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 Sermon > Sunday Morning Service |
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Title |
God Measures Our Faith(11) - God Measures Our Faith (11) |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Ezekiel 47: 1-5, Galatians 5:19-21 |
Date |
2011-09-04 |
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Passage
[Ezekiel 47: 1-5]
" ... When the man went out toward the east with a line in his hand, he measured a thousand cubits, and he led me through the water, water reaching the ankles. Again he measured a thousand and led me through the water, water reaching the knees. Again he measured a thousand and led me through the water, water reaching the loins. Again he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not ford, for the water had risen, enough water to swim in, a river that could not be forded."
Galatians 5:19-21
"Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."
Introduction
This is the 11th session on God Measures Our Faith.
In the last session, we talked about the fifth sin among the sins depriving of salvation, which are various sexual immoralities and misconducts.
Some of the new believers might think like, "There are many gracious and good messages in the Bible, and why would the senior pastor deliver such a fearful message?"
Of course, there are many good messages including the promises for our blessings.
But what is the most important thing on the day of the Lord's coming again?
It is for us to receive salvation.
We first have to be saved to advance into heavenly kingdom, and also hope for New Jerusalem.
And the message about sins-depriving-of-salvation is the most basic for Christian faith.
Therefore, I hope you will keep this message as your spiritual bread and reaffirm your salvation.
Then, I hope you will spread this message to those souls who lead a life in faith without understanding even this kind of basic message in faith.
I pray in the name of the Lord that, on the day of the Lord's coming again, you will not just stand in the array of the saved, but so many more souls will meet the Lord through you people here.
Main
Brothers and sisters,
In the last session we talked about the sexual misconducts mentioned in the Old Testament, which were incest and homosexuality.
The third is the bestiality, or mating with animals.
Let us briefly talk about bestiality and then the sexual immorality mentioned in the New Testament of the Bible.
Bestiality is defined as sexual activity between a human being and an animal.
Leviticus 20:15-16 says, "If there is a man who lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death; you shall also kill the animal. If there is a woman who approaches any animal to mate with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them."
People surrounding Israel would do these filthy things as rituals to serve their gods.
God says this kind of act is detestable.
Wouldn't you feel shameful just to talk about such a thing?
This is the extreme of sexual corruption.
Also, it is to trample on the holy law of God completely and to destroy the order of God's creation.
It is degrading human beings, who are made after the image of God, to becoming animals.
If they have just a little bit of conscience, they would not dare to consider doing such a thing.
It is even more improper for God's people, and God commanded that those who do these things must be put to death.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Now let us talk about the New Testament.
Galatians 5:19-21 talks about the evident works of the flesh, which make us unable to inherit the kingdom of God.
Among them verse 19 talks about 'immorality, impurity, sensuality'.
Immorality is inclusive all sexual immorality and misconducts.
It is to be lewd and sexually promiscuous.
Romans 13:13 says, "Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy."
Here, sexual promiscuity refers to both lewd and provocative sexual conduct.
Though promiscuity is the lewd behavior, sometimes it also refers to all promiscuous thoughts and words as well.
We have to get rid of sexual promiscuity itself.
As long as sexual promiscuity is part of your life, you are likely to commit acts of sexual misconduct.
Therefore, we have to get rid of sexual promiscuity not just from our thoughts and words, but also in everything we see and hear, and we have to stay away from promiscuous persons.
Brothers and sisters, next, let us talk about impurity.
Here, you might have a question as to why the Bible distinguishes between impurity and sensuality in the various sexual immoralities."
The Bible explains about sexual immoralities in detail and it is warning us to be very careful.
Impurity and sensuality are at a serious level among the sexual immoralities.
Impurity is when sexual immoralities go over a certain measure and become dirty or obscene.
Of course, being 'dirty' is not only about sexual immorality. It can be revealed in any sin such as hatred, envy, jealousy, quarrels, or desire.
For example, in the history, some people were so jealous that they drew portraits or made dolls of their enemies to harm these things.
This is an example of envy being revealed as 'impurity'.
An example of sexual immorality could be a man taking both the mother and the daughter together.
Recently, there was a newspaper article of a man who was sued for living with a young woman while he was dating her mother.
This is lewdness that God considers abominable.
