Sunday Sermons
Godliness is Great Gain
“But godliness actually is a means of great gain, when
accompanied by contentment” (1 Timothy 6:6)
My purpose in this lesson is for us to rediscover the tremendous gain and benefit, both in this life and in eternity of choosing the path of moral purity, holiness and godliness.
Do not forfeit what could be
The world attempts to convince us that the person who chooses the path of purity and holiness is the one who will miss out and who is making all the big sacrifices. Yet Scripture informs us that not choosing this path means one has decided to make the huge sacrifice, that this, swapping God’s present and future blessings for a temporary pleasure that can never satisfy. “To one degree or another, every sinner trades what they have – and could have had – for a lie” (The Purity Principle, Randy Alcorn, p. 12). Consider the following verse, “Those who regard vain idols forsake their faithfulness” (Jonah 2:8). “Those who follow the emptiness and impotency of idolatry do so at the price of their only source of mercy and kindness. Jonah had followed his own way instead of God’s and had come to a sad end” (Hailey p. 74). Thus the idea is that in yielding to this temptation they do not gain anything, but have just made a huge sacrifice; they forfeit the grace, mercy and blessings that could be theirs. So when we are being tempted we need to remember we are being pressured to trade future blessings and happiness for a momentary pleasure; we are being asked to make a huge sacrifice!
A tale of two men
Proverbs 5:15-15 – The faithful husband, the man who remains pure, can rejoice and be captivated by his wife’s love.
Proverbs 6:27-29 – The unfaithful husband, the adulterer, destroys all chances of happiness in his life (6:32-33).
Purity is Smart/Impurity is Foolish
Not only is purity always right and impurity is always wrong, but even more, purity is always smart and impurity is always foolish (Proverbs 6:32). Purity is not sometimes smart or usually smart, rather it is always smart. “Always. You are not an exception. I am not an exception. There are no exceptions” (Alcorn p. 16).
Purity is Rewarded/Impurity is always Punished
Actions that violate the character of God are always punished, “And be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23). This does not mean that the sinner is always immediately punished; rather it means that “the punishment is built into the sin. Shame, degradation, and warping of the personality follow as a matter of course” (Alcorn p. 16). Consider a couple of passages along this line, “Wounds and disgrace he will find” (Proverbs 6:33); “Receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error” (Romans 1:27); “For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life” (Galatians 6:8).
“God is not mocked” (Galatians 6:7): “Many people are deceived concerning this inexorable law of seedtime and harvest. They sow their seeds thoughtlessly, nonchalantly, and blind themselves to the fact that the seeds they sow will inevitably produce a corresponding harvest. Or they sow seed of one kind and expect to reap a harvest of another. They imagine that somehow they can get away with it” (Stott p. 166). The idea here is that in the end God is not the one who is going to look like a fool. There will be no exceptions to this sowing and reaping verse. One writer noted, “Addicts always think they can get away with it. You won’t change until you realize you can’t” (Alcorn p. 21). We should equally remember that the above verse was written not to merely terrify us, rather, it was written for our sake. God wants me to remember that sin will always hurt me and that purity will always help me. This is written for the sake of my earthly and eternal happiness.
Forgotten Consequences and Blessings:
We often focus in on heaven and hell, the ultimate reward and punishment and forget that this life is filled with rewards and punishments:
Holiness Impurity
Patience Impatience
Grateful for what you have Angry concerning what you don’t have
Peace Drama
Contentment Restlessness
Satisfaction The inability to be pleased
Purity is Superior Satisfaction
The devil has attempted over the centuries to market impurity and sin as bringing with them a superior level of pleasure, thrills and chills. The truth is that purity and holiness brings the more intense pleasures. The only pleasure associated with sin is temporary and superficial (Hebrews 11:25). “The fire of lust’s pleasures must be fought with the fire of God’s pleasures. If we try to fight the fire of lust with prohibitions and threats alone – even the terrible warnings of Jesus – we will fail. We must fight it with a massive promise of superior happiness. We must swallow up the little flicker of lust’s pleasure in the conflagration of holy satisfaction” (Future Grace, John Piper p. 336).
So often the Bible only presents two paths in life and such is equally true concerning pleasure. We only have two choices:
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Opt for pleasures that never satisfy and continue to plunge into sin in search of what is not there (John 4:13). Every sinner can testify that sin never satisfies, “everyone who drinks from this water shall thirst again”.
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Opt for the pleasures that come from following Christ and find real and full satisfaction (John 4:14).
The Steps to Purity and Impurity
Holiness does not happen by accident and neither does temptation. Sometimes people will say something like, “That temptation happened without warning”. “The truth is, sin never comes out of the blue. It is the predictable result of natural processes. Tomorrow’s character is made out of today’s thoughts. Temptation may come suddenly, but sin doesn’t. Neither does moral and spiritual fiber (2 Peter 1:5-11). Both result from a process over which we do have control. We become what we think. We forge our sexual morality through an ongoing series of choices and actions, including tiny indulgences and minuscule compromises. The eye lingers here, the mind loiters there” (Alcorn p. 41). So before we say, “Where did that temptation or thought come from”, we need to say, “It came from my choices this week”.
Carefully look at the bottom rungs of the ladder
While adultery and other such sins would be the top rung of the ladder, such things do no happen by chance or accident. The real question is, “What are the bottom rungs of the ladder that lead up to such things?” “Often we say we want purity, but then we make choices that sabotage purity” (Alcorn p. 43).
Bottom Rungs
Holiness Impurity
Bible study A mind set on worthless things
Prayer Focus on the world
Worship Worshipping self and pleasure
Counting my blessings Self-pity
Unselfishness Self-absorption
Serving others Wanting to be served
With Christians Loneliness
Encouraged Discouraged
Accepted Rejected
Fearing God Afraid
Salvation is an emergency Pleasure is the emergency
“I can’t live without God” “I can’t live without…”
This lifetime is my only chance for holiness
“Be holy yourselves also in all your behavior” (1 Peter 1:15).
Instead of thinking that without some earthly pleasure I am going to die, I need to realize that the emergency, the thing that has to happen, the thing I cannot delay, is my own purity. From other Bible passages it is obvious that death will not instantly transform the impure into the pure, or the ungodly into the godly (Luke 16:30). This means that this lifetime is my only chance at becoming a man or woman with a pure mind.
