The End A. Now let us once again pause to
seek the blessing of God upon the study of his word. There
will be a time constraint upon us this morning that is not quite
the same as in the other sessions, and I have made an ethical commitment
to Pastor Dickey that I will conclude no later than 20 till
the hour, and more preferably at 25 till. And so I will try
to keep my eye on the clock on the wall, which, by the way,
has indeed repented of its dishonesty and now speaks the truth, and
also the watch that I have before me. So between the two of them,
I should be able to keep that commitment. Well, let us look
to God in prayer and ask the help of His Holy Spirit. Our Father, how we thank you
for the abundance of truth embodied in the psalms and hymns we have
already sung this morning. We thank you for David's invitation. Come, ye children, and I will
teach you the fear of the Lord. And we would take the posture
of little children before your word this morning. We pray that
we may not be found among the wise and the prudent from whom
you hide your truth. But, O Lord, give us the disposition
of children who know and feel their ignorance, and who look
to those older and wiser to instruct them. And, O Lord, we look to
You, the Ancient of Days, and to Your Son, in whom are hid
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, that we may be taught
of Him in this hour. Come by Your Spirit and grace
this place with Your presence and power And what we ask for
ourselves, we pray for Pastor Earl and his wife as they instruct
the younger ones. May the Holy Spirit attend that
endeavor as well with grace and with power. We ask in Jesus name. Amen. Now from What Pastor Earl said,
apparently we have some here with us this morning who have
not been with us in the previous segments of our conference, and
for your sake especially, let me take just two or three minutes
to give a very brief overview of where we are in our study
of that which is the announced theme of the conference, namely,
the Christians' role in a wicked society. In the first two studies,
I attempted to prove from the scriptures that ours is indeed
a wicked society and what the precise identity of a true Christian
is. For it is only the real Christian
whose role is defined in the Word of God as that Christian
relates to a wicked society. And then last night we addressed
the heart of our theme, the precise identity of the Christian's role
in a wicked society, and I suggested that that role can be understood
under two major headings, one negative and one positive. The negative, the Christian must
not allow the wickedness of this generation to shape his thinking
or his lifestyle in any area. And we looked at three key texts
which teach this, the first of which was Romans 12 in verse
2, be not conformed to this age. Be not conformed to this world,
or in the language of Ephesians 4, do not walk as the Gentiles
walk in the vanity of their mind. And then positively we saw that
the Christian is to be transformed in all of his thinking and patterns
of life in conformity with the standards of God. We are, in
the latter part of Romans 12, 2, instructed to be transformed
by the renewing of our minds, that we may prove what is the
good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For in the language
of Peter that we studied, we are to be holy in all manner
of living, even as he who called us is holy. Now, if I were to
have another ten or twelve messages, I would like to address some
of the very critical areas in which these general principles,
in my judgment, need desperately to be addressed in our day. And
if I had that lengthier time, I would address such things as
the biblical view of work and of labor. This present wicked
generation has a wicked view of work and labor. that is antithetical
to the biblical view of the sanctity and the dignity of work and of
labor. I would address the biblical
view of recreation and entertainment. This is the age that is crazed
with its obsession with entertainment and recreation, and you and I
will make little progress as Christians if we are conformed
to this age in our views of recreation and entertainment. We must be
transformed, and the Bible has much to say about those things.
Furthermore, I would like to address the biblical view of
money and things. This present age is totally out
of whack in its view. of money and things, what they
can and cannot give, what we ought to be willing to do in
order to obtain them and have them. And I would love to address
that subject. I'd love to address the biblical
view of courtesy and manners. How our age desperately needs
to know there is a biblical doctrine of courtesy and manners. Our
age is a discourteous and mannerless age. It's part of its wickedness.
