Episode Transcript
[00:00:14] Amen.
[00:00:15] In 2010, I had the opportunity to go on my first overseas mission trip. So if you've never been overseas, specifically if you've never been overseas on a mission trip, I would highly encourage it for, for a multitude of reasons.
[00:00:29] Nothing will give you perspective like going overseas for the sake of mission. And so I was a Texas boy. I am a Texas boy. I had never been outside of the state of Texas, but to New Mexico one time when I was in college, before I went on this mission trip to Indonesia. So we went to a city called Bandun.
[00:00:46] Millions of people, predominantly Muslim, and had the opportunity all week to work with college students. And so there was an English center there that was started by a missionary that we were connected with right in the middle of the city. Lots of college students would go and we would help them preach.
[00:01:00] And along the way we'd have opportunities to share the gospel with them. It was an absolutely life changing experience in a multitude of ways. And the last day of our mission trip there we were led by the missionary to a restaurant for one last night together that overlooked the city. So this restaurant, it was a rooftop restaurant. You're on the roof and you're overlooking the city of Bandun. Again, millions of people, but by this time, you know, a handful of them.
[00:01:27] You've spent lots and lots of hours with them, you've developed a love and an affection for them.
[00:01:32] They, they don't know Jesus and so your heart breaks over them, but you love them deeply.
[00:01:38] And so we're sitting there on top of the roof having this meal and all of a sudden the Muslim call to prayer comes over the loudspeakers and it's just, it's this like awesome, not in the positive sense, but this awesome kind of awe inspiring experience because you're on the roof, Muslim call to prayer goes off, and you're thinking about all of your new friends bowing down to a false God and you're just overwhelmed by so many things. And it was one of the moments that God used in my life to highlight this reality for me that life is not about me, that life is not centered around me.
[00:02:18] And to really help drive home this reality that we find in Habakkuk Chapter two, when the prophet looks out over the injustices of the city and of his people and he cries out to God and God tells him, the righteous shall live by faith. Faith in what? God goes on to tell him that one day the glory of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the seas. And I just began to think about this city being covered by the glory of God. The glory of God, by the way, is the full expression or manifestation of his perfections.
[00:02:56] That one day, like Noah's flood covered the earth, the glory of God will cover the earth.
[00:03:03] Every nook and cranny of creation will be under the weight of the glory of God.
[00:03:12] All sadness, all death, all disease, all oppression driven out, forever, drowned out forever under the glory of God. And I just began to feel awe.
[00:03:24] And so as I was thinking about this, you're like, what does this have to do with marriage?
[00:03:27] When we get to verse four of chapter 13, the author, inspired by the Holy Spirit, in essence, tells us that you and I ought to be in awe of this thing called marriage.
[00:03:41] Not because marriage in and of itself is the top thing, as we'll talk about in a moment, or the preeminent thing. There is something greater than marriage.
[00:03:52] There is something greater than sex, namely, God himself.
[00:03:58] So I'll touch on singleness in a moment as well.
[00:04:01] But it is important for us to recognize, friends, that we live in a culture that not only downplays the importance of marriage, but has actually become antagonistic to it.
[00:04:13] And our aim when we gather at Redemption Hill, by the way, is not to bash the culture.
[00:04:19] Okay, before we say anything about the culture that we desire to reach with the gospel of Jesus and love the people in, we have to take a look at our own hearts and ask the question, do we hold marriage in high esteem?
[00:04:33] Like in our marriages for those of us who are married in the room?
[00:04:38] Do we hold in high esteem this thing that God has brought together between us and our spouse?
[00:04:43] That's really the big idea that the author is getting at in verse four.
[00:04:53] And so I just want to kind of pick it apart a little bit with you, as the Puritans used to do. They would take one verse and they'd write like a whole book on that verse. Kind of ring it out for all of its worth. We're going to try to do that over the next 30 minutes or so. Just ring out this verse as we talk about marriage and sex and a little bit of singleness and grace. Okay, so here's what the verse says. Let me read it one more time to us, and then we'll just kind of break it apart little by little.
[00:05:17] The author says, let marriage be held in honor above all among all. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
[00:05:35] So what's the context of the verse. Well, as we talked about a couple of weeks ago, the Book of Hebrews is really about two things. On one hand, the Book of Hebrews is about the supremacy of Jesus Christ, that Jesus is better than anything.
