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Good morning and welcome to this series titled, Sex is Marriage, and I'm going to do something a little bit different this morning. I normally don't read a sermon, but today I'm going to read, actually it's an article that I wrote two years ago, and it isn't the first time I've addressed this subject, but it led to this series as I continue to consider this topic, and I thought that reading this article to you this morning would be a good way to introduce this series. It'll touch on some of the things that we're going to look at in more detail later and give you the reason, really, that this is such an important topic. So let me just read this. Let's begin with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, I ask that you'll bless this time that we have together. I pray that you will give me wisdom, that you'll enable me to express what it is that's on my heart that I believe you've placed there, and that those who hear these words will receive in the power of the Spirit what you are speaking to us this morning. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. According to Genesis 2.24, the unique manner in which woman was created explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. The uniqueness of woman's creation is that she was made from the stuff of a preexisting living creature, who is, of course, Adam. No other creature was brought into being this way. The birds of the air, sea creatures, the creatures of the land, those were all created of inanimate matter. In fact, Adam, too, was created in this fashion. He was formed from the dust of the ground and had life given him by the breath of God, according to Genesis 2.7. Thus, woman is unique in creation. The Bible says, the Lord caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out of one of the man's ribs and closed up the opening, according to Genesis 2.21. The Hebrew word, commonly translated as rib, is selah, and it is an architectural term. In fact, it's used sometimes in the Bible to describe the side of a house or a room. What this seems to indicate is that God hewed out much more than just a rib from Adam's side when he created woman. Instead, it appears that God scooped out a major portion of Adam and used that in creating Eve. Some medieval Jewish commentators suggested that God split Adam in two and used one half to create woman. There are several important points that arise from this singular act of creation. In the first place, it alerts us to the fact that men and women are of one in their origin. They come from the same exact stuff. For readers of the Bible, this should heighten Paul's admonition to husbands to love their wives as they love their own bodies. In addition, there is a connection between men and women that does not exist in same-sex relationships. As we will see in a moment, this connection is designed to be an exclusive relationship, fully realized in the covenant of marriage. Nevertheless, even apart from the commitment of marriage, there is an attraction between men and women that is distinctive. Although a man or a woman may have friends of the same sex, those friendships cannot fill the particular need established at creation. For God acknowledged that it is not good for the man to be alone, and he said, I will make a companion for him who corresponds to him. Genesis 2.18 At that point, God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one of them. He gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air, the wild animals, but there was no helper that was found just right for him, according to Genesis 2.19.20. This vignette alerts us to the fact that Adam required a companion in order to fulfill the creation mandate, which is a very important point. Obviously, part of that was to be fruitful and multiply, something every other creature could accomplish because a creature and its mate was brought into being simultaneously. But it was more than that. What Adam lacked was a helper suitable to him who would participate in the government of creation. We know that from Genesis 1.28. Thus, the creation of woman in this particular fashion tells us that she is called as man's equal in fulfilling the dominion mandate. This doesn't preclude differing roles, obviously. Equality and function are not synonymous. It does tell us that man and woman require each other in order to be the humanity that God intended as his vice-regent. Now, I want to point out, this doesn't mean that a single man or woman is incapable of participating in the kingdom of God. Indeed, Paul suggests that celibacy gives the follower of Jesus Christ unique advantages in realizing the kingdom in their life and arena of activity. Nevertheless, from the very beginning, God intended that man and woman would be joined together as one flesh in the government and stewardship of creation. In the Genesis account, and in the New Testament references to the creation of woman, the unique generation of woman and her relationship to man is tied directly to the sexual bond. Thus, the biblical justification, apart from the Mosaic dispensation, for strict, punuptual celibacy and monogamy after marriage is actually found in the unique means of woman's creation. Again, as it's various translated, this explains why a man leaves his father and mother, or this is the reason why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife and become one flesh, and truly, we might say, re-become one flesh. As Paul says in his letter to the church at Ephesus, this is a great mystery, Ephesians 5.32. In fact, it functions best as an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. That is to say, the joining together of a man and