The First Letter of Peter- 9

Subtitle: Our Witness before the World- Part 1

1 Peter 2:11-15.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, January 18, 2026.

In some ways, we can continue to see this passage as Peter talking about all the ways that this new spiritual people are to live out their faith.  However, Peter begins to emphasize the way that our life of faith affects the unbelieving world around us.  This is why I have subtitled this part of the series, “Our Witness before the World.”  This major section of Peter’s letter goes from 1 Peter 2:11-4:11.

Let’s look at our passage.

Abstain from fleshly lusts (v. 11-12)

This small section connects back to an earlier command but also serves to transition into this issue of the world around us.  In chapter 1 verse 14, Peter had challenged them not to be conformed to the former lusts that they had in their ignorance, i.e., before they believed in Jesus.  They had been living for themselves like everyone else in their society.  Now, they are following Jesus and learning to be holy as he is holy.

God’s plan to fix humanity’s sin problem is for us to put our faith in Jesus, live a mortal life fighting sin by faith, and then He will finish the work by Resurrecting us with glorified, heavenly bodies.  Of course, the world is feverishly trying to come up with a different plan.  Ultimately, it is taking us down a path of trying to overcome every obstacle of creation in order to perfect ourselves.  At the root of the human problem is the idea that God cannot be trusted.  His creation cannot be trusted.  We must do it for ourselves!  Instead of accepting the grace of God’s help, we choose to try and make “god” ourselves.  This will not end well.  Imagine the hubris of thinking that fallen mortals can make a perfect immortal.

Chapter 1 ended with the metaphor of an imperishable seed.  Humans are like grass, here today and gone tomorrow.  However, the Word of the Lord endures forever.  We have entered into this mortal grass-existence.  However, by faith in Jesus, we can participate in the immortal and imperishable existence of Jesus, the Word of God.

This led to the beginning of chapter two where Peter tells us to lay aside things like malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander.  These are specific lusts.

This brings us back to verse 11.  Lusts are strong, heated desires that have their source in our body.  We cannot let these strong desires rule over us.  Thus, Peter tells us to abstain from them.  In English, the idea of abstaining is often seen in voting.  A person can vote “yea,” or “nay,” or they can refuse to vote, abstain from voting.  This can be out of protest, or it can be out of protecting future opportunities. 

Regardless, the Greek word that it is used to translate literally means to have these lust away from yourself.  It ties in with the idea of taking off the deeds of the flesh and putting on the character of Christ.  In fact, Paul gives quite the list in Galatians 5:19-21.  He tells us that they are obvious.

Notice that Peter urges them to do this.  The New King James Version says “I beg you…”  Peter feels strongly about this.  The word pictures one who calls you to their side in order to exhort you strongly about something.

He also tells them to abstain from fleshly lusts like foreigners and exiles.  This image was used earlier as well.  He is not just using this image of the Jews among them.  He is also speaking to the Gentiles.  You may be in your homeland but to put your faith in Jesus is to choose to be a part of the exiles of Christ.  We become strangers in a land that is familiar to us.

This is one of the classic tests of character.  A person who is in a place where no one knows them can be tempted to do as the Romans (when in Rome…).  This is a common way for a spouse to take their first step of unfaithfulness.

We recognize that all of humanity is in exile from God.  But in Jesus, we become exiles with a promise of a promised land.  God is in the business of bringing people out of exile into His Promised Land.

We can be blind to all the ways that our culture is pulling us away from Christ, so Peter has focused on fleshly lusts.

Peter also describes these fleshly lusts as waging war against our soul.  This is a war of possession.  Your flesh wants control of you.  It will be all about the pursuit of satisfying its urges.  However, Jesus has called us to take a stand against it. He stated in Luke 21:19, “By your perseverance, take possession of your souls.”  If you let your flesh and its strong desires win, then you will find yourself in bondage to it.  The longer this goes on the harder it will be to break this bondage.  Yet, all things are possible with God!

The lusts of our flesh can wear us down.  We can grow weary of denying them and casting them aside.  On top of this, the world around us cajoles us, even badgers us, towards living a life of satisfying our lusts.

This internal battle will have an outward effect, which he turns to next.

“Keep your behavior excellent among the nations.”  The inner battle leads to external behavior, or conduct.  This is seen and even experienced by the world, the nations, in which we live.  This is really the same command with parallel language.

What is excellent behavior?  Peter clearly means excellent by God’s definition and not by the definition of the world around you.  This word excellent has the idea of good as well as a moral good.  It is connected to beauty.  Can we live in a way that is beautiful and morally good to God?  Jesus is the pattern and the help for us to do so.

They are to do this in the face of slander.  Early Christians were slandered a lot, whether ignorantly or maliciously.  Some of the slanders were as follows:

1. Communion was often described as a ritual of eating the flesh and drinking the flesh of babies.
2. Their times of communion involved a meal called the love feast.  It was common to claim that these were nothing more than orgies (gluttony on food and sexual immorality). 
3. Christians were accused of being antisocial because they didn’t participate in the entertainments of the culture.
4. They were also accused of being atheists because they didn’t worship all of the gods.

Such slanders are done because they tend to be effective upon weak people.  It can affect some by causing them to be angry and respond in an unchristian way.  It affects others by stirring fear in their heart.  The fleshly lust of being accepted, approved by others, can lead us away from Christ and into the world.

Christians should not be quick to believe statements about others that we have not personally observed.  Of course, we shouldn’t overly defend people that we do not know either.  Have you noticed that we are a society that is pushed to and fro by slanders and libels galore?  This is a part of the sinful culture in which we live.  Can I continue to abstain from fleshly lusts when others around me deploy them against me?

No matter how the world describes our actions, we are to live out the excellent behavior that Christ leads us to do.  Like the good Samaritan, we do the right thing whether others do or not. 

Again, they may malign us, but here is the main thing.  Peter says that they will observe our good deeds.  Have you ever thought that God gives us sacrificial things to do in order to get the attention of the world and to be a witness to it?  They need to see us doing Christ-like things!  They may be perplexed at why you don’t do what they do, and they may even be angry that you are not like them.  Yet, they will see us doing the righteousness of Christ nonetheless.

Peter then says that they will glorify God in the day of visitation.  This visible evidence of the work of God’s Spirit within us will have an effect one way or another.

