Amen. Turn, uh, if you will, to Matthew chapter five, uh, versus 27 to 30 will be our reading from the gospel. And then we will also read, uh, Paul’s, uh, commandments to the Thessalonian church in chapter four of first Thessalonians, uh, versus one to 12. So tonight we’re thinking of the seventh commandment. We’re thinking of. God forbidding all unchastity and then requiring us to be holy and pure in all our life. We read that difficult passage from Leviticus 18. And why not read another one? Matthew 27, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount says, you have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than your whole body go into hell.
And now Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 to 12. He says, finally, then brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you know how to control his own body and holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God, that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter. Because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore, whoever disregards this, disregards not man, but God who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
Now concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. For that indeed is what you were doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you brothers to do this more and more and to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs and to work with your hands as we instructed you so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. Amen. God’s great and gracious word. When I was in seminary, we were required to read this very interesting book to help us understand what world we would be ministering in and also to help us understand the important teaching of the depravity of man due to sin.
The book was one called Degenerate Moderns. And it was by a Roman Catholic named E. Michael Jones. And basically what Jones did is he evaluated modern thinkers like, well, I don’t want to name their names because what if I named the wrong one? He evaluated modern thinkers and their system of thought, which basically rationalized their sexual deviancies. His research led him to look at the artwork or the psychology or their research into studies and their findings. And basically what he ended up doing is subtitling his book, Degenerate Moderns, Modernity as Rationalized Sexual Behavior.
Another book we read that was rather interesting was called Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth. Some of you will remember in the early 1980s with the rise of AIDS and what was publicly said was very quickly publicly hushed. We don’t know anything in our country, do we, about hiding medical research and statistics. But very quickly, homosexuality was removed from the books of psychology, the books of therapy and practice, and it became a human right, basically, protected by the Constitution, supposedly. And on we could go about our culture.
One particular writer I read sometime in the past said that we live in a culture that is sexually stupidified. It’s how we think, it’s how we act, it’s where our impulses are. Paul will tell Titus, he’ll tell the early church over and over, we live in a dark and dying world. We live in a crooked and depraved generation. You can look around and you can see very clearly we live in a sexually charged culture. And the church is called to live in that culture and minister in that context.
And we do have the answers to every one of life’s problems. Every one of life’s problems is a sin problem. And some of those sin problems are very deep and very dark. Uh, they are prisons. They are chains. Uh, they are sticky. They are. something that traps people. And it’s unbelievers who can be trapped in this prison, but also believers with remaining sin and remaining corruption can find themselves under the shackles and the chains of sexual sin.
And so the church needs to remember the gospel and its power. The church needs to preach and teach for conversions. Uh, the church needs to preach and teach towards holiness and be reminded of the devastating effects of the fall. Uh, the important doctrine of sanctification and the church needs to be a place of guidance, uh, for so many who are suffering. If you read the statistics, uh, it is very high numbers of the number of people who are engaging in all kinds of what Our catechism tonight we’ll call unchastity. Uh, the numbers are pretty high. Now I grew up in the 1980s in church and in youth group.
That was the, the purity culture. You signed a pledge. I’ll be pure. You know, you gave your daughters a ring. You’re going to be pure. You signed a pledge. You know, you’re not going to do things on prom night. You’re, you’re gonna, you’re gonna, you’re gonna do what it takes to be good. And remember what Paul says to the Colossian church, uh, you can, you can do all kinds of things. I mean, you can, you can go to a monastery and become a monk.
And unless the Holy spirit is at work in you, uh, those things cannot stop the flesh. Now we do need guardrails. We do need to sing the little song, be careful, little eyes, what you see, be careful, little ears, what you hear. We do need to be careful not to make provision for the flesh, but we also need to remember these things need the gospel. These things need the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. And so while some guardrails will be helpful, it is not a purity culture. You cannot just kiss dating goodbye and all that good stuff that was so popularized during, at least during my growing up years, we need God the Father God, the son, God, the Holy spirit, the word we need preaching.