It's part of its crass obsession with self and do-my-own-thingism. What? I don't have ten or twelve
messages, so I can't address all of those things. And I've
had to reduce the things that I want to address explicitly
as applications of this great theme, the Christian's role in
a wiccan society, to three major categories. And I want to address
the first one in this Sunday school hour, the second one in
the morning worship, and the third in our last session tonight,
God willing. And so this morning, I want to
speak to you on this very critical matter of sexual identity, function,
and purity. If we are in any way to fulfill
our God-assigned role in this wicked generation, we must not
only reject the world's perspectives, but be thoroughly steeped in
and regulated by the perspectives of God in this critical area
of sexual identity, function, and purity. We live in a generation
that has utterly thrown off the revealed will of God in these
matters, both in general revelation and in special revelation. For
the Bible says, leaving the natural use of the woman, Romans 1. 1
Corinthians 11, doth not nature itself teach you? And in both
of those instances, sexual identity is involved in the discussion
of the apostle. And then, of course, in special
revelation, the Bible, Everything the Bible reveals about the fact
that there is something called distinct masculinity and femininity
that go far beyond the difference of our primary sexual organs,
that is being aggressively denied in our day. And we are being
told by the so-called experts that the only fundamental difference
between men and women is to be found in their primary sexual
organs. And up till now, only the woman
has a womb and can bear child, and only the man produces semen
and can impregnate a woman. That's what we're being told.
take away the distinction of primary sexual organs, there's
no such thing as essential masculinity and femininity. That's all culturally
conditioned. We're being told that the teaching
of God's book, Revelation, concerning distinct roles for women and
distinct roles for men, and certainly the sanctity of the sexual act
itself as being set by God within the sacred sanctuary of monogamous,
permanent, marital commitment. Why, that's scorned and laughed
at and mocked at all the way from popular sitcoms to intellectually
sounding books produced by psychiatrists and sociologists and anthropologists. And you and I will never, never,
never, never begin to fulfill our role in this wicked generation
unless we have a biblical view of our human sexuality, and by
the power of God, are working out that biblical view with increasing
fullness and joy. And so I want to begin, first
of all, by touching briefly on the subject of sexual identity
and function, and then I'll recommend some things that can help you
to study this further on your own and spend the remainder of
the time on sexual purity and integrity. First of all, then,
sexual identity and function. And I want to say two simple
things. As to sexual identity and function, These have their
origin in God's wise, creative design. These have their origin
in God's wise, creative design. Our identity and function as
males and females does not have its origin in some accidental
twitch of certain factors in the so-called evolutionary process. The fact that every one of you
sitting here this morning is a boy or a girl, a man or a woman,
A male or a female is the result of God's wise, creative design. And this truth is placarded in
the opening chapters of Genesis, for we read in Genesis chapter
1 concerning God's activity on the sixth day, verse 26, and
God said, let us make man after our image, after our likeness,
and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over
the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all
the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.
And God created man, that's the term we would say mankind. God created mankind in His own
image. In the image of God created He
Him. Male and female created He them. So everything that constitutes
maleness and femaleness has its ultimate origin in the wisdom
of God's creative design. And in the amplified version
of how he precisely made the male and female in chapter two
of Genesis, you remember God made the male. And he gave him
his task and placed him in the sphere of his labor. And Adam
had begun to fulfill his task and to complete that job assignment. But the scripture says in Genesis
chapter 2 and in verse 15, verse 18, I'm sorry, And the Lord God
said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make
a help answering to him. And then we have the record of
how God designed the woman and brought the woman to the man. And in the woman, Adam saw his
counterpart. And how I wish there had been
a digital tape recorder hidden somewhere among the trees of
the garden when God brought the woman to the man and he saw he
And he saw in many ways an image of himself, and yet he saw something
different from himself. He saw that with which he could
communicate, and yet that which was different from him. And he
said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh,
and she shall be called woman, Isha, because she was taken from
man, Ish. She is like me. She can think
and speak, and her eyes sparkle, and yet she is different from
