I. Jesus Christ, the
greatest person who ever lived on this earth
has forever
changed almost every aspect of human life!
Christianity’s Impact on the Value of Human
Life; Contribution to Mass Education; on the Founding of our
Country; Impact in Helping the Poor; Christianity’s Impact on
Science….
II. Christianity’s Impact on Human Sexuality
We, as a country, are catapulted into this
right now because of the issue of whether or not gays have the right
to be married. Our modern, collective, pluralistic mindset tends to
say….This is America… it’s a free country… While I may not be gay
myself (only 2% of the nation are) who am I to stand between two
people of the same sex who are in love, if they want to have a piece
of paper saying that they are married.
We spent time on this subject last Sunday,
again on Wednesday evening, we are going to come back to it again
this Wednesday and maybe beyond. We simply cannot gloss over it… it
is a pivotal “make or break” issue in where our nation is heading.
I’m not an alarmist, I do not often stand up
here like Chicken Little and say…the sky is falling, the sky is
falling…we must go and tell the king. But about this issue I am
going on record as saying…if we do not stop this one…the sky is
going to fall.
Pastor, why are you so adamant on this?
Marriage between one man and one woman is not
an institution created by human beings…it is an institution created
for human beings by God himself at the very beginning of time.
Everything we know, around us, rests on the foundation of one man
and one woman procreating and producing children who will enter into
a monogamous one man one woman relationship.
I will explain to you that monogamy and
marriage has been part of every civilized, progressive world
impacting group of people throughout time and
every civilization that has risen to world
prominence and moved counter to the institution of marriage has
eventually ceased to exist!
We have entered a danger zone… Several
European countries and our Canadian neighbors, to the north, are
several years ahead of us in throwing off the archaic chains of this
outdated concept of one man and one woman united in a covenant.
Mark my words…. If gay marriage is embraced as
a constitutional right in this country…the very next step, as is
already happening in other countries, is that for me to stand up and
read to you these words:
(Leviticus 20:13) "'If a man lies with a man
as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable.
They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. (NIV)
….If I try to tell you what I believe God
clearly says about sex outside of a one man one woman covenant
relationship I will be breaking the law! My sermon will be branded
“hate speech” against a constitutionally protected class of American
citizens. If a gay couple comes to me to be married and I refuse to
marry them, I will be denying them their constitutional rights and I
could be arrested and this church could lose it’s tax exemption
status.
Hear me!!! We are a pivotal time in the
history of our nation! I will never
allow myself to be muzzled from giving you the truth of God
directly, from Scripture! I will say these truths till the day I
die… regardless of the consequences!
I. What God Thinks about Human Sexuality
T or F - God thinks sex is dirty and evil and
should only be used as a last ditch effort to procreate children?
Absolutely untrue!…God created the human body
and sexuality; but God draws a distinct line in the sand…He’s not in
the least vague about it, He doesn’t leave the conclusions up to
human decision or the legislation of governments. If we follow His
pattern, whether we are Christian or not, we will enjoy the benefits
of doing so. If we take another route….we will pay the price for
wrong decisions.
(Hebrews 13:4) Marriage should be honored by
all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the
adulterer and all the sexually immoral. (NIV)
(Genesis 1:26-31) Then God said, "Let us make
man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish
of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all
the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created
him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to
them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue
it…. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good… (NIV)
Adam and Eve fell into sin, their son Cain
takes an even more sinful path and away man goes from God… It’s only
a few hundred years when we are reading this:
(Genesis 19:4-13) Before they had gone to bed,
all the men from every part of the city of Sodom-- both young and
old-- surrounded the house. They called to Lot, "Where are the men
who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have
sex with them." Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door
behind him and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing.
Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me
bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But
don't do anything to these men, for they have come under the
protection of my roof." "Get out of our way," they replied. And they
said, "This fellow came here as an alien, and now he wants to play
the judge! We'll treat you worse than them." They kept bringing
pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door. But the
men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut
the door. Then they struck the men who were at the door of the
house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the
door. The two men said to Lot, "Do you have anyone else here--
sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who
belongs to you? Get them out of here, because we are going to
destroy this place. The outcry to the LORD against its people is so
great that he has sent us to destroy it." (NIV)
It’s important for us to understand…God’s
original pattern was to put one monogamous man and one monogamous
woman together in covenant relationship for their entire lifetime.
Any straying from that pattern was considered a perversion and led
to patterns of life, like in Sodom, where sexuality was the exact
opposite of what God had originally planned.
When God called out the nation of Israel and
began to teach them what it meant to live holy lives he had to
completely redefine in their minds what it meant to be sexually
pure.
(Leviticus 18:1-30) The LORD said to Moses,
"Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'I am the LORD your God.
You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you
must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing
you. Do not follow their practices. You must obey my laws and be
careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD your God. Keep my
decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am
the LORD. "'No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual
relations. I am the LORD. "'Do not dishonor your father by having
sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; do not have
relations with her. "'Do not have sexual relations with your
father's wife; that would dishonor your father. "'Do not have sexual
relations with your sister,.. Do not have sexual relations with your
son's daughter or your daughter's daughter… Do not have sexual
relations with the daughter of your father's wife.. she is your
sister. "'Do not have sexual relations with your father's sister..