The day of visitation mentioned here simply means a day when God shows up, whether for good or bad.  This can be contemplated in the ultimate sense when all the wicked are brought before Jesus for judgment.  How will they glorify God then?  They will recognize in the moment that they were wrong and that we were right.  As they declare that Jesus is Lord, they are also declaring that His work in us was true.

It is also possible to see the day of visitation in regard to the times that the Spirit of God touches a person’s heart and mind.  This visitation of grace begs the question.  What will you do with this Jesus?  When we demonstrate the goodness of Christ to a sinful world, some of them may glorify God by putting their faith in Jesus at a later date.  This is the best revenge upon enemies.  Show them Jesus and give them the opportunity to become a part of the new spiritual people of God, a brother!

Submit to every human institution (v. 13-15)

Peter now focuses particularly upon human authority structures in our lives.  These people were not under the authority of these United States of America.  They were under the Roman Empire and the Roman Emperor, Caesar.  This was a dictatorship with local governors and magistrates serving the purposes of Caesar.

We have talked about this word “submit” in the past.  It refers to taking your proper place under a particular authority.  It does not mean to obey every command.  This is exampled by Peter and the apostles in Acts 5.  They were told by the authorities to stop teaching about Jesus.  Peter stated, “We must obey God rather than men.”  How did they take their proper place under authority?  They did not obey the command that was contrary to God, but they did submit to the arrests and beatings.  They did not use the arrogance of these human authorities as a justification for fighting back with weapons.  In fact, we saw this during the arrest of Jesus.  Jesus had done exactly what God had commanded him to do.  However, he submitted to their arrest.

We are not going to fix the authorities of this world through revolution, swords, and guns.  Christians are not called to be purposefully rebelling against authorities.  However, we are not called to blind obedience to them either.  We are called to be like Christ, to share his Gospel.  We image the good Character of Christ.  What they do with us between them and Christ.

The Roman Empire no longer exists today.  That is the judgment of Jesus Christ!  And, if we are not careful, the judgment of Jesus Christ may cause the United States of America to no longer exist. 

The only thing that can fix the authorities is for enough of this Republic to repent, trust the Word of God in Jesus, and to live out that faith boldly.  In truth, to submit to the human authorities is to submit to the authority of Jesus.

In all of this, we must be led by the Holy Spirit.  Men like Jeremiah were accused of not submitting to the government because they didn’t like what he was saying.  Jeremiah did what he did for the Lord.  This is what Peter means when he says for us to submit “for the Lord’s sake.”  We can be led by God to be a rebuke to authorities all the while staying in proper submission to the authority they have.

We may not feel like doing this, but we do it for Jesus.  Jesus is King over Ceasar, over the POTUS, over any leader of a nation today.  We may ask why God let’s some of them do wicked things.  It is because He gives people time to see the error of their ways, to see His people living righteously in spite of their evil.  Yet, in the end, Jesus does judge these nations.  Do you not realize that most nations today are less than 200 years old?  As these United States of America approach 250 years since our formation, we should do so with great humility and repentance.

Regardless of the level of the authority, we respect the command of Christ.  These authorities are responsible for punishing evildoers and praising those who do right.  They may do a horrible job at this.  They may even have totally corrupted the processes that were set up to ensure this.  Yet, God will have the final word.

We are not under the Roman Empire.  The average American does not understand how authority works in this Republic.  We tend to believe that the citizens have the least authority, then the cities and counties, then the States, and finally, the Federal government is the top authority.  Those who crafted the wording of the Constitution would be perplexed at how ignorant we are in these matters.

If you think of authority as a sphere of operation, then we can recognize that a man and woman would have authority over their home and what happens in it.  This is a sphere in which the State and the federal government had no authority.  These other groups may have more power than you and can abuse that power, but in the end, they have no authority over your home.

They did not see the federal government as above or below the State governments.  Some of the powers invested in the States were delegated to the federal government.  It was a delegated authority.  The federal government is the highest authority only in those enumerated spheres that we stipulate in the Constitution.  Anything outside of that is an abuse of power without proper authority.

In those spheres that were not given to the federal government, the States would be the highest authority, but only if the people of those States had given them that sphere of authority in their State constitutions.

All authority is given by We the People through constitutions to our State and federal servants.  If a particular authority is not stipulated in a constitution, then it is retained by the people.

This brings up the question of sovereignty.  Jesus is the capital S Sovereign of these United States.  However, We the People are the little s sovereign of this land.  We need to always be asking who have We the People made to be the proper authority in this area?  We need to also ask, “What is God’s purpose?”

If we are willing to do anything in order to “fix” the government, then we will find it is easier said than done.  This is a spiritual problem not a political problem.  Many evildoers have pushed themselves into our authority structures.  In those structures, they have arrogated powers to themselves that were never properly given them.  Until We the People repent and call our elected servants to heel, corruption and wickedness will rule over the land.  This will only bring the judgment of Christ against this great Republic.

In the end, Peter states that God wants us to submit to the authorities in order to silence the ignorance of foolish men.  Many of these foolish men are not Christians, but some of them are.  Those who do not accept the truth of the authority of Jesus have a vested interest in maligning His Church.  On top of this, certain parts of the Church have not followed this admonition perfectly in the past.

God is teaching this world about righteousness and freedom.  We can work in harmony with that teaching, or we can be at odds with what God is doing through Jesus.

This is where controlling the fleshly lusts can help us.  Much of politics is about manipulating the fleshly lusts of the populace in order to gain power against an opponent.  We can be manipulated to work against our own best interests!  No politician and no political party can fix this land.  Only a repentant people surrendered to the authority of Jesus can be truly set free from the bondage into which they have fallen.  That will transform our society!

Our Witness 1 audio

The First Letter of Peter- 4

Subtitle: A New Spiritual People- part 1

1 Peter 1:13 to 17.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, December 7, 2025.

We transition from the joyful praise of God’s salvation in 1 Peter 1:3-12 to a section that focuses on how we ought to respond to such salvation.  Peter has put in the background of this letter the image of the patriarchs and their sojourn, being a foreigner, in the land of Canaan.  They lived by faith waiting for the Promise that God have given them.

