Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,
a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.
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sermon. God Bless. Father in heaven we do pray
now the words of my mouth and meditations of
our hearts the things that we contemplate and
think on sit with This morning would be pleasing
in your sight Lord. I pray that you'd bring Grace
where we need grace and conviction where we need
conviction That you would cause this Lord to
indeed walk in your ways To find that the law
of the Lord is beautiful and more to be desired
than gold that is more to be desired than honey
and honey from the comb, that following you is
the way of life, that in you is the way, the
truth and the life because that is who you are.
So I pray Lord this morning that you would do
that in us, in Jesus' name, amen. All right,
I want to suggest to you something that I have
said before, I think. Now I've said this at least
an individual conversation that is this that
the devil has no raw material to work with God
creates out of nothing ex nihilo as theologians
like to say but the world the flesh and the devil
don't They twist and they distort what is given
by God God's good creation and the best things
that God gives are also often also often the
things that are most twisted About a month ago,
I heard that possibly the best word to describe
our current world is the word libertine. Libertine.
Obviously, it's related to the word liberty,
right? It actually comes from the Latin word
libertinus, which was the Roman slave who had
been freed. And so there's a good sense in which
it's something good. Liberty is actually freedom
is something to be prized in a lot of way. But
by 1500 or so, we know Actually, we know this
in part because of writings of John Calvin, really
the great theologian in the Reformed tradition
in Geneva, that the word was already being used,
libertine, to refer to somebody who didn't want
to do what somebody else told them. No authority.
Tell me what to do. The individual as the arbiter
of what is right. And most of all, what is right
is what gives that individual pleasure. in this
world, libertine. So don't tell me what to do
with my body. Don't tell me what to do with my
guns. Don't tell me what to do. Of course, the
praise of the libertine that marks our time is
in part why a series on the Ten Commandments
can feel so sticky and challenging, unlike the
permissive gods of our day. namely the gods of
self -actualization, self -expression, and self
-fulfillment, and self -self, and the permissive
gods of antiquity, which were numerous. The god
of the Bible, the one who gives the commandments
at Mount Sinai, the one who comes living the
commandments in the incarnation, the one who
gives the commandments of the second Pentecost,
they're in Acts chapter two, the father, the
son, and the Holy Spirit. is a rather intrusive
God. We prize kind of ourself as the arbiter
of the good life. And he tells us that we must
worship him alone. He tells us how we must worship.
Don't have other images of gods. One author says
that he's a good micromanager. or a bad micromanager,
depending upon how you think of micromanagers.
He even tells us how we must spend our time,
right? And he's the divine idealist. He expects
us to live in the world without violence and
vengeance, in this world without anger. Who is
this God who keeps telling us? You know, we are
going to get to the 10th commandment where the
Lord is even instructing us how we ought to desire.
and think about things. So take this libertine
ideal that we live in in our day and this reality
of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as speaking
to us and calling to us and speaking into all
these different aspects of our lives, both of
that first Pentecost at Sinai and the second
one at Jerusalem, and come to the seventh commandment.
And I feel like we have a little bit of a mess
on our hands. One of the great libertine creeds
in our day is no one can tell us what to do with
our bodies and our sexual desires and our constitutional
right. Thank you very much to pursue freedom.
To pursue what makes us happy. And here's what
our response often is. Can I have a little privacy,
God? Please? Right? And what does he say? No.
Thou shalt not commit adultery. Again, like last
week, it's kind of short. It's pretty simple.
It's even shorter. Again, in the Hebrew, it's
only two words. Again, lo, that's that word again,
t 'naap, t 'naap. And like last week, in some
ways it's pretty straightforward. All right,
last week is pretty straightforward. Don't murder.
Pretty straightforward this time. Don't have
sexual relationships with anyone who's not your
husband or wife. Don't commit adultery. But guess
what? Like last week, there's a lot here. A lot
here. This morning, I want to... Let me say this.
