Dale Partridge - Real Christianity #151： The Sin That Burns Down Homes

00:00:00.000 Welcome to this episode of Real Christianity.

00:00:11.240 My name is Dale Partridge, where each week I offer 15 to 20-minute answers to tough theological

00:00:16.620 and pastoral questions.

00:00:18.400 This is a 100% listener-supported audio ministry of Relearn.org.

00:00:24.180 And for those who don't know, our mission at relearn.org is to educate and equip ordinary

00:00:29.640 Christians to plant biblical, confessional, and missional house churches.

00:00:34.500 For more information, just visit relearn.org forward slash house. 0.50

00:00:40.700 Welcome to Real Christianity. 0.71

00:00:42.200 I'm your host, Dale Partridge.

00:00:43.620 As many of you know, you can find the show notes for these episodes at our ministry's

00:00:47.820 website at relearn.org.

00:00:50.380 Today, we're going to be talking about an issue that I believe plagues every single person on

00:00:57.520 earth, and to varying degrees, but the issue we're talking about is sexual immorality.

00:01:05.860 I've titled this episode, The Sin That Burns Down Homes. You could even change that to The Sin

00:01:12.580 That Burns Down Lives. Sexual immorality is a very dangerous thing. It's one of those things

00:01:20.300 that like a fire in a fireplace, when it's in a fireplace, it is a great place. It's a safe place.

00:01:26.660 It's where it's supposed to be. But when the fire leaves the fireplace, it just destroys

00:01:32.900 everything. And so it is with sexual activity outside of the structure that God has designed

00:01:41.220 for us. Recently, I watched a clip from Alistair Begg, and he made a compelling statement. He

00:01:50.100 said, pastors have the ministry of reminder. And that's my hope for this episode, is to remind you

00:01:59.260 of God's view of sexuality and how we, as Christians, can continue to recalibrate our hearts

00:02:07.900 to the gravity of sexual sin. But before we get started, I just wanted to make one, actually maybe

00:02:15.620 two quick announcements. One, thank you for praying for me, for those who have been following

00:02:20.380 along the journey. I have had a flare-up of Lyme disease and mold toxicity, some of the things that

00:02:28.960 I struggle with personally in my personal health, and have had the last several months have been

00:02:34.960 very difficult. But many of you have been praying for me, and thank you. I can feel your prayers

00:02:40.280 and the grace of God on my life. I am improving. I am healing slowly but surely, and I've even had

00:02:48.860 some really great days in the past couple of weeks, and so thank you for your prayers. Secondly,

00:02:56.540 you know, because we're talking about sexual immorality, I wanted to make sure that everybody

00:03:01.060 does know that we have a program for those who are struggling to break free from the bondage

00:03:07.420 of pornography. And it's a program that's a short program. It's three videos. It's a course

00:03:15.100 that takes about three weeks to complete. It's step-by-step at your own pace. It's called

00:03:21.600 standinvictory.org. And it's a gospel-centered approach to breaking free from the bondage of

00:03:29.100 pornography. So if you struggle with that, that is a resource for you to check out. Again,

00:03:35.240 that's at standinvictory.org. All right, so to begin, I just want to say we all have sexual sin

00:03:45.700 in our lives to varying degrees. For some of us, it might be lustful thoughts. For others,

00:03:53.540 it may be pornography use, adultery, sexual deviancy. Years ago, I tweeted a phrase that I

00:04:01.440 often use in my local ministry. I said, the length of your sin does not increase the strength

00:04:09.780 of your sin. Too often I hear Christians who have sexually immoral tendencies, or they would say

00:04:18.340 that they're prone to these things, these sexual sinful actions, and as a result, they justify it 0.99

00:04:26.100 by believing that God made them that way.

00:04:29.600 After all, why would God give a person such strong desires

00:04:33.040 and then tell you to not exercise those desires?

00:04:35.980 That doesn't make sense to the carnal mind.

00:04:39.540 To this, I just want to remind you all

00:04:41.440 that we are each broken, sin-ridden men and women in the flesh.

00:04:48.160 We're filled with these fleshly desires

00:04:51.000 that are not holy or righteous.

00:04:54.020 And this is why the scriptures are clear that we must be born again.

00:05:00.180 In other words, yes, we are born this way.

