Temptation In Marriage
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Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
Nature of Marriage
Nature of Marriage
“But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”
“It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”
Marriage is not what we are striving for.
Marriage is what God has declared, and how God sees it.
Marriage has sexuality at its foundation.
God says one flesh
Not one spirit
Not one checkbook
One flesh
So, when we are tempted to go outside the marriage sexually, God’s Word has a warning for us...
FLEE
FLEE
Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
Early December, brother’’s wedding
Temptation
I had witnessed Christ to about four other people earlier that evening
Think Satan didn’t have a hand in the tempation
Know where I learned that trick?
and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”
But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.
One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.
Point One: Two cannot remain one flesh with more than two.
And if you try to introduce another person into your marriage, God has a Word for you...
Warning
Warning
My son, pay attention to my wisdom,
turn your ear to my words of insight,
that you may maintain discretion
and your lips may preserve knowledge.
For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey,
and her speech is smoother than oil;
but in the end she is bitter as gall,
sharp as a double-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death;
her steps lead straight to the grave.
She gives no thought to the way of life;
her paths wander aimlessly, but she does not know it.
Now then, my sons, listen to me;
do not turn aside from what I say.
Keep to a path far from her,
do not go near the door of her house,
lest you lose your honor to others
and your dignity to one who is cruel,
lest strangers feast on your wealth
and your toil enrich the house of another.
At the end of your life you will groan,
when your flesh and body are spent.
You will say, “How I hated discipline!
How my heart spurned correction!
I would not obey my teachers
or turn my ear to my instructors.
And I was soon in serious trouble
in the assembly of God’s people.”
Drink water from your own cistern,
running water from your own well.
Should your springs overflow in the streets,
your streams of water in the public squares?
Let them be yours alone,
never to be shared with strangers.
May your fountain be blessed,
and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
A loving doe, a graceful deer—
may her breasts satisfy you always,
may you ever be intoxicated with her love.
Why, my son, be intoxicated with another man’s wife?
Why embrace the bosom of a wayward woman?
For your ways are in full view of the Lord,
and he examines all your paths.
The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them;
the cords of their sins hold them fast.
For lack of discipline they will die,
led astray by their own great folly.
Here’s what you lose, if you give yourself over the another person.
You lose the one flesh with your spouse
You lose the straight path to life in Christ
You lose your honor in the eyes of others
You may lose your money
You lose peace
You lose control of your life because it’s shared with someone else, when it should be shared with only one
You may very lose any possibility of improvement in the marriage you have…because your spouse may leave
Tell you a secret, there’s no such thing as divorce…Just regret that goes with the separation of two people...
Barbara and I have had one success in our divorce, and it is an extraordinarily rare one. We have remained friends, and when the residue of anger and hurt subsides with time, we have an outside chance of becoming best friends again. We meet each other for drinks or lunch occasionally, and I have become friends with her boyfriend, Tom Pearce. When she was graduated from Emory Law School, I gave her a party to celebrate. When I left the party, I looked back and saw Barbara and Tom holding hands. They looked very happy together, and it was painful to recognize it. I wanted to go back and say something to Tom, but I mostly wanted to say it to Barbara. I wanted to say that I admired his taste in women.
So, here’s the thing…how can we protect against the temptation?
When we flee, what do we flee toward...
How
How
Now for the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
King James Version Chapter 7
5 fDefraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to gfasting and prayer; and come together again, that hSatan itempt you not for your jincontinency.
Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
Defraud in Greek = Aposteiretie-”Defraud, cheat, rob, steal
Singleness a gift
Singleness a gift
If you think you might like to have a relationship with someone else, singleness is not your gift.
It may be your cross
Marital duty…job…responsibility
DO NOT DEPRIVE EACH OTHER
DO NOT!!!
“But I Don’t FEEL Intimate”
“But I Don’t FEEL Intimate”
Interesting to me how often people are tempted to do something because they don’t feel like it.
I promise you that if you don’t feel like it, your spouse won’t stop feeling like it, and then you’ve going to have a bigger problem!
Love is a decision! So decide to love your spouse in the way the Bible declares, not in the way you feel about it!
Conclusion
Conclusion
Understand the stakes friends!!!
Flee temptation
Please believe me…listen to every word I have said today.
Know what you could lose
You need to know what your marriage is worth.
Whetehter you’re the person tempted to step out.
The person tempted to leave
Fulfill your marital duty to your spouse..
The person tempted to without.
Today
FLEE your sinful inclinations!
Tonight
Repent of the sins you have commited against your spouse
Wear each other out
And flee toward one another.
It isn’t hard, but it is work.
Take comfort in one another.
Don’t be more spiritual than God. He gave you a spouse. Go home and find comfort in one another.
That’s God’s design for marriage.
It’s Not Too Late
It’s Not Too Late
I plead with you in everything within me, do not replicate my mistakes.
I know every single facet of this sermon, and I ask you to turn away from the sin, and turn back to your spouse NOW!
If you have cheated, repent, and know that you are forgiven. Go and sin no more
If you have defrauded your spouse, repent, and know that you are forgiven. Go and sin no more.
Please believe me…With everything I have or am as a chaplain, pastor, and friend…there is forgiveness offered to us in Jesus.
Repent. Go and sin no more.
And now go and enjoy the spouse that God has given you.