Human Sexuality Series: Pursuing a Life of Sexual Purity (All of Life for God)
How should Christians respond when they fall into sexual sin? Pastor Christopher Gordon reminds believers that acknowledging our sin and turning to God for forgiveness is the first step toward walking in the light on this week’s episode of All of Life for God.
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Well, tonight we're taking back up or picking up our study in human sexuality in the midst of the sexual revolution that we are in. And obviously I don't have to make a case for its importance. Anyone who doesn't think it's important is not paying attention to what's happening in the world or in their own hearts. And so that's why this is such an important study. And we are now in the restoration section of the catechism that I've been working through, The New Reformation Catechism on Human Sexuality. Which is an extension really of the truths out of our Heidelberg and applying it in our day to this big struggle that we are facing and revolution. So tonight we're in the restoration section. I'll be reading a few verses out of First John chapter one. You're welcome to turn there. I want to read a few question answers first. And this is on page 22, the catechism.
What does God call us to do when we fall to sexual sin? And the answer is, when I commit any form of sexual sin, even the slightest desire or thought contrary to any of God's commandments, I should confess my sins to him, eagerly turn away from all sexual sin and seek to walk in the newness of life,. Is God angry with his children who still struggle in their striving to put away sexual morality? God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness. When we come to God with a broken and contrite heart, confessing and turning away from our sins, God promises to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He's declared a bruised reed he will not break and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. What about believers who fight against same sex attraction but continue to experience shame and guilt for these desires?
God in the gospel of his son has announced that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Any unholy desire, even if unchosen, such as same sex attraction, is covered by the blood of Christ. Believers who continue to struggle against same sex attraction should trust in God's forgiving mercies and with earnest purpose, by the strength of the Holy Spirit, strive to live in the newness of life. Further, the body of Christ should not avoid or shun those who struggle against any sexual sin. Instead, believers with a spirit of compassion should bear each other's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. And then finally, since we've been delivered from all sexual sin, why should we pursue a life of sexual purity?
And five reasons. First. Because our sinful desires do not define us or constitute our identity as those purchased by the blood of Christ. Second. Because sexual purity is the will of God for our sanctification as we are being renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit and the image of God's son. Third. By pursuing a life of sexual purity, we show that we're thankful to God for his salvation. Fourth. We also stand as witnesses that those living in sexual immorality might see in us the holy purity that God loves. Fifth is we battle against our sinful nature, the Holy Spirit strengthens our Christian walk and we give glory to God. And First John one at verse five, "This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him there's no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin."
"We say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We say that we've not sinned. We make him a liar and his word is not in us. My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ, the righteous. He's the propitiation for our sins and not only for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." And there we'll end the reading of God's word.
Well tonight in our efforts to help people through the sexual revolution that we are in the midst of, and I realize that these also go out online and are important for people who want to understand these things and think through these things. We're now moving to tonight really this aspect of restoration or sanctification in the believer's life, especially with and in this fight against sexual sin. I had a good conversation with Dr. Yuan this morning after the Daniel Sermon and he spoke of what he's seeing overall the country is he goes out and he speaks about the reprogramming that we talked about this morning in the Book of Daniel, that there's, in that time, a great reprogramming them into the thinking and the worship and the ideas and the ideologies of Babylon. Well, that is exactly what this movement is doing. That is what we're living in the midst of, a giant reprogramming right now. A reprogramming and how we think about who we are as male and female, a reprogramming about what we think about marriage, a reprogramming all the way down to the use of pronouns.
This is programming happening, reprogramming, to assimilate us into a new morality, which is no morality at all. It's completely destructive to God's good creation design. But this is important for us to talk about tonight and spend time on and to reflect in God's will for us in sanctification, particularly in this arena, in this area of human sexuality. And tonight we consider God's calling to pursue a life of sexual purity. It's really the goal. How do we begin to do that? We're going to look at some particulars coming up here in the weeks to come, having to do even in the issue of pornography and we'll look at the issue of the family and young adults. And all these issues we're going to be addressing now a little more specifically. But tonight we're looking at the bigger picture of how do we begin on this path and what does the Lord expect of us in purity in this arena of sexuality?