Do not have sexual relations with your mother's sister… Do not
dishonor your father's brother by approaching his wife to have
sexual relations; she is your aunt. "'Do not have sexual relations
with your daughter-in-law… Do not have sexual relations with your
brother's wife…. Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman;
that is detestable. "'Do not have sexual relations with an animal
and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an
animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion. "'Do
not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the
nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even
the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land
vomited out its inhabitants. But you must keep my decrees and my
laws. The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do
any of these detestable things, for all these things were done by
the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became
defiled. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it
vomited out the nations that were before you. "'Everyone who does
any of these detestable things-- such persons must be cut off from
their people. Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the
detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not
defile yourselves with them. I am the LORD your God.'" (NIV)
But God.. Who then can we have sexual
relations with?
Your covenant spouse, your wife or your
husband!
And who else?… Nobody else!!! That’s that
whole “very good” thing as opposed to the fire from heaven on Sodom
thing! There is no plan B!
You must understand the world that all the
Biblical characters lived in from the Canaanites and the Syrians and
the Phoenicians of the Old Testament to the Greeks and Romans of the
New Testament, …. were people who had lost there way.
The Canaanites were perhaps the most
sex-crazed of the bunch with their worship prostitution that mixed
visits to the temples with temple prostitutes, often little children
with a cult-ish child sacrifice to the goddess Ashtoreth. When God
commanded the Israelites to totally destroy the Canaanites when they
came into the Promised Land; it wasn’t just because God was mean. It
was the only way to keep Israel from simply adopting the horrifying
practices of their pagan neighbors.
The ancient Egyptians worshipping the goddess
Iris would have male prostitutes who would lead the other men in
“worship”.
In ancient Ephesus they actually carved
footprints in the stone walkways that would lead people to the
Temples of Diana, which were nothing more than brothels.
The Greek culture became known as the culture
that taught that the most pure and spiritual kind of eroticism was
gay love.
The Romans are known for their rampant sexual
sin. Many rich men would pay high prices for a young male lover.
Roman Cato complained that “a pretty boy cost more than a whole
farm.”
What is somewhat amazing about these ancient
civilizations, that should come as a warning to us, is that each of
the great civilizations went through a period of ascendancy, reached
a pinnacle of power, after a time began a period of descent and
finally went into oblivion. The Old and Middle kingdoms of Egypt,
the Assyrians, The Babylonians, Medo-Persians, The Greeks, the
Romans….
Historians tells us that every one of these
Empires, during their period of ascendancy, adhered to a strict code
of morality with strong prohibitions against immorality. Once they
reached ascendancy they relaxed their moral codes, entered into
sexual expression, freedom, and immorality. One after another,
without exception they plunged headlong into obscurity.
Pastor, are you suggesting that we are heading
down the same path?
Without a doubt????
Listen to what this writer said:
Sexual anarchy assumed extreme forms and
spread through a large part of the population. Side by side with an
increase in sexual perversion, a shameless sexual promiscuity also
increased. Members seduced members of the same family, relations
between father and daughter, son and mother, were not unknown.
Adultery, rape, and prostitution increased… Homosexuality entered
the mores of the population…
What a statement of our times???? …. Except
that it was written by an author at the time of the collapse of the
Old Kingdom in Egypt 4,500 years ago.
II. God’s Five Word Equation for Sexual Purity
Does anybody know what it is?
(Exodus 20:14) "You shall not commit adultery.
(NIV)
God is protecting the sanctity of marriage;
notice where it falls…immediately after:
(Exodus 20:13) "You shall not murder. (NIV)
….Where God is protecting the sanctity of
life..
These tend to be two of the main Commandments
that are discarded before a society begins to fail….
God’s command, you shall not commit adultery
was given as the very linchpin protecting the sanctity of highest
covenant relationship we can form on this earth, the relationship of
a husband and a wife. It is the “finger in the dam” that preserves
the purity and procreation of the entire human race. It is the basis
on which we have traditionally formed all other institutions
throughout time.
When it is discarded, the society that
discards it soon ceases to exist!
So we are commanded to preserve the sanctity
of human life and preserve the sanctity of human marriage by not
committing murder and not committing adultery We have rewritten the
rules in our society as to what murder is… and we have rewritten the
rules as to what constitutes adultery.
What is adultery? The Bible defines adultery
in only one way; all sex outside of a marriage covenant?
Jesus toughens it up even more:
(Matthew 5:27-28) "You have heard that it was
said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks
at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his
heart. (NIV)
Then follows a host of Scriptures condemning
any sex without a marriage license. And they are not vague:
(Galatians 5:19-21) The acts of the sinful
nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;
idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage,
selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness,
orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who
live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. (NIV)
(1 Thessalonians 4:3-6) It is God's will that
you should be sanctified: that you should avoid 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; and that in this matter no one should wrong his
brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all
such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. (NIV)
(Colossians 3:5-7) Put to death, therefore,
whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality,
impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because
of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these
ways, in the life you once lived. (NIV)
(Ephesians 5:3) But among you there must not
be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or
of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. (NIV)
Interpreting these passages isn’t theological
rocket science!
III. What impact did Christianity have?
Aristedes- Athenian philosopher, 125AD: They
do not commit adultery or Immorality. Their wives are as pure as
virgins and their daughters are modest. Their men abstain from all
unlawful sexual contact and from impurity, in hopes of recompense
that is to come in another world.
Letter to Diogenes 2nd
century: They offer a shared table but not a shared bed. They are at
present “in the flesh” but they do not live “according to the
flesh”. They are passing their days on earth but they are citizens
of heaven.
They
obey the appointed laws and go beyond the laws in their own lives.
Is
that what will be written about us in the 21st century church years
from now?