00:05:04.760 We are born with the propensity for sexual deviancy and for lustful thoughts and for sexual immorality.

00:05:15.480 We are, in our flesh, have these desires and passions, and we were born into sin.

00:05:24.400 And because we were born into sin, we have those desires.

00:05:27.940 But because we were born that way, that's why we must each be born again.

00:05:33.840 We need a new heart that isn't enslaved to the desires of the flesh, but is actually

00:05:40.760 enslaved to Jesus Christ or is enslaved to the desires of the Holy Spirit.

00:05:46.540 Now, not only do we need to remove that lie, right, the lie that the length of our sexual sin

00:05:54.660 has some sort of extra strength or makes it impossible for you to conquer it through Christ, 0.79

00:06:05.060 But we also need to be reminded of God's commands regarding sexuality in an effort to hedge against the culture's ability to make you comfortable with the activities that no Christian should be comfortable with. 0.68

00:06:20.560 And I just want to make it clear to you guys, we are being slowly cooked in this culture.

00:06:29.700 As a frog or a lobster sits in water and doesn't realize it's being cooked, so are we when it comes to becoming comfortable with the sexual issues of today.

00:06:47.400 And I'll explain it this way.

00:06:49.420 We live in a pornographic culture. 0.98

00:06:52.860 You know, modesty has been shunned for men and women.

00:06:57.200 Nudity, sensuality, promiscuity, sexual activity, it just surrounds us in every possible format that can be imagined.

00:07:07.640 In fact, we have, as modern individuals, the most graphic sexual content on earth right in our pockets 24-7 by way of our phones.

00:07:20.420 And we have to realize that the devil has worked very hard to make sexual immorality not only accessible in the culture, but also justifiable and celebrated in the culture.

00:07:35.020 You know, we're even seeing the sexualization of children. We saw that big issue with Netflix's series, I think it was called Cuties, right?

00:07:46.320 We're seeing even the media and celebrity world accommodate pedophilia and other forms of things that you would never even imagine, forms of sexual deviancy that would have been just so outside of the realm of mental capacity even 50 years ago or 100 years ago,

00:08:10.100 are now entering into articles and into the halls of the greatest universities on earth

00:08:19.340 and are being, they're manufacturing an appetite in the culture for these things.

00:08:29.540 They're legitimizing things that we should never legitimize.

00:08:34.360 Every movie and TV show has premarital sex, homosexual references, 0.57

00:08:39.320 transgender-approving or suggestive content. 0.84

00:08:42.360 I mean, ultimately, again, sexual deviancy has run rampant in our culture, 0.87

00:08:47.560 and the enemy is working diligently to make us, as Christians and just mankind,

00:08:55.720 to be at peace with it all.

00:08:58.520 But what I want to say is that we cannot be at peace with sin.

00:09:03.800 Sin is God's enemy. Sin is our enemy. And sexual sin is specifically dangerous to our bodies. I'll

00:09:15.560 talk about some scripture regarding that in a moment. Actually, let's just dive into it now,

00:09:22.920 because it just is a great connection. In writing to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul

00:09:28.360 Paul pens these words in 1 Corinthians 6, 18 through 20.

00:09:34.360 He says, flee immorality.

00:09:38.080 And the conversation is about sexuality, but flee.

00:09:43.100 Some will even say flee fornication in your translation.

00:09:47.520 I'm reading out of the NASB, but it says flee immorality.

00:09:51.860 Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.

00:10:03.100 And again, the conversation is about sexual immorality.

00:10:05.800 If you read in the ESV, it'll probably say, flee sexual immorality.

00:10:09.780 Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral man sins against his own body.

00:10:14.700 Or do you not know, it says in the next verse, this is a rhetorical question,

00:10:18.820 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have

00:10:26.800 from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price.