And obviously you know I've mentioned so many times there were two great sins that the Lord told Israel to flee from and it was idolatry and sexual morality. This God, Israel and to all kinds of problems. So this is what we want to spend some time with. Last time we looked at the redemption section, which really was helping us to understand what Christ has accomplished for us objectively on the cross. We have to reframe our thinking to help people through these struggles because these desires, brothers and sisters, are powerful. Everyone knows that. As I said this morning, in and of ourselves, in and of themselves, our children, they don't have the power to beat these desires. Nobody does. This is not just for children, this is not just for young adults, this is for older people too. This can be for older saints just as much. Especially if you've had your mind influenced and affected by these things for some period of time, it goes right with you in the old age.
So these are important things to address. And it really came down to thinking about how we think and how we understand, as we looked at last time, the work of Christ for us and how he wanted us to see ourselves in Christ as having come out of the first Adam and into the last Adam. Romans five. And then in Romans six we looked at we were united with him in his death. We were united with him in his burial. We were united with him in his resurrection so that we are to consider ourselves as being raised brand new in Christ. And that means, as Romans six applied it, that we are to reckon to ourselves what's been reckoned to us. What's reckoned to you? The righteousness of Christ.
You have to think of yourself this way. You have to think of yourself as belonging to Christ. You have to think of yourself as dead to the old man and now alive in the new man, rooted and grounded in Christ. That old man was buried with Christ. That old man was buried, he died and you rose brand new with him. He was speaking objectively, as we looked at last time. And we left off with that note, if anyone remembers, where I encouraged you, and this is hard to do, this is something we have to work on to do, is to preach that gospel to ourselves every day. The gospel that you hear here, you take and you get up in the morning and you put your foot out of bed and you say, "I belong in life and in death and body and soul to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ." I see what they're trying to do to me, if I can apply it to this morning's message. I see what the pressures are.
But now we move to restoration. What do we do? How do we behave? What do we do in the face of these challenges? We're no better people than the world and our own. We still carry around a sinful nature. We still have that problem that the dominion's been shattered, but the presence of sin is still very real in our lives until we get to glory. That's one of the death benefits is that you get to finally put this body of sin off forever. Well, think of First Thessalonians four. "It is God's will that you should be sanctified. That you," and he defines it, "should avoid sexual immorality, that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable."
Now listen to this contrast, "Not in passionate lust like the pagans who do not know God." That kind of defines it, doesn't it? Passionate lust defines them. They follow whatever lust comes into their heart. He's saying that's not God's will for you. That is not God's will for you to follow those lusts whenever they... And by the way I'm using sexual morality because that's the revolution. This is any sin in your life. To follow in passionate lust that sin and to feed that sin and to give it attention is not God's will for you. The way the scriptures describe unbelievers is that they live in passions and they live in lust without any self-awareness or any self-control. Whatever impulses they have, they follow. Christ has set you free.
This is really good news. It doesn't mean you're not struggling against these things, but Christ has set you free so that you are no longer under the dominion of the impulses and passions. That's the message. So now there has to be a plan of action to put it to death. That's what we have to set ourselves to do. And I've got good and bad news for you in this. The good news is you have the Holy Spirit. The bad news is you're always going to be putting this plan into action until you die. But that's not bad news because the spirit's with you. Do you get what I'm saying? The point is it's a fight, it's a battle. We are in warfare now. We are soldiers and this is what the battle looks like. Think of the man who's just come out of prison. He's been in there for 30 years, let's say. All he's known are the walls of imprisonment. It's hard to relate to that. Well, maybe you can. You know what's hard for someone who's lived in imprisonment that long? Is freedom. It's freedom.
In fact, we know some don't want that freedom and so they feel good to go back right to it. Well, that's not what grace has done in your life. He now has not only set you free, but he's given you a clear path forward and one that he has enlisted you in as one of his children. What is that path? Well, the first question that we're addressing tonight is what does God call us to do in this arena of human sexuality and when these desires are so strong? And that first question of the catechism I wrote on the restoration section has to do first with, and we'll be looking at the practicals coming, but this is really practical up front. The most important thing is first, how do we handle sexual sin in our lives as believers? That's an important question. Because they don't just magically go away once you become a Christian.
