- Live to Please God through Jesus Christ.
- Sexual Promiscuity is not God’s Way.
- God Leads us into Holiness.
Live to Please God through Jesus Christ.
The instructions given to me on how to please God are in the Bible. It involves God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. When I come to God through Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit becomes a part of my life. The Holy Spirit gives me a thirst to read the Bible, to be more like Jesus Christ, and to give reverence to God. The Holy Spirit leads me to be shaped into the image of Christ through the process of sanctification. That is what I, and all believers, should do more and more of.
There is an internal presence that opposes the Godly instructions that we are given. It forms a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in a way that opposes the process of sanctification. It has decided that it will use the human body according to its own purpose. It sets itself up as God, tosses out Jesus Christ, and considers its internal presence a replacement for the Holy Spirit. It is the mark of the beast.
“As for other matters, brothers and sisters,
1 Thessalonians 4:1-2
we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living.
Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.
For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.”
Sexual Promiscuity is not God’s Way.
Sexual activity is closely related to creating the right public image. One of the major reasons for closing down the motorcycle rodeo, in my hometown, was because of the sexual activity there. Law enforcement and the city council decided that there were just too many arrests being made for public sex acts (within the rodeo boundaries). Along with that, residents were constantly complaining about the condoms that their children were finding laying around when cleaning up the fairgrounds (within the rodeo boundaries). Naturally, the residents of the city gave a standing ovation when the rodeo was shut down and sexual immorality was conquered.
Sexual immorality isn’t conquered, it is harnessed. It is harnessed by the internal presence that governs through the mark of the beast. Sex acts are still thriving at the workplace, in the churches, by unmarried people “shacking up,” by changing “marriage” partners,” etc. In America, over 450 million condoms are sold in a year at about 45 cents each. Not to mention other contraceptives and birth control devices and pills. Every day, the sexual promiscuity of politicians, Hollywood actors, athletes, teachers, students, etc. are highlighted in the news. Those who live by the mark of the beast engage in sexual immorality. The internal presence is basically saying that the only way that sexual activity is going to be approved is by accepting the mark of the beast.
For those of us who live for God through Jesus Christ, sexual immorality is not to be done. Not in the style of the motorcycle rodeo nor under the approval of the inner government of the mark of the beast. Sexual activity in the style of the rodeo is asking for trouble from the system that governs by the mark of the beast. Having sex by the permission given through the internal government is in the crosshairs of God’s judgment. Consent does not sanctify sexual immorality, not the consent of another partner, nor the consent that comes through the internal government. Consent comes by God through Jesus Christ who sanctifies coupling through the Holy Spirit, one woman with one man for life.
Being a Christian does not give us a right to have sex with other Christians simply because we share faith in Jesus Christ. Fellow Christians should not be taken advantage of for sexual gratification. That is what those who live by the mark of the beast does between themselves. To the contrary, we are called and predestined to be shaped into the image of Jesus Christ.
“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified:
1 Thessalonians 4:3-6
that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to
control your own body in a way that is Holy and honorable,
not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God;
and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister.
The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins,
as we told you and warned you before.”
God Leads us into Holiness.
The internal presence of the mark of the beast is operating through the sinful nature of human beings. Although it forms thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, it is not doing one itty bitty thing to create a right spirit within a person. It rejects the notion that sins need to be atoned for and it steadily eliminates the Gospel of Christ from the world. Everyone who lives by the mark of the beast is rejecting God which is the same as rejecting the Holy Spirit. God calls us to live a life in the Holy Spirit which is ours when we choose to live for Jesus. That is how a Holy Life is lived.
“For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a Holy life.
1 Thessalonians 4:7-8
Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction
does not reject a human being but God,
the very God who gives you His Holy Spirit.”
Spiritual Society in Jesus Christ 