PT-7 "Keeping a Pure Mind"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/18/2025 9:00 AM

 

PT-7 “Keeping a Pure Mind”

 

            I will continue to quote from the booklet with the same name written by John MacArthur.  I am doing this because it goes along with where I stopped looking at 2 Timothy, but I will continue to look at 2 Timothy whenever I finish quoting from the booklet, Lord willing.

                                                             

Sins of Imagining

 

            “A third kind of sin that takes place in the mind is the purely imaginary sin.  This is what Jesus referred to when He said, “Everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt. 5:28).  You may have no intention of every performing the deed, but Jesus says if you even imagine it, you are guilty.

 

            “That sets the standard extremely high—but this is the level of purity we must maintain if we are to have a clear conscience.  Every imagined sin offends the healthy conscience.  Those who tolerate this kind of sin in their hearts as a habit give irrefutable evidence of a defiled and hardened conscience.  It is here that our self-examination becomes most convicting. But it is here that we must train our consciences to be most sensitive.

 

            “People fantasize about sins they long to commit.  They imagine what it would be like to indulge their favorite lusts, or wreak revenge on a despised enemy, or hurt someone they loathe.  They act out a robbery in their minds, or fantasize about an illicit relationship, or visualize killing someone.

 

            “But many imaginary sins are not so heinous.  People dream covetous thoughts about winning the lottery.  They imagine themselves with great power, wealth, or prestige.  They day-dream about what it would be like to be married so someone else, or muse about a luxury vacation, or indulge their gluttony in an imaginary binge.  Modern society is filled with temptations to those kind of sins.  The entire advertising industry thrives on appealing to such lusts.  And most of the entertainment industry is focused on creating those kinds of images.  The result is that literally millions of people live in a fantasy world of sin.

 

            “Are such sins really that disastrous?  Yes, They defile us (Matt. 15:18-20).  “The scheming of folly is sin” (Prov. 24:9, LSB). Any thought that is not God-honoring, Christ-exalting, and representative of full obedience to the Word of God is sin.  Covetousness, the basis of most of our evil fantasies, is expressly forbidden by the tenth commandment.

 

            “We dare not think of these thought-sins as merely peccadillos. (a small, relatively unimportant offense or sin).  They open the door to actual deeds of sin.  James 1:15 says, “When lust [evil desire] has conceived, it gives birth to sin” Puritan Ralph Venning wrote in 1669:

 

“Evil deeds are the offspring and children of evil thoughts, the branches and fruit which grow out of this root.  Thoughts are the first-born of the soul; words and actions are only younger brothers.  They are the oil that feeds and maintains the wick, which would otherwise go out; life-sins receive their juice and nourishment from thought-sins.  St. James speaks as if our thoughts were the belly and womb where sin is conceived (Jas. 1:15…As Job [cursed] the day and place of [his] birth, the womb that bore [him]; so should you curse sin even in the very womb that bore it, laying the axe to the root of this tree.

 

“The wickedness of men’s lives is charged upon their thoughts, that it has its root and rise there: murders, adulteries, etc., all come out of the heart, as out of the belly of a Trojan horse (Gen. 6:5; Matt. 12:35; 15:19).  One would wonder (as we do at some birds, where they nest all winter) to see so many flocks and herds of wickedness.  One would wonder from what corner of the world they come.  Why, they all come out of the heart, the rendezvous of wickedness, the inn where logde all the thieves and travelling lusts that are in the world and that do so much mischief in it.  All the unclean streams flow from this unclean fountain, this oceal and sea of sin. (The sinfulness of Sin, 227).

 

            “That is why David cried out for God to help him at the very front line of defense:  “Crate in me a clean heart, O God” (Ps. 51:10).  It was an appeal for a sound conscience arising from a pure mind.”

 

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I realize that the Lord is working on my heart as I read through this booklet, and yet I am thankful for this as I certainly need a clean heart in order to continue to seek the Lord on behalf of my wife who has been diagnosed with cancer, and so I want my heart to be clean so that I can effectively pray to the Lord on her behalf.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much” (James 5:16).