There's always so much that I don't say. There's
a lot this morning I'm not going to say and it's
still longer than... I normally have it But this
morning I want to talk to you first about how
the bible sees sex as something beautiful And
then then as something broken and then as something
that truly god does also love and redeeming Okay
Because it's true that only god creates the world
the flesh The devil the world can only distort
what god makes Okay, so first the beauty of sex
The Bible begins with the goodness of creation.
You all know this. If you read your Bible, if
you open to the first chapter, there are a few
things that are repeated and God said is repeated.
But the main thing that you will hear is he saw
that it was good. Good is the refrain. Good is
said over the creation days. That is until a
little glimpse into the sixth day when Adam is
all alone. And it is wild. It is actually wild
that there is something that is said to be not
good before the entrance of sin into the world.
Before the rejection of God, God himself looks
upon it after saying, good, good, good, good.
And he says, not good. This is what he says.
It's not good that man should be alone. Make
a helper fit for him. Now what God does is he
does not make an animal we had them already paraded
by him He does not make another Adam another
man No, he creates women they're similar, but
they're all so very different When God brings
the woman to the man, this is what the man says
Now this is what he says, okay This at last is
bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, which
is to say we're similar. That's what he begins
with. You're me. We go together. Bone of my bone,
flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman
because she was taken out of man. But that, the
second thing is we're similar and we're different.
She shows she shall be called Isha because she's
taken out of each similar Work together complimenting
working similarly differently Think back at the
end of chapter 1 when on the sixth day by the
way I I think the best understanding of chapter
2 in Genesis is that it's a snapshot into the
sixth day of creation Okay But on the sixth day
of creation anyway on that sixth day after God
made humankind male and female in his image He
told them what be fruitful multiply fill the
earth right And at the end of Genesis chapter
2 after Adam said this at last it says Therefore
a man shall leave his father and his mother and
hold fast to his wife By the way, it's the man
leaving the father and mother interesting think
different cultural tradition but hold fast cling
to be bound up in together with it says and the
man and his wife are both naked and we're not
ashamed many people properly understand that
as a sexual thing much more than that though
is the binding up together physically emotionally
mentally spiritually the whole deal they are
to hold fast to one another in heart and in body
faithfully committedly What I'm saying and what
Jesus says in Matthew 19, which we're gonna get
to, is that creation is the starting point for
understanding, well, to be honest, all of the
commandments, but very specifically the seventh
commandment. It is the starting place from which
you understand marriage and from which you understand
sexual experience. And you must start with the
idea that it is God's idea. And because it is
God's idea, It is therefore good. We must start
with the goodness of it, the beauty of it, the
gift of it. More than this actually, within the
context of this union of husband and wife, and
they're physically holding fast to one another,
naked and unashamed, it is actually how God's
mission in the world through them goes forward.
You cannot have a fruitful and multiply unless
you have a husband and a wife procreating. It's
how God made the world. It cannot happen outside
of that. God designed sex between a committed
husband and a committed wife to be the means
of his fruitfulness and multiplying happening.
Okay. Beauty and good because God made it. He
doesn't make bad things. Beauty and good because
procreation was actually part of his mission
from the very, very beginning. Which is to say
that God is not a cosmic prude kind of going
what are they doing? When they are clinging to
one another and they're bound together Marriage
is the sort of union from which children can
be conceived and sexual intercourse is meant
for that But it also does not follow that sex
in the Bible, as the traditional Roman Catholic
position has taught, is simply a utilitarian
thing, meaning it's just for procreation. It's
for just an end, a utilitarian end. One of the
things that you find in the Bible is that it's
also not just for procreation, but it's for pleasure.