Peter now further inserts imagery that harkens back to Israel becoming a new nation, or people, at the Exodus from Egypt.  Believers have become part of a new nation who are different from the people around them.

Throughout history, the majority of people who have become Christians have marked themselves as foreigners where they live.  Following Christ was not the norm for their societies.  A small portion of people have become believers within a society that was based upon faith in Jesus Christ.  However, even these places have demonstrated over the years that it is easy to be founded on Christ, but much harder to remain faithful to that foundation.

Let’s take the United States of America for example.  Though we were founded upon faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, our society is far afield of that foundation.  To serve Jesus today is to become a foreigner to a land that is supposed to be a Christian land.  In fact, you will even become a foreigner to many different churches in this republic.  Overall, Christians have always needed this imagery.  You are joining an august body of believers who have lived as foreigners within a society bent on ignoring the Creator.  You walk through this world as one walking through the wilderness with Israel until the Lord brings you to the Promised Land.

This imagery of the patriarchs living like foreigners and Israel being led through the wilderness by God to the Promised land is used by Peter to instruct these believers.  They have joined a new spiritual people who belong to God.

Let’s look at our passage.

How to be a new spiritual people (v. 13-16)

Similar to the way Paul talked about Jesus transforming our relationships throughout the household and into society (see especially Colossians 3:12-4:1), so Peter uses family imagery to instruct Christians on the proper response we should have to the Gospel.

Before you believed in Jesus, how did you approach relationships?  Typically, we approached them for reasons that were focused on self, what our flesh wanted.  Don’t get me wrong.  People can do good things within relationships without God, but that good is always slanted towards what makes me feel good.

I will say up front that Peter tends to say a number of things up front that then lead to the statement of a main point.  This is exacerbated when it is translated into English.  It often appears that Peter is making a long list of main points, when in fact, he is simply describing things that are attendant to his main point.

For example, verse 13 may appear to have three things we are commanded to do: prepare your minds for actions, keep sober, and fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  However, it is the third of these that is being commanded.  The others are verbal adjectives that describe how they are to do number three.

I only take the time to explain this because my approach will be to highlight the main point first, which often comes at the end of the verse or verses, and then speak about these attendant ideas.

This first imperative is for us to fix our hope completely on the grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  Now, the revelation of Jesus Christ is equivalent to what we call the Second Coming of Jesus.  This is still in the future but will arrive one of these days.

Peter has used the three cardinal virtues praised by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13: faith, hope, and love.  He praises them for putting their faith in Jesus as Messiah and loving him, even though they haven’t seen him.  In verse 3, he had reminded them that they had been born again to a living hope.  Here, he picks up that hope-theme again and turns it into a command. 

When Jesus returns, he is bringing with him the grace of God for believers and the wrath of God for unbelievers.  This grace has many aspects to it.  First, the presence of Jesus here on earth and taking up the kingdoms of the world is a great grace.  There is no king or president on this earth who can do what Jesus can do.  We are also told that we will never be separated from Jesus again.  This too is great grace.  Finally, we will receive glorified bodies that do not grow old, become sick, or perish in any way.  This is the blessed hope of all believers in Jesus.  We are to fix our hope, set it steadfast upon, the future return of Jesus.

Peter adds the adverb “completely” to this.  What does it mean to completely fix your hope on the grace to come?  We might picture this as a kind of hope-meter that we need to keep pegged to 100% at all times.  I don’t think this is what Peter means.  We could also envision it as keeping our hope fully on the coming grace and not on anything else.  That is, we should not hedge our bet and put some of our hope on the things of this world.  Even if we are not hedging our bet, we may be drawn into putting hope on spouses, retirements, children, etc., without realizing that it is undermining, or displacing, some of our hope in Christ.  I think that this is much closer to what Peter is saying, but there is another way to view this that is important.  We should also do so all the way to the end of our life.  Thus, we don’t want to simply have a full hope presently but retain that hope fully on Jesus to the end of our life, or the coming of Jesus, whichever comes first.

Peter gives two descriptions of things that are to accompany or to adorn our hoping in the grace to come.  The first is that our minds are to be readied, prepared, for action.  Peter uses the imagery of tightening up a long outer cloak with a belt in order to do something like running, working, or fighting, etc.  However, in this case, they are told to tighten up their cloaks around their waists mentally.  If you saw a person doing this literally, you would know that they are getting prepared for action. 

How do we prepare ourselves mentally for action, and what is the action or actions that we are to be ready for doing?  He is talking about living for Christ and following the Holy Spirit.  He is talking about the work of becoming victorious over sin in our life, but also about walking the faith journey of this life to the very end.

Much of this imagery comes from the Exodus.  Exodus 12:7 says, “You shall eat it [the Passover meal] in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste—it is the Lord’s Passover.”  Israel was eating a special sacrificial meal before the Lord, but they were to do so with a readiness for action.  In this case, the action was leaving Egypt and going into the wilderness with Moses and God.  We too are being set free from the Egypt of this world and the bondage of our fleshly lust for sin.

Along with this readiness for action, Peter adds that they are to hope for this grace to come “being sober.”  Some translations will add the phrase “in the Spirit.”  Since Peter has just mentioned being mentally ready, it is easy to only think of this as a metaphor for clear thinking.  However, we should not be too quick to make this only a metaphor.  Literal drunkenness has shipwrecked the faith and hope of many believers.  Yet, this is another way to speak about your mind being ready for action, both physically, emotionally, and spiritually, i.e., in every way.

When you are clear minded, you are able to see the reality of what is happening around you.  When you are drunk, you lose inhibition, and you think you are doing better than you actually are.  When you are spiritually drunk, the same thing happens.  What does this look like?  It is when we allow ourselves to be filled with the lust and desires of this world.  Instead of warring against these things within our mind and heart, we surrender to them while thinking we are doing well.

The ideas of girding the loins of our mind and being sober are often tied together with the idea of vigilance because we are in a spiritual battle.  This battle is internal against the lust of our flesh but also external against the pull of this world and the temptations of the devil.

We can be guilty of not being serious about the things of God and His purposes in our life.  Thus, we are not just to lay claim to a great reward and inheritance in the future.  We are to fix our hope upon it with sobriety and readiness for action within the world around us.