We need sanctification. We need all those things. So question 108, very simply ask, what is God’s will for us in the seventh commandment? The seventh commandment is you shall not commit adultery. Now we live in a world that loves to wordsmith. We live in a world that wants to say, It depends on what the meaning of is, is.
Do you remember that? That was a big turn in our culture. Not too, not too much time had passed when an old Bill Clinton came along and said those famous words on the witness stand or in a deposition. There was a democratic candidate for president somewhere in the 1980s, and when it was found out he had a girl on the side, he lost his candidacy. Now, that’s just a requirement, right? Our world is shifting and changing. So what is God’s will for us in that seventh commandment?
It’s very clear. God condemns all unchastity. used here and used in many of Paul’s letters is a very broad Greek word, pornea. You can get pretty quickly what English words come from that. But pornea, a general word, simply says in a catch-all way, don’t do anything bad. Don’t do anything unchaste. It includes sexual immorality between unmarried people. It includes adultery, marital unfaithfulness. It includes incest, homosexuality, sexuality, bestiality.
And, you know, you’ve got to make the list longer these days. The summer was the summer for denominational meetings. And one of our denominations in the United States is considering blessing polyamory. Where is the one man and the one woman for life? Where is the one flesh relationship?
So the Bible and God himself condemns all unchastity and says that we should therefore detest it wholeheartedly. Sinclair Ferguson sometime back, if you have listened to his daily podcast, Things Unseen, he says that in our life, when we are dealing with sin is we need to name the sin and we need to name it biblically. And then we need to go and name the opposite of it, the fruit that should be cultivated. So there’s something that we should root out and we should call it what it is. In fact, if you were paying attention during the reading of Leviticus chapter 18, it speaks of homosexuality as an abomination.
If you read the Bible, I think it becomes very clear that some sins, As our larger catechism explains, some sins are more heinous in God’s sight than others. All sin is sin. All sin deserves God’s wrath and curse and punishment. But some sins in God’s sight are more heinous than others. And I think if you read the Bible, you very clearly begin to see the practice of homosexuality is, uh, has a little more of God’s behind it.
It’s, it’s, it’s an abomination. It is something. not to be spoken of. In fact, until recent years, it was considered to be a crime against nature. It was considered to be something that brought the great punishment of the state and justice. Now it’s so popular. It’s a thing and it’s, you know, we live in a world where these things are so accepted. It’s just in front of us. It’s on the TV. It’s on billboards. It’s on The covers of magazines in the grocery store, it’s everywhere. And so we need to call it what it is, call it what God calls it.
Otherwise, we will be not so bad. We will redefine, we’ll become like the degenerate moderns who have rationalized sexual behavior. And sometimes just by way of example, we see it in our generations. What one generation never ever would have thought of uh, never ever would have thought of the next generation puts up with it. And by the third generation, it’s just part of the lifestyle. Uh, but we are called to detest it wholeheartedly. In fact, uh, first Corinthians chapter six says we are to flee sexual immorality.
I found this other passage of scripture extremely interesting. You remember when Paul first missionary journey leaves, uh, Antioch and they go up across, uh, they go up around the Mediterranean sea to the the Galatian region. And that’s where, uh, the churches of Galatia Dalmatia, other places like that, they, um, they become Christians. He goes back through on a second missionary journey and that’s where he finds Timothy.
But remember the big struggle that he is speaking to them about in his letter is, do we have to be circumcised? If we are Gentiles who come to faith in Jesus, do we get baptized? Or do we get baptized and circumcised? So he goes to Jerusalem and he speaks to James and the other apostles. And do you remember the Jerusalem council meets there in AD 49, and they write a letter for Paul to take back to these churches.
And it said, no, you don’t have to be circumcised. And then there were two little attachments. Don’t eat meat offered to idols. and flee from pornea or from unchastity. Those were the things that were said. Must have been that the culture, the culture of idolatry and the meat being offered to idols and the culture of sexuality was so rampant, they felt they must put a little footnote in their letter about circumcision. Now, why would they say those things? Well, those are two unclean things.
