Hi Doves,So many have been misled to believe that all that is required of them, to be righteous and holy, is to "claim" the holiness and righteousness of Christ!
This has led to so many in the Church to cast off self restraint.
The Word tells us that if we don't live holy lives the Lord will chasten us, because we are His sons and daughters!
"For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives ... Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?
"For they [our natural fathers] indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He [Our Heavenly Father] for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness." (Heb.12:6,9,10)
Many of the hardships we go through in life are as a result of the Lord's chastening.
The Lord wants us to partake of His holiness, and if necessary, He will chastise us.
But how do we really know we are partakers of His holiness?
It's quiet simple.
It's by being sexually pure.
For we read,
"...This is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from fornication...that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such..." (1Thess.4:3,6)
Paul is saying that young men, who are not married, shouldn't be in sexual relations with women who are potentially the wives of others.
I remember reading an article that on average, young men and women have at least 7 sexual partners before they settle down to marry!
It's not much different in the Church!
You would expect it to be, but it's not.
Paul is saying that single young men are to abstain from the uncleanness of fornication and are to practise the holiness of self restraint.
"For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness." (1Thess.4:7)
They are to practise self-restraint for one reason only - love for their brothers in Christ.
The same would apply to Christian women.
They are also to practise self-restraint for one reason only - love for their sisters in Christ.
There is no getting round it.
The Lord has linked our holiness to our sexual behaviour.
So many Christians are going into the great tribulation because they are commiting fornication, others are in unlawful marriages, which are adulterous.
"...Fornicators and adulterers God will judge [chastise] " (Heb.13:4)
We further read,
"Now the body is not for sexual immorality [that is the uncleanness of fornication and adultery] but for the Lord [ that is the holiness of marriage or abstinence]...And God...will raise us up by His power." (1Cor.6:13,14)
Notice how Paul connects the resurrection/rapture to our sexual behaviour!
In addition to sexual purity we must practise His righteousness.
"Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful nevertheless, after-ward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. [that is, by chastisement] " Heb.12:11
Many in the Church today are claiming a holiness and a righteousness they simply don't have.
They've been told to claim it by faith and then by some invisible process it's applied to them.
This is a doctrine from the pit of hell.
Many in the Church today have hardened their hearts and stubbornly resist the Lord's chastisement, as a result they continue to bring forth unrighteousness.
They have been deceived into believing as long as they "claim" the righteousness and holiness of Christ, they are OK.
In reality they are not.
"Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived."
"Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals...will inherit the kingdom of God."
And such were some of you, but you were washed..." (1Cor.6:9-11)
When a person is washed by the Word and the Holy Spirit, he will no it, his family and friends will no it, and most importantly the Lord will no it.
Why?
Because he will live in holiness and practise the righteousness everyone can see!
The clock is ticking!
The Lord is Coming!
May the Lord find us all washed, clean and ready to go!
Ola.