Verses 14 and 15 build up to another imperative: Be holy.  In saying this, he adds that they should be holy “as obedient children.”  It is understood that he is talking about being a child of God.  Here again, he connects them to the same position that national Israel had.  During the Exodus and the teaching in the wilderness, they are told that they were not to be like all the other nations or copy their activities, religious or otherwise.  In the same way, Christians are not to live like the culture around them.  We are not children of the world, but rather, children of God.

Notice the reference to obedient children.  This should remind us of Jesus who is the perfect obedient son of God.  The point is not so much about never failing as it is about keeping focused on who we are.  Of course, it is ludicrous to even compare ourselves to the one who never sinned and never needed redemption.  We, of course, did sin and do need redemption.

In short, we are to keep focused upon who we are.  Don’t listen to the devil as he accuses you of failing, or the Gospel not working for you.  You were made to dwell in the presence of God for eternity, but you were also made to be a spiritual warrior in this life, battling against sin in your life.  It wouldn’t be a battle if it wasn’t difficult.  In fact, it is a battle we would continue to lose if it wasn’t for the help of God’s Spirit and the grace of Jesus.  No, you tell the devil that you belong to Jesus because He says so!  Don’t let his lies take root in the wounds of your soul.

Peter also tells them that they should not be conforming to the former lusts that were in their ignorance.  Jesus is leading us out of the Egypt of our old life.  Before we knew Jesus, we were ignorant of God and His desires.  At the least, we only knew a little bit and didn’t have time to bother with that Christianity thing.  In that state of ignorance, we lived to please the strong desires of our flesh, of our eyes, and of the pride of life.  It was a true bondage.  We were living like everyone else around us, trying to get the most pleasure out of this life.

It is sad to see the American dream hollowed out and replaced with a cheaper form.  Since I was a kid, I have been told by the culture that the American dream was that our kids would have a better life than us.  This is a lie.  When you study history, you find that the original American dream was to be able to worship God in the way that we believed He wanted to be worshiped, freedom of worship.  The replacement dream is about bondage to materialism and never having enough.

Peter uses the same term and phrase as Paul used in Romans 12:2. “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  You will be pressed into the mold of this world by the pressures of your own desires, the pressures of the world around you, and the pressures of your spiritual enemy, the devil.  This will be the case unless you actively let the Spirit of God lead you in the transformation of becoming more like Christ.  Conformation focuses on dressing up the outward, but transformation focuses on changing our inner man from which flows outward change.  It is this progressive sanctification process that Peter has in mind.

Just as Israel had a tendency to want to go back to Egypt, we must fight the inner desire to go back into our old life, or to straddle the fence with an apathy for the things of God.

We are to be holy “like the Holy One who [has called us].”  We are reminded that Jesus is the one we are to be like.  He is the perfect image of God the Father, and we are being made over into his image.

Yet, this takes cooperation in how we live, our behavior.  The Spirit of God works to help you know what is good and what is like Jesus.  We can nurture and grow in this, or we can let it die on the vine.  God also places mature believers in our life in order to help us in this.

Peter then quotes from the Old Testament.  “You shall be holy for I am holy.”  This admonition to be holy because the One we are following is holy comes from the time of the Exodus as well.

In Leviticus 11:44, Israel is told, “I am the LORD your God.  Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.”  He goes on to restate this in verse 45.  Several more times in Leviticus we have this repeated: 19:2; 20:26; and 21:8. You see, we are not just God’s people.  We are His children and should take on His image like true children.  This takes a lifetime and is completed through our death and resurrection.

To be holy in this life is to be peculiar to the people around you.  Of course, we do not seek to be strange only for the sake of being strange.  If you follow Jesus, this will be strange to the world because it is not following Jesus.  Like Sodom with Lot, they will grow tired of hearing your moral sermons on why these things are not good.

God will bring you up out of the slavery of your sins, and He will bring you into that good that He has for you, both the good He has for you at the 2^nd Coming and the good that He has for you now in this wilderness.  Of course, you will have seasons in your life.  You may even have times where you complain that you aren’t accomplishing anything.  Yet, if you have been doing your best to serve Christ and learn to be like him, then you have not wasted your life.  You are living out the good thing that God has desired.  It is good; trust Him.

How to be a new spiritual people (v. 17)

How long are you planning to stay here in this life?  Of course, it is not up to us.  We don’t know how long we have.  Thus, it is ours to remain faithful in spite of what we may face.

Again, Peter puts the main point last.  We are to conduct ourselves in fear during the time of our sojourn, or pilgrimage.  This too harkens back to the Exodus, which is why he reminds them of the sojourner metaphor.

He mentions conducting ourselves with fear.  It is clear that he means the fear of God.  This is a common problem for humans.  We fear everything but God.  We are weak and so we are afraid that something will be too strong for us.  We can’t control the world around us and so we fear lack of control.  It seems that it is our lot to live in fear in our fallen state.

Yet, when you come to Christ, your relationship with God is restored.  You have no reason to fear the world around us.  In truth, you have nothing to fear from God too in the sense that He only desires good for you.

Yet, Exodus 20:20 states, “Do not be afraid [of other things]; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin.”

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.  Wisdom teaches us to avoid and to conquer sin.

On one hand we should fear life without the LORD.  The idea of turning against Him and going back into sin should be a fearful thought because now we will go back to facing the world alone.  Of course, if we continue to be rebellious, we must also fear that God is not going to overlook our wanton disregard for Him and our lust for the things of this world.  He will not overlook our sin.

If we are to fear anything in this world, it is only to fear the way that it could pull us away from Jesus.  Like Joseph fleeing Potiphar’s wife, we ought to flee temptation like a venomous viper.  Joseph did not flee her because she was scary looking.  He fled because of what she represented.  She represented the ability of Joseph to become reprehensible to the man who had treated him well and the God who had blessed him.  She represented betrayal and unfaithfulness.  That ought to bring the fear of God up to the surface in our life.

In the first part of verse 17, Peter uses the conditional “if.”  It can be seen as a challenge or questioning of them.  Are you really addressing the One who impartially judges as Father?  However, it is most likely a stern reminder.  This One you are calling Father is an impartial judge.  Do you think that He will bend the truth in order to save you from your own wickedness?  He is not going to wink at your sin.  You will not pull the wool over His eyes.