me. Where God has made me for my
task of harder, tougher flesh, she is softer. She is woman,
Isha, made from the man. So, any thinking about sexual
identity and function that does not begin with this fact, not
theory, this fact, it has its origin in God's wise creative
design, any thinking is doomed to fail. And the world's thinking
utterly rules out this reality, and that's why their thinking
is doomed to fail. Second principle is, Sexual identity and function
not only have their origin in God's wise creative design, but
they have their interpretation in the Creator's word and action. They have their interpretation
in the Creator's word and action. What is the fundamental significance
of the woman? God says it. I will not make
an equal to Him in all things to rival Him, so that they can
compose the song, Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better. I will
make a helper answering to Him. And based on what God said and
what God did, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in 1 Corinthians
11, the Apostle Paul builds the doctrine, the man was not made
for the woman, but the woman for the man. And so this idea
that it is demeaning to a woman's identity if she must find it
in terms of relationship to a man that lies at the heart of modern
feminism is striking at the very roots of femininity. A woman
does not know what she is as a woman until she sees herself
in terms of the Creator's word and action with respect to her
identity and her function. This is not an idea imposed upon
women by male chauvinist pigs toting Bibles. It is the loving Creator who
made the woman to function that way. Was it cruel for God to
make a fish with gills and the ability to swim and then put
him in the ocean and not on the tree next to a bird? If the stupid
little fish thinks, well, I've been denied my liberty because
I can't perch on a limb, he kills himself by his arrogant unwillingness
to accept his God-given identity. And I say it weeping. We've got
a generation of girls and women who killed themselves by refusing
to accept their God-given identity. Now I recommend for your reading,
that's all I'm going to say, and for your listening, Alan
Dunn, Pastor Alan Dunn's series recently preached at our singles
retreat on male and female identity from Genesis. It is nothing short
of masterful. He takes Adam as the paradigm
or the model of the single man and builds a beautiful picture
of what God would have a single man to be And then he builds
a picture of what femininity is from God's creation of Eve. I highly commend that series.
I hope it'll show up in your church tape library here. Then
I commend Pastor Sam Waldron's series on 1 Corinthians 11, 19
sermons in which he expounds male and female roles carefully,
verse by verse, word by word. And I've listened to that entire
series and have found it tremendously helpful. And then a book that
my girls were brought up on. Betty Elliot's wonderful book,
a collection of letters to her daughter, Valerie, called Let
Me Be a Woman. Highly commended. It's on the
bookstall. And then a collection of her
letters to her nephew called The Mark of a Man. Two of the
finest statements of God's design. for masculinity and femininity
as to sexual identity and function. And that's all I'm going to say
because I must now move in the second place to that which is
the burden of my heart this morning, sexual purity and integrity. If ever we're going to fulfill
our role in this wicked generation, If we are ever to be light and
salt, if ever we are to be luminary, sparkling stars shining against
the dark backdrop of a wicked generation, it will be if by
the grace of God we are marked by sexual purity and integrity
in an evil and adulterous generation. And in opening up this theme,
I want to do Three things. Number one, I want to show the
dominant place of this issue in the word of God. I'm not speaking
upon it because I'm a dirty minded old man and want to talk about
sex. I'm a preacher of the word of God and I'm called to preach
the whole counsel of God. And the word of God is full of
a doctrine of sexual purity and integrity and the horrible results
when sexual purity and integrity are forfeited. And then secondly,
having shown its dominant place in the Word of God, first in
the Old Testament, then in the New Testament, then finally,
I want to give you seven propositions which embody the biblical concept
of sexual purity and integrity. So its dominant place in the
Old Testament, its dominant place in the New Testament, and thirdly
then, seven principles that embody the biblical teaching of sexual
purity and integrity. Now, don't expect me to turn
to all these passages. We don't have time, but I'll
cite the references and just briefly allude to them. First
of all, the creation account ends on a pervasively sexual
note, and I've chosen my words carefully. The creation account
closes with these words. After Adam exclaims, this is
now bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, therefore shall a man
leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife, and they
shall be one flesh. And though there is far more
to one flesh than mere sexual intercourse, that is the foundational
concept of one flesh. Because when Paul is trying to
show the Corinthians why they shouldn't consort with harlots,