Something offered to idols is unclean. But sexual impurity is unclean and related to circumcision. And just to be frank, those parts of the body were meant to be clean so that generations would come in purity and in holiness. And so God condemns all unchastity and we should therefore detest it wholeheartedly.
But here’s the thing. I don’t think we do. I don’t think we do. I think we live in a world that has pushed it, pushed it, pushed it. And it has worn us down. We don’t flip the channel like we used to. We don’t cease to laugh or to stop the unwholesome talk as we used to. And we are called to detest it wholeheartedly and live decent and chaste lives.
We used to have a funny saying in my house, in our house growing up. We, we lived in a little 1300 square foot house and, uh, you know, mom and a sister in the house. And we had a little saying, are you decent? Right. You don’t just barge in somebody’s room, but we’d say, are you decent? And of course that meant, are you clothed? Right. Um, but are you decent?
Um, what do we call? a crime of a sexual nature, a nakedness. We call it indecent exposure. And so that’s a word that we ought to understand. Our conduct ought to be pure. We ought to live decent and chaste lives, those lives of purity and modesty and a life that is undefiled. Chastity has to do with holiness. And so we detest wholeheartedly all unchastity, We live a decent and chaste life.
And notice how it says within and without or outside the bonds of holy marriage. When God made Adam and Eve in the garden, he made them male and female and he made them for helper and companionship. And so we talk about in our confession of faith, the purpose of marriage, it’s for companionship, it’s for mutual encouragement, it’s for the legitimate issue of godly seed. But it’s also meant to prevent uncleanness. You know, in Paul’s 1 Corinthians 7, other places, he talks about being married and the sexuality and the relationship within the marriage. The people of God have generally always thought of our chastity and purity either within the bonds of marriage or outside the bonds of marriage. Those are the two states that people live in.
Go back to the topic of sanctification for a moment. I think this is really important when we want to impress upon ourselves that we should detest all in chastity wholeheartedly. It is a sanctification issue. When we become Christians, God forgives all our sins. He declares us righteous in his sight. He makes us a new creation, but we still have remnants of corruption in us. We still have remnants of the flesh in us. And Paul talks about how we will battle always with the flesh.
And we are in a world And let me zero in on a church world that wants to say, you can be a Christian and you can have homosexual tendencies. And as long as you don’t act on them, you’re okay. Well, what if we said, I’m a Christian and I have some heterosexual tendencies. I just can’t help myself, but I’m a Christian heterosexual. We would balk at that. But that’s the world we are living in.
And people are missing the point that when we are in Christ, we are a new creation. You are in Christ and you are nothing else. And yes, we have remaining sin. We have remnants of corruption. We have the world and the devil after us. But as you see people struggling with this, know and remember and understand it is a sanctification issue. And if God was not restraining the remnants of corruption in you, What do we say? But for the grace of God, there would go I. We need to have compassion for people who are struggling with the remnants of sin and corruption. We don’t need to condone it or somehow sanctify it and all the rest. But we need to remember that is a huge, huge, huge struggle. And if it lights a fire in your life, it will be a wildfire that is very difficult to put out until it has cleared your land and taken everything you own.
And if you read the book of Proverbs, the writer of Proverbs says a million times, my son, my son, my son. And he begins by saying the fear of the Lord, you know, walk in this ways, get understanding, get wisdom. And then he says, don’t hang out with, you know, fellows who are gonna go rob people. and say, let’s split it up. And then he spends a lot of chapters saying, don’t go near the house of the wayward woman. You can’t put fire in your lap and not get burned. You need to drink water from your own cistern and all the rest. And so when we think of these commands from the Lord, detesting it wholeheartedly, we ought to think very quickly about sanctification and the realities of remaining sin. So question 109 takes us up a notch, if you will.
Does God in this commandment forbid only such scandalous sins as adultery? Because you know, people will say, well, I never did what King David did. Well, Jesus takes care of that, doesn’t he? He says, if you’ve looked at another person with lustful intent, you have committed adultery in your heart.
And I think of, I think of King Solomon and how, um, at first he had a heart devoted to God. I’m going to build the temple, going to lead these people in holiness in the promised land. And we’ll do what my father, David did a man after God’s own heart. But before very long, David, or I’m sorry, Solomon forgot what Leviticus 18 tells us.
