21/04/12

Lusting for the forbidden fruit

Matthew 14:3
For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife.


Before we get into the message a little history lesson. (Taken from Gill's commentary)

Herodias was the daughter of Aristobulus, son to Herod the Great {e}, and brother to Philip, and to this Herod; so that she was niece to them both; and first married the one, and then the other, whilst the former was living. Philip and this Herod were both sons of Herod the Great, but not by the same woman; Philip was born of Cleopatra of Jerusalem, and Herod Antipas of Malthace, a Samaritan {f}; so that Philip was his brother by his father's side, but not by his mother's; the Evangelist Mark adds, "for he had married her": the case was this, Herod being sent for to Rome, called at his brother Philip's by the way, where he fell into an amorous intrigue with his wife, and agreed, upon his return, to take her with him and marry her; as he accordingly did, and divorced his own wife, who was daughter of Aretas, king of Arabia Petraea; which occasioned a war between Herod and his wife's father, in which the former was beaten{g},

{d} Joseph. Antiqu. 1. 18. c. 7.
{e} Ib. c. 6.
{f} Joseph. Antiqu. 1. 18. c. 6. de Bello Jud. l. 1. c. 28. sect. 7.
{g} Joseph. Antiqu. 1. 18. c. 6.

Right from Adam we find man is curious to do what is forbidden and the lust of it causes him to reject God and be far from Him. God had spoken that all His creation was good yet Adam wanted to eat of the fruit of good and bad so as to know what is bad. It is this rebellious nature a lust for the forbidden which is in us that takes us down the sin path of self-destruction.

We like foolish people fear Satan, but do not realize that he cannot harm us as much as we can harm ourselves.

If we read the 3 Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke which concentrate on the teachings of Jesus we find Jesus hardly said 'do not do this' or 'do not do that', He mostly spoke of what one should do and not what one should not do.

Desire for the forbidden leads man to complete annihilation of one's soul and spirit. People have the misconception that one can give one's soul to Satan or to God. They do so because they neither know God nor know Satan and mainly they do not know what a soul or inner-man is.

One cannot give one's soul, or heart, or inner-man to God nor to Satan but one can one make one's soul or heart or inner-man kind one of them; therefore giving one's heart to God mean making one's inner-man unto the image of God. Jesus being the visible image of God, when we say we have given our heart unto God we should find ourselves more and more like Jesus Christ. If we or others do not see Jesus Christ in us it means we have not really given our hearts unto God.

People in Satan are called the sons of vanity or self-destruction. When we pursue things forbidden or against God's plan means we are pursuing darkness and moving more into darkness like Lucifer did before the creation of this natural world and caused darkness to come.

Let us pursue things of light, things according to God's plan for us and thus become more and more people of Light.


[ Prayer Starter ]
Lord, we pray that we do not be children that pursue the desires of the flesh, lust for things that are forbidden. You have given us your Spirit. Let us therefore be lighthouses that shine your Light unto others. During the times of temptation we pray Lord that sense prevails in us at that moment and not vanity...

This prayer we make in Jesus' Name, Amen.


[ Reference Scriptures ]
Genesis 1: 31 - And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Genesis 3:4-5
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil.

Ephesians 5:8-13
8 For ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord: walk as children of light
9 (for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10 proving what is well-pleasing unto the Lord;
11 and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them;
12 for the things which are done by them in secret it is a shame even to speak of.
13 But all things when they are reproved are made manifest by the light: for everything that is made manifest is light.

2 Thessalonians 2:5-10
5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
6 And now ye know that which restraineth, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season.
7 For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work: only there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way.
8 And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to nought by the manifestation of his coming;
9 even he, whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

The Word of God was given free to us, therefore we should also share it freely with others. (All rights are with God)