Tasting The Forbidden Fruit

by James Pierce

When God created Adam in His own image, He never intended for him to be kept in solitude, but to replenish the earth with children after His own image.

In order to do so, man would have to have a suitable helper. But there wasn't one to be found. God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and while he slept, the Lord removed a rib from his side and created woman. She would share the responsibilities in raising a family. This was God's purpose in their lives.

All was going well until Eve had set her eyes upon the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Being deceived by the serpent, she tasted the fruit and then presented it to her husband who also tasted it. Their eyes were immediately opened and they became ashamed of their nakedness.

Satan had thrown a wrench into God's plan to have a perfect creation. Where God had created sex for the purpose of procreation, Satan had perverted it by causing man to serve creation instead of the Creator.

You wouldn't think that one glance would cause so much havoc, but Jesus said in Matthew 5:27-28 that when "a man looks at a woman to lust after her, he has committed the act in his heart." Matthew Henry wrote that "this command doesn't only forbid the actual act itself, but all appetites to them and all approaches to them as well."

Henry went on to say that, since the eyes are the windows of the soul, to lustfully look upon a woman would be feeding the heart the forbidden fruit. (paraphrased)

The Apostle James says that: "every man is tempted when he is drawn away on his own lust, and enticed." This means if the desire is not resisted and extinguished by the Holy Spirit, it will lead to sin and then to spiritual death. Sexual temptations are hard to resist because they play on the normal and natural desires the Lord has given us.

Sex becomes the forbidden fruit when it is practiced outside a marital relationship. Touching and fondling a woman in a sexual way isn't permitted either because it will usually lead to committing the act. It would be like throwing gasoline on an open fire--someone is bound to get hurt.

Solomon made it clear when he asked the question in Proverbs 6:27: "Can a man take fire in his bosom, and not get burned?"

Later the Apostle Paul said in I Corinthians 7:8-9 about the unmarried: "I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn."

When we commit such an act, someone always gets hurt. Mary Ann Mayo says that; "There is no such thing as a private, consensual act because there are always repercussions that affects the individual, his or her home, and ultimately society. "But, more important, it breaks God's heart because it shows Him that we would rather follow our own desires instead of the leading of the Holy Spirit.

In I Corinthians 6:13, we read that: "The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord." The reason is that we don't own our bodies. Christ bought and paid for them with His own blood on the cross. God didn't only design the body for intimacy in a marital relationship, but as a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit as well. That is why He places such high standards on remaining sexually pure.

In the days of old, it was important that an Israelite girl remain sexually pure until she was married. But, in today's society, virginity is considered old fashion. More and more people are engaging in extramarital sex.

A relationship that is based on lust isn't a relationship at all and a mate who isn't willing to wait isn't worth your love. The bottom line is: sex outside of marriage is wrong!!!

If you have already committed this awful sin, it's time that you repent and confess it to the Lord who is faithful to forgive you.

If He paid for your body with His own blood, then He has washed you, and sanctified you, and justified you in His name and by the spirit of our God.

My friends, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Just as He forgave the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4) and a woman who was caught in adultery (John 8), He will forgive you also. As He told the woman who was caught in adultery, "Go and sin no more!"

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