Apostasy at the Jordan
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by pleasure seeking, mirth, feasting, or the wine cup, he tempts to the
violation of the seventh commandment.
Satan seduced Israel into licentiousness before leading them to
idolatry. Those who will dishonor God’s image and defile His temple
in their own persons will not scruple at any dishonor to God that will
gratify the desire of their depraved hearts. Sensual indulgence weakens
the mind and debases the soul. The moral and intellectual powers are
benumbed and paralyzed by the gratification of the animal propensities;
and it is impossible for the slave of passion to realize the sacred
obligation of the law of God, to appreciate the atonement, or to place
a right value upon the soul. Goodness, purity, and truth, reverence for
God, and love for sacred things—all those holy affections and noble
desires that link men with the heavenly world—are consumed in the
fires of lust. The soul becomes a blackened and desolate waste, the
habitation of the evil spirits, and the “cage of every unclean and hateful
bird.” Beings formed in the image of God are dragged down to a level
with the brutes.
It was by associating with idolaters and joining in their festivities
that the Hebrews were led to transgress God’s law and bring His
judgments upon the nation. So now it is by leading the followers of
Christ to associate with the ungodly and unite in their amusements that
Satan is most successful in alluring them into sin. “Come out from
among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the
unclean.”
2 Corinthians 6:17
. God requires of His people now as great
a distinction from the world, in customs, habits, and principles, as
He required of Israel anciently. If they faithfully follow the teachings
of His word, this distinction will exist; it cannot be otherwise. The
warnings given to the Hebrews against assimilating with the heathen
were not more direct or explicit than are those forbidding Christians
to conform to the spirit and customs of the ungodly. Christ speaks to
us, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If
any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
1 John
2:15
. “The friendship of the world is enmity with God; whosoever
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therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”
James
4:4
. The followers of Christ are to separate themselves from sinners,
choosing their society only when there is opportunity to do them good.
We cannot be too decided in shunning the company of those who exert