THE PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

O Holy Father, how can we keep our way pure? By living according to Your Word. Help us to seek You with all our hearts, and do not let us stray from Your commands. By the working of Your Spirit, hide Your Word in our hearts, that we might not sin against You. Praise be to You, O Lord; teach us Your decrees. May we rejoice in following Your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. Work Your grace in us, that we may truly delight in Your decrees, and we will not neglect Your Word; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE SERMON

The Seventh Commandment is, "You shall not commit adultery." The New Covenant interpretation and application of that commandment is, "Flee from sexual immorality" (First Corinthians 6:18), or as Ephesians 5:3 says, "among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality." In contrast to the ancient pagan world, the people of God in the time of both the Old Testament and New Testament were called to holiness of body and soul. In contrast to the contemporary pagan world, we are called to holiness of body and soul. Over and over again throughout the New Testament, the call to holiness of body and soul is clearly repeated:

Romans 13:13 — "Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and do not think about how to gratify the desires of your sinful nature." Colossians 3:5 commands us to "Put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry." First Thessalonians 4:3 states that "It is God’s will that you should be holy; that you should abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God." Hebrews 13:4 declares that "Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexual immoral." Indeed, God’s final judgment is declared upon those who do not repent of sexual immorality, in Revelation 21:8, in which the Lord Himself says, "the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

Now, our pagan society hears about God’s call to holiness in body and soul, and just doesn’t get it. Pagans think that we Christians have some kind of "hang-up" about sexuality. They can’t understand why we’re so strict about sexual morals. They call us "puritanical," but, of course, they don’t really know what they mean by that. (In many ways, I consider it a compliment to be compared to the Puritans!) But let’s be sure that we ourselves understand: purity is a characteristic of holiness. And the reason that we are called to sexual purity, holiness of body and soul, is that God is holy. He created our bodies. And, He has redeemed us, body and soul, by the holy blood of His Son. Our bodies belong to Him. Our bodies are in His service. We are to offer our bodies as "living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is (our) reasonable (or, spiritual) worship" (Romans 12:1). And, as First Corinthians 6:19-20 exhorts us,

So, it is very important for us to understand, positively, with a joyful heart, a thankful heart, that sexual purity, holiness of body and soul, honors and glorifies God. We honor and glorify God with our bodies when we live lives of sexual purity. A Biblical, Christian worldview has a very happy, healthy, wholesome, holy view of sexuality and sexual relations as ordained and intended by God, that is, within the covenant of marriage.

Now, it is true, regretfully true, that some Christians have been so scared of sexuality that they looked upon it sort of as a "necessary evil." And so, pagans think that we Christians think that sexuality is somehow inherently evil, as though God frowns upon it. There is nothing Biblical about that. God created us as sexual creatures. Do you know what was the first command God spoke to His human creatures ... before the fall, before sin entered the world? "God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and multiply’" (Genesis 1:28). You see, there is nothing inherently sinful about sexuality and sexual relations. Sexual union of husband and wife is part of God’s good ordering of creation.

But not only is sexuality a part of God’s good creation — which has been corrupted and perverted by sin — but also, sexuality is part of who we are as spiritual creatures as well. We are not only physical creatures; as humans created in the image of God, we are also spiritual creatures. But our physical nature and our spiritual nature are not separated from one another, not divided against one another. We are called and commanded to "love the LORD our God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength." We are called to worship and serve God as a unity of body, soul, and spirit. And our sexuality is a part of that. There is something truly spiritual about sexual experience.

Now, the New Age pagans are saying things like that today, promoting promiscuity and immorality, but I’m not basing this teaching on New Age paganism or contemporary Baalism and nature worship. Remember: heresy is always a corruption of truth. False teaching is always the erroneous teaching of something that is true.