Anyone in marriage knows that if they think. And I tell couples getting married all the time, if you think any of the sexual struggles you had before marriage are just going to go away once you get married, you're in for a surprise. It doesn't work that way. So you have to have a plan. You have to know and be aware. And the first is I want you to think with me for a minute of David. It's a well-known story. I don't know how many times I've rehearsed it from the pulpit and I'm not going through it tonight. But I want you to think about just for a minute, putting it in this sort of question of the Christian life and how unprepared he was and how lazy he had become and how strolling around on his roof, he falls into this sin. This was not a pagan. This was God's king.
So what did he do when he fell into sexual sin? Answer? Nothing. Nothing. Well, that's a application, isn't it? After almost a year into the sin, he did nothing. And what had happened to him? His heart grew really hard to the Lord. It's an important point. Again, you can apply this to any sin. But Psalm 51, Psalm 32 exists for this reason. When he says in that time of hardening, "Day and night, your hand was heavy on me." In other words, as he continued in his sins, and this led to other sins, remember it's never just one sin we fall into, it accumulates and they grow. God was chastising him. How so? Here's something you have to realize that's so important. What is the difference between the child of the Lord and the world on this matter? Remember Psalm 36 last week? "In their own eyes, they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their own sin."
God does something different for you. And this is absolutely crucial for the Christian life. I can't begin to tell you how crucial it is for the Christian life because many Christians still have not appreciated what I'm about to say and it's something constantly I struggle with, you struggle with and it's this. Think about this great truth. God wants truth in the inward parts. What do we do with sins in our lives? What are we masters at doing with sins in our lives? Hiding them. Left to ourselves, it's easy to hide or to think that we're getting away with them. But the Lord doesn't let you. You know what he's doing for you? He's constantly working on your consciences. That's the work of the spirit. So the path with David was pretty clear. How did the Lord work in David's life when he did nothing about these sins? He sent a preacher to him. And that preacher told a parable to apply it. And all of a sudden David, in great hypocrisy, sees other people's sins, couldn't see his own sin, and the preacher says, "It's you. It's you."
You know God would rather deal with your sin right here? And when he sends out preachers and teachers to help you, you know he'd rather deal with it right here? He'd rather deal with it as in this kind of venue rather than drag sins out everywhere else for everyone to see because you're not listening. And that's what happened. Nathan comes to him. David all of a sudden feels a weight of bricks fall on him. And then the guilt and then the shame of it all. He woke up. And what did he say in the psalm? "Against you and you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight that you may be blameless when you judge and just when you speak. If you want to judge me, it's totally right."
Now why is that important to begin with in considering this issue? Well, Romans seven describes a struggle that is meant to encourage you. Believe it or not. The old writer, Jerome Zankey, was so helpful in his comments on Romans seven, I just want to interact with him for a minute and I'll apply this so hopefully it helps you. He wrote that there's something different about the believer in his struggle with sin. That the believer only sins in the flesh and not with the whole will or the whole heart.
In other words, evidence of God's working in your lives, evidence of your status as his children, evidence that you belong to God is that you constantly find yourself in the struggle. When he says, "The violent passions of our flesh arise within us and we are hauled away by these desires. We are drawn away from the Lord." David. He says, "These sinful desires often overcome us for a time and we don't even feel them. But are driven only by the sinful passions. But when we wake up and the heat of our sinful nature has calmed down, then shortly after we groan, we moan, we cry, guilt overcomes us, we hate the evil that we've done and we say, how could I even be a Christian?"
Every one of you knows this struggle, depending on the sins that you are prone to. How many believers, he says, have been completely overcome with guilt after giving into sin? And upon becoming overwhelmed by their sin and the shame that follows, they question how they could be believers if they could commit sin so easily. You have no idea. I have no idea how dark the human heart really is and what we could do. We have no idea. We heard last week, greater men have fallen than us. David. If David the king could fall into adultery, if a grown older man could fall into this, any one of you here could. None of you is exempt.
In fact, to think that this is not an issue in marriage would be foolish. Marriages may be here. The Seventh Commandment into the arena of human sexuality is the gateway commandment that forbids all sexual sin. According to Jesus, adultery begins where? In the heart. Just by looking and lusting after someone who's not our spouse. Pornography then is entered into this. As well as, we'll address next time, it's one of the biggest temptations for young men and women. But I'm not even so foolish to think that it's just younger people. So much so that it may be why marriage is happening so much later in our society right now is because people are in front of screens.