Leviticus 18:17 says, "You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and of her daughter, nor shall you take her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness; they are blood relatives. It is lewdness."
Also, 'group sex' in which multiple numbers of men and women have sex, it is also impurity.
When sexual immorality reaches a level that destroys the humanity and causes harm to the society, or a level where people would frown just over hearing about such things, then it is impurity.
Impurity includes incest, homosexuality, and bestiality, too.
But since today's world is increasingly more stained with sins, people's discerning power also becomes weaker.
As these things increasingly appear in the media, people's senses become increasingly more numbed to the feeling that they are something dirty and obscene.
But those believers in the Lord should accept these things sensitively.
It's because our God the Father hates these things very much.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Next, sensuality is also one of the sexual immoralities prohibited by the Bible.
In the dictionary, to be sensual is relating to or consisting in the gratification of the senses or the indulgence of appetite.
It shows or suggests an especially great liking for sexual pleasures.
The biblical meaning of sensuality is to do various unlawful things following sexual desires.
There are people whose thoughts, words, and actions are stained with lewdness.
They always look at others with lascivious thoughts. They always tell sexual jokes.
They look for adult materials on the Internet or TV.
They go to red-light or adult entertainment areas to look for somebody to have sex with.
Nowadays, some shops appear to be massage parlors or barbershops on the outside, but inside they have prostitution.
There are many places to have obscene conversations by phone or video conferencing. They say even in ordinary Internet cafes people try to find sex partners through online chat.
As Internet is widespread, people can easily have meetings to do lustful things through online chat or online social media.
Those who follow sensuality commit sexual misconduct with somebody as above, but they also fulfill their lust in various ways.
It's not easy to mention such things but they fulfill their lust with various tools or instruments, and they commit sexual harassment in buses or subways.
Recently, a report says 70% of crimes committed in Seoul subway are sexual in nature. It is a big social problem.
The impure, dirty things such as group sex, incest, homosexuality, and bestiality are all caused by sensuality.
Namely, those who are sensual seek something more exciting, which can give them more pleasure.
So, they commit acts of sexual misconduct and they do obscene things that are beyond ordinary levels, to the extent to be disgusting.
Brothers and sisters, in addition, it is not right in the sight of God for men to wear women's clothes and for women to wear men's clothes.
Deuteronomy 22:5 says, "A woman shall not wear man's clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman's clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God."
But today, with the help of modern medical science, some people change their sex.
Namely, they get sex reversal surgery.
Most of these people think their gender was not right since their birth.
But this is also an abomination before God.
In these cases, if you look into the spiritual reasons, most of them are caused by curses.
As retribution of the evil that is accumulated for many generations, or due to a spiritual cord, they are innately born with such problems.
Therefore, to solve this problem, they have to do good deeds in God's sight and ask for God's mercy.
Of course, this process might not be easy for them.
But they must make up their mind to do it.
If they keep on resembling the holy attributes of God, the justice will be fulfilled so that they can be set free from such curses.
After all, God is our Father who is full of mercy.
Brothers and sisters, and viewing audiences,
Today, the world is so sexually corrupted that many people come in contact with obscene things as they grow up.
Some people try some things out of curiosity and then fall into the swamp of sensuality.
Some people reach a level where they cannot perform normally at their job or in the family.
If there is anybody like that, they should hold on to the lifeline of the word and prayer, which is a rope given by the Lord.
They have to hold this rope of life and quickly come out of the dirty swamp of promiscuity.
Brothers and sisters,
Lastly, let us briefly go over spiritual adultery.
Spiritual adultery is to give your heart to something other than the Lord our bridegroom.
In the Prophets of the Old Testament, we see many passages where God reprimands Israel's spiritual adultery.
Isaiah 54:5 says, "For your (Israel's) husband is your Maker."
God calls Israel His wife.
At that time, the adultery that sons of Israel committed was idolatry.
When they left God and worshipped idols, God considered it adultery, unfaithfulness of the wife.
It's the same today.
Spiritual adultery is not just idolatry.
If you love something in this world more than God and you spend not just your heart but also strength, time, and money on it, it is spiritual adultery.
James 4:4 says, "You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."
If you harbor the world in your heart, eventually your heart will be distanced from God.
If you do not turn away, you will be distanced from salvation, too.