[00:05:49] Jesus is better than marriage. He's better than sex. He's better than family. He's better than kids. He's better than money. He's better than power and prestige. He's better than gaining a following or getting a promotion. Jesus is better than a comfortable life. Jesus is better than life. That's what the Book of Hebrews belabors to teach us. Jesus is better. He's better than anything. And if that's not the bedrock of your life and mine, we will fall.
[00:06:17] Jesus is better. He's supremely and preeminently better.
[00:06:21] Okay, that's the first thing that the Book of Hebrews is about. But the second thing that it's about is in light of that for those who have been captured by his grace, who have been called by the Father to put their faith in the Son and sealed with the Spirit, who have been saved, were called to endure that the Christian life is not just about praying a prayer and then waiting on heaven.
[00:06:43] It's not just about church attendance. It's not just about giving or serving or doing all of these good things that the call of the Christian is to, by the grace of God, endure, endure to the end. Jesus says plainly in the Gospels, those who endure to the end will be saved.
[00:07:02] And so when we see apostasy happen, as was happening among these Christians all the way back in the first century, apostasy is when people who claim to be Christians leave the faith. When we see that happen, we shouldn't be surprised by that. We should grieve that. We should mourn that and lament that. But that's been happening for over 2000 years.
[00:07:24] People who profess faith in Jesus not making it to the end.
[00:07:29] Jesus gives a parable about that, doesn't he? The parable of the soils.
[00:07:33] This is still happening today. And so the call for us is to be so rooted and grounded in the supremacy of Jesus, so delighted in him because of who he is and what he's done on our behalf, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, we endure to the end. Does all this make sense? This is what the Book of Hebrews is about.
[00:07:53] The supremacy of Jesus and the call to persevere by the grace of God. And so when we make it to chapter 13, chapter 13 is almost like a roadmap, in a way, on how to endure.
[00:08:06] It's filled with commands, with imperatives. Do this, do this, don't do this, do this, don't do this. Practical things that are almost like little dots on the roadmap to the final destination.
[00:08:18] Okay? That when these things happen by the grace of God, then we are moving toward the final destination, which is in Hebrews 4, our final resting place. It's actual rest when we enter into the presence and the joy of our Master.
[00:08:33] And so when he gets to verse four, he stops at this little pit stop, so to speak, in regards, and talks to us about marriage and what we're to do with marriage and how we're to think about marriage.
[00:08:45] He says, let marriage be held in honor among.
[00:08:50] Among all.
[00:08:52] Another way to say this, as one of the young's literal translation says, honorable is marriage. In all, he's telling us, let this thing called marriage be held or acknowledged as precious among the church.
[00:09:13] The Hebrews more than likely were a small house church right in the middle of Roman occupied territory.
[00:09:21] So if you can imagine the small little band of Christians, not dissimilar to us, right in the middle of a pagan culture that devalued marriage and looked down upon marriage that was predominantly promiscuous in all of the various ways, and he's telling this small little band of Jesus followers in the midst of this Roman occupied, promiscuous culture to hold marriage in high esteem.
[00:09:49] Let it be precious to you. What's precious to you?
[00:09:53] I mean, just consider it for a moment.
[00:09:57] What's precious to you?
[00:09:59] I mean, your kids, for those who have them, your friendships, your job, maybe the desire for these things, all sorts of good things that are precious to you. And the author's telling us, inspired by the Holy Spirit, let marriage be this. Let it be precious to you.
[00:10:25] For those who are married, let your spouse be precious to you.
[00:10:31] Let it be a cherished possession.
[00:10:35] There were two. Before I get into defining what marriage is and how we today can think about this call, again, for those who are married and those who are not yet married, there were two pitfalls of their day and very similar again to our day. And that led, many commentators believe, led the author to address this issue in this specific way. One of them was aestheticism. Aestheticism is this idea that you and I are made more holy by abstaining from good created things.
[00:11:11] So it's over. Spirituality. It's saying, if we don't do this and we don't do that and we abstain and we live like monks and we don't enjoy Anything. And we don't. We look down on creation. If we do, all those things will be more holy as a result of it. And so he's speaking against that, saying that that's not the case. You and I are only made holy through Jesus, through faith in Jesus. God's given us creation as a gift to enjoy and smile and embrace as a gift. Not as God, but as a gift. And so he's speaking against this thing called aestheticism. And then the second thing that he's speaking against is called libertinism. I think that's how you pronounce that. But it might not be. And if not, Sidney will tell me about it after service today, I'm sure. Libertinism, okay, so this is the idea of.