My point is that there is a big war happening and Satan has lots of resources to use. "No one is excused for sexual sense." Says Zankey. But when these violent desires overwhelm us, Zankey sees, and this is what's important tonight, this inward struggle, this hatred, this groaning as the reality that you are regenerate. The wicked don't care. But the question is where do we go? What do we do? What's the battle plan? Even when great stumblings happen to the degrees of records of David and Peter, what is God working in us? What is God doing for us? What did God do for David? He drew out repentance. He drew out repentance.
A true believer cannot go on indefinitely in sin. He is led by the spirit to this great conviction and warfare within. And by the way, this is what's encouraging, that warfare is the good sign. You're being led to repentance and faith away from sin so that you do not, by the spirit's power, persevere in sin. The spirit is working to put to death sins in our lives. You're not going to persevere to let sin reign in you. That's what's different about you. If you didn't care and you did these things without any discretion, you never repented and you just kept on, that's a sign you need to be born again.
The spirit is working this way. The struggle is good and right in you, is what I want to say. It's not to say what people do is they feel like giving up and they feel like they say, "How could I be a Christian? And who can live this life? And who can do this?" And all these things that follow so that they wallow in sin and they never come to Christ. That is different. That is not what the Christian is called to do. The encouragement is, in the warfare, what is the avenue forward? Well, what makes us different? What makes us distinctively Christian is that when you sin you come back to the throne of grace all the time. And the spirit is working to put to death, by his power, sin in your life.
That doesn't mean you're going to reach perfection in this life. You understand that? That perfection is held out for you in glory. But this is the Christian life. So what's the first issue in the battle plan? What's the first step in the battle plan? God calls us to come to the throne of grace. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord and he'll have mercy on them and to our God and he will freely pardon. Freely. You have to believe that. He's compassionate. What did Israel celebrate? What was the great celebration verse in Israel? The Lord after all their sins is compassionate, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness. You'll make no progress until you believe that, you see. You'll make no progress in the Christian life, in the walk. In the catechism, 28 I asked, is God angry with children who still struggle and they're striving, notice we're striving, to put away sexual morality? Is he angry with you?
Well, that's an important question. Is God this father to us who's given his son and then constantly is standing over you as judge ready to strike? Is that how you view him? You'll never make any progress. You'll never fully understand that you haven't understood the gospel. He gave this immense sacrifice in his son and he doesn't want us to impute through our guilt back to him that his justice in satisfying our sins in Christ was not enough. He has changed your status. The Lord is merciful. And as his children, what the Lord wants us to do is when we sin and the fight against all sins in this life is to come to him with broken and contrite hearts. God has spoken a word of promise. He will not renege on this. "I will forgive your iniquity. I will cleanse you from all sin." And that's not a one-time thing. He doesn't tell you to forgive your brother 70 times seven because he's only doing it once. He's telling you to do that because he's doing this for you every day.
"A bruised reed he will not break, a faintly burning wick he will not quench." You think he's going to put out your little light? That's not what he's going to do. He desires to reassure you of his favor and his mercy in Christ and we need that all the time. Confess your sins. God covers you. He desires that you trust in his forgiving mercies every day. And that is part of our responsibility to encourage others in the church in their struggle with this. I think, I said this before, we cannot be Victorian on these matters. We have brothers and sisters struggling on these matters. You can't have a whole culture falling headlong into this and think we don't have people here struggling with this. We should be able to freely bear each other's burdens and help them without the condescending eye. It's important.
Now, I want to end tonight with the question of motivation. And that's where I put in the catechism five reasons as to putting to death sin in our lives, sexual sin, you have to be properly motivated. Why do we want to do this? Because for people, obviously, these are strong, powerful desires and they are in the moment fulfilling. They don't pay out, they only bring misery, but in the moment they bring some kind of satisfaction to people. Why would we want to put this to death in our lives? Why should we put it to death in our lives? And I put five reasons there. I'll just briefly go through them and we'll go to the Lord in prayer.
But notice first because this is so important. Why? Because our sinful desires do not define us or constitute our identity. That is so contrary to everything the world's telling us right now. What the world wants us to believe is the sins, which God defines as sin, define us as people somewhat constitutionally. And that we will find happiness in them. And that we'll find fulfillment in them. And that they are so part of who we are in identity, "I am this." Notice what they say, "I am this. I am this. I am this." That they're saying it so much of their own identity that there is nothing we can do to change this within us because it's who we are. That is a lie. That's the biggest lie of the movement.
