
I find, that many who attend some type of church, rarely read and study the Lord God's Constitution. Therefore, what they think they know about the Lord's Constitution, they really don't. They don't know what they don't know, but ignorance is no excuse. Just look in the church at how many people are living together without being married and they feel no conviction about it. It is as common in the church as in the world. When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
The other day, my wife Arlene and I were at one of our favorite restaurants. As usual, I took up a conversation with our server. I asked him what was his foundation for life? At first, he really didn't understand what I was asking him. Then I asked him a question he could relate to. "What is your spiritual foundation?" He then said that he went to church with his parents, but was living with his girlfriend. He said those words "I live with my girlfriend" as if there was nothing wrong with that. He said those words in response to what his spiritual foundation was! Do you recall what ambassador Paul said in his first letter to the Thessalonians? Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. NKJV Remember, all unrighteousness is sin. Sin is separation from God and an infraction against the Kingdom.
If you see a fellow believer sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that person life. But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you should pray for those who commit it. All wicked actions are sin, but not every sin leads to death. Sin that leads to death is iniquity...unrepentant, repeated sin. It is a sin that has become such a part of life that we don't even repent or try to be free from it. We have embraced that sin. For example, if you can live together, without a marriage covenant, go to church every week, say you love Jesus but think you are right with God, you are a "dead man walking". God's Word is unchanging. Keep in mind, it is our responsibility to inform our fellow Kingdom citizens of their infraction against the Lord God's Constitution. Once you have done so, leave it alone. Don't argue or fuss about it, if they refuse to accept it. Just leave it to them and God. You aren't responsible to change them, only to inform them.
Remember the Lord God isn't a God of confusion. Ambassador Paul made this perfectly clear when he wrote his first letter to the Corinthians concerning confusion in church meetings. For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. NKJV Our King Jesus put it this way concerning those who refuse to be corrected. Whenever you enter a city or village, search for a worthy person and stay in his home until you leave town. When you enter the home, give it your blessing. If it turns out to be a worthy home, let your blessing stand; if it is not, take back the blessing. If any household or town refuses to welcome you or listen to your message, shake its dust from your feet as you leave. I tell you the truth, the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah will be better off than such a town on the judgment day.
Keep in mind, your temple is your body, not that brick and mortar building you attend on Sunday. Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.” But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. In essence, all forms of sin are disobedience to the laws of the Kingdom. Satan and those angels who were disobedient, were cast down to this earth, to deceive all the people he could to keep them from receiving eternal life. And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down."
Keep in mind, those who embraced King Jesus are overcomers. But be aware, the devil knows that his time isn't long here. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.” NKJV
My last words are a reminder to you: Do not indulge in sin to the point that it no longer affects your conscience. This is iniquity, unrepentant repeated sin. This will result in a seared conscience. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.
Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.
Remember, as I always say, your faith in the Lord Jesus is your greatest asset in His Kingdom!
Mark 13:28-31 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 1 John 5:16-17
Galatians 5:19-21 1 Corinthians 14:33 Matthew 10:11-15
1 Corinthians 6:16-20 Revelation 12:7-10, 11-12 Romans 1:26-32
All NLT except where noted
W.R. Luchie
www.kingdomcitizens.org
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