00:10:35.660 Therefore, glorify God in your body. Now I'm going to read just one more passage from 1 Corinthians

00:10:45.040 6, I'm going to try to offer a brief explanation, just some supporting content, and then I'm just

00:10:52.860 going to close this episode out with just an important point. And this is, again, also from

00:10:59.340 1 Corinthians 6. It's just a few verses earlier. So we just read verses 18 and 19, which is the

00:11:04.940 very end of that chapter. I'm going to go back to chapter 6, verses 9 through 11. And again,

00:11:13.480 I'm reading in the NASB. It says in a rhetorical question here again,

00:11:19.020 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived,

00:11:28.000 neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, 0.99

00:11:36.040 nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 0.99

00:11:42.460 Such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in

00:11:50.980 the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God. So again, first, Paul uses

00:11:58.200 these rhetorical questions, right? He asked this question, or do you not know that the unrighteous

00:12:03.300 will not inherit the kingdom of God? Well, the answer is an obvious yes. I do know that. I do

00:12:10.220 know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. And he gives all these examples

00:12:17.140 of unrighteous behavior. And he wants us to see the eternal weight of sin. And specifically,

00:12:27.900 this chapter deals with sexual sin. So I'm going to say that he wants us to see the eternal weight

00:12:32.600 of sexual immorality. Essentially, he tells us that people who are fornicators, who are 0.91

00:12:43.600 adulterers, who are homosexuals, who are drunkards, who are revilers, who are these people, 0.99

00:12:50.760 that means that they are walking in these things. They are habitually participating in these sinful 1.00

00:12:59.460 acts. And these are, again, in reference to people that walk this way are not born again.

00:13:08.600 And we know that because he says, such were some of you, right? He's referencing people who are

00:13:15.580 not born again, who are walking in this way. And he's saying, you're not this way. You were washed,

00:13:22.500 you were sanctified, you were justified. Now we know that, I think it's Thomas Watson who said,

00:13:28.320 in the born-again believer, sin remains. But in the born-again believer, sin will not reign.

00:13:36.420 And so there's a little bit of distinction that we need to make here is that

00:13:39.460 born-again Christians will fall and stumble into sexual immorality, but it will not reign, 0.53

00:13:46.460 and it will not rule them. And there's a difference between them and the people who 0.99

00:13:52.080 are the fornicators and who are adulterers. They are practicing, that is, they are getting better

00:13:57.340 at it. They are improving. They are carnal. They are walking in it and see no problem with it at

00:14:03.120 all. And what I want to talk about is he makes this massive statement that these people are not

00:14:13.000 going to inherit the kingdom of God, which is, again, just another way of saying that individuals

00:14:18.640 walking this way unrepentantly, without believing in Christ, who are actively participating in such

00:14:25.600 behavior will be condemned to hell. And that's what that passage is saying.

00:14:32.140 And he also issues in 18 to 20, the passage that we read earlier, a simple command to Christians

00:14:40.240 really who have stumbled. And I want to talk about this for a second.

00:14:45.920 He says, flee sexual immorality. And this is a strong command here. The word in the Greek

00:14:55.120 is fiugate. And it's a present tense verb. And this means it's describing really habitual or

00:15:03.560 ongoing fleeing. It's like, keep on fleeing. Don't just flee one time, but constantly be fleeing

00:15:11.480 sexual immorality. And this is vital because again, we live in a culture that keeps bringing

00:15:17.020 sexual immorality closer and closer to us. It's encroaching upon us in every possible way. And

00:15:24.480 As I said earlier, the enemy has made it incredibly accessible to our lives.

00:15:29.120 But while it's placed all around us, and it's integrated into every possible facet of your daily life,

00:15:36.460 the command is, again, the same.

00:15:38.340 It's flee it.

00:15:39.280 Get away from it, which, again, is difficult in our world.

00:15:42.840 It's all around us.

00:15:44.720 It's on the TVs.

00:15:45.920 It's on the radio.

00:15:47.880 It's on your iPad.

00:15:50.080 It's on your iPhone.

00:15:51.180 It's on your laptop.

00:15:51.980 It's in an ad that pops up. 0.52

00:15:55.220 It's women walking around this way and men walking around another way.

00:16:00.120 And there's just constant bombardment of sexual temptation all around us.

00:16:08.680 And I just want to have a question for you.

00:16:12.020 And I want you to ask yourselves these questions.

00:16:14.820 Are you looking at pornography?

00:16:16.740 Are you having lustful thoughts about somebody who's not your spouse?

00:16:26.680 Are you sleeping with your boyfriend or girlfriend?

00:16:30.080 Are you cheating on your wife or your husband?

00:16:32.700 Are you sexting with another person?