Listen, God was not trying to destroy Israel in the wilderness, but their continual refusal to trust Him led to them perishing in the wilderness.  Men like Joshua and Caleb, however, walked in faith and entered into the promise that God had given to Israel.

We may think that God is too hard.  However, couldn’t those men who died in the wilderness repent?  Couldn’t they warn their sons and daughters against the sin of unbelief?  Couldn’t they instruct them to be full of courage when God brought them back around to enter the Promise Land?  You may have failed in great ways, but you can still repent and live out the rest of your days warning others against the errors you made.  Even now, all who repented and died in the wilderness will be resurrected one day to participate in the Kingdom of Messiah.  Even when we are faithless, God is faithful!

Finally, it may bother some to read that God judges “according to each one’s work.”  Of course, Peter is not talking about how we are saved.  Rather, he is speaking to saved people and warning them that God expects them to trust Him.  Christians do not rely upon the dead works of external control.  Our works are cleansed because they are done by faith in Jesus Christ.  They are done by the leading of the Spirit of God.  Only the works of Jesus Christ pays the price for my salvation, but God does judge my response to that payment.  Do I have external, self-righteous works, or do I have internal, led-by-the-Holy-Spirit works?

May God help us to follow Jesus through this wilderness because only He knows the way!

A New People audio

Sermon on the Mount VI

Subtitle: Fulfilling the Torah and the Prophets of God IV

Matthew 5:31-32.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 14, 2024.

We continue looking at the first section of the teaching of Messiah Jesus called the Sermon on the Mount.  He is comparing what the people were being taught by the leaders of his day with what he teaches.

Today, we look at the third section of the Law of Moses that Jesus explains.  The first was about the law against murder.  The second was the law against adultery.  It seems that Jesus moves to divorce next since he was talking about a marriage already. 

Also, I mentioned last time that Jesus focuses on moral, or ethical, laws, rather than on things that were intended to be symbolic, such as the sacrificial system and the dietary laws.  He does speak to these in other contexts.

So let’s look at our passage and talk about divorce.

The law of divorce (v. 31-32)

It is easy for people today to take potshots at the Law of Moses without respecting just how revolutionary it was for the surrounding culture and times.  Jesus is not castigating, or destroying, the Law. Rather, he is taking the religious leaders to task for not understanding the heart of God in the Law.

A case in point is how people laughingly disparage the principle, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” (Exodus 21:24, Leviticus 24:20).  “All that will do is create a world of one eyed, toothless people!”  Of course, this law cannot change the hearts of people, and God never intended it to change their hearts by itself.  The point of this principle is to forbid overkill.  If someone injures me, it is easy to want to do even more back to them.  We see this in Genesis 4 with the story of Lamech.  He justifies his killing of a man who “wounded” him by pointing to God’s grace towards Cain.  “If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold,
then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.”  Of course, he neglects to mention the curse placed upon Cain.  If you lived in those days, you would have learned to fear getting on Lamech’s bad side.  The whole earth became a place of overkill for infractions upon each one.  It was a revolutionary concept to limit punishment to the same degree of the infraction.  The point is not to be punitive, but to reconcile, to make things right.

In our case, we are looking at a law about divorce.  It allowed divorce, but required a certificate to be given to the woman who is divorced by her husband.  This comes from Deuteronomy 24.  In this passage, the cause for divorce is described as, “…and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her…”  There are actually two phrases that are tied together with a word translated as “because” that further explains the first general phrase.  “She finds no favor in his eyes” is a very broad term that could be interpreted as anything you want it to be.”  However, it is qualified by the next phrase, “because he has found some uncleanness in her…”  Uncleanness is a word that generally has a sexual connotation to it.  It would definitely include adultery, but could also incorporate sexual improprieties with another man that may not have gone as far as adultery.

The certificate of divorce may seem stupid to people today, but it served a real purpose.  The man could not divorce on a whim, but would need to make the divorce public, and issue a certificate to the woman.  The details of what was needed on the certificate, whether there was a witness, or the cause be stated, is not stipulated in the Law, but was left up to the people of Israel to determine.  This added requirement would give second thoughts to a man, and keep him from taking advantage of the Law of marriage.

It would also be a protection to the woman, if she remarried.  It would be proof that she is not worthy of death, but is truly divorced from her previous husband.  Notice that this doesn’t fix anyone’s heart, but it restricts the ugliness to which their actions could go if unrestrained.

It is worth noting that Jesus is asked about divorce by the Pharisees in Matthew 19:1-10.  They ask him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”  This is important because there were two schools of thought on this in those days.

In the first century BC, two rabbis named Shammai and Hillel argued over what was an acceptable cause for divorce.  Shammai argued that the word for uncleanness governed the passage, and so divorce was only acceptable in the case of sexual immorality.  Hillel saw pointed to the first phrase and taught that divorce was acceptable if a wife no longer found favor in her husband’s eyes.  Over time, the school of Hillel developed the idea of no longer finding favor from a woman being a bad cook, to the husband simply not finding her appealing, and instead, finding someone else more appealing.  On top of this, by the first century AD (the days of Jesus), their were far more disciples of the school of Hillel in power.  By the way, Saul of Tarsus and his Rabbi, Gamaliel, were of the school of Hillel.

Jesus does more than just say that he agrees with Shammai.  He does something greater.  He responds in Matthew 19:4-6 by pointing to the Genesis story of Adam and Eve.  It was God whom made us male and female.  When a man and woman come together, it is also God who makes them one flesh.  Jesus then caps the teaching with a powerful command that blows past divorce to the whole purpose for marriage:  “What God has joined together, let not man separate.”  This challenges both people in the marriage with the purpose and actions of God.  Are you resisting and rebelling against God’s purpose and work?

Of course, this gets a shocked response from the Pharisees.  They ask why then did “Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?”  Jesus answers that Moses did not command, but rather “permitted” divorce because of the hardness of their hearts (he is particularly addressing guys here).  Picture it.  If a woman is in a marriage where a man wants rid of her, but he can’t because it is against the law, what could happen?  He will grow to resent her, be angry with her, and he will be tempted to be abusive towards her.  He may even wish she were dead.   Some situations can become so cruel, wicked and evil that it is best for all involved to break it off.  Yet, Moses still placed some stipulations on it.

