Don't You Know?

1 Corinthians 5:1-8 ESV

“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

“For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

“Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

When I begin to think about this subject in relation to the American church at large today, though not speaking of every congregation, it is just overwhelming. For it is not a little leaven which is leavening the whole lump in one city, or in one physical location, but it is a massive amount of leaven which is leavening the whole lump across America and the world. For sexual immorality is abounding in the gatherings of what is called “church” here in America because the gospel has been altered to make room for it.

And I believe there are three major factors at play here. One is the human heart, second is the ease of access to sexually explicit material via smartphones and other internet devices, and three is the diluting and the altering of the message of the gospel to where so many are not teaching God’s requirements for repentance (the forsaking of sins), for obedience to his commands (New Covenant), and for holy and righteous living in moral purity, uprightness, honesty, integrity, and faithfulness, and in practice.

So many today are teaching that we can make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ once in our lives and now all our sins are forgiven (past, present, and future), and heaven is now secured us, and it can’t be taken away from us, regardless of how we live. And so we have institutional churches filled with people professing faith in Jesus Christ who are still walking in sin, still living for the pleasures of the flesh, still loving the world and the things in the world – the lusts of the flesh and of the eyes, and the pride of life.

Therefore, sexual immorality abounds in the gatherings of the institutional church because not many are doing anything about it, for they are coddling people in their sins, instead, and some of them are giving them excuses to keep on sinning sexually (or otherwise), deliberately and habitually. And so marriages are breaking apart and families are being destroyed and the church is on a massive spiritual and moral decline, and yet so many are proud of their “churches” and their preachers and their praise bands.

For they want to hold on to their sins, and so they are holding on to their altered gospel messages, too. And that is astounding to me that so many people professing faith in Jesus Christ can read the Scriptures and not see that our God demands obedience to his commands (New Covenant), and repentance (the forsaking of our sins) and holy living. It is all throughout the New Testament! You can’t miss it. And so are the warnings that if we continue in deliberate and habitual sin that we do not have eternal life.

No pastor I have met or have talked with about this situation will do anything about it, either. Hopefully there are some pastors somewhere who are taking this passage of Scripture seriously and who are exercising genuine church discipline with the clear objective to help people out of their lives of addiction to sexual sin and to living lives which are holy unto God. I have just not heard of them. But maybe they still exist. Hopefully they do. But so many are putting “Band Aids” over serious sin issues.

But the only hope for the American market-driven and flesh-driven “churches” of today is revival, which engages genuine repentance, walks of obedience to the Lord, doing a spiritual housecleaning like Jesus did in the temple courts of his day, and dying with Christ to sin and saying “No!” to sin daily, and saying “Yes!” to our Lord and to his commands and to his will for our lives as our daily practice. And this means getting rid of the lies and following after the truth taught by Christ and by his NT apostles.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

When in The Stillness  

An Original Work / September 26, 2011

When in the stillness of this moment,

Speak to me, Lord, I humbly pray.

Be my desire, set me on fire,

Teach me to love always.

Help me to walk in fellowship with You,

Listening to You; sit at Your feet.

Whisper Your words to me, 

Oh, how gently, guiding me in Your truth. 

While we are waiting for Your blessing,

Lord, in our hearts be King today.

Help us to live for you ev’ry moment,

List’ning to what You say.

May we not stray from your word within us,

Help us obey You, Lord, in all things,

Walking each moment, Lord, in Your presence,

Our offerings to You bring.

Help us to love You, Lord, our master;

Be an example of Your love,

Helping the hurting, lift up the fallen,

Showing them Your great love.

Teach them to love You, follow You always,

Bearing their cross and turning from sin;

Walking in daily fellowship with You,

Making You Lord and King.

https://vimeo.com/126984144