00:16:35.320 Are you having a work wife or a work husband that's not really your spouse? 0.52

00:16:39.980 Are you in a sexually deviant relationship?

00:16:43.580 Are you flirting with other people that aren't your spouse?

00:16:47.240 Are you dressing in a sexually suggestive manner?

00:16:49.940 Are you watching sexually saturated movies?

00:16:53.620 Are you okay with the sex scenes that are in the movies that you're watching and the shows that you're watching?

00:16:59.280 Are you listening to songs about sexual acts?

00:17:02.220 Again, the command is the same.

00:17:06.700 It's flee from it.

00:17:08.580 Do what you would do if Christ was sitting right next to you during those moments.

00:17:12.280 because he is. God is everywhere watching you, understanding, looking at your heart,

00:17:18.980 looking at your actions. And all these sexual expressions are simply fruits of the same sinful

00:17:26.980 root. It all leads back down to the core heart. It's sexual immorality. It's away from God's design

00:17:35.620 for marriage and sexuality.

00:17:39.500 We have to remember, as Christians,

00:17:40.880 we simply, God has given us

00:17:44.240 just one valid expression of our sexuality.

00:17:49.080 And in scripture, it's between a man and a woman.

00:17:53.960 And all other sexual formats are condemned.

00:17:57.740 That's the expression that we have.

00:18:00.160 And there is freedom within that marriage relationship

00:18:03.400 that you can have sexual character and style and enjoyment

00:18:10.980 as long as it doesn't violate the conscience and the heart of your spouse.

00:18:20.540 But generally speaking, that is the only valid expression that we have 0.97

00:18:26.620 is to be with a spouse of the opposite sex. 0.97

00:18:34.580 And so, if you're walking in sexual sin,

00:18:38.860 what I want you to do is I want you to flee from it.

00:18:42.160 I want you to do what Scripture says.

00:18:43.660 I want you to repent and return to your obedience to Christ,

00:18:47.500 your Savior, the one whom your body is owned.

00:18:52.380 He bought you and paid for you with a price,

00:18:54.860 with his own blood. And I don't care if you have to quit your job to get away from the temptation.

00:19:02.280 I don't care if you have to move out of your boyfriend or girlfriend's house. I don't care

00:19:07.000 if you need to stop watching your favorite show. I don't care if you need to buy new clothes to

00:19:11.960 meet with your modest convictions. I don't care if you need to confess your sin to your wife or

00:19:18.140 your husband. Do whatever it takes to flee from sexual immorality. And for those who don't,

00:19:29.740 it means that you just keep on walking in sexual immorality. You keep pursuing that

00:19:35.580 without conviction, without change. You might feel bad about it,

00:19:41.780 mostly because you feel guilty for it.

00:19:46.740 You might dislike the way it makes you feel after you've done it,

00:19:51.800 but you keep on doing it because you actually love the sin.

00:19:56.940 That's the only reason we keep on doing the same thing over and over and over again

00:20:01.720 is because we love it.

00:20:03.060 We don't do things over and over and over again that we truly hate.

00:20:07.980 We do those things that we're enslaved to.

00:20:12.580 And the bigger question, if you're one of these people that just keeps on doing it,

00:20:18.280 becomes is, and I would ask yourself this, is why am I participating, or I should say,

00:20:24.160 not why am I participating in sexual morality, but how have I been able to do so for so long

00:20:30.120 without the conviction of the Holy Spirit compelling me to stop?

00:20:35.260 That's an important question for you to ask. Stephen Lawson says, and I quote this statement

00:20:40.440 all the time. The only thing worse than not having the assurance of salvation is having the false

00:20:46.600 assurance of salvation. True born-again Christians are not slaves to sin, but slaves to Christ.

00:20:56.840 Again, we will have our moments of stumbling, but we will not stay in that mud, enjoy that mud,

00:21:04.600 continue to go back to that mud. We will continue to walk forward towards Christ because we have

00:21:09.680 the conviction of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, helping us, supporting us, sanctifying us,

00:21:14.640 making us more like Christ, and we will conquer that sin through Him.

