Moral Purity (6 sessions) - 5 — 1 Corinthians 6

0:00 I want to start by talking about the heart. The heart is my inner man, what I really am by character, called the hidden person of the heart, first Peter three four. The mind provides reasoning capability giving a way for us to make sense both of the feelings and desires of our hearts, also of what we perceive around us. The mind is the battlefield for the spiritual warfare. The eyes and the ears are the perceptive members of each man, sometimes called the eye gate and the ear gate.

0:36 God's request to us is, my son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways. Proverbs twenty three twenty six. And we are exhorted to trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. Proverbs three five and six.

1:00 We should respond to God's request saying, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxieties and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm one hundred and thirty nine twenty three and twenty four. Again, let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Proverbs nineteen fourteen.

1:30 We should say, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm fifty one ten. Since the fall, men have been tainted by sin and particularly our hearts are tainted by sin. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?

1:51 I, the Lord, search the heart. That's Jeremiah seventeen nine. The Lord Jesus explained, for from within, out of the heart of man proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, and evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man. Mark seven twenty through 23.

2:23 What we do is a pretty good indication of what we are. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good. The evil man out of an... The evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. Luke six forty five.

2:42 Even the born again believer has to struggle with choice of whether to allow his life to be controlled by the sinful flesh or by the spirit of God. That's Galatians five. We are counseled, keep your heart with all diligence for out of it spring the issues of life. Proverbs four twenty three. We are greatly influenced by the things that we see and hear.

3:07 For that reason, we should be careful concerning the influences that we allow in our lives, what we look at and what we listen to. For as a man thinks in his heart, so he is. Proverbs twenty three seven. On the positive side, we can feed ourselves by spending time in the word of God. The spirit of God uses the word of God to convict us of sin and to energize us to holy living.

4:20 Peter describes certain sinful men as having eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin and enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices. That's two Peter two fourteen. Paul said, make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust. Romans three fourteen.

4:42 14. At this point, the men had a discussion concerning pornography and its consequences. It was not recorded. Then we continue on the subject of sexual immorality. Sexual immorality is forbidden by God because it falls short of his moral standards.

5:07 It certainly produces disorder in the family structure. It is a choice that always has sad, oftentimes terrible consequences. The book of Proverbs provides instruction to young men on how escape the wiles of the seductress who tempts men into immorality. That's Proverbs six thirty two and thirty three and then Proverbs seven ten through 27. We read those verses and we had a discussion about them which was not recorded.

5:42 Paul also told the Thessalonians, this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God, that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter because the lord is the avenger of all such as we also forewarned you and testified for god did not call us to uncleanness but in holiness. Therefore, he who rejects this does not reject men but God who has also given us his Holy Spirit. That's quoted from first Thessalonians four three through eight. Again, in the Corinthians Paul said, flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.

7:16 Then we continued with the subject of homosexuality. Homosexuality and mistaken sexual identity are problems which we face in society today. It is morally unacceptable to God and it is destructive to both the individual and to society as a whole. Homosexuality was part of the moral decay of the human race as they turned from God. In the book of...

7:51 In the first chapter of Romans, after after reviewing creation as the evidence for God, the apostle said, although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. Then we skipped a few verses. For this reason, god gave them up to vile passions for even their woman exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error. Romans one twenty one through 28.

8:46 Homosexuality is listed with among other moral sins which are abhorrent to God. In first Corinthians six we read, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God and such were some of you, but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of God. First Corinthians six nine through 11. Do not miss the fact that some of the believers in Corinth had been delivered from the homosexual lifestyle based on verse 11.

9:43 This offers the strong hope that others who have been lured into this lifestyle can also be delivered from it through the mercy of God. As concerning the idea of mistaken sexual identity, there's such a... Such false teaching that goes on even sometimes in schools, in the schools in which they even probe as to what your sexual identity is. It puts ideas into the young people and once when asked the question what what about those kind of thoughts, I I made this remark. This was to my own children.

10:29 I made this remark that that just because we have have some thought, maybe a curiosity about homosexuality and and sort of wonder what it's really like and maybe our thoughts go too far in that direction, doesn't mean that we are homosexuals. And and so so they would like to perhaps convince us that that's true, but it's not. And and the way we should deal with it is like we would any sinful thought. We put it away and judge it and and dismiss it and and go on and try to live our... Have our thought life conformed to what God would have.

11:34 And don't harden your hearts. Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Hebrews 15. Ask the Lord to search your heart and to purify you. Search me, O God, and know my heart.

11:49 Try me and know my anxieties and see if there's any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm a hundred and thirty nine twenty three and twenty four. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. First John one nine. If we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.

12:13 First Corinthians eleven thirty one.