INTRODUCTION: There are a multitude of choices that the Christian is faced with in our modern society. Is there such a think as a sexual sin today? Is it wrong to drink alcohol in moderation? What about smoking? Is there such a thing as immodesty?
Then, there are the deeper issues. Is it right to use birth control? What about euthanasia? Is abortion a matter of life, or choice? What about genetic engineering? A Christian can sometime feel inundated with choices and wonder where to turn. Is there an answer from the Bible? Does the fact that there is no direct answer from the Bible for many of these matters mean that we have been left to our own best judgment on these matters? This lesson will deal with some principles to help us determine how to make right choices.
BODY
I. THE BIBLE GIVES US THE ANSWERS TO ALL OF TODAY'S QUESTIONS.
A. It completely furnishes us to live the Christian life.
"as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue" (2 Peter 1:3)
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
These two passages teach us that the Word of God is sufficient to meet all the challenges of every society and every
generation. It is forever fresh to meets the needs of each new generation of Christians.
B. We can know the truth that God has revealed through His word.
"These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God" (1 John 5:13)
"And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32)
"Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is" (Ephesians 5:17).
"How that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets" (Ephesians 3:3-5)
Paul is saying that he received his message by revelation from the Holy Spirit.
He also says that this revelation from the Holy Spirit may be understood by those who read it.
"For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God" (Colossians 1:9-10)
It is possible to be filled with knowledge of God's will.
It is possible to increase in the knowledge of God.
All these passages summed up with these points.
We can learn the truth of God's will.
We can know God's will.
We can grow in the knowledge of God's will.
C. Bible truth is not determined by majority rule.
"You shall not follow a crowd to do evil" (Exodus 23:2)
Ephesians 4:14- "that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,"
The crowd can be, and often is, wrong. The majority of Germans supported Adolph Hitler. The majority of Americans at one time supported segregation and the "separate but equal" concept among the races. The Majority yelled for the deaths of Jesus, Stephen, and Paul.
II. SOME PRINCIPLES FROM GOD'S WORD THAT WILL HELP US MAKE MORAL JUDGEMENTS.
A. Our bodies belong to God, therefore, anything that would defile them would be wrong.
"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? "For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Romans 12:1- 2).
B. God's abiding arrangement for man's physical emotional happiness has marriage as it's centerpiece. Therefore, anything that would disrupt the sanctity of marriage is wrong.
"And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female, and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man
separate."" (Matthew 19:4