The way you behave and the things that you say have a lot to do with what you really believe. Our behavior defines us. Over time, it becomes obvious before others who you are. Someone is watching you. People should see the image of Jesus Christ in your actions. If you live as a child of Christ, people should see it and be able to confirm it.
Don’t deceive yourself. If you need to fall down before God and ask for Him to show you who you are, He will show you. The heart is deceiptful and wicked, and it desires the things of the world and all of its accolades.
John 17:14-16
14 I have given them Your word.
The world hated them
because they are not of the world,
as I am not of the world.
15 I am not praying
that You take them out of the world
but that You protect them from the evil one.
16 They are not of the world,
as I am not of the world.
God has said from the very beginning that His chosen people are not like the world, and are not to emulate the world.
Leviticus 18:3
Do not follow the practices of the land of Egypt, where you used to live, or follow the practices of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. You must not follow their customs.
Christians are not to live like the world. We are to live as Christ teaches us and not follow the world’s practices.
In our culture today, we need to have honest discussions about 9 to 13 year old children getting pregnant. God states that He hates all sin, let alone sexual sin. The things that we will look at here, people were already doing.
Leviticus 20:23
You must not follow the statutes of the nations I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and I abhorred them.
Ephesians 2:3-5
3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, 5 made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!
Leviticus 18:25
The land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its sin, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants.
Leviticus 18:28
If you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it has vomited out the nations that were before you.
Romans 8:22
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now.
God had to make declarations to keep man from being his worst–he was without restraint and committed all of these sins:
1. Sleep not with father or mother (Lev. 18:7)
2. Father’s wife (v. 8), second wife
3. Sister (v. 9), half sister
4. Thy son’s daughter..granddaughter (v. 10)
5. Aunt (v. 12), father’s sister
6. Aunt (v. 13), mother’s sister
7. Your uncle’s wife (v. 14), father’s brother
8. Your son’s wife (v. 15), daughter-in-law
9. Thy brother’s wife (v. 16)
10. Strange woman and her daughter (v. 17)
11. Your wife’s sister (v. 18)
12. Thy neighbor’s wife
13. Man sleeping with a man (v. 22)
14. Men or women with animals (v. 22)
Leviticus 18:24
“Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves by all these things.
Galatians 5:19-21
19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I tell you about these things in advance—as I told you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
The list which mirrors the life of people of the world without Jesus falls into four groups:
1. Sexual sins
2. False worship (idolatry, drugs)
3. Factions (in-house fighting)
4. Appetites (greed, drunkenness, orgies)
None of these things make up the identity of who a Christian is to be. A church is not to celebrate these behaviors. There are indeed standards that God wants His people to uphold. The Holy Spirit needs to be present to control us from exercising these behaviors. There is indeed a difference between a person who is born again in Jesus Christ than there is who is not. This means that a believer does not remain in sin because it is more about loving The Lord than it is loving sin.
Akron Alliance Fellowship 