LIVING A G-RATED LIFE IN AN R-RATED WORLD
Let me tell you about a couple I have become familiar with, Josh and Jerusha. These two grew up together in the same neighborhood, you could say. Actually, Josh was a few years older than Jerusha and had the pleasure of watching Jerusha grow from an adorable little girl who played with dolls to a very attractive young woman. It stands to reason that being older, Josh doted on Jerusha like an older brother, protecting her, making sure she didn’t get hurt.
As love tends to do, Josh’s eyes were opened to her maturing qualities and he fell in love with Jerusha. They began to court and a beautiful relationship soon developed between them. There was a trust and an openness that characterized their new love so much so that it seemed nothing would ever come between them. Josh would write amazing poetry pieces about Jerusha; and Jerusha adored Josh and drank in the attention he paid to her. Naturally, their relationship rose to the next level and they entered in to the covenant of marriage.
Things almost always go well in the first years of marriage, as it did for Josh and Jerusha. But then Jerusha’s eyes started to wander; she began to see other men in the neighborhood; began to see things she thought Josh did not have and desired these men. And they desired her. Or at least to use her. When Josh discovered her betrayal he was crushed and thought of killing her. He couldn’t, of course. But his heart was so broken and shattered he was beside himself with pain. He did everything he could to win her back; everything that a healthy lover should do. But she continued to give herself to other men in ways that drove Josh nearly insane. Finally, he had no choice; he gave her over to her wishes, surrendering her to her will, with a sad heart.
You know Josh and Jerusha – we call them Yahweh and Israel. This is exactly how the Lord describes his pain to Ezekiel in the OT. Israel’s bent towards the idols and riches of other nations was to God like an unfaithful wife jilting her groom. To the Lord, our sexual immorality is like idolatry, just as Israel’s idolatry was like sexual immorality. The two are intertwined. And for God’s people to engage in the sort of things that are R-rated in our world, like any kind of sex outside of his design, is a betrayal to our God.
We live in an R-rated world – sex sells everything; sex itself is for sale. Our TVs and computers are plastered with it. Let me ask you, in light of all you have seen and thought, if we were to view your life as a movie, would you be a Restricted movie, or General, safe for everyone to view?
1. Why An R-Rated Life Clashes With God’s Plan For His People
a) It is inconsistent with the Christian walk. An R-rated life clashes with God’s plan for his people. In Christ, we have been given the calling to a new life, a life that is different than the world around us. But the old temptations are still there, just as strong as they ever were. That is why Paul so strongly warns us:
“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.” Not even a hint. Those words echo through my mind. Not even a hint of sexual immorality. There are more than hints out there; people are not even quiet or shy about immorality. Our world is growing increasingly proud of its sexual freedom, as if it were the defining characteristic of the human race.
A man wrote: “Dear Abby, I am in love and I having an affair with two different women other than my wife. I love my wife but I love these other women too. Please tell me what to do, but don’t give me any of that morality stuff.” Signed: Too much love for only one. In this case Abby’s answer was classic. She wrote: “Dear too much love for only one, the only difference between humans and animals is morality. Please write to a veterinarian.”
Sexual immorality, as Paul uses the term, refers to any sexual misbehavior. Impurity is anything that is rotten, filthy, or obscene. And while greed makes us think of money, Paul is using it here to describe an unrestrained sexual greed where a person thinks that others exist for his or her own gratification. Add it up and there is no mistaking it: Paul is speaking about any kind of sex outside of marriage.
In the past, the Church tried to squash immoral sex by banning all sex, including marriage sex. But the Bible reveals that sex is a gift. It’s God-given; He created it; He designed it. That we are motivated to marry partly by sexual urges is God’s idea. Sex in marriage is supposed to be beautiful. That’s what the Church should teach.
But Paul, and the rest of the Bible, declares that sex outside of marriage is destructive; it is harmful to our own persons when we give away this gift in one night of passion. It is improper for God’s people to throw away this gift.
b) It is inconsistent with Christian talk. So Paul says there should not be even a hint of sexual immorality among believers. But he is drawing the line even tighter now, saying this: Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out place, but rather thanksgiving.