[00:11:56] Libertinism is unrestricted sexual behavior that disregards the biblical moral standard.
[00:12:05] Okay? So it's like, I sometimes tell my kids this when they talk about wanting more freedom than they think they have.
[00:12:13] Probably not great parenting advice, okay? But sometimes, depending on the mood I'm in, I will say something like, how about I go drop you off in downtown Fort Worth?
[00:12:23] And then you have all the freedom in the world. You can go wherever you want to go, okay? Dad won't be there to boss you around. I won't be able to tell you, go wherever you want to go. And they're like, no.
[00:12:33] And I'm like, point, take, okay? It's the same idea.
[00:12:38] The biblical sexual ethic is not intended by God to confine you and squeeze out your joy. And it's intended to promote it, to elevate it, to give you more joy.
[00:12:51] When my kids are in the backyard and they're surrounded by a fence and mom and dad are there, they're safe.
[00:12:57] It's the same idea. And so he's speaking out against both of these things.
[00:13:01] He's saying, hey, marriage is good. It's a good thing, okay?
[00:13:05] And the biblical sexual ethic also is a good. Right. Holy thing that's meant to lead to your flourishing and your joy, not your confinement.
[00:13:14] So he's speaking out against those things. What is marriage? So let's just kind of. Again, we're going to break down the verse little by little here, okay? Says, let marriage be held in honor among all. So what is it?
[00:13:23] What is marriage? Marriage is a lifelong but momentary covenant between one man and one woman.
[00:13:32] Marriage is a lifelong but momentary. And we'll break that down.
[00:13:38] Covenant between one man and one woman.
[00:13:43] And this is from God.
[00:13:46] So if you're here today and you're Married. Your spouse is from God.
[00:13:52] Jesus says it plainly. What God has joined together, let man not separate.
[00:14:00] So the whole notion that after you're married that maybe I married the wrong person is not true.
[00:14:07] Your spouse is from God because marriage is from God. This was created by God and spoken into existence by God before the fall.
[00:14:17] So in Genesis 2:21 25 says so the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and and brought her to the man.
[00:14:34] Then the man said, this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.
[00:14:43] Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. We'd be hard pressed to find something more beautiful written in any ancient text. Ever Marriages from God In Genesis 1, verse 31 says that God said, it's very good.
[00:15:10] It's very good.
[00:15:12] This is why the author is telling us hold marriage as precious to you, because it's from God.
[00:15:22] But it's not just from God, it's also for God.
[00:15:28] This is why one of the reasons that it's momentary, it's lifelong between one man and one woman, and it's momentary.
[00:15:41] Jesus says that it does not go on into eternity.
[00:15:46] In heaven they will neither be married nor be given in marriage, but will be like angels in heaven.
[00:15:53] So on this side of heaven we enjoy this lifelong covenant. On the other side of heaven there will be no marriage. There'll be one marriage, and we'll talk about that marriage. Now, Ephesians 5:32 this is what the Apostle Paul says in the New Testament after he describes the roles of husbands and wives in the context of marriage.
[00:16:12] Husbands are to sacrificially lead and love our wives, like Christ does the church by the power of the Holy Spirit. Wives by the power of the Holy Spirit, are to lovingly, joyfully, willingly submit to the servant leadership of their husband, and in so doing reflect the church as the church does with Jesus. These are the roles, and this is good for us and for our flourishing. In light of all of this, he goes on and he elaborates on what Moses did in Genesis chapter 2. And he says this in verse 32. This is Ephesians 5:32. He says, this mystery that is marriage is profound.
[00:16:52] And I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the Church.
[00:17:00] Marriage is meant to be a picture.
[00:17:05] It's meant to be a picture of something greater than itself, more grand than the marriage itself.
[00:17:15] I will.
[00:17:17] I'm trying to get better about stopping in the middle of a beautiful moment in my life and taking a picture of it. I'm not good at that, but I'm trying to get better about doing that. But here's the thing about taking a picture. You take a picture of something beautiful and it's beautiful, but the picture itself never does the substance justice, does it?