he says, do you not know that he that is joined to the harlot
is one flesh with the harlot? So we do not over-spiritualize
this. They shall be one flesh. It doesn't
say one mind. though they will be one mind
if they have a good marriage, one soul, but it says one flesh,
and the last verse of the creation account, and they were both naked,
the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. There they are in
their image-bearing capacity, in total vulnerability to God
and one another, in total nakedness, without shame. And I always ask
couples in premarital counseling, can you contemplate Adam and
Eve, there in the garden, in total nakedness, in the embrace
of their sexual intimacy, and believe God looked down and said,
that's good. If you can't, you've got a sub-biblical
view of human sexuality. How dominant is this matter of
sexual purity and integrity in the Bible? The creation account
ends on that very note. I didn't write it, God did. Then
when we come to see the two lines beginning to emerge, the line
of Cain, which is the seed of the serpent, subsequently the
line of Seth, the seed of the woman, notice the place. of this matter in the description
in Genesis 4, because it is in the line of Cain that Lamech
comes, and it is said of Lamech in verse 19, Lamech took unto
him two wives, He broke God's original pattern
of monogamy. A man shall leave father and
mother and cleave to his wife, singular, and the two shall be
one flesh, not the three, not the four. And we find one of
the most crass outcroppings of the seed of the serpent was the
violation of the sanctity of sex in terms of a monogamous
marital relationship. And then in that generation before
the flood, look at the place that sexuality had in terms of
beginning to make sexual attraction the basis for marriage. And it
came to pass, Genesis 6, when men began to multiply on the
face of the ground and daughters were born to them, that the sons
of God, those of the godly seed of Seth, saw the daughters of
men that they were fair. They knew nothing of their character.
They knew nothing of their godliness. They just knew that they had
the dimensions that go over big in a beauty pageant. That's all
you can tell about a woman from a distance. And when they saw
that they were fair, they had beauty queen physical dimensions,
what did they do? They took them wives of all that
they chose. They made physical attractiveness
and sexual chemistry the basis of their marital choices, and
that was one of the major factors that produced that wicked generation
before the Flood. I didn't write it, God did. I
didn't put it at the beginning of Genesis 6, God did. You see
the dominant emphasis in the Word of God? When men begin to
view marriage only as a means to legitimize sex, and they view
marriage as primarily a means of having heightened sensual
pleasure regardless of its foundation in godliness, you've got a generation
that's ripe for God's judgment. Well, then you go on. The one
major blot on the life of Noah, how does it come? unseemliness,
shameful nakedness. Genesis 9, 20 and following.
And then when you turn to the Old Testament law, and here I'll
just quote the passages, Leviticus 18, 3 to 5, God has to warn his
people, you shall not do this and do this. And he speaks of
things it's almost indiscreet to read in a mixed assembly.
And if God had not said these things were to be read every
seven years to the whole congregation of Israel, I would not read them
in a public assembly. But if God was not so fastidious
as to command that they be read, And God speaks of various forms
of bestiality and homosexuality and lesbianism and incest. And He says, You shall not do
these abominations of the nations that I drive out, for it is for
this very reason that I drive out these nations. You find the
same in Leviticus 20, 12 and following. The sexual practices of the land
of Canaan were a major factor in the judgment God brought upon
them. And in giving the standard by
which his people were to live, highlighting those very sexual
practices and saying, you shall not do after these abominations,
fills up verse after verse after verse in the book of Leviticus
and again in the book of Deuteronomy. And then as we scan through the
Old Testament, who has any acquaintance that does not remember the shameful
rape of Tamar by Amnon, her half-brother? Who does not remember the grievous
sin of David with Bathsheba? Solomon's heart turned away by
his many wives. Who does not remember the book
of Proverbs with Solomon in a better day, speaking to his son, warning
him about the strange woman, the foreign woman, the married
woman whose husband is away on a journey, and she gets the hots
for this young man and seduces him. And he speaks in the most
blunt language, go not near the door of her house. Then he gives
the positive, he says, Drink waters out of thine own cistern,
and running waters out of thine own well. Be satisfied with the
wife of thy youth. Let her breast satisfy thee at
all times. Go astray, be ravished with her
love." And all the way through the book of Proverbs, and then
in the Prophets, the imagery of Israel's unfaithfulness that
is brought forward again and again is the imagery of marital
infidelity, spiritual whoredom, Now, why do I give all that overview?
