June 8 2020
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Exo.20:14.
Jesus magnified this law by declaring: “You have heard that it was said to those of old ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever LOOKS at a woman to lust for her has ALREADY committed adultery with her in HIS HEART.” Matt. 5: 26,27, NKJV.
“When the thoughts of evil is loved and cherished, HOWEVER SECRETLY, said Jesus, it shows that sin STILL reigns in the heart. The soul is still in the gall of bitterness and in the BOND[AGE] of iniquity.
“He who finds pleasure in dwelling upon scenes of impurity, who indulges the evil thought, the lustful look, may behold in the OPEN sin, with its BURDEN of shame and heartbreaking grief, the true nature of the evil which he has HIDDEN in the chambers of the soul.
“The season of temptation, under which, it may be, one falls into grievous sin, does not create the evil that is revealed, but only DEVELOPS or makes manifest that which was HIDDEN and LATENT in the heart.
“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he;’ for out of the heart ‘are the issues of life.’ The heart in which Christ dwells, will be so filled, so satisfied, with His love that it will not be consumed with longing to attract sympathy and attention to itself. And through the surrender of the soul to God, His wisdom can accomplish what human wisdom fails to do.” E. G. White, Mount if Blessing, pp. 94,101.
“This commandment forbids not only ACTS of impurity, but SENSUAL THOUGHTS and DESIRES, or any practice that tends to excite them. Purity is demanded not only in the outward life, but in the SECRET intents and emotions of the heart. Christ who taught the far-reaching obligation of the law of God, declared the evil thought or look to be as TRULY sin as in the unlawful deed.” Ibid, Patriarchs & Prophets, p. 308.
Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall SEE God.” NMF