[00:17:34] So if you take a picture of the Grand Canyon and you send it to your friends, your friends are like, that's pretty cool.
[00:17:39] Could have gotten a better picture probably on Google, right?
[00:17:43] But you're like, no, it's amazing. I'm telling you, if you could only be here, you would see how mind blowingly amazing this is. But the picture doesn't do it full justice. That's human marriage.
[00:17:54] Human marriage is intended by God to be a picture of God and his relationship with his bride, the church. And it's never going to be a perfect one on this side of heaven.
[00:18:08] It's always going to be covered with flaws and blemishes and insecurities and sin and suffering and all of those kinds of things as God works in our life and through one another to reflect this wonderful and perfect substantive picture of Christ and his people.
[00:18:28] Paul says this is a profound mystery. Paul wasn't married, by the way.
[00:18:34] Pretty significant.
[00:18:36] He says this mystery is profound. And I'm saying that this thing called marriage refers to Christ and the church. And here's why this is significant, that the Bible talks about marriage as being a lifelong but momentary covenant between one man and one woman.
[00:19:00] Because marriage between one man and one woman does not extend into eternity, but into eternity.
[00:19:07] The bride of Christ, which is the church, and Christ himself, are married together to be and enjoy one another for all of eternity. Because that's the reality. If you are single today, if you're experiencing a season of singleness, maybe you are in a prolonged season of singleness and you desire to be married. Maybe you're single and you don't desire to be married. They're all over the map.
[00:19:31] But because marriage is momentary, if you are in a season of singleness today, you lack nothing.
[00:19:40] You lack nothing for sanctification, meaning becoming more like Jesus, growing in your love and affection for Jesus. You lack nothing in fulfillment or satisfaction because Christ is the end solution to all of those things.
[00:19:59] And we can't find fulfillment in something as good as marriage that was never intended by God to give us fulfillment.
[00:20:07] Does this make sense? The same is true for children.
[00:20:10] Children are wonderful blessing. We'll talk about that in a moment when we get into the section.
[00:20:15] Wonderful blessing cannot fulfill you, cannot satisfy you to be a parent because they were never intended to do that.
[00:20:25] Marriage is intended to be a lifelong God ordained but momentary covenant pointing us to a greater relationship, a greater substance, namely that of Christ and the church.
[00:20:41] So Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7, for those who are single as he was, he says, hey, there's actually some advantage to your singleness as there is to mine.
[00:20:53] And that that advantage, according to the Apostle Paul, is undivided devotion to the Lord. And in a season of sin, as difficult and painful as it can be, it does provide an opportunity for undivided devotion to the one that you're going to spend eternity with and I'm going to spend eternity with together Jesus, the true bridegroom.
[00:21:19] So as marriage has its advantages, singleness has its advantages. And all of 1 Corinthians 7, according to the Apostle Paul, is about laying the playing field of both and calling us to contentment in whatever season of life that we're in, whether we're in married without kids, married with kids, single, or whatever, we're called to be content in both and find our fulfillment and satisfaction in the only one who can actually provide it, which is the person of Jesus.
[00:21:47] So he says, let marriage be held in honor among all. But then he goes on and he says, let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
[00:22:01] So as marriage, I'm sorry, as God creates marriage. Good. Calls it very good.
[00:22:09] God created sex within marriage to be good.
[00:22:14] And I'll get to more of this in just a moment. I'm not going to share my story today, but I came to faith at age 21. I did not grow up in the church, and I just lived a horrifically sinful life prior to coming to Faith in Jesus to the Lord saving me.
[00:22:28] And so all of us in the room have sexual brokenness of varying degrees.
[00:22:35] It doesn't matter if you grew up in the church or you didn't grow up in the church. Some of you grew up in the church and you experience purity culture. And then you get married and you realize, like, wow, I have sexual brokenness too.
[00:22:44] Just like the person who didn't grow up in the church and didn't have those things and maybe, you know, had sex for the first time when they were young or whatever the case is, we all have sexual brokenness of varying degrees. And so the way that we think about sex oftentimes can be categorized in one of three ways. We can either think about sex as God, meaning that sex is the most important, valuable thing in all of life. And if I could just get married, if I could just have sex, then I'll be fulfilled and I'll be satisfied and I'll be happy. That's one way to think about it. And that's by and large the way our culture thinks about it.