To underscore that this has a dominant place in the Word of God in the
Old Testament, but it's nonetheless dominant in the New Testament.
In the Sermon on the Mount, of the few commands that Jesus picks
out and amplifies, you remember in Matthew 5, 27, you've heard
that it was said, thou shalt not commit adultery. And they
had put an interpretation on that which said, if you didn't
spend a night with a woman in bed, you were all right. He said,
but I say unto you, whosoever looketh to lust upon a woman
hath committed adultery already in his heart. Matthew 19, questions
about marriage and divorce, and Jesus takes them back to the
beginning and says, In the beginning it was not so. What God hath
joined together, let not man put asunder. And then when you
turn in the New Testament to the categorical descriptions
of human sinfulness, whether in the Gospels or the Epistles,
sexual sins often are at the head of the list. Mark 7, verses
20 and following, for from within, out of the heart, proceed. And
our Lord mentions adulteries, fornication. Galatians 5, 19-21,
the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these? Adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness. 1 Corinthians 6, 9, Be not deceived,
the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God, neither fornicators,
nor adulterers, nor effeminate. Dear people, our New Testament
is full of naming sins of sexual purity, sins that show the absence
of sexual integrity. And when Christians are called
to a life of holiness, Often these matters are brought forward,
Colossians 3, 5, put to death therefore your members which
are upon the earth. And then there follows a list
of sins, and at the heart of them are sexual sins. The same
with Ephesians 5, 3 to 6, 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 to 8. where Paul says, you know how
we taught you to live a holy life, and then he specifies particularly
that you abstain from fornication, that each of you know how to
possess his vessel in sanctification and in honor. In that great epistle
that sets out Christ as the final high priest and last message
of God to men, Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 4, marriage is to
be held in honor among all in the bed undefiled, but whoremongers
and adulterers God will judge. So many passages. Dear people,
You and I, if we're in touch with our Bibles, must be convinced
that sexual purity and integrity are an integral part of the mark
of God's true people, whether in the Old Covenant or under
the New Covenant. Therefore, in keeping with our
theme, the Christians roll in a wicked generation. One of the
dominant wickednesses of this generation is its absence of
sexual purity and integrity, along with the issue I dealt
with earlier, sexual identity and function, maleness and femaleness
and what they imply. And if we're to have any credibility
in this area, we must show that we're committed to an alternate
lifestyle. to a radically different lifestyle. We're prepared to think God's
thoughts after Him about our identity as males and females,
our function as males and females, and our sexual activity as males
and females. Now let me then try in the remaining
20 minutes to give you these seven principles that embody
the standard of God. If you're serious, if you're
serious about being light and salt in this generation, may
God write these things upon your heart. Number one, virginity
of mind and body must be an uncompromising standard until marriage for Christian
men and women. There's the first great principle.