Notice that the lack of repentance and forgiveness is at the heart of such cases.  Whether lust, anger, frustration, or all of the above, if a husband and wife do not deal with the issues of their heart, then it will affect the marital relationship.

The teachers of Israel focused more on the proper way, acceptable causes, and form of a certificate of divorce, rather than on how divorce impacts God’s purpose for marriage.

The teaching of Jesus here highlights a fact of that day.  A woman did not have the right of divorcing a man.  It was something that was done to her.  Thus, Jesus points the man to think about what he is doing to his “ex-wife” when he divorces her.  The husband is putting her in a tough situation.  First of all, a woman’s ability to make a livable wage in those days was extremely limited.  She would most likely be force to find someone who would marry her, depending on her age.  This would often not be her fault, i.e., she did nothing worthy of divorce.  Jesus warns the men listening to him.  “I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.  He is causing her, i.e., forcing her, to be guilty of adultery.  Society won’t think so because she has a certificate of divorce.  So, why does Jesus see it as adultery?  He is referring to a divorce that is not legitimate.  Who determines if a divorce is legitimate?  God does.  Jesus is clear that God was not good with all the reasons they were concocting for getting a divorce.  These men were letting the lusts and vices of their heart mistreat these women.  They didn’t want to marry other men and become adulterers in God’s eyes, but they were forced to by an ex-husband’s hard heart.

Jesus doesn’t comment on the man who divorces here.  But, in Matthew 19, he states that the man who divorces and then remarries is also an adulterer, unless there was marital unfaithfulness by his wife.

This reminds me of Malachi chapter 2.  There, God takes Israel to task for covering his altar with tears and weeping.  He is particularly speaking about divorced wives who were hurt by the divorce and the tough situation that they were placed in by hard-hearted husbands.  In that passage, God makes it clear that He hates divorce.  It should only be a last resort when a partner refuses to stay faithful to the marriage bond.  Even then, God never commands divorce.  If a partner is unfaithful, we owe it to the LORD to attempt to heal the marriage.  Repentance and forgiveness are a hard road to walk out, but it can be done.  That said, once a person has been unfaithful, the percentages are very slim of those who truly repent and turn away from infidelity.

This is a very hurtful and damaging area.  There is no wound worse than finding out a spouse has been unfaithful.  Jesus recognizes this exception to what he is saying.  If a partner has been unfaithful, then they have broken the marital covenant.  The faithful spouse has to wrestle with the reality of whether or not the marriage can be saved.  Many times it cannot.  Notice that, in the case of a divorce, the unfaithful spouse is already an adulterer.  If they remarry, it is irrelevant if the marriage is considered adultery.  However, what about the faithful spouse?  Are they free to remarry?

It is good to remember at this point that though we are no longer under the law of Moses, we are still to seek to please the Lord Jesus.  Paul mentions two more exceptions in 1 Corinthians 7:15, 39.  The first is when you have an unbelieving spouse (not a Christian) who wants out of the marriage.  They want a divorce.  Paul says that God does not hold you accountable to the heart of the unbeliever.  Presumably a person would be free to remarry in that case.  However, if you read the chapter, you would recognize that Paul’s advice would be to remain single if you can.  The last exception was the reality that when a spouse dies, the living spouse is no longer bound to them in marriage.  The widow, or widower, is free to remarry.

So, in the case of divorce, we must always ask ourselves if God sees it as legitimate.  God knows if you tried to save the marriage and the other person would not cooperate.  It is probably best not to be too quick to remarry when you are divorced by a hard-hearted spouse.  You can pray for them to repent and change their mind so that the marriage can be resumed and lived out as God intended.  However, if they remarry, it is then time to move on, and let the Spirit of God lead you in what is next, whether singleness or remarriage.

God’s heart is that we stay faithful to Him, and when we do that, we will bend over backwards to be faithful to our spouse.  If a spouse continues to take advantage of that in unfaithfulness, divorce will become inevitable.  This is where we recognize that marriage is supposed to be a picture of Christ’s marriage to the Church.

We should work hard to reflect this reality to the world through our marriage.  The Kingdom of Messiah calls us to repentance and imaging God. The question is never, have I done anything sinful.  The question is what will I do about it now that Messiah is calling me to follow Him into the Kingdom of God, where we are letting God help us to love one another, instead of sinning against one another.

Read 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.  Notice this, “And such were some of you.  But you were washed…”  Kingdom believers are not looking for an excuse to continue in sin.  However, we are sinners who have been washed by Christ and His Spirit from our sins.  He is setting us free!  We are not looking for an excuse to get a divorce.  We are seeking to follow Jesus, and to image him to the world.

What am I displaying, imaging to the world?  I can’t go back and change what I did, or what another person did.  But, I can be washed and move forward clean before the LORD.

Some people married never intending to be faithful.  However, I believe that the larger number are those who married hoping and expecting it to be something wonderful.  They then find it to be hard work, and sometimes not as fun as we imagined.  We can be tempted to “want someone better.”  Perhaps, we just picked the wrong person.  Surely, the next person I pick will be the right one!

Yet, the truth is that we are kicking against the goading of God.  Marriage is God’s way of getting a hold of our heart, and teaching us to deal with some bad things in our flesh.  We can resist the work of the Spirit through our relationship with our spouse.  We can use the failures of our spouse (they are only human) as excuses to blame the failure on them.  Marriage challenges us to grow up emotionally, and spiritually.  However, not everyone wants to grow up.  Many reject God’s purpose for marriage, and continue down a path of an egoistic, even egotistic, focus.  Growing up is not easy, but it is not only good for us, but good for everyone around us.

It is sad that we can treat the holiest of things in life, like marriage, as merely another way to have a good time.  When we don’t take marriage seriously, we try to have fun with it.  Eventually, it will no longer be fun.  Thus, we have a high percentage of adults who have not grown up emotionally, and especially spiritually.  Let me just say this.  A perfect marriage is one that challenges me to grow up in Christ.  May we surrender to him.