[00:23:18] Sex is God.
[00:23:20] Sexual expression is the most full way to live life.
[00:23:26] Another way to think about it, on the opposite side of the spectrum, is that sex is gross pleasure. So maybe for those of us who grew up in a more hyper religious context, this is the way that we have even subconsciously found ourselves thinking about sex. That somehow it's not fully as good as the Bible says it is. And so even the way that we read certain parts of the Bible, like the Song of Solomon, is all allegorical. None of it's about a husband and a wife. It's all about Christ in the church. That's not true either.
[00:23:54] Sex, in other words, according to the Bible, is a gift.
[00:23:58] Sex is not God. It cannot fulfill you, it can't satisfy you, it can't give you ultimate happiness. There is still something better in the world than sex. And sex is not gross. Sex is a gift. And it's a gift intended by God to be enjoyed in a particular context. Marriage.
[00:24:17] So why did God create it? Let's just talk about a few things as to why God created created sex.
[00:24:24] Number one, God created sex for procreation.
[00:24:28] So again, you and I live in a world. We live in a culture that says that children are a burden and not a blessing.
[00:24:35] Children hinder your freedom. They don't promote it.
[00:24:38] They make life hard. They don't make life easy. This is in many ways the culture in which we live. But God says in Genesis 1:31 to his creation, be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it. And so the scriptures would say that it's more blessed to give than to receive.
[00:24:59] That living a life of giving and serving and discipling the next generation is actually a better life than one of pure self preservation.
[00:25:12] This is by and large the message that you and I are being inundated with on a day by day, on a day by day basis. The Lord wants us to fill the earth with image bearers, followers of Jesus and to know that this is a glorious honor. Not so we think about this. Not so Christians can win the culture war.
[00:25:34] We need to have more babies than the other religions or we need whatever the case is, it's for the glory of God.
[00:25:40] So when God tells his people to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth, it's so little image bearers and can fill the earth.
[00:25:49] Little people that look more like Jesus who come to know Jesus can. Can fill the earth. This is all for the glory of God. It's a much higher honor. It's a much higher calling. It's all for the glory of God. And I say this with this recognition as well that there are people in the room who cannot or have, not through various circumstances, but desire to been able to have children.
[00:26:17] And I just want to pause because anytime we talk about anything like this, there are multitude of experiences in the room. I'm not going to hit on all of them. I'm not able to hit on all. I don't know all of them. But I want to pause for a moment in light of this and just say if that's you, I'm sorry.
[00:26:33] I've been a pastor for over 10 years and I have yet to experience. I've experienced few things and the lives of people that God's allowed me to pastor more painful than this.
[00:26:46] The promise of the Bible is that the Lord draws near to the brokenhearted.
[00:26:53] And as wonderful as having children is, like marriage, like sex within marriage, it is not the greatest of life's pleasures.
[00:27:07] Jesus is.
[00:27:09] And so while one of the means by which God has given us this gift of sex for procreation, having children is not the highest pleasure in the world. It's a wonderful joy.
[00:27:21] It's a high calling. I think it's a good and godly thing.
[00:27:26] But as is the case with marriage, as is the case with sex, we can't elevate these things above Christ himself, who is the highest pleasure in life.
[00:27:37] So that's the first means by which God creates sex. The second is pleasure.
[00:27:43] God doesn't give us sex just for the sake of procreation.
[00:27:47] He gives us sex as a gift so that we might enjoy one another.
[00:27:52] This is what the whole book of Song of Solomon is about. And I could quote verse after verse, but I might blush.
[00:27:59] But here's the impetus of that book.
[00:28:04] Your love is better than wine.
[00:28:10] It's about pleasure. It's about enjoying one another. It's like taste buds. God didn't have to give you and I taste buds to survive. We could eat food and it could all taste very bland and we would live.
[00:28:22] But he doesn't do that, does he? He gives us taste buds to enjoy.
[00:28:28] And so he does with this gift of sex within marriage.
[00:28:34] And then the third thing, the third reason for God giving us the gift of sex within marriage is that you and I might fight temptation.
[00:28:42] So this is what he says in 1 Corinthians 7, verses 4 and 5.
[00:28:46] For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does.
[00:28:52] Likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Let me tell you what this doesn't mean before I move on. This doesn't mean that the husband or the wife has a right to go to their spouse and say, I demand sex.