Which is why we have an entire book called The
Song of Songs. I said this sermon's a little
bit long just because I'm going to read it. I'm
not going to read all of it. But it does begin
this way. let him kiss me with the kisses of
his mouth for your love is better than wine draw
me after you let us run the king has brought
me into his chambers let me skip ahead chapter
4 verses 10 and 11 how beautiful is your love
my sister my bride how much better is your love
than wine and the fragrance of your oils than
any spice Your lips drip nectar my bride honey
and milk are under your tongue and for those
of you who know the book I'm going to skip over
the parts that will make you redder than you
are This is breathed out for us the theological
word is inspired by the Holy Spirit The Bible
God's Word is certainly never pornographic but
it is unashamedly erotic at times. And it may
embarrass us because often we may be more prudish
than the Lord himself. So sex is beautiful because
it's the mean by which God intends his mission
to go forth in procreation. It's also beautiful
because he has made it pleasurable. But also
I want to suggest to you that it's beautiful
because he has also designed it to be a picture
actually of his love for us. And that the union
of husband and wife, particularly in the context
of a healthy clinging and oneness spiritually,
spiritually, mentally, physically, entirely naked,
unashamed is to actually be a sign point post
and a picture for us of God, our life with Him,
our life, what will be with Him when we are fully
united to Him. He is the great groom and His
church is the bride. And the New Heavens and
the New Earth are described as the marriage supper
of the Lamb welcoming us into consummate life
with God. Sex is for fully and permanently committed
relationships that are a blend of affection and
loyalty and biology and joy and all of that bound
up together. A marital oneness. But that in the
Bible is preparing us. That's part of why Paul
in the end of chapter five of Ephesians says
it's a great mystery when he's talking about
the husband and wife, but he then says, but I'm
talking about Christ in the church. So there's
a mystery to which it points. C .S. Lewis says
that it is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily
united in an ecstasy of love and delight. Compared
with which the most rapturous love between a
man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and
water Just say it's nothing compared to the oneness
that we will have The consummation of all things
with our Lord, but it is a picture of it So first
we have to start with beauty and design and procreation
and pleasure and picture and we have to start
with the idea that God is not a prude and We
should not be either But if we go to these things,
we have to go to the other side of it, right?
Because there is a good reason for this command.
It's a good reason for this command. Because
for all the beauty that we see, we also see a
lot of brokenness. We have to see that God loves
it so much that he builds it into how his mission
works in the world. but we cannot sort of push
aside the ways that it is so entirely destructive
at the same time. So I began this morning with
this idea that God alone creates and that when
God creates, He creates good. And that all sin,
all sin is only always a distortion of the good.
The world and the flesh and the devil can only
take and twist and distort. So we have to start
with goodness. But here's the reality, Matthew
19, 3 to 9. So the Pharisees come up to him,
Jesus, and tested him by asking, is it lawful
to divorce one's wife for any cause? He answered,
have you not read that he who created them from
the beginning created them male and female and
said, therefore a man shall leave his father
and mother and hold fast his wife and the two
should become one flesh. And this is Jesus. So
they are no longer two flesh, but one. There
is a union that takes place in this marital reality
of husband and wife that they are one flesh.
And so he says then, what you've often heard
in weddings, what therefore God has joined together,
let not man separate. Which is another way of
saying don't commit adultery. Don't be unfaithful
in your physical relationships. They said to
him, why then did Moses command one to give a
certificate of divorce and to send her away?
Let's argue about the Bible here, right? And
he said to them, because of your heart, because
of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you
to divorce your wives. But from the beginning,
it was not so. Here's part of what I'm saying.
Jesus grounds sexual and marital ethics in creation.
That's what Jesus does. He says if you're supposed
to have a picture of what God intends for the
world in terms of our marital and sexual ethics
You have to go to the beginning Okay But what's
also interesting is he does then go on to say
and I say to you whoever divorces his wife except
for sexual Immorality and marries another commits
adultery, which she says sexual morality can
have such a great breaking effect in the world
That what is intended which is oneness Complete
oneness can be broken and broken, allowed to
be broken. You can seek divorce in this context
because it can be so utterly destructive. It
can be so breaking. I read this week of the session
minutes. from the Church of the Great Scottish
Presbyterian Pastor of the 18th century, John
Witherspoon. Session records are like elder board
minutes in the Presbyterian tradition. Okay.