I will finish by highlighting that God does hate divorce, but He doesn’t hate you if you have had someone divorce you, or be unfaithful to you.  Jesus, of all people, knows what it is to have a covenant partner reject you.  He was even put to death by his.  When you look back at a divorced marriage, you will see all the ways that you were not perfect.  You may feel guilt and even wonder if God can love you.  You might wonder how you can move forward.  I will just say this.  Jesus loves you, and knows how you feel.  Give yourself to him and he will pour his healing into your heart.  It will take time, but the Rejected Lord knows how to minister to a Rejected heart.

May God help us to take marriage seriously and shine the example of God’s heart for “Whosoever will” (John 3:16).

Divorce audio

The Sermon on the Mount V

Subtitle: Fulfilling the Torah and the Prophets of God III

Matthew 5:27-30.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 7, 2024.

We continue in looking at the first section of the teaching of Messiah Jesus compared with that of the teachers of that day.  Jesus clearly raises the bar by emphasizing the internal implications of the Law that were being ignored. 

As I have said in the past, this can cause us to protest that it is impossible to do what Jesus says.  However, this is the whole point of his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.  It is also why the Holy Spirit has been made available to those who put their faith in the work and person of Jesus the Christ.

Last week, we looked at the sixth commandment of Exodus 20, “You shall not murder.”  Jesus then moved on to the seventh commandment, “You shall not commit adultery” (our subject for today).

As Jesus took the command against murder and showed the importance of dealing with the underlying anger and contempt for others, so he takes the command forbidding adultery and points us to the lust that underlies such action.

Let’s look at our passage.

The law of adultery (v. 27-30)

The teachers of Israel in the first century focused on the physical act of committing adultery.  They did not call people to any deeper work than this.

One way to think about this over-emphasis on the external is to remember that we were created to image God (Genesis 1).  This idea is not simply about the external shape of humans, nor simply their external actions.  This question regarding who we are imaging in our life lies behind the whole Bible.

If the external is the only thing that matters, then we can put on a really good act and God will be happy; He will be entertained.  Yet, God is not looking for award-winning actors who look like Him on the big screen of life, and yet, in their hearts, they despise His ways.  Perhaps, the acting may seem “award-winning” to us as humans because we cannot see what people think and desire.  Yet, for God, no matter how convincing to other humans such acts may be, it is a rotten fruit that is as far from imaging Him as one end of the universe is to the other.

Our imaging of God was always intended to include and to flow from a heart and mind that loves God and is coming to understand Him.  For fallen humans (I believe that is all of us), this creates a difficult situation that calls for God’s help and grace.

If you see the Law of Moses as your justifier, then you tend to read it superficially (in a way that focuses on externals).  However, if you see it as a mirror that shows us how much we do not look like God and His nature, you will then tend to see the depths of what it is saying and throw yourself on the mercy of God.

This is exactly what King David discovered.  He didn’t say that he would be blessed because he had imaged God so well.  Remember, David, who  had done so well imaging God, would later commit adultery and murder the husband (Uriah the Hittite).  David knew that he would be in big trouble when he stood before God.  Listen to his statements from Psalm 32:1-2.  “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity,
And in whose spirit there is no deceit.”  Basically, he knew that God had to forgive and cover his sin, somehow.  God should impute (calculate, count) David’s sins against him. 

God supplies both forgiveness and covering in Jesus Christ.

In his signature move, Jesus puts his finger on the root of the problem in verse 28.  Adultery is the fruit, the evidence, of lust in our hearts and minds.  The word translated lust here has the idea of a strong, heated desire.  We can easily imagine the driving passion that it involves.  In Greek, the word can be attached to good things, i.e., a strong, heated desire to do the right thing, and it is not limited only to sexual matters.  However, in the majority of situations, it is not good because it is similar to anger.  Strong passions tend to take the course that our flesh wants to take.  This is generally a sinful course.

Jesus is not telling men they should never look at women.  He emphasizes that the man looks at a woman in order “to lust for her”.  This would also be true for women.  In this context, we know that the strong, heated desire is a sexual one.  Lust never stays as an abstract desire.  It pushes to other sins such as imagining and fantasizing.  This is what Jesus means by saying that he “has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

We should note that adultery is a layered concept.  At its base, it is sexual immorality.  God created humans with the capacity for sexual relationship, but intended it for the intimate context of marriage, a life-long commitment between a man and a woman.  Any sexual activity outside of marriage is immoral.  Thus, adultery is a special kind of sexual immorality, a subset, in which a covenantal bond of marriage is transgressed.  This can be the case whether both are married or only one.  A man who lusts for another man’s wife is trespassing upon that covenantal relationship that she has with another.  If he happens to be married as well, he is also breaking his own covenant with his wife.  He is sinning against his commitment with her.

This is why God takes adultery so seriously.  If two unmarried people had sex with one another outside of marriage, it was considered wrong, but was “fixed” by them committing to marriage.  In fact, the man would lose the right of divorce in such a situation.  On the other hand, adultery deserved capital punishment.  This is how seriously God wants us to take the covenantal bond of marriage.

This does not mean that Jesus is saying that lust is just as bad as physically committing the act.  Neither should we see God as some cosmic IRS auditor that reconciles our thoughts and imaginations and holds us accountable for every nit-picking thing He finds.

The average person hears these words and throws up their hands in exasperation.  “That’s impossible,” they say.  Of course, the degree to which our society has hyper-sexualized everything does throw gasoline upon the fires of lust.  Even the idea that sexual activity should only happen within a life-long committed relationship called marriage is being rejected by our society.  This is not just a rejection of God’s law, but a rejection of His revelation about how and why He designed us as He did.

The Creator tells us that He created our sexual aspect to create a powerful bond between a husband and wife.  However, that which is powerful for the good can be just as powerful for the bad when it is abused or disrespected.  God is not just laying down a law.  He is warning us about the devastating path that our sinful flesh pulls us down.

How much pain, suffering and evil is going on in this world that is connected to sexual immorality?  How many rapes, abortions, divorce, wounded kids, sex-trafficking and even sex-slavery happens out of ignoring God’s warnings?  Even those who look at pornography tell themselves that they are not harming anyone.  Yet, the money they give to obtain a magazine, video, or subscription to a website supports all manner of trafficking and harm to society.  You are not only destroying others; you are destroying yourself. 

Our culture not only allows such things, but even worse, it promotes it.  Let us not kid ourselves.  Lust drives much of the evil in this world.