00:21:20.160 If that is not true of your life, if you are a slave to sexual immorality and you find yourself

00:21:28.820 in a position where you cannot stop, but you think that you're a Christian or you call yourself a

00:21:37.180 Christian. It's not just a matter of obedience. It's time to be set free. It's time to repent

00:21:42.740 and trust in Christ alone to earn that righteous verdict that you cannot earn on your own on

00:21:49.340 judgment day. It's to put all your hope and faith in him. It's to turn away from your sin

00:21:54.740 and turn to him and let him free you from sexual immorality.

00:22:01.220 Heath Lambert said a really important quote, and I'll close with this. He says,

00:22:10.320 employing radical measures is the path to life, while indulging sin is the path to hell.

00:22:21.840 God does not forbid sexual immorality because he wants you to be miserable.

00:22:26.300 God forbids it because sexual immorality leads to brokenness, sadness, emptiness, death, and hell.

00:22:36.380 People, I know the temptation of sexual immorality.

00:22:43.240 I understand it.

00:22:45.160 I've been there.

00:22:47.580 We need to turn to Christ to not just change our behavior, but change our hearts.

00:22:54.700 To not be better, but to be made new.

00:22:58.580 To change the appetite for sin

00:23:01.580 and to give us an appetite for holiness.

00:23:05.120 This is the prayer that you need to pray.

00:23:08.580 To repent and turn to Christ.

00:23:11.220 To walk away from the darkness and into the light.

00:23:14.400 To not fulfill the desires of the flesh,

00:23:16.380 but to follow the Holy Spirit.

00:23:20.100 And again, as I close, I'm going to offer you guys

00:23:22.760 our program at standinvictory.org. And it's a very affordable program. That program,

00:23:31.340 we've also donated to many people who can't afford it. And there's a way to do that if you

00:23:37.880 are struggling with sin. And if you can't afford it, we do ask that you pay for it so that

00:23:43.620 The people who can't afford it can be covered, and if that's you, we would love to have you

00:23:53.560 at our program where we talk about the gospel and the promises of Scripture and the promises

00:24:00.320 of Christ to flee us, and again, not just change our behavior, but to change our entire propensity

00:24:07.520 towards sin through the indwelling of the Spirit and the sanctification of our souls.

00:24:16.320 And so, my prayer for you guys is to be free from this. And I'm going to pray for that now,

00:24:22.780 and then we'll close. Father, Lord, we ask that you would help anyone who's listening who is

00:24:29.840 struggling to break free from the bondage of sexual immorality. Lord, that they would turn

00:24:35.920 away from their personal passions and desires and trade them in for your passions and desires.

00:24:44.280 Father, that they would hate their sin as much as you hate their sin. And Father, that they would

00:24:50.500 see the holiness of God. And Lord, that they would give up what is so small for what is so large,

00:25:02.580 the kingdom of God. Lord, we pray for willingness and for a desire of repentance. And Father, that

00:25:12.680 you would bring life to people who would be willing to come to you in prayer, in repentance,

00:25:21.200 and in belief and faith in you, Father. Lord, we ask for strength. We ask for wisdom in the matters

00:25:28.740 of handling the departure from these things.

00:25:31.920 We ask for a boldness and willingness to confess our sin,

00:25:35.820 not only to you, God, but those that we sinned against.

00:25:39.760 But Father, we thank you so much

00:25:41.580 that you have offered us a way of freedom,

00:25:44.620 not just for eternity with you,

00:25:46.560 but Father, freedom from the bondage of sin

00:25:48.640 that we live in today as fallen human beings.

00:25:53.040 Lord, we thank you for the gospel.

00:25:54.860 In Jesus' name, amen.

00:25:56.120 Well, thank you for joining us on this episode of Real Christianity.

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00:26:20.700 many of you do now.

00:26:22.600 We thank you for that.

00:26:23.680 You can always do so at relearn.org.

00:26:26.120 forward slash donate. On that note, thank you for joining me on this episode of Real

00:26:32.180 Christianity. My name is Dale Partridge, and I'll see you next week.

00:26:56.120 the idea of joining or planting a church in your home, you can download our free PDF ebook titled

00:27:01.060 The Basics of Biblical House Church by visiting relearn.org forward slash house. Lastly, do you

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00:27:11.280 relearn.org forward slash question. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Real Christianity.

00:27:16.660 We will see you next Wednesday.

00:27:26.120 You

Dale Partridge - June 23, 2021

Real Christianity #151： The Sin That Burns Down Homes

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