And what's interesting, what I read is that almost
all of them are devoted to issues of sex and
marriage. 18th century Scotland. I also read
that there's a book that was published not too
long ago that just analyzes the consistory meetings
in Geneva under John Calvin. So I think mid 16th
century consistory meetings being a similar thing
to session records, different word for the more
or less the same thing. So those are from 1542
to 1906. Those are six and a half decades. 1572
disciplinary cases involving men, 777 involving
women who were suspended for marital abuses,
marital difficulties and mistreatments sexually.
636 men and 538 women were suspended for fornication,
sexual activity outside of marriage. Why am I
sharing this with you, right? Whether it's 18th
century Scotland or 16th century, you know, modern
day Switzerland, I think 16th century France
at the time, in Geneva or 21st century Harrisburg,
our sexual lives can be something that is a gift
and something that can break. Break families,
break marriages, break communities. We know this.
Sexual. Sexual activity improperly done which
by the way can be between improperly done can
be between a married husband wife It's a lot
unfortunately much more of that than we could
admit can wreak havoc on a family can wreak havoc
in churches Can wreak havoc in society? Societies,
of course, can only continue if they reproduce,
but that reproduction we know is best done in
certain settings where there is an actual oneness,
where there is a love and a commitment and a
binding together of the husband and the wife.
It's not just about reproducing, but reproducing
with parents who love and care for and tend to
because they love and care and tend to one another.
Casual sex that does not have the pledged fidelity
of marriage. Man is not really loving the woman
in that way. There's a using and an abusing,
and we know it. I said last week that when Jesus
says that if we harbor anger against our brother
or call him fool, that we're told that we break
the sixth commandment. Thou shalt not murder
right? Jesus then we heard this he goes on to
talk about how if we look at somebody in lust
with lustful intent We commit adultery which
is to say that The actual act of intercourse
is not the only way to commit adultery, right?
And this is a principle. It's actually a very,
very important principle. So this is an important
principle when you come to the Ten Commandments.
The rule for the Ten Commandments are that they
are typically the most extreme example of every
kind of sin that kind of falls under that category,
which is that they include all of the lesser
things that are going on in them, right? Let
me put it this way. We all know that most adulterous
situations do not begin in the bedroom. They
begin by finding that that other person connects
with your emotions in a way that your spouse
somehow doesn't or doesn't care to and you start
to talk to them more and more and you start to
confide in them more and more and they become
a surrogate spouse emotionally and that leads
to something else. We know this. They start with
noticing, with flirting. They start on computer
screens and in chat rooms and in offices. I just
heard recently of a church in our denomination
who a number of years ago, the minister had a
four -year adulterous relationship with one of
the elder's spouses who was the woman's ministry
director. Four years before anyone found out.
We know it's not just that, there's so much else
that is comprised in that kind of thing. The
Bible can speak of pornea, which includes pornography,
of fornication and incest and pedophilia and
homosexual practice and bestiality and sexual
violence and adultery because they're all little
twists on the idea of creation. right there in
Genesis one and Genesis two that Jesus points
back to in Matthew chapter 19. All of them are
subsumed under this command. My point is that
we twist, we distort this good thing that God
has given to us for pleasure, for our pleasure
and for our good, because that is what we do
with our sinful hearts. We take the beauty of
what God has given us and we break it and we
all do is what Jesus says. Jesus doesn't let
any of us off the hook, not one of us. And of
course, this is actually why so many Christians
prior to the Protestant Reformation thought of
sex, even within marriage, as a necessary evil.
Why is because there's so many perversions of
it. There's so many ways that we've twisted it,
distorted it. So Tertullian, the early church
father writing in the third century, regarded
the extinction of the human race preferable to
procreation. Because it's so broken, he said
there's no right place for it. We might as well
go extinct. Ambrose, famous church father in
Milan in the 4th century said that married couples
ought to be ashamed of their sexuality. Married
couples. And Augustine admitted that while intercourse
may be lawful, sexual passion is always sinful.