In verses 29 and 30, Jesus gives us two parallel “if” statements.  The first speaks of the “right eye,” referring to the strong or dominant eye.  The second speaks to the “right hand,” referring to the strong or dominant hand.  You will notice that the statements are exactly the same except for the right eye swapped out for the right hand.

Let’s look at the second part of the statement.  There, Jesus emphasizes the danger that lust presents.  Jesus warns his listeners that those who refuse to deal with lust, regardless of whether they committed physical adultery or not, could find themselves in Gehenna.  This is the same thing he did back in verse 22 with murder, speaking about the “Gehenna of fire.”  Jesus is pointing us to a judgment that is from God in which a person’s whole body is put into a fiery place. We see this in the book of Revelation referred to as the Lake of Fire (Revelation 19:20; 20:10, 14, 15).

Of course, there is a lot that is not said here.  In fact, Jesus shouldn’t have to go into to much detail.  The idea that internal lust could put us in jeopardy of the Lake of Fire should let us all know that God is serious about this issue.  This would have seriously scared everyone in the crowd.  By the time Jesus finishes these six case studies in the law, everyone listening to him will recognize that they are in trouble with God.

Is God being unfair?  If we only understood how much evil, pain and suffering is caused through the refusal to nip lust, anger, and other vices in the bud, we would not be so concerned with God’s fairness.  In fact, there is no perfect response to this situation.  We will blame God if He is too judgmental, and we accuse Him when He is not judgmental enough.  We want Him to “do something” about the evil in the world, but we want Him to overlook our own evil, particularly because we don’t want to believe it is evil. 

This world is not full of wickedness because God made it that way, but because people reject the truth of God and go their own way.  God’s way brings life, but our fleshly way brings destruction.  You may think that it feels like life, but that moment always passes and destruction comes in the wake of our actions, whether internal or external.

Now, let’s deal with this idea of gouging out your right eye and cutting off your right hand.  Jesus does not intend for anyone to actually gouge out their eye or cut off their hand.  His statement basically begs the question, “What do I need to excise from my life in order to be free from the damaging effects of lust?”

There really is a genius to what Jesus is doing here.  The religious leaders who love to look at the law superficially, are here given a superficial solution to the internal problem of lust.  If you really thought that God hated lust enough to send you to the Lake of Fire, then you would be drastic in your measures to stop it before it led to judgment.  Jesus knows that losing your dominant eye and your dominant hand cannot remove lust from a person.  Even if you gouged both eyes out and cut off both hands, you can still lust. 

Others will say that Jesus is politely saying that they should cut off the true offending member, genitalia.  However, I believe this hinges on the phrase “If….causes you to sin (literally to stumble).”  That is the condition which causes any thinking person to meditate on what it is that actually stirs up lust in our hearts to the point of stumbling, sinning.

We do not lust simply because we have eyeballs, hands, and even genitalia.  Notice that it is the Creator who gave us these things.  In our desire to deflect responsibility, we can blame God.  “If You hadn’t given us eyes, hands, genitalia, we would never have sinned.”  Of course, such an argument never ends.  “If You hadn’t put the tree in the Garden of Eden… if you hadn’t created us as sexual being, material beings, or even carbon-based creatures, etc. ad infinitum go our attempts to blame God or others for our sin.

There are external things that I need to excise from my life, or at least place severe restrictions on them.  Pornography, or any place or medium in which pornographic activity exists, is a good place to start.  The eyes have been likened unto a gate into our soul.  Jesus will touch on this in Matthew 6:22-23.  What videos am I watching?  What apps do I have on my phone?  For some people, it may be that we ask if we really need a “smart phone.”  It is better to go through life without a smart phone than to be thrown into the fires of Gehenna.  This places a responsibility upon ourselves to recognize that lust does not image God and pulls us towards destruction.  We are often guilty of pouring gasoline on our base desires, and then pretending like it is God’s fault.  Job said that he had made a covenant with his eyes.  He would not look lustfully upon a young woman (Job 31:1).  Yes, if lustful thoughts are stirred, then avert your eyes and move on.

Proverbs 6:32 says, “Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding; he who does so is destroying his own soul.”  If I truly believed that Jesus knew what he was talking about, then I would shut down lust quickly before it flares.

I imagine that there were a lot of people there that day, if not all of them, who were extremely convicted by what Jesus was saying.  I think about the woman at the well in Samaria.  She had been divorced four times and was living with a guy when Jesus talked with her in John 4.  Notice that Jesus does not pretend that she is righteous, and yet, he really does care for her soul.  This woman of five marriages and one “shacking up” had probably never had someone truly care for her soul.

The people there that day were not perfect.  They were just like you and me.  They all had something, probably multiple somethings, that Jesus was poking.  Jesus is not just loading them up with guilt.  The whole point is that the Kingdom is here, and they all needed to repent and put their faith in Jesus as the Messiah.  He would lead them in.  I don’t know if the woman at the well was adulterous, or she had a series of men who grew tired of her and divorced her to satisfy their adulterous lusts.  Regardless, she became an evangelist for Jesus that day.  The guys who should have been leading people to Jesus were contemplating how to kill him.  The ones who should have ran away from this “righteous man” are the ones who were drawn to him.  This is part of the mystery of the grace of God and the work of God.  It is not always done by people who had a righteous background.  Let’s just say, they knew that they were horrible actors and so they didn’t even try to act.

God wants us to understand that He isn’t satisfied with us only looking good.  He wants our heart.  By the time you are done with the Sermon on the Mount, you will find yourself in a place of tension.  I want to believe Jesus, but I don’t know how that would be possible.  It is done by faith.  They didn’t know about the cross where Jesus would pay the price for their sins, so that the Father could then remove them from us.  Nor did they understand that the Day of Pentecost would bring the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all who had put their faith in Jesus.  The Spirit of God Himself would help them to take possession of their destroyed souls, like Israel of old going against the giants of Canaan.

They couldn’t imagine just how great God’s love for them was, even in their fallenness.  So, what is our excuse?  We can imagine these things.  We have the New Testament that lays out all that God has done and will do on our behalf.  Is it not high time that we put our faith in Jesus, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and let Him lead us in victory against sin in our hearts and minds?  Yes, of course, it is!

Adultery audio