Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
"TRUST
IN THE LIVING GOD, WHO GIVETH US RICHLY ALL THINGS TO ENJOY."
1Timothy
6:17
Lesson: Sin does not come from things; it comes only from the hearts of people.
After about 1600 years following God's creation of mankind, life on earth had become utterly unbearable. "The wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil, continually." The sons of men, surrendering themselves to their natural, sinful impulses, had taken every beautiful thing God had created for them and had twisted it all into something ignoble and shameful.
This twisted, warped view of life still motivates men today. It is what every man still suffers through as he lives on this earth, and it is what all men are still influenced by until Jesus liberates a man's weak and confused spirit from the spirits of this age! Jesus has to break down the fortress of our hard bondage to our own wills in order to give us a new way to look at the things God has created; otherwise, we are hopelessly lost. Jesus must create in us the vision God had of His creation when He first created it, or we remain in a fallen, perverse state.
The closest thing my father ever had to a real pastor was an old saint named Brother Hunnings. As a young believer, he learned many wonderful things from that older and wiser man. Not long after my father was converted, he and Brother Hunnings were walking past a ball field where some young people were playing. Those young people were not dressed modestly, according to the standard of holiness that the saints taught at that time, and my father, laboring to avoid sin, turned his head so as not to soil his soul by looking at those indecently dressed young people. But then he heard Brother Hunnings softly murmuring praises to God as they passed by, and when he glanced up at Brother Hunnings, he saw the older saint staring in admiration at the beautiful bodies of those young people, praising God for the strong, healthy arms and legs. He was not hiding his eyes at all! God had opened his heart to the beauty of His creation, and my father, young at that time, learned the lesson that Paul so wanted God's people to understand: "Unto the pure all things all pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled."
When you are pure, you see creation as God saw it in the beginning. Just as a sinful person can produce nothing but what he is, so he can see nothing except from his sinful point of view. Jesus said, "Sin proceeds from the heart of man", but you can truly understand his words only when sin no longer proceeds from your heart. You cannot believe that sin comes only from the heart of man as long as sin still proceeds from yours. And when you cannot understand that truth, the good things God has given you "richly to enjoy" are tainted by your unbelief, and you cannot fully enjoy them because of your own guilty feelings. Many a guilty soul thinks he sees sin in things that are around him, and condemns those things as evil, but nothing is either pure or sinful of itself; only people are. A frustrated Jesus pleaded with his followers to try to understand this.
He told the multitude plainly that NOTHING of this earth that enters into a man defiles him. This is true because nothing in itself is evil. God plainly said that everything He created was good (Gen. 1). Marijuana is neither a good or a bad plant. It is people's use or abuse of its particular properties that is either good or evil. Liquor is neither a good or an evil liquid. Tobacco is neither a good or evil plant. It is people's use or abuse of such things that is either good or evil. Jesus told those who followed him that only what comes out of a man defiles a man (Mt. 15:10-11). It is what people intend in their hearts, not the things they use, that is either good or evil. This is a most important lesson to learn. It is a lesson that will keep you safe from hypocritical religious leaders who seem holy when they condemn things as being evil instead of showing men how to have their hearts purged from sin to serve Christ in "the newness of life." Remember Paul's words: "Unto the pure, all things are pure. But unto them that are defiled and unbelieving, is nothing pure. Even their mind and conscience is defiled" (Tit. 1:15).
Consider these lessons of the past three days:
(1) People's
hearts make deeds either good or evil. (2-25)
(2) We can only reproduce
what we really are. (2-26)
(3) Sin does not come from things; it comes
only from the hearts of people. (2-27)
Our next lesson will be on the subject of marital intimacy and physical pleasure, and with these lessons as a background, you will be able to understand God's intentions when He created such things for us.