Therefore, I hope you will quickly remove the original root of spiritual adultery.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and viewing audiences,
Why do so many people today not consider sexual misconduct as sin?
Also, God warns us of sexual misconduct so strictly, so why is it that even believers commit acts of sexual misconduct?
It's because they were born into this sin-filled world and raised in it.
Also, even though they believe in God, they were not taught with the truth properly.
In the beginning of the human history, people had relatively good consciences and had reverent fear of God.
Even though nobody told them, they felt and knew that sexual misconduct is a great sin.
But as the human history went on for thousands of years, people distanced themselves from God more and more.
As a result of their conscience getting more stained with sins, they became numb and insensitive to sins.
Today, the magnitude of sins is very great. Acts of sexual misconduct are committed all the time, but many people have no pangs of conscience at all about it.
It's because the enemy devil and Satan deceive the people.
For example, many media including TV portray relationships of fornication and adultery as "beautiful love".
As the idea of standing against God has become more widespread, Satan makes people think that God does not exist and that they should just enjoy their lives.
Some people experience a little qualm of conscience after committing adultery, but soon they ignore this voice of conscience, and they comfort themselves thinking Heaven and Hell are not real.
But all God's words are true, and everyone has to stand at the Judgment Throne.
Also, as Ecclesiastes 8:11 says, "Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil." They boldly do evil because they don't go to Hell right away.
Of course, even if punishments come upon them due to sins, the unbelievers do not realize this and they just try to indulge in more pleasure.
But they do not get any satisfaction from this. They only suffer from many disasters and hardships.
Even if the punishments do not come each time, their hearts will become increasingly emptier.
If pleasure can give them happiness, as time passes why do they seek stronger pleasure each time?
Lustful things can give you only momentary pleasure, and this goes away like a lifting fog.
They can never give you true happiness.
The worldly people do not understand this fact.
Even if they do, they cannot get away from the bond of pleasure and just live in pain.
And the result will be eternal punishment in Hell.
Jude 1:7 says the following.
"Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire."
History proves that after sexual corruption comes the punishment.
Pompeii, a city in the Roman Empire, was also destroyed by a sudden volcano eruption.
If you look around at the remains, you can realize how promiscuous their sex life was.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Some of you went to the edge of the cliff in the above situations, but you were born again after meeting the Lord.
Now, you are trying to cast away such sinful natures.
But why is it that sometimes you are so slow and why is it is not easy to cast off sinful natures?
It's because people have different natures they inherited from ancestors. The magnitude of taking flesh and storing up sins is different. Their hearts are different.
Due to these differences, people cast away evil in different ways.
Some people cast off relatively easily and quickly while for others it takes a little more time.
Especially the sexual misconduct of adultery and fornication has a very deep root in people.
But this does not mean you can think you will cast away sinful natures slowly.
God is just and He is also love itself.
Since this age is so corrupted by sins, He is giving us much grace.
Through the works of the Holy Spirit, God is showing us that He is alive, and He teaches us about sin, righteousness, and judgment, and about Heaven and Hell.
Through this church, He has shown even the original light, which is His image He had at a time before the ages.
This means God is more strongly showing His original heart, namely His wide and great love, to the people at the end time.
Many believers testify that through this original light, He lets them feel that the sins they have in heart are so dirty and filthy.
Above all, He lets you feel God's original love, so you can repent thoroughly and quickly become sanctified.
Anyone who believes in this fact is experiencing such works just as they believe.
Conclusion
Ezekiel 18:20 says, "The person who sins will die."
If you commit sins depriving of salvation, your soul will be put to death.
But read the following verses 21-23.
It says, "But if the wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed and observes all My statutes and practices justice and righteousness, he shall surely live; he shall not die. All his transgressions which he has committed will not be remembered against him; because of his righteousness which he has practiced, he will live. Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the LORD God, rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?"
This is the word of God.
Brothers and sisters, and viewing audiences,
I know very well that this kind of message might be piercing your heart.
But I am sure that it is true love to deliver the truth correctly.
I will earnestly pray that even those who are dwelling in sins will now turn away completely and reach the heavenly kingdom, and even New Jerusalem.
Listen to the voice of God who is desperately calling you.
Rely on the power of the blood of the Lord and the help of the Holy Spirit.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will depart from your sinful ways and become great joy to the Father. |
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