There should be no trace of this kind of activity in the church. Neither should we, men and women who live for Christ, even joke about sexual immorality. Why? You do not learn to avoid sexual depravity by talking about it, or joking about it, or laughing about it. Making light of other people’s immorality only encourages us to accept it in some sort of perverse way. We become accustomed to it and look for ways to gloss it over. But you can never promote the true nature of sex by laughing or studying its perversions.
What do you get out of romance novels, porn magazines, or inappropriate movies? Paul replies, “Nothing.” It is pointless and wasted. You learn nothing. But what happens instead is that we cause our minds to dwell on these things and tempt our natural urges to overflow the boundaries of decency so that we think and plan and act on what we are hearing or watching. It is too dangerous to even go there.
c) It cancels out your Christian walk. This is the danger. To engage in sexual immorality, to accept the practices around us, to even peek at images on the internet puts you in danger of canceling out your Christianity. Sound too strong? Let Paul tell you: “For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person – such a man is an idolater – has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”
You cannot dabble in this dark part of the world and expect to come out unstained. You cannot delve into the world of pornography and sexual deviancy without being hooked by its allure. And once it’s got you it’s very hard to break free. Richard Drake at Brigham Young University, from his studies on this, said: Pornography is mood altering and as addictive as narcotics. It is like Cocaine, it has the same effect. Images can be permanently burned into the memory by epinephrine, a chemical in the brain.
To walk into that world is to walk out of Christ’s kingdom. You cannot be in both. Here is where Paul says that it is idolatry, and idolatry is that betrayal of our marriage covenant with God. How would you feel if your spouse fooled around with other partners right under your nose?
d) It brings God’s wrath down on you. Remember Josh and Jerusha? Josh had no choice; Yahweh had no choice…he had to give his lover over to her desires. “…God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.” In Ezekiel 23 the Lord gave Israel over to her passions; in Romans 1 we read how the human race degraded their bodies with one another, how they worshiped their own bodies, how women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones, men gave up women for other men and committed indecent acts with them.
And what choice did God have? Romans 1 says repeatedly “God gave them over…God gave them over…God gave them over to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be done. Verse 32 says this: “Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these things but also approve of those who practice them.”
Paul’s tense in speaking of God’s wrath is not future tense, it is present tense. God’s wrath is now. It comes now on those who disobey in the realm of sexual immorality. And what is God’s wrath? It is this: he lets you have your way. Iris asked me if that meant that God stops pursuing us when he gives us over. I said “No. But because of our condition, as we continue to live as we please, we hear God’s call less and less, and we can’t feel him tugging at our heart anymore.” It’s not God who stops loving us; we are ignoring him.
When God’s wrath is realized it will reveal that we that we have no life. For life without God is no life at all. It is empty and meaningless. All we have left is the hurt of trying to find love on the internet or on the street or in the back of a car. A big fat hole in our soul. You know that feeling when you have been dumped – you feel like life is empty, pointless, there’s no one who loves you. That’s a taste of God’s wrath – but remember, you dumped him.
The apostle’s point is that no professed Christian can repeatedly, defiantly, and shamelessly engage in sexual immorality and truly be a Christian. A true Christian who falls into this foolishness will hate what he or she has done, loathe the sin, and turn their backs on it. There is forgiveness. There is healing. But there must be repentance…or there is wrath
2. How A G-Rated Life Impacts Your World
a) No excuses for dancing with darkness. You know the old myth “dancing leads to sex”? Dancing with the darkness, just one dance…there is no excuse for it, because it could lead to the abuse of sex. We have no excuse for indulging in sexual activity that is clearly inconsistent with Christian life.
Paul makes that clear in these words: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.”