(This really is an important theological point, which I hope you will remember: there is always an element of truth in heresy. Heresy is a parasite that lives off of the truth. What is a lie? A lie is a distortion of the truth. What is a rotten apple? A rotten apple is a good apple that has gone bad. So, when the New Age pagans and the Baal worshipers of today say that their sexual promiscuity gets them in touch with their spirituality, they are saying something that has its basis in truth, in God’s Word, but their understanding is perverted and distorted. Yes, they are getting in touch with their "spirituality," but it is a "spirituality" which is in bondage to their fallen, corrupted nature.) This is exactly what Paul was referring to when he warned the Corinthians against participating in pagan temple prostitution (or any other kind of prostitution): physical union creates a spiritual union. The two become one flesh; that is a spiritual as well as a physical reality. Therefore, sexuality is deeply connected to spirituality, either in a way that glorifies God or in a way that is an abomination to God.

Now, why am I going on like this? Because we Christians need to recover and regain a sense of the holiness of sexuality. We need to understand our sexuality in terms of Christian spirituality. And when we do, we will see the goodness, the beauty, the holiness, the mystery of sexuality as something which points beyond physical union to our spiritual union with Christ.

The physical union of husband and wife is a metaphorical, symbolical expression of the union between Christ and His Church. Ephesians 5:22-33 is critically important for understanding sexuality from the perspective of God’s revealed truth in Scripture. In this passage, the Apostle Paul writes that Christ loves the Church as His Bride, and cares for her (the Church) because "we are members of His body." Paul’s point is that we have spiritual union with Christ: He is the head of the Church, His body. We are united to Him by His Spirit within us. This is deep spirituality. But it is by this deep spirituality that Paul commands husbands to love and care for their wives "as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself." What Paul is saying is that there is real spiritual union between husband and wife. And how is this spiritual union expressed? Paul quotes Genesis 2:24, "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." So, physical union seals spiritual union between husband and wife. But that’s not all: the physical and spiritual union of husband and wife point to something beyond themselves, to a transcendent reality, a heavenly reality. Paul says, "This is a profound mystery — but I am talking about Christ and the church" (Ephesians 5:32). The physical and spiritual union of husband and wife, is an earthly, metaphorical, symbolic picture of the heavenly reality of the mystical union of Christ and His Bride, the Church.

And, dear friends, that is the reason, because God has ordained that sexual union be an expression of the gospel of Jesus Christ — that is the reason that we, as Christians, regard sexuality as holy, and that is the reason that we are called to holiness in body and soul. It all has to do with the holiness, and beauty, and mystery, and glory of the gospel of our redemption in Christ. And that is the reason that it is such an abomination in God’s eyes for the marriage covenant to be broken by adultery, or for our bodies and souls to be soiled by the sins of fornication, or sodomy (homosexual acts), and pornography, or any other kind of sexual immorality.

And, by the way, just think about it: what harm is done, what bad thing happens, what unhappiness is created, when sexual love is expressed in faithfulness and tenderness and holiness in the covenant bond of marriage? None. Not one, single, bad thing happens when sexual love is expressed in faithfulness and tenderness and holiness in the covenant bond of marriage. That is because God is good, and God is always good, and God’s law is always for our good, for our blessing, for our happiness. But, meditate on the misery, meditate on the misery, think about the shattered lives and shattered dreams and shattered families and shattered societies, and broken hearts, and lifelong curses, and fatal diseases that come as a consequence of sexual immorality. Do you not think that the God who created man and woman in His own image knows what is best for us? He knows what is best for us, and He wants what is best for us; and therefore in His goodness and His grace and His love, He has spoken His loving word of truth to us, saying, "You shall not commit adultery ... flee sexual immorality ... glorify God with your body."

So, now then, how are we to keep the Seventh Commandment, as The Children’s Catechism says, "To keep ourselves sexually pure in what we think, say, and do, and to help others be the same way"?. First of all: youth, college students, single adults: make a settled decision in your mind and an uncompromising commitment in your heart, that you will keep yourselves sexually pure, chaste, in singleness. Honor the Lord with your body by consecrating your body to Him. If it is His will, He will in good time provide a spouse for you. And if you have been faithful to the Lord, then you will be able to offer yourself to your spouse in marriage with as an offering unto the Lord Himself, and the Lord will bless you. If you have already fallen in sexual sin, repent of that sin. He is more than able to cleanse you of your sin, and He is willing to restore you to the joy of salvation — and just as He said to that woman caught in adultery, "Go, and sin no more," so He says to you: repent of your sin, turn away from your sin, and offer your body to God in newness of life, in holiness of life, from now on.