[00:29:08] That's not what this means. This is a verse about service.
[00:29:12] Sex should be one of the most sacrificial things for those of us who are married in the room that you and I do with and for one another, like sex, should be driven by the desire to please your spouse and not to be pleased. Does that make sense?
[00:29:28] The Bible is radically countercultural when it comes to this. And think about this being said in the first century.
[00:29:35] Sex is not about you.
[00:29:37] It's not ultimately about your joy and your pleasure. Sex is about you pleasing your spouse.
[00:29:44] He says, in light of this, this 1 Corinthians 7, do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time that you may devote yourselves to prayer, but then come together again so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self control.
[00:30:04] And so he's telling us that one of the ways that we fight temptation in marriage, and we fight sin in marriage, and we fight Satan in marriage is through the gift of sex.
[00:30:15] Serving one another will actually serve as a means to fight temptation and to fight sin.
[00:30:24] So sex is not God.
[00:30:26] Sex is not gross. Sex is a gift.
[00:30:29] Sex can never fulfill you. It can never ultimately satisfy you. Only Jesus can.
[00:30:37] So knowing we're nearing the end here, knowing what marriage is and what sex is, is not confining. This is actual.
[00:30:47] This is actual freedom.
[00:30:50] But he goes on at the end and he says, he says this, look at the end of verse four, says, let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled for this reason, for God will judge the sexually immoral and the adulterous.
[00:31:07] God will judge the sexually immoral and the adulteress.
[00:31:13] Here's. This has kind of a double meaning here.
[00:31:17] On one hand, when he talks about judgment.
[00:31:21] He's talking about the discipline, the loving discipline of the Father on this side of heaven, which we just talked about in Hebrews 12, if you guys remember that. So in Hebrews 12, he says, do not despise the discipline of the Lord. Why? Because the discipline of the Lord is good and it's intended for your joy and for your flourishing. So don't despise when the Lord's disciplining you in the midst of your sin or whatever the case is.
[00:31:50] So on one hand, he's saying, and we see this in King David, don't we? King David committed a heinous act of sexual immorality.
[00:32:00] God didn't just leave him to himself. God, in a loving act of grace, pursues David's heart and he disciplines him. David loses his son, but he wins his soul.
[00:32:14] So God will judge the sexually immoral and the adulterous. I have friends, I know pastors, and I have family who have committed adultery and who are Christians.
[00:32:28] And not a single time have I seen somebody get away with it who's a Christian. Not a single time.
[00:32:35] Why?
[00:32:37] Because God will win over those whom he loves.
[00:32:42] He'll judge it.
[00:32:44] And that judge is disciplinary in its good.
[00:32:48] So on one hand, the author, empowered by the Spirit, is warning us, there is a healthy fear of the Lord that you and I must learn.
[00:33:01] Because the Bible says that the fear of the Lord is clean.
[00:33:06] We think so negatively about fear, but the fear of the Lord is not about being frightened of God.
[00:33:14] It's not about seeing God as an abusive father.
[00:33:18] The fear of the Lord just means trembling.
[00:33:21] And as one author notes, trembling can be both out of terror, but it can also be out of delight.
[00:33:30] When I saw my wife walk down the aisle for the first time, I trembled.
[00:33:34] I didn't tremble in terror, I trembled in delight. That's the fear of the Lord.
[00:33:41] So God will judge both the sexually immoral and the adulterous.
[00:33:48] But it also is talking about final judgment that the Scriptures are emphatically clear, friends, whether it's 1 Corinthians 6, when the apostle Paul says a variety of expressions of sexual sin will not inherit the kingdom of God, that that means that those who participate in these things, if they do not repent, we'll go to hell.
[00:34:23] This is unequivocally clear in the Bible.
[00:34:26] Shouldn't debate this.
[00:34:28] We shouldn't parse words about this.
[00:34:30] We ought to read this and get to work.
[00:34:33] There are people to reach, people to share the Gospel with who are living in these things.
[00:34:38] It's not meant for us to debate in house as a church. We, we read the Bible and we say, this is what the Bible says. Let's go do it.
[00:34:45] You don't have to know the Greek and the Hebrew to read these things and say, this is what it says, that the sexually immoral or the adulterous. Sexually immoral. The word is pernea.