You need to detest the ways and the statutes and the behavior of the foreign people. What did Solomon do? He took a wife from about every country he could think of. And those wives led him astray. They led him to other gods and they led him into sexual deviancy. And so sometimes our little brains will say, well, I’ve never worn the scarlet letter. I’ve never been David. I’ve never been Solomon, you know, good for me. Well, what this commandment reminds us of is that we are temples of the Holy Spirit, both body and soul. And God wants us body and soul to be kept clean and to be kept holy.
And that’s really hard in this culture where our attention is captivated by these stupid little pocket gadgets. And they have these little apps that will take you down a rabbit hole. And that rabbit hole will lead you into all kinds of things that is not good for you. And we’re handing these off to little kids nowadays.
I know some of you have children and grandchildren, and maybe they’re not doing the things that you want them to do. And maybe you keep your mouth shut about a few things. I would probably throw a fit if you have a grandchild who is very young and has a smartphone. that will ruin their life, that will ruin their brain. And I’m not saying, you know, go tell them my pastor said I should throw a fit, so here I am. But these gadgets have done so much harm. I think the age now for seeing pornography is like age 11. I can remember being age 11 and not knowing what a girl was. And that was a happy, blissful, you know, childhood in many ways.
But we’re temples of God’s Holy Spirit and our bodies and our souls need to be kept clean. Our bodies and souls need to be kept holy. And so God forbids all unchaste actions. He forbids all unchaste looks, all unchaste talk, all unchaste thoughts, all unchaste desires.
And then as if that’s not specific enough, whatever may incite someone to them. Now you live in the world, and the world has things in it. And you will see them, and you cannot unsee them. But there are things in this world that you do not have to look at. You do not have to be devoted to that pocket gadget. You do not have to be devoted to that household idol that lights up in LED and pixels. You do not have to be devoted to going places or being entertained by things. And perhaps in this world, A little asceticism wouldn’t hurt.
Again, it won’t stop the flesh, but it certainly couldn’t hurt to put up some boundaries. Back in seminary, we were required to memorize the shorter catechism for graduation. One of the most difficult things for me, who has a very brief memory, I have the memory of a squirrel, But it was very sanctifying. And I remember coming to what the shorter catechism says about the seventh commandment and thinking, boy, that is radical. That is tough.
Who can do this? Who can detest wholeheartedly unchastity? Who can detest wholeheartedly the actions and the looks and the talk and the thoughts and who can keep a lid on the desires of their heart? I mean, boy, we hadn’t even gotten to covet yet. We hadn’t even gotten to bearing false witness. We haven’t even gotten to some of those difficult commandments, but this one, who can keep a lid on it?
Well, God, the Holy Spirit can help. And I think if you or someone you know is struggling with these things, you need to pray for God, the Holy Spirit to arrest those desires and stop all those miserable ways of life because it never leads anywhere good. And it’s by the Spirit’s power that we can live this way. And so I don’t want to present tonight to you something impossible. If God requires it, he’ll give you the strength. If God commands it, he’ll give the way.
I think though our problem is in different areas of life, not just this one. We’re like St. Augustine who prayed the prayer, Lord save me, but not yet. You know, he had a little girlfriend on the side before he got to be a Christian. And he knew that if he came to faith in Jesus, that was going to be over with. So Lord save me. but not yet. If that’s how we think, oh boy.
But may the Lord give us great blessing as we ourselves struggle with these things, but as we watch others and help and serve them. Let’s do pray together. Our Lord, we thank you for the chance to think about something difficult, something hard, something so widespread, so prevalent in our culture. Help us to take some time tonight to think about what we what we see and what we hear and what we condone and what we laugh at, even what we enjoy, put within each of us a greater affection for more heavenly things. We remember Jesus’ prayer for us. We live in the world, we’re not taken from it, but we pray that you, our God and heavenly father, the shepherd of the sheep, would keep a watch over our souls. And this we ask in the name of Christ our savior, amen.