Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit,
which are God's. (1 Corinthians 6:20)

          In recent decades, the American public-school system – perhaps studying the statistics concerning youth sexual activity, pregnancy and disease – has promoted its “sex education class,” known more popularly “sex ed.”

          You and I in the church observe the same problems with promiscuity, teen pregnancy and disease, and while instructing our children about biological factors should be parents’ privilege and duty, we need to have a better response than the world can offer. (To be honest, you and I could benefit from a refresher course as well).

          But instead of “sex ed,” you and I need to be teaching ourselves and our children what God has to say on the subject of sexuality.

          Let’s call it “Truth Ed.”

          This morning we’re going to take a biblical look at sexual ethics as we examine the seventh commandment. In particular, we’ll note that sexual immorality denies the one, true God; that it destroys God’s design for you and me; and that we must battle against immorality with a right understanding of God’s purpose for our bodies and for the family.

          The root cause of adultery, of fornication and of all immorality is unfaithfulness to Christ. If you and I are going to experience healing in our families, we have to return to the One who loved us and gave His body for our life.

          First, sexual immorality denies the one, true God His rightful place. The ultimate cause of the laxity of morals in America isn’t a lack of sex education in schools or “people being human;” the cause of our immorality is our idolatry.

          In the Old Testament, the nations surrounding Israel – nations who did not know the one, true God – were notorious for their sexual impurity. It was common practice for the Ammonites to worship their choice deity, Molech, by sacrificing their children in a fire while engaging in sexual orgies. They thought nothing of lauding sexual looseness and making fornication, as well as human sacrifice, essential aspects of “worship.” The Lord rebuked Israel for her infidelity to Him, describing her sin as spiritual adultery (Hosea) that frequently led to physical adultery and uncleanness.

          In the New Testament, both saints Peter and Paul connect idolatry with gross forms of sexual immorality. In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul says believers are not to indulge their lustful passions as do the Gentiles, who do not know the Lord in a personal and saving way. Here Paul is echoing his teaching to the Roman Christians, where he asserts that sexual immorality is the sure and direct consequence of worshipping corruptible images instead of the incorruptible God. When man ignores the one, true God, he will substitute something in the Lord’s place – always with ramifications for his conduct.

          The Greek men of Paul’s day boasted about their fornication as though it were a noble endeavor. Women were looked down upon for sexual looseness; but men were granted tremendous freedom from any sexual strictures whatsoever. This type of arrangement, not so different from Greene County in 2008, should not surprise you and me. Whenever we reject God’s authority, you and I and the decadent culture around us become “mini-deities” who set the rules. We make our bellies our gods and obey every impulse of the flesh.

          When the Lord is not God in your life, your idolatry will bear bitter fruit – particularly that of sexual immorality and all its sordidness.

          Sexual immorality, secondly, destroys God’s design for you as an individual and as a family member.

          This type of degrading impurity thwarts the Lord’s design for your body. In 1 Corinthians 6, St. Paul writes you were bought with a price – the precious price of Jesus’ life and blood – and therefore you are not your own but belong to him. Your body, in fact, is united to Jesus spiritually; one of the great consolations of our faith (as Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 37 instructs us) is that your body is united to Christ even in death, and one day it will be reunited to your soul and fit for eternity.

          This vital spiritual union with Jesus means what you do in and with your body matters to Jesus. We are not Gnostics, asserting that the body doesn’t matter and can be utilized however we see fit. Rather, you and I affirm that the Son of God came in the flesh to redeem sinful flesh, and our flesh is important to him. Your body cannot therefore be polluted by joining in sexual impurity, because Christ cannot be joined to a harlot.

          You wouldn’t take your glowing white wedding gown and douse it with muddy water, would you? The very suggestion is ludicrous!

          Why, then, would you take the body Jesus redeemed with his body and united to himself and tarnish it with such heinous sin as sexual immorality? Your body was meant to serve the Lord in thought, word and deed – not to have any truck with vileness.

          On a corporate level, sexual immorality destroys God’s design for the family.

          In Ephesians 5 Paul speaks of the relationship between husband and wife – who Moses and Jesus say are made one flesh by their union – as a picture of the relationship Jesus has with his bride, the church. You wives are to submit to your husbands as unto the Lord, just as the church submits to Christ. And you husbands are to love your wives sacrificially, just as Jesus loved the church and gave himself for her. This relationship not only brings mutual relief and joy to husband and wife; it also creates an atmosphere of spiritual integrity in which children can be reared to know the Lord. Further, the Lord uses believers’ marriages evangelistically to demonstrate vividly to pagans the love Jesus has for Christians.

          How does creating illegitimate emotional and physical bonds through improper sexual intercourse promote family life? How does bitterness toward your husbands, women, promote Christ-honoring submission? How does lust and crude speech, husbands, engender love and evoke submission in your home? Young and single people, how can you cherish, support and prepare for family life if you are treating the marital union with complete disregard?

          As the Proverb says, sexual immorality destroys both body and soul.

          The answer, thirdly, lies in teaching ourselves and our children the truth: about the body, about sin and about holiness.

          You must understand that the Lord is God, and He alone has rights over your soul and body. Christian, you were purchased with the price of Jesus’ blood, and you therefore do not live to yourself. You live to Christ, and he – not your lustful passions – must be obeyed and honored.

          How many of our young people think their personal worth depends on their engagement in sexual activity? Or on their physical looks (women)? Know that your worth comes from being created in the image of God, not from any other source.

          You also need to grasp Scripture’s teaching on the wickedness of the human heart and on the deadly consequences of sin. Not one of you is above fornication, pornography, adultery or any form of immorality: Jeremiah clearly states the heart is deceptively wicked and beyond full comprehension in its evil. The Scripture says there is pleasure in sin for a season, but when lust gives way to sin, sin always gives way to death. Adam and Eve thought they would gain the world if they rebelled against God (as though He were keeping something from them); in fact they lost Paradise. And so you should not be surprised when allowing yourself to stare lustfully at others (even on billboards!) leads you to view pornography (easy as it is for anyone to obtain on the Internet), which leads you to sexual immorality, which leads to early pregnancy, ruined dreams, venereal disease, emotional confusion, broken homes, unstable marriages, divorce, and a cycle of destruction. Guard your heart, watch your circumstances and make a covenant with your eyes to stand against the foolish corruption of this culture.

          Understand also that you are called not to uncleanness but to holiness. St. Paul even says fornication and immorality should not once be named among us in Leakesville, as becometh saints. Ask yourself when you are tempted: Does this thought/word/action use my body in the service of Christ? Does it fulfill his design for me, body, soul and family-wise?

          Or am I falling into the decay of this dead world?

          Recently I saw an advertisement in a newspaper that read thus, roughly: “You kicked God out of schools, and now you wonder why there is so much violence in them?”

          The same question applies to our bodies and to our families.

          While broken homes, unplanned teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS sadden you and me, they should not surprise us. In fact, if your marriage is suffering, it might not be shocking. When you and I suppress the knowledge of the one, true God, we invariably turn to base living; and when you spend more time lusting for another spouse rather than loving Christ with your present spouse, you should not be stunned by your woes.

          Know who you are, body and soul. Know Whose you are. And let Him bless you as you give yourself to His service, especially in the matter of keeping yourself pure.