[00:35:00] Adulterer just means those who are married who commit sexual sin with somebody other than their spouse, that all of these God will judge. He says, so what do we do with this?
[00:35:18] Here's the temptation for me. If you're anything like me, we hear these things and we're like, okay, let marriage be held in honor among all.
[00:35:29] Let the marriage bed be undefiled.
[00:35:34] God's going to judge the sexually immoral and the adulterous. All right, now I'm going to work really, really hard to do those things.
[00:35:40] Like, that's the temptation for me. I'm going to white knuckle my efforts, I'm going to redouble my efforts, and I'm going to do everything I can to live as pure of a life as I can. I'm going to try to control my thoughts and suppress bad thoughts and keep my eyes focused. And I'm not saying all those things are bad. What I am saying is that that can't be the final solution for you.
[00:35:58] And so what do we do? Here's what I think we do.
[00:36:02] Jesus takes this idea of sexual immorality, sexual sin, and he takes it further than just your actions.
[00:36:10] He says this in Matthew 5, 27, 28, you have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. Everybody. Amen. That, yes, everybody, amens. You should not commit adultery. Adultery's bad. But here's what Jesus says.
[00:36:22] But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
[00:36:33] Jesus levels the playing field for us.
[00:36:39] So now it's no longer us against the culture.
[00:36:43] It's in here.
[00:36:45] It's in your heart and in mine.
[00:36:48] Every single one of us, friends, are guilty of that saying.
[00:36:54] Every single one of us in varying degrees, though saved by grace for those who are Christians are sexual sinners.
[00:37:04] Jesus doesn't just care about what you and I do in the quote unquote, privacy of our bedroom, which nothing is private, by the way.
[00:37:13] He cares about the privacy of your mind.
[00:37:19] So if this is true, then all of us are leveled under this.
[00:37:25] We're all guilty of this.
[00:37:27] Paul says, no one is righteous. No, not one.
[00:37:30] No one understands no one seeks for God. That means none of us do. So what then is, is our hope.
[00:37:40] Our hope lies in what the author says a few chapters before in Hebrews 7.
[00:37:45] Hebrews 7:25, 26, says, Consequently, he that being Jesus is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting that we should have a high priest. Holy, innocent, undefiled.
[00:38:14] So what Jesus does on the cross is, though he's undefiled, he takes the place of the defiled. You and I, though Jesus never sins sexually in his actions or in his mind, he substitutes in our place on the cross, though he knows no sin and knew no sin, he became sin.
[00:38:45] So that in him and through him, you and I, sexual sinners though we are, might be the righteousness of God.
[00:38:55] So if you've embraced Jesus by faith, though you still have sexual sin in your heart and in your mind, if you're in Christ, here's what I want you to walk away with. And here's. I think the most powerful weapon against sexual sin in our life is if you're a Christian, because you are in Christ.
[00:39:19] You are royalty.
[00:39:23] That's how you're defined. That's how God sees you. If you're in the Son who is himself royal, then the way that God the Father sees you is as royalty.
[00:39:37] You've been forgiven, you've been washed and cleansed of all defilement, both that you've done and that's been done against you.
[00:39:49] You're forgiven, you're cleansed, you're royal, you're a son or daughter of God. Whether you're married with kids, married without kids, or single, there is nothing in the world better than that, that you've been washed, you've been cleansed, you've been adopted, you've been grafted in, you have a family. The church that you will spend eternity with.
[00:40:16] Marriage won't last for eternity. This will last for eternity.
[00:40:22] You're royal by the grace of God.
[00:40:28] And as we live in the world filled with people made in the image of God, who are living in utter sexual confusion and promiscuity, were to shine as lights of the world.
[00:40:45] And what better way to do that, not by redoubling your efforts to be pure, but being reminded of what Christ has done for you, of who you are in him because of what he's accomplished on your behalf. And that's the way that we fight.
[00:41:01] We don't fight sexual sin through redoubled effort. We fight sexual sin through delight.
[00:41:07] It's just a higher delight than our delight in sex and a higher delight than our delight and desire to be married.
[00:41:15] Delight in Jesus is the means by which you and I fight sexual sin.
[00:41:21] And we're to take this good news out to people in our life who don't know Jesus. Simply saying this, hey, if Jesus can save me, he can save you too.
[00:41:33] This is who he is.
[00:41:34] He saves to the uttermost. Let's pray together.