Great saying, Augustine. And so maybe you know
this, but the church actually began to, through
time, say that certain holy days, couples, married
couples would have to abstain. And by the time
of Martin Luther, that number of days was up
to 183, which is a half. As silly as all that
sounds, we know, we know in our own lives, in
our own hearts, in our own eyes, in our own minds,
and sometimes our own actions, how it can be
that sex in the wrong place, a glancing eye that
sits upon the subject of your desire, an addicted
screen. emotional affair, there have been plenty
of those that have been non -physical contact
that have wrecked havoc on people's lives. We
know how utterly destructive every single one
of those things can be. We may laugh off the
idea of what some of these early Church Fathers
said, but we know how destructive these things
are. We may want to dismiss this old prudishness.
We may want to show them all the song of songs.
But we know how hurtful these things are. We
know how destructive they can be. So what do
we do with it? What do we do with this reality
of the beautiful gift that God has given us that
we have twisted and distorted and it becomes
something that is so broken and it touches all
of us. What do we do? I want to tell you something
that seems very simple. But I want you to look
to the Word of God and I want you to look to
the Word of God written and embodied, okay? And
as you look to the Word of God written and embodied,
I have two words for you, okay? And these words
are for us who are tempted and who are wayward
and who are heartbroken and are filled with shame
But the first one and this is for all of us the
first word I have for you and for me is listen
Listen to the word written. You who are married,
listen to some of the stuff that it calls you
to in terms of loving each other, being united
in one flesh, being naked and unashamed, emotionally,
mentally, physically, pressed into all of it.
But also for all of us, let's give our attention
to the words of scripture as it calls us to be
vigilant. I mean, listen to some of the words
that the Bible uses. on this subject. But sexual
immorality, this is Ephesians 5 verses 3 and
4, but sexual immorality and all impurity and
covetousness must not even be named among you.
Not even be named among us? It's kind of intense.
Says, as is proper among the saints, let there
be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking
among you. So let's listen vigilantly to that.
1 Corinthians 6, we actually heard this. I want
you to hear it again, because it says this. Flee.
Flee from sexual morality. Every other sin in
a person commits is outside of his body, but
the sexually immoral person sins against his
own body. So the Bible does seem to say there
is a dynamic at play in some of this that is
so destructive to your own self that you must
flee it. Or again, listen to the gospel reading
today. You've heard that it was said, you shall
not commit adultery. But I say to you, this is
the words of our Lord Jesus himself upon which
the church is built. But I say to you that everyone
who looks at a woman with lustful intent has
already committed adultery with her in his heart.
And he goes on, if you're right, I caused you
to sin. Does it say close it? It says tear it
out. Tear it out and throw it away, for it's
better that you lose one of your members than
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's better that you lose
one of your members and that your whole body
go to hell. I mean, do you think Jesus wants
us to listen to him? He absolutely does. He is
not always talking like that. That's not the
normal sort of way that our Lord talks about
things He's saying listen to me Do not neglect
this command Listen and be vigilant I Want to
get to the second Well, let me tell you a little
bit of this. Let me tell you a quick story. Okay,
so this week I was at the Army War College. I
was actually invited really I was I felt very
honored to be invited to the 71st National Security
Seminar. The Army War College has been doing
this for 71 years, and they invite about 100
leaders, community leaders from across the country
to participate in this seminar all week. And
they have 75 nations represented. They send their
best single sort of colonel to this thing. And
this is like a program where any Army person
who's going to be colonel or above has to attend
this sort of. Program at the Army War College
and I was invited to be a part of this this week
and we heard from three four -star generals this
week okay, so like the commanding general over
Europe and Africa the commanding general over
the Western Hemisphere and then General Ron Clark
who was the commanding who is the commanding
general over the Pacific? So he's over the army
from Alaska to Australia's of South Korea and
Guam and Hawaii and Japan and all that right
and he's a phenomenal speaker and He told this
story and I tried to look it up. I took some
notes, but I didn't take them detailed now. So
I tried to look it up for you. But he told this
story of how on December 7th, 1941 right there
on Oahu, there were these two watchmen who were
watching for these 12 cargo ships. U .S. military
cargo ships that were supposed to be coming and
they were supposed to be telling people, oh,
yeah, they're on the way. And so there's these
two guys and they're up watching out for these
two cargo or 12 cargo ships and they They see
and they hear 183 other, sorry, not ships, airplanes.