Virginity of mind and body must be an uncompromising standard
until marriage for Christian men and women. I say mind as well as body because
Jesus said, who so looks with a view to lust have committed
adultery. It is not enough that you remain
a virgin physically. You must strive to be a virgin
mentally. That means you're going to have
to resist letting your eyes glance on the stuff that even appears
in innocent news magazines, let alone stay clear of the newsstands. With the slick, not only girly
magazines, you've got to call them boy magazines now. For this
generation has become so debased that millions are made by even
making skin magazines of men so that women can ogle and lust. Take Joseph as your example,
young man. Potiphar's wife perhaps was beginning
to get some middle-aged wrinkles. And all she did with creams and
lotions couldn't deny the realities. And so she sets her eyes upon
this handsome young man, figuring, if I can get him into bed, that'll
be a star on the fact that I still haven't lost it in my sexual
attractiveness and prowess. But Joseph would rather be thrown
into jail under false accusations than sin against his God. He
was committed to uncompromised virginity of mind and body. until his wedding night. God
help you young women, you men, to say by the grace of God, that's
the standard I take from God, and I will not compromise. For
the only divinely ordained outlet for sexual burning, according
to 1 Corinthians 7, is marital intercourse. To avoid fornications,
let each have his own husband, his own wife. It is better to
marry than to burn. Autoeroticism, mental fantasies,
are not God's way of sexual outlet. They are the world's way, the
devil's way, not God's way. Virginity of mind and body must
be an uncompromising standard until marriage. And I thank God
by His grace that He put that conviction in me as a young Christian,
and by the grace of God, I have no regrets. Never tortured with
comparing my wife with anyone else, for there's never been
anyone else. Secondly, any physical interaction,
I've chosen my words carefully, of a sexual nature, which provokes
or promotes fornication violates 1 Corinthians 6.18. Any physical interaction of a
sexual nature which provokes or promotes fornication violates
1 Corinthians 6.18. Flee fornication. There are certain sins you can't
run from. They are inmate, house sins. They're in your heart and ingrained
in your very disposition. Would to God you could run from
them, but you'd have to run from yourself. But you can flee fornication. And I didn't say any physical
contact between men and women is wrong. No. The Bible doesn't
say that. The Bible says greet one another
with a holy kiss. It doesn't say men with men and
women with women. I've embraced thousands of women
in a non-sexual way without the slightest twinge of eroticism. I've embraced thousands of men
without the slightest trace of homosexual interest or desire. But any physical interaction
of a sexual nature which provokes or promotes fornication violates
1 Corinthians 6.18. You know what that means for
some of you guys? You're so charged with extra supplies of testosterone
and memories of past relationships, you go beyond holding a girl's
hand in courtship And you'll start touching the erogenous
zones, and before long, you'll be on the border of fornication.
You're going to have to do with that godly Christian girl, you're
going to have to say to her, once it's appropriate and the
relationship is developed, and it's heading toward marriage,
you're going to have to say to her, dear, I don't want you to
get mixed signals. I'm not queer. I've got all the
drives of any ordinary man, plus a little more. But I'm so put
together, if I go beyond holding your hand, if I so much as kiss
you, it starts motors whirring in me that before long I fear
my hands will be upon your breasts. And God knows where it'll stop
and I don't want to defile you. Do you understand? Please bear
with my determination to flee fornication. Likewise, you young women. Some
of you may be so put together, Someone giving you anything more
than a very quick, furtive, closed-mouthed peck on your lips will inflame
desires in you that you fear will lead you into the path of
fornication. Then say to that young man, look,
I am determined to obey the Word of God, to flee fornication. I want us to come to our wedding
night with a clear conscience. And I know you mean nothing by
that more intimate embrace when you kiss me goodnight, but John,
Henry, Pete, please, there's more than I can handle." That's what we're talking about.
It means that if in the ordinary interaction of brothers and sisters
where a discreet, physical chest-to-breast embrace, and you can discreetly
embrace a woman without that kind of contact. I do it hundreds
of times. Whole societies and churches
do it, and it doesn't inflame fornication. That's a lot of
nonsense, unless you want it to. But if just another man touching
your shoulder and discreetly pecking you on the cheek elicit
something in your heart that you can't put to death, you go
to that brother lovingly and say, brother, I don't believe
you have the slightest intentions that are evil, but I'd appreciate
it if you'd just shake my hand and leave it at that. Flee fornication. Third principle. And here I've
chosen larger words because I don't want to be offensive to any.
Those who are old enough to understand will know what I'm referring
to. Any autoeroticism, any autoeroticism, parenthesis, self-terminating
sexual stimulation, end of parenthesis, is a perversion of God's design. and contrary to the will of God.
Any autoeroticism, parenthesis, self-terminating sexual stimulation,
end of parenthesis, is a perversion of God's design and contrary
to the will of God, in spite of what certain so-called Christian
authors are writing in so-called Christian books on sexuality. and saying it's a means to keep
pure until you're married and a means for married men to keep
pure when they're away on a business trip. That's nonsense. The very
physiology of the way God has made us indicates that the sexuality
of the male is to find fulfillment in the intimacy with the female
and vice versa. That's why Paul says in 1 Corinthians
7, if any man is burning with sexual passion, what is the outlet? He does not say, let him get
a wife, or let him indulge in autoeroticism. That is not given
as an option, because it is self-terminating instead of other-terminating.
