and robbers. THe Jesus becomes exclusive again by saying that He is that gate, He is that door and everyone else that came before me claiming that they were are wrong. Whoever enters through Him will be saved which helps touch on John 3:35 that those who reject the Son ( groups like Islam-who claim Jesus to be a mere man but did great things--they deny His divinity, Jews who claim he was a false teacher, and a fraud, and any other group that hold Jesus to not being this gate, this life, this truth and this way) they will not see life: meaning they will not be in heaven.

Hebrews 5:9 "
"he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him"

Jesus is made to claim that He is the source of eternal salvation. What does source mean: " The point at which something springs into being or from which it derives or is obtained" Jesus is the point at which salvation sprung to life, Jesus is where salvation is derived and obtained from. This give Jesus exclusive rights to salvation because He is God.

Galatians 1:8-9 " pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned"

~Paul talks of these Galatians who are being taught a perverted gospel than the one he originally taught them. We dont know the exact teachings that were being taught, but we know that it was not correct and Paul extends rebuke to them. This statement is signifigant because he states that even if we or an angel preached a gospel other than what the one preached to them may they be cursed, condemned an anathema. Anyone, any "angel" or any type of group that claims to have revelation that teaches otherwise than what God has spoken and done, anything the pulls from the Gospel already preached will be eternally condemned. Is that exclusive enough?

There are several more verses that could be placed here. Plenty of Pslams and Proverbs describing the Lord Jesus and His exclusivity to God. People and our society like to use relativisim to help keep the world tolerant of each others religions. What is relativisim----relativism affirms that all truth is relative. This would mean that no system of truth is more valid than another one and that there is no objective standard of truth. It would, naturally, deny that there is a God of absolute truth.

This belief will not work in our society nor does it line up in any which way with the Bible. The Bible is exclusive and declares God to be an absolute God. Jesus had the power of God, the power of judgement from God, and was God in the flesh. Jesus was the manifestation of God, and if you ever wanted to see what God looked like you would look to Jesus because He was God. Jesus made Him self exclusive with his statements named above, also with other scriptures we recognized what He did was exclusive for a peasant from Galilee. That He was the only road to travel to have true life.

Relativism: Important facts to know: if all the things are relative, then there cannot be anything that is absolutely true between individuals. In other words, if all people deny absolute truth and establish relative truth only from their experiences, then everything is relative to the individual. How then can there be a common ground from which to judge right and wrong or truth? It would seem that there cannot be.

If all moral views are equally valid, then do we have the right to punish anyone? Can we ever say that something is wrong? In order to say that something is wrong we must first have a standard by which we weigh right and wrong in order to make a judgment. If that standard of right and wrong is based on relativism, then it is not a standard at all.

MY POINT:
1- Jesus is the only way to heaven, that all who believe in Him have enternal life. Romans 10:9 "confess on your lips and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord you will be saved." Its that simple. If there would have been others ways to God would Jesus have been so exclusive? If there was another manifestation of God would God's words have been so pointed, so direct, so singular in regards to Jesus? No why because Jesus is the only way to heaven and "all who reject the Son will not see life." John 3:36)

2-relativisim just doesnt work. To base truth off experience is simply false. There must be a absolute truth that provides the foundation for which we determine things such as right and wrong. God is absolute through the OT and the NT. And to have the notion that this is one truth amoung many would be to deny the beliefs of this Holy Bible. God would not have made Himself clear and how to be saved, how to live a life, and how to be closer to Him if there were going to be mulitiple ways to get to Him. There is no order in that, no exclusivity. Jesus is set apart from every other god, or intercessor from every other religion. Set apart by who He was, what He did, and what He will do. God manifested Himself through Jesus, validated Himself through miracles and fulfilled prophecies (over 470) foretold thousands of years before, and died just like you and I will and was rasied from the dead. Tell me if Buddha is still here? Mohammad? Maybe Vishna?

As Paul declares there is no other Gospel from which we are saved, and to pervert the Gospel or preach one other than the one given from God those persons will be an anathema Greek for cursed or condemned. Jesus is the only way....to think other wise would simply be false. OneTruth!!
God Bless you in Jesus