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HOLINESS LESSONS
III |
LESSON 3 of 5 |
SINS OF THE BODY
"And the very God of peace sanctify (purify, make holy) you wholly. And I pray your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (I Thessalonians 5:23).
According to the above scripture, man is composed of body, soul, and spirit, and it is God's will that the whole man (complete man) be purified and made holy. Our whole man belongs to God.
Some definitions are needed to fully understand this lesson:
adultery: voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person
and someone other than the wife or husband.
adulterers: a person who commits adultery.
fornication: (Bible use) -- any unlawful sexual intercourse.
homosexuality: the manifestation of sexual desire towards one's
own sex
homosexual: one who practices homosexuality
lesbian: a female homosexual
The apostles gave stern warnings against all of the various immoral acts that are in the world today:
"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (I Corinthians 6:19-20).
If we defile our body, it could bring God's stern judgment upon us: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are" (I Corinthians 3:16-17).
The apostles gave strong warnings against all of the various immoral acts that are in the world today: "Do you know that the unrighteous and the wrongdoers will not inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived (misled); neither the impure and immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor those who participate in homosexuality, Nor cheats--swindlers and thieves; nor greedy graspers, nor drunkards, nor foulmouthed revilers and slanderers, nor extortioners and robbers will inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God" (I Corinthians 6:9-10, Amplified Bible).
"And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God" (I Corinthians 6:11).
According
to the above scripture, the church at Corinth was made up of people
who had experienced all types of sin, but as a whole they had forsaken
that kind of a life style after they had been baptized in Jesus' name
and received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. However, some of the Corinthians
were still guilty of such sins, and it was necessary for Paul to write
to them and exhort them to turn from these things, lest the judgment
hand of God be upon them. Read Paul's further exhortation to the church
at Corinth concerning this matter: I Corinthians 5:1-6, 9-13; 6:15-20;
7:1-9.
Paul also wrote to the Ephesians concerning these same sins: "But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once be named among you, as becometh saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them" (Ephesians 5:3-7).
Paul had to exhort the church at Thessalonica: "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; Not in the lust of concupiscence (sexual desire), even as the Gentiles which know not God: For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness" (I Thessalonians 4:3-5, 7).
Paul informed the Galatians that sexual sins were the works of the flesh: "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (Galatians 5:19-21).
HOMOSEXUALITY AND LESBIANISM
"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is
abomination" (Leviticus 18:22). Genesis 19:4-8 shows us that
one of the chief sins of Sodom was the sin of homosexuality. Paul warns
us about these sins, and the consequences of being partakers of them:
"Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their own hearts
to sexual impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
abandoning them to the degrading power of sin. Because they exchanged
the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather
than the Creator, Who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God
gave them over and abandoned them to vile affections and degrading passions.
For their women exchanged their natural function for an unnatural and
abnormal one; And the men also turned from natural relations with women
and were set ablaze (burned out, consumed) with lust for one another,
men committing shameful acts with men and suffering in their own bodies
and personalities the inevitable consequences and penalty of their wrong
doing and going astray, which was their fitting retribution. And so,
since they did not see fit to acknowledge God or approve of Him or consider
Him worth knowing, God gave them over to a base and condemned mind to
do things not proper or decent but loathsome" (Romans 1:24-28,
Amplified Bible).
HOW CAN WE WIN THE VICTORY OVER FLESHLY APPETITES?
1. We must crucify such desires: Galatians 5:14-15; Colossians 3:5-6;
Romans 8:13
2. We must not put ourselves into situations where we can be tempted:
Romans 13:14; Eph. 4:17
3. We must be constantly renewed in the Holy Ghost: Romans 12:1-2
4. We must hide the Word of God in our hearts: Psalm 119:11
5. We must meditate upon the Word of God: Psalm 1:2-3 (ds)