One preacher commented on these verses, he said: “If a man or a woman is born again by faith in Jesus Christ he has, as the apostle makes clear in this letter, been translated out of the kingdom of darkness, out of the power of Satan, and brought into the kingdom of light, into the power of God. He has been removed from helpless bondage to the deceiving, alluring propaganda of the satanic lie that has kept him helpless, and he has been brought into the power of God. This is the whole Christian gospel. If that has not happened then you have not been born again, for that is what new birth does. Now (Paul says) it is unthinkable that a Christian who has been delivered from darkness and brought into light should turn his back on the light and go into darkness; it is wholly incompatible with Christian profession.”
What we are prone to do is test the limits of grace. With our Christian freedom we feel, for some reason, that we are impervious to the old sins, and so we try them out. Like the smoker who says he can quit anytime, we fool ourselves into thinking that experimentation won’t lead to anything, a little flirtation isn’t adultery, and so on.
But in the book Every Man’s Battle; Winning the War on Sexual Temptation, the authors say this: Sexual impurity has become rampant in the church because we’ve ignored the costly work of obedience to God’s standards as individuals, asking too often, “How far can I go and still be called a Christian?” We’ve crafted an image and may even seem sexually pure while permitting our eyes to play freely when no one is around, avoiding the hard work of being sexually pure.
This is the starting point in being light, in impacting our world with a G-rated life: obedience. Doing the hard work of sexual purity each in our own lives allows God’s light to shine. Not a hint of immorality (action); not a word in jest (words); no participation in darkness. Just obedience.
b) We are called to expose ourselves. As children of light we are called to let our light shine, to expose ourselves. And in so doing we are going to shine that light on darkness, on dark places, on places and people that are living a sinful life and maybe don’t even know it.
See, Paul says “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible.”
When you bring a lantern into a darkened campground, what do you do to spread the light? Nothing! It’s already doing its job. You are the light of the Lord. Our testimony should be blaring through our very presence. I always find it funny when some men are telling a dirty joke and I walk in. All of a sudden it’s quiet.
You know what? It’s not enough. Presence is testimony but let the testimony speak too. Since the sexual revolution began in the 60s we have become more and more comfortable with talking about sex. Trouble is, I have heard Christian young people say that there is nothing wrong with two people having sex as long as they love each other. I have even heard some say that same thing in regards to homosexual behavior. And who is speaking for the opposition?
I am not asking that we become prudes. Or that we should track down an immoral person and condemn him for his sin – the world hates that. Our job is to speak up, challenge false ideas about God’s great truth about sex, tear away the lies, reveal the facts, tell them that what God intended for sex is wholesome, beautiful and only protected by the bonds of marriage.
I had this theory some time back that there was even something spiritual in kissing. It’s not just a physical act; it gives a part of you away. Do we want to treat this lightly? The world tells us that sex is just a physical activity; it is much more complicated than that. It is not just a physical union; it is a spiritual, emotional and psychological union. The Bible tells us that this union is only fully realized in marriage. That is our truth, that is our testimony, this is what the world needs to know.
c) Renewing our marriage vow to God. Paul ends this passage of his letter with these words:
“Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Scholars tell us that this is a baptismal chant or hymn. As Paul talked about light and how light makes things visible, he echoes the thought of this chant. As the new believer was baptized, likely by immersion, the gathered believers would sing or chant these words when the believer came out of the water. Coming into the new life of Christ, Jesus shone his light on the soul of the person washing away the darkness. The calling of the new believer then was to continue to walk in that light and never go back.
Baptism has been compared very closely with marriage. As new Christians we are courted by our Savior until we decide upon a complete commitment to Jesus, whereupon we are “married” to Christ, baptized. Christ is the groom and we are the Church, his bride.
Couples who have been married for 25, 50 years or more, will often choose to express their love by renewing their vows in front of family and friends. It both reflects the past and the wonderful life they had together and the promise of continued commitment in the future.
Why don’t we renew our baptism vows to God? (Please rise to your feet):
We believe in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son. We believe that Christ on the Cross has brought us from darkness to light. We believe that God has put his Spirit in us to help us walk in the power of new life. We commit ourselves then, to living a life of purity which is consistent with being a follower of Christ.
If it is your desire to make this covenant with God, or to renew your covenant with God, respond by saying “I do.”
AMEN
