Christ Over Culture (6)
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The Gospel And Sexual Morality
The Gospel And Sexual Morality
When we all think of morals, we think of lines/boundaries that one should not cross.
Is this ok? Is this allowed? Is this frowned up? Is this completely wrong?
At the end of the day, what is the answer?
Like everything else we have seen, the answer is Jesus.
The Word of God tells us exactly…
Where our moral boundaries should be.
Whether something is right or wrong.
Whether we should say something or not.
Here is the true reality of the problem.
Most Christians don’t know what God’s Word says because they aren’t spending time with Him.
God is very clear on sexual morality in the Bible.
There are no grey areas!
We have covered some of this, but we will dive deeper into it as well.
God gives loving boundaries.
God gives loving boundaries.
God created each male or female with distinct bodies designed in his image.
Our bodies are important to God.
Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.
Our bodies have been created FOR God BY God.
This is where we are going to start, however, culture does not want to go here.
Culture claims to do whatever brings you the most satisfaction.
Culture claims self-gratification.
Our bodies were never designed for self-gratification.
Our bodies were designed for God-glorification.
Through God-glorification, we will experience the greatest satisfaction through our bodies.
God desires for us to flourish - in order to do this we need to have boundaries.
When you were young, did your parents give you a football and tell you to go play in the middle of the interstate?
No, because they knew what was good for you.
They wanted you to flourish but knew in order to do that they needed to keep you safe, which is why they told you to stay in the yard.
This is the same thing that God wants. He wants us to floursh, and He knows the best way for that to happen.
However, when we ignore the boundaries that are set by God, what are we in turn telling Him?
I know how my body is supposed to be used better than you do, even though you created it?
“I know better than you!”
God designed love boundaries when it comes to our sexuality.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.
“One flesh” points to the personal nature of the marriage union.
The physical portion of this union is designed for a man and wife who have committed their lives in a covenant with each other.
“Yet you say, ‘For what reason?’ Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.
There is not a single instance where God advocated for sex outside of marriage.
God created this boundary to maximize the sexual experience in all the deepest meanings.
The Bible is full of prohibitions for sex outside of a marriage.
Culture would likely agree with these prohibitions.
sexual prostitution
‘Do not profane your daughter by making her a harlot, so that the land will not fall to harlotry and the land become full of lewdness.
sexual violence
“But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lies with her shall die.
“But you shall do nothing to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case.
“When he found her in the field, the engaged girl cried out, but there was no one to save her.
no sex with animals
‘Also you shall not have intercourse with any animal to be defiled with it, nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it; it is a perversion.
no sex with relatives
‘None of you shall approach any blood relative of his to uncover nakedness; I am the Lord.
Culture would likely have issues with these prohibitions that the Bible has.
no sex between a man or woman who are not married. (adultery)
“You shall not commit adultery.
‘If there is a man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, one who commits adultery with his friend’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
Or can a man walk on hot coals
And his feet not be scorched?
So is the one who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;
Whoever touches her will not go unpunished.
Men do not despise a thief if he steals
To satisfy himself when he is hungry;
But when he is found, he must repay sevenfold;
He must give all the substance of his house.
The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense;
He who would destroy himself does it.
They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?”
He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way.
“And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”
For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
Sex with anyone who is not your husband or wife is sin.
Doesn’t matter if it is before, during or after marriage.
no sex between same-sex.
‘You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.
For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,
and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
No sexual looking or thinking outside of marriage
Protects from lusts, greeds, desires and temptations that give birth to sin.
but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children;
no provoking sexual desires in others outside of marriage
immodest clothing
Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments,
but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness.
seductive speech
Proverbs 5 & 7
no crude speech, humor, or entertainment that revolves around sexual immorality.
But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints;
and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.
For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.
How many of us are truly guilty of something here?
no sexual worship of any kind
Sex is good, but sex is not God.
Flee from sexual immorality.
Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.
We Are born This Way
We Are born This Way
We all have a desire and a right to do what we want because that is the way that I was born.
Wrong - we were all born male or female, with specific guidelines set in place by God.
“Claiming” you were born that way does not do away with sin.
It is important to remember that we are all born bent toward sin - sinful nature.
Unfortunately, we live in a day when saying that a same-sex marriage is wrong is looked upon as saying a black person is inferior to a white person.
This logic of thinking is wrong and morally flawed.
Ethnic identity is a neutral attribute. It is not chosen by us.
Black or white is not an issue of right or wrong.
however, sexual activity is…
Did God Really Claim…?
Did God Really Claim…?
Gen 3:1 goes back to the famous first question.
Did God really say…
This is what culture has used, this same tactic to reduce God’s commands to questions. This allows God’s commands to be defined by human judgement.
The design or marriage is in Gen 2.
Gen 19, we see God destroy Sodom and Gomorrah due to sexual immorality and unnatural desire.
just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,
nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.
We must not subject God’s words to our judgement.
Culture does it well, but so does the church.
Darkened Hearts, Disordered Minds
Darkened Hearts, Disordered Minds
In our own thinking, we tend to eventually believe that our ways are better than God’s ways.
There is a way which seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.
Sinners can justify and rationalize any sin and act that they commit.
that is simply because darkened hearts lead to disordered minds.
God So Loves…
God So Loves…
Even while we are completely surrounded by culture which is immersed in sin, we must remember the love that God has for us.
We were bought with a price.
Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.
For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
Jesus paid our sin debt.
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Given A New Identity By Making A Costly Call.
Given A New Identity By Making A Costly Call.