And let me just add a warning to those single people who may be flirting with disaster by flirting with sexual sin or who are involved in the sexual sin of fornication or what might be called "heavy petting involving sexual intimacy." A sexually intimate relationship is very, very difficult to get out of. That’s the reason that sexual intimacy must be reserved for marriage. But the warning to single adults is that you might end-up in an unhealthy relationship — unhealthy emotionally, psychologically, spiritually — and you might know it, and even admit that it is an unhealthy relationship not in the best interest of your happiness and well-being; but, because of sexual intimacy it is almost impossible to break off the relationship and get out of it. Great heartache and great heartbreak follow close sexual intimacy outside of marriage. If you are committed to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then your body will be committed to Him for His glory. And He will bless you.

Men, (single and married), I have found that when I retrieve my e-mail from a major Internet provider, the first thing I need to do is to get the pointer up on the big red X and start clicking without thinking about it: delete, delete, delete. Don’t even think about it. Pornography is poison. It will pervert you, possess you, and destroy your marriage. It is an abomination, because women are created in the image of God, and the Church of Christ is His mystical bride.

We also need to build big hedges of protection around ourselves and our marriages. I think we all ought to have very strict policies about the kind of interaction we have with the opposite sex in the workplace or in social relationships. If you’re going out to lunch with a co-worker of the opposite sex, make sure someone else goes along with you. I believe in "odd numbers" and large numbers in those cases. Make it a committee meeting, not a social occasion. And, when you get home, tell your spouse where you went to lunch and who went with you, and what you had to eat. But better yet, if you can, on a regular basis, plan to meet your spouse for lunch, for no other reason than to be together and enjoy a "date" with one another.

And, as I said this morning, keeping the Seventh Commandment means investing in our marriages, working at our marriages, and treasuring our marriages. You cannot afford not to invest time and money and energy into your relationship with your spouse. And I mean this positively. Make time and take time for each other on a regular basis. Set aside time daily, weekly, annually, when only the two of you will be together that nothing can interrupt. I am thankful for Marriage Conference retreats and weekends such as was recently sponsored in Roanoke, which some of you attended, and I encourage all married couples to attend retreats and conferences such as this — not because you’re having problems, but because you want to make a good marriage better, because you want to build on the firm foundation of your covenantal commitments to one another, because you want to renew your love for one another.

And also, remember, that feelings come and feelings go, and we all go through and grow through various stages and phases of life, but our commitment to our marriages is a matter of commitment to God, and His faithfulness to us is to be the model of our faithfulness to our spouse. Good Christian marriages go through dry phases and difficult times. Every husband is married to an imperfect wife. And every wife is married to an imperfect husband. And every marriage is the marriage of two sinners who fall short of the glory of God, and we all live in a fallen world. But isn’t God good, in that He is there for us to help us by His Spirit bear with one another, and love each other as He has loved us in Christ Jesus. Therefore, for us, when times are hard in our marriages, we know and remember that murder is not an option, suicide is not an option, adultery is not an option, and divorce is not an option. The only option we have is to turn to God, and repent of our own sins, and forgive our spouse of his or her sins, and seek God’s grace to grow in love and to commit ourselves to love one another and to honor Him in our marriages. And He will bless that commitment and that perseverance. God will bless your perseverance! Good marriages may be ordained in heaven; but good marriages are "made" as works in progress in the realities of life on earth. Keep working, for God is at work in you!

And whether we be married or single, young or old, in whatever age and stage of life, let us all heed the call to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to the Lord, and glorify God with our bodies; for Christ has redeemed us and has called us to holiness in body and soul. Amen.