And some of the deepest problems I've had to deal with in marital
counseling with couples fouled up in their sexual lives is because
they were addicted to auto-eroticism and they cannot think in terms
of the self-giving of human sexuality. They so program themselves to
be self-terminating. It's a form of perversion. Fourth principle. Again, I'm going to use technical
words. but you're not children, heterosexual, that's male and
female, heteros, other, homo, of the same kind, heterosexual,
comma, permanent, comma, monogamous marriage, heterosexual, permanent,
monogamous marriage, is the only God-ordained context for God-honoring
sexual relations. Heterosexual, permanent, monogamous
marriage is the only God-ordained context for God-honoring sexual
relations. only context. How do we know
that? Go back to creation. When Jesus
was asked the question, is marriage permanent? Can a man put away
his wife for any cause? He says, have you not read? He
who made them in the beginning made them male and female, and
for this cause said, a man shall leave father and mother, cleave
to his wife. They too shall be one flesh.
Then Jesus added something. What God therefore hath joined
together, let not man put asunder. And whoso puts away his wife
except for pornea, except for invading the sacred citadel of
the two-one flesh relationship by uncleanness, for man joins
himself to another man, another woman, to a beast, that's pornea,
the broad term for sexual uncleanness, which violates the marriage at
its very citadel, Jesus said, whoso puts away his wife except
for that cause. and then marries another, commits
adultery. Why? Because in God's eyes, that
other bond is still viable. He says it is permanent. It is monogamous. Cleave to his
wife. It is heterosexual. Not cleave
to another man or a woman cleaving to another woman. Dear people,
we're losing our ability to be shocked anymore. Ever since the
so-called coming-out-of-the-closet-of-the-lesbian-homosexual-movement, it seems we've lost the edge
of being shocked that on popular talk shows people would dare
to appear, seen by millions over network television, as so-called
homosexual husband and wife, males and females. God says thou
hast a whore's forehead, thou refusest to be ashamed. That's
this generation. Part of its wickedness. It's
shameless. It's shameless! It can't blush! If you don't watch out, it'll
wear you down. Once you begin to say, oh well,
it's kind of gross, but no, no, it's not just gross, it's wicked.
And if they can't blush, then you do like the prophet did.
He blushed. He said, I blush and am ashamed
and cannot look up. Blush vicariously. All right,
fifth principle, and we're going to get through it, God helping
us, we're on time. Here's the fifth principle. Marriage
partners must make conscience of fulfilling each other's sexual
obligations. If you're going to be transformed
by the renewing of your mind, you must see as a Christian,
that as a marriage partner, you must make conscience of fulfilling
your partner's sexual needs. I've stated it this way, marriage
partners must make conscience of fulfilling each other's sexual
obligations. And that is taught so clearly
in 1 Corinthians 7. I don't know how some of these
so-called pious men and women I've met who deny conjugal rights
to their partners can say they have their devotions. They must
conveniently skip 1 Corinthians 7. For he says very clearly in
verse 3, let the husband, isn't it interesting? He starts with
the recognition that the wife has her sexual rights. And he says, let the husband
render unto the wife her due, her due, what's owed her. It's
a debt to be paid. It's not a privilege for you
to pick up and take down when and where you wish. You have
a debt to your wife. Pay it. The wife hath not power
over her own body, but the husband. Likewise, the husband doth not
have power over his body, but the wife. Do not withhold yourselves
from one another, except it be by mutual consent, and that only
for a brief period of time, that you may give yourselves unto
prayer, and then may come together again, so that Satan does not
tempt you because of your incontinency. See what he's saying? What could
be plainer? There must be open, free, frank communication between
a husband and wife with respect to their own needs. How can I
know what is due to my wife if she does not communicate in some
way by our own little set of verbal and nonverbal signals
to one another? And every married couple has
its own, or has their own. But we are to make conscience
of this. So what? You've had a rough day at the
office? Big deal. If your wife sends out those
signals that she wants to snuggle and wants intimacy, kick yourself
in the behind and say, you lazy old buck, fulfill your God-given
responsibility. Say, Lord, give me grace. Because
there's many a time when you get all lovey and snuggly, And
she'd been chasing kids all day and washing your clothes, and
she no more feels like being a lover in that sense than she
feels like running around the block and jogging. And yet she
lovingly gives herself to you. God says it's supposed to work
both ways. Who says the Bible is prudish? It seems to me that's
pretty practical, isn't it? And in our pastoral oversight
visits, this is one of the passages we read to couples and say, Are
you fulfilling this? What's the result if you don't?