It's not true. It's not who you are. Sinful desires don't define you. We all have desires. There are proper way to fulfill desires. Sinful desires against God's law don't define us. The idea that we should live out the desires of our hearts and passions that define us is a lie because God defines us in his son, whom he gave and sent in humanity, in human form, adding a human nature to his divine nature, so that we would be recreated into that image, his image in true righteousness and holiness. Not imposing upon him sinful ideologies to conform us to them. And that's important. That means positively how I think of myself, why I would not want to pursue these things is because I'm adopted, I'm purchased, I'm accepted, I'm valued. That's what everyone wants today. I'm valued, I'm protected, I'm everything in Christ. There is nothing that could be given to you that's better than that. You have to believe that. Contrary to that is to live a lie and then to live a false identity. And what do we call that? That's just hypocrisy.
Second, because sexual purity is the will of God for our sanctification as we're being renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit to the image of God. So think about that. God cares for us so much that is willed in your life, that you are set apart to him to be made like his son. That is a privilege. His whole purpose in justifying you to renew you is to overcome the demise that led you to where you are to begin with and now by the power of the spirit to make you into the identity that Christ has. And that alone should drive us. This is a good father to us. A father who helps us, a father who cares for us, a father who loves us, a father who's given us everything. A father who doesn't want you to fall back into something that would be harmful for you. That's why he cares. You see. Third, by pursuing a life of sexual purity, we show that we're thankful to God for his salvation. I suppose we say that a lot. But thanksgiving should motivate us.
Think of a father who's done everything for his son and that son has failed him terribly and yet that father was willing at the loss of everything to save that son. That kind of love must so break us that we care about thanking a father who would love us like that. He's given you everything. Fourth, why would we want to pursue this? Because we stand as witnesses. That those living in sexual morality might see the holy purity that God loves. This is bound up with your witness as a Christian. And God actually includes in his plan you to be witnesses to the ends of the Earth of his son. What do the people need to see right now?
Well, what they need to see is a good example in this area. The sad consequences of the sexual revolution are coming. If they're not already here. Families will be crushed. Children are being mutilated. Listen to me, children are being mutilated. People's lives will be wrecked by this. One of our greatest witnesses today is simply to pursue the purity God loves, to love our husbands and wives, to have marriages. If God's called you in marriage, that models the love of Christ for his church. If you're single, we're going to be looking at that. And contentment and prayer and trusting and enjoying Christ in your walk, to not living in all the desires they tell you to fulfill, to find satisfaction in him.
Pursuing the morality that he has called us to is so rare today in the world now because not only are they just rejecting biblical, clear laws regarding this, but they're overturning all of creation. See how much we're going to stand out in the midst of this? Just think of a couple that loves each other and is married 60 years in this environment. Think of the witness of that. Fifth, as we battle our sinful nature, this one's important, the Holy Spirit strengthens our Christian walk and we give glory to God. In other words, it's in the battle that the Holy Spirit is actually strengthening you. And you fulfill what you're designed to be and to do is to give glory to God. That's his way of strengthening us in the battle. To fulfill the purpose for which God made us.
I know it's a lot tonight. I always feel like I throw too much at you. But as we close, I want you to be encouraged of who you are as God's people in a world that is falling headlong into something that will bring certain ruin to them. Know who you are, value it, treasure it. God has promised us his fatherly care in Christ. So beloved, this is every one of us, give ourselves to flee sexual morality as his children, whom he gave his son to die for that we might be made like him. What a privilege. By his grace, he will give us the strength and power by the spirit to do that.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you tonight for helping us with these things. And we pray that you would, Lord, help those in this, particularly those who are really struggling in this, that you would give them grace and relief and mercy. And that they, oh Lord, would not be silent about this, but that they would come to you. That they would talk to you. Since heaven's door is open through Christ, we should come frequently to the throne of grace. But we need your spirit. We need your strength. And so as our Heidelberg and we know the Lord's prayer teaches us, give us, oh Lord, an increase of your spirit. You love to give your spirit generously to those who ask, so we ask. And make us like your beloved son, in whom you're well pleased. Thank you for saving us and forgiving us in Jesus' name. Amen.
