Short Take #5: Closing Thoughts

Here is another short take from The Christian Worldview with David Wheaton. Next point is to do like Joseph. Flee fornication.

That's what it says. It's the only sin we're not to face. I won't belabor that one, but that's an important one. Get away. Get out of there. Don't need to try to reason with anyone.

Just remove yourself from the situation. Next point is have an accountability partner or partners that are going to hold you accountable. I think these can be important and very helpful, but we also realize that accountability partners can be fooled as well. We can deceive them. So that's not a fail-safe plan. More than an accountability partner of a fellow human being, realize that God is watching and weighing what you're doing.

Look vertically. Realize you're accountable to God. And the final point I'm going to make is get married. In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul writes to the Corinthians, and that town was like our society today. It was full of sexual temptation and all kinds of sexual immorality. And so what does Paul write to the Corinthian believers? He says, now concerning the things about what you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch a woman. In other words, don't be involved sexually with someone who's not your wife or husband. Verse 2, but because of immorality, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband. In other words, to avoid immorality, you should strive to be married if you don't have the gift of singleness, which he'll talk about in a second. Verse 3, the husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband, saying, when your husband a wife, you should and must be involved in a sexually intimate way. Skipping down to verse 6, but this I say by way of concession, not of command.

What does he mean by that? Well, verse 7, yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am. He's single. However, each man has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that. In other words, some have, most have, will have a desire to be married. Some, a minority, will have a gift of singleness, and both are okay. Verse 8, but I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them if they remain even as I, single. Verse 9, here's the last verse, but if they do not have self-control, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. So that's why this final point is get married. If you have a desire, a strong desire for sexual intimacy, don't try to wait 15 years to get married.

Don't try to wait till you're a certain age. Find a fellow believer, key point there, find a fellow believer with whom you can be compatible with in marriage, that's a whole other topic in itself, but get married. Because again, this passage said, sexual immorality is a sin to avoid. Marriage is God's design for the sexual relationship. It's good to remain single and celibate if you have self-control, and sexual desire will vary according to people in life. Some have more, some have less, but if you don't have self-control, if you don't think you can hold off on this, then get married to another believer. And this is another thing I think the church could teach, pastors could teach better today, is preparing young people to get married early on when they're prepared and find a fellow believer to marry.

Okay, I'm just going to repeat the game plan one more time. To overcome sexual immorality, number one, you must be saved through placing your faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ on your behalf. When that occurs, God gives you His Holy Spirit, which is a supernatural power inside of you, giving you the ability, the opportunity to be able to overcome your fallen nature. Number two, you are being sanctified, becoming more holy through being in a close daily relationship with God through reading His Word and prayer and being under sound biblical teaching. Number three, you must be committed to sexual purity, knowing that you can, with God's help, can overcome it.

It's not impossible to overcome. Number four, you must guard your eyes and your thoughts, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, diverting your eyes from anything that would lead you to sin. Number five is don't feed your flesh.

Don't make any provision for your flesh. Don't put yourself in sensual situations where sexual immorality is a possibility. Number six is if you find yourself in a situation, flee fornication, get out of there. We're not to confront it, we're to flee from sexual immorality. Number seven is get an accountability partner if that could be helpful. And finally, number eight, get married, but in the Lord, unless of course you have the gift of singleness. This has been a short take from The Christian Worldview with David Wheaton.

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