You're opening the door to the devil to come in and disrupt
your marriage with infidelity. You're opening the door for the
devil to come in and create adultery and uncleanness. Principle six. Time is getting away real quick
now. Marriage partners must jealously guard the sacred sanctuary of
their sexual intimacy. Marriage partners must jealously
guard the sacred sanctuary of their sexual intimacy. I know it's popular in our day,
you see, for people to show, well, I'm mature and grown up,
so I can talk before a national television talk show audience
about the details of my intimate life with my husband or wife.
My friend, that's shameful. It's not that we're prudes. It's
too sacred to be paraded before the world. The Song of Solomon
has some beautiful imagery where the lover calls his wife a sealed
garden. And as he goes to enjoy her sexual
favors, he enters that garden. There's the element of free and
holy abandonment, but the element of chaste sexual, I'm sorry,
a chaste silence and privacy with respect to the sexual intimacy. That's why Job could say in Job
31.1, I've made a covenant with my eyes that I should not look
upon a maiden. And I love that passage in Ezekiel
24.16. Ezekiel was no kid and God was
going to take his wife. And you know how he described
his wife? He said, this day I will take away from thee the desire
of thine eyes. Isn't that beautiful? Ezekiel
still looked at his wife like this when she passed. My wife
and I have a little thing about this. She'd say, honey, you give
me that look. I say, well, I have to. You're
supposed to be the desire of my eyes. You used to be the desire of
my eyes. Not only when you were young, but now that you're a
grandma, you're still the desire of my eyes. And when you determine
as a man that there's only one woman that will have any reason
to believe that that look is the look of sexual desire and
interest, you are preserving the sacred sanctuary of your
marriage. And then last of all, single
and married Christians alike, Single and married Christians
alike must resist all the influences that would mock, erode, or undermine
these standards. Singles and married Christians
alike must resist all the influences that would mock, erode, or undermine
these standards. That's why you better be very
careful what you watch on TV. 1 Corinthians 15, 33, Be not
deceived, evil companions corrupt good morals. If you can watch
on the so-called innocent funny sitcom, young couple where they've
got teenagers 14 and 15 having their first sexual experience
and the whole plot is built around losing their virginity and it's
suffused with humor and you can find yourself watching that with
interest and laughing. It won't be long before you'll
be laughing at it in your own life. Be not deceived. You watch the movies you go to
if you attend any. The movies you rent for your
VCR. Watch your even so-called innocent
news in family magazines. You watch the music you listen
to, especially country music. The theme of country music again
and again is somebody's got the hots for somebody else's wife.
Somebody's discouraged and down because they've just been jilted
and they're out hot to trot with someone else. You watch any influence coming
into your eyes or your ears that would in any way undermine, erode
these biblical standards. Brethren, sisters, young and
old alike, if we are to fulfill our role in this wicked generation,
we had better, by the power of the Holy Ghost, have biblical
standards for sexual identity, function, and purity. May God help us by his grace.
Let's pray. Father, thank you for helping
us to cover so much ground in so short a time. May your spirit
take the word and embed it in every heart. Pray especially
for the dear young people among us. Oh Lord, keep them in an
evil and an adulterous generation. that they may come in your due
time and will to their marriage night with a clear conscience. Oh, Father, have mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us. As our generation
sinks itself in a sea of sensuality, will you not yet rescue by the
mighty power of the Spirit, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. We're dismissed, and we
can take care of what we need to in terms of children, etc. A.