“This is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. I warned those who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again I will not spare them— since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.” (2 Corinthians 13:1-4 ESV)
Sexual immorality was plaguing the church in Corinth. Not everyone was engaged in sexual immorality, but it appears that many were. And so it is today, at least in America, it is. But it appears that we are severely lacking in men like Paul who will actually take the appropriate action necessary in order to put a halt to what is spreading rapidly like gangrene all throughout the body of Christ and all throughout the gatherings of what are at least called “the church.” For many pastors are among the sexually addicted.
That wasn’t the only sin plaguing the church in Corinth, but it appeared to be the predominant one, as it is also today, in America. And the situation that we are in today is, like I said, the lack of true men of God who are walking by the Spirit and who are not walking by the flesh, and who meet the biblical and spiritual qualifications of elder (pastor, overseer) or deacon. So many of these men are chosen according to their academic qualifications and/or by their personalities rather than by their spiritual qualifications.
And so sexual immorality and sexual addiction of all sorts are running rampant within the gatherings of the church (or within the false “church”). It is like a huge rainstorm pouring down into the gatherings of the church and falling down on the people, and so many of them are yielding to the storm and they are embracing it and even believing that God’s forgiveness of sins permits them to continue living in sin without feelings of guilt and without remorse. But few are exercising biblical discipline in these matters.
Thus, the self-indulgent and the intoxicated to sin, especially to sexual sin, are often more than not being coddled in their sins rather than disciplined. Some church gatherings may provide support groups for them, but these groups are not usually operated according to the Scriptures but according to humanistic philosophy and modern psychology. And so the addicted can continue on in their addictions without any kind of church discipline. But many church congregations don’t deal with the situation at all.
But the Bible teaches us that these types of sins come from what is stored up in our hearts. So, if we are storing up hatred, anger, bitterness, resentment, idolatry, unforgiveness, and lust, etc. then out of the heart will come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander, etc. And out of the heart will come hateful and spiteful remarks to others, or about them to other people, and hateful and spiteful actions against those who the haters have been convinced are their enemies.
And out of hate and bitterness and anger and resentment some people will vent to others or they will commit sinful acts against others as their way of venting and expressing their anger and bitterness which has been welling up inside of them and which occasionally comes out in a loud outburst of some kind, either verbally or via some type of sinful and get-even kind of response. And when a man or a woman sins sexually against his or her spouse, that is hate, which comes from what is stored up within the heart.
But many of these sinfully and sexually addicted are professers of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and as Savior of their lives, convinced that heaven is secured for them when they die. Yet, according to the Scriptures, if we walk in sin, making sin our practice, and if righteousness and godliness and moral purity and walks of obedience to our Lord are not what we practice, then we don’t know God, we are not born of God, but we are of the devil, and we will not have eternal life with God unless we repent and we obey our Lord.
Now this is not saying that any of us will be absolutely perfect in this life and that we will never fail (see 1 John 2:1-2), but that if sin is our practice, our lifestyle, what we keep going back to over and over again, like a dog returns to its vomit, and if that is still where we are, recycling the same old sinful patterns of behaviors over again without true repentance, without genuine change, because the heart has not changed, and so we continue to hate and sin in anger, then we are not in genuine relationship with Christ.
Many of these addicted to sin will try to cover up their addiction by putting on a show of righteousness, as though they are truly following the Lord with their lives, but it is all fakery. For it is for the purpose to mask what they are really doing so that no one will know, and no one will suspect that they are entrapped in sin’s deceitfulness. And they are those who, thus, are deserters of the true faith and of righteousness and holiness and moral purity and obedience to God, and of faithfulness to God and to spouse.
And the bottom line in all of this is that these people are really angry with God and so they are venting their anger via their sinful practices. And there may be many reasons they are angry with God, but somewhere along the line they believed they got a “raw deal” and that somehow they were cheated of something and so they store up anger toward God in their hearts because he didn’t do for them what they thought he ought to do. And they store up that same anger against other humans who they believe wronged them in one way or another, whether true or not. And that pours out.
So, if that is where you are, venting your anger against God and/or against other humans via your sinful practices, please know that God’s forgiveness of sins does not cover deliberate and habitual sin. For if sin is what we practice, we will die in our sins. We will not have eternal life with God regardless of what our lips profess or we feel that we believe in our hearts. For what we truly believe is what will come out in our actions and in how we treat God and in how we treat other humans.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]
My Sheep
An Original Work / June 24, 2012
Based off John 10:1-30 NIV
My sheep hear me. They know me.
They listen to my voice and obey.
I call them and lead them.
They know my voice, so they follow me.
They will never follow strangers.
They will run away from them.
The voice of a stranger they know not;
They do not follow him.
So, I tell you the truth that
I am the gate, so you enter in.
Whoever does enter
Will find forgiveness and will be saved.
Nonetheless whoever enters
Not by the gate; other way,
He is the thief and a robber.
Listen not, the sheep to him.
Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,
Who laid his own life down for the sheep.
I know them. They know me.
They will live with me eternally.
The thief only comes to steal and
Kill and to destroy the church.
I have come to give you life that
You may have it to the full…
They know my voice, so they follow me.
https://vimeo.com/114938263
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