Airplanes, not 12, but 183 buzz by them and they
go, huh. I guess that's the cargo ships. Of course,
General Clark says, I don't know how you mistake
12 cargo ships, U .S. military planes for 183.
Japanese fighters, but they weren't vigilant.
They weren't listening attentively. If they were,
they could hear, let alone see the noise difference.
And we all know the outcome. So first I'm just
saying, listen to the Word of God, please. Be
vigilant. Don't dismiss this. There's another
word and so One things I said is is one of the
one of the words that's towards the Word of God
as it's written the other one I want you to see
is the Word of God as it's incarnate in Jesus
and That word is receive the words love The wonderful
the wonder of the Christian faith and this is
said from the beginning of the Bible to the end
of the Bible is that God loves adulterers. There
is no sin that you have committed that is outside
of the possibility of God's grace. I know we
can just sit in our sin. We can be, and our world
does say you were defined by your sexuality,
but often we also define ourselves by our sexual
sins, right? And the Lord says, no, receive my
love. It's not the way of Jesus to be defined
by your sexual sin. It's not. He invites you
to be defined by his love for you. When we define
ourselves by our sin, we often feel so we're
outside of the possibility of God's grace. And
one of the things that the Bible says over and
over, and actually there is an entire Old Testament
book devoted to it. is that God pursues the adulterer.
So let me leave you with this illustration. I
grew up largely in the purity culture of 1990s
American evangelicalism. And so I heard an illustration
a number of times in my imagine you did too.
Probably you've heard this illustration before,
particularly if you're around my age. So the
speaker's talking about being faithful with your
bodies and sex and stuff like that. And he begins,
of course, holding up this red rose and he passes
it out. You know, I gave it to Will and he looks
at it and he goes down, he goes down, he goes
down. And of course, as you're touching it, it's
just falling apart, right? Because roses are
fragile. And at the end, of course, he comes
back and I go over to Casey and I say, hey, could
you have this rose for me? And she gives it to
me and all the petals are off. And one of the
things that the speaker would say is, do you
want... To offer your spouse this kind of thing,
you know, I mean, we're like, I mean, I'm a high
schooler in the nineties. And of course the answer
is, I don't want to do that because he says,
who wants this? Who wants this? What is the right
answer for Christians? Jesus, somebody said it.
Jesus is the right answer. He is. It's grace
for you. It's so expansive. His love is only
ever for sinners. And what is sin, but it is
spiritual adultery. Jesus' love is only ever
for adulterers. And he wants you. And he's the
faithful one. He's the constant one. He's the
one whose love never ends, who unites you to
himself. perfect oneness. He knows you perfectly.
He loves you ultimately. That is the reality
of Christ's love. He says, I want that. This
is the only kind of person he loves. Us who are
broken, beloved by God. Amen. Let's pray. Lord,
pray that you guide us in this often what is
a very hard subject. But I pray that we would
be those who listen vigilantly and who receive
love of our group. And I pray that we would cherish
in its proper place your gifts for us and that
we would be careful as we distort them so often
for our own gain, our own pleasure, our own desires,
our own devices. God, this morning I pray that
you'd also speak to us. And speak to us your
grace and your love and lift us up in Christ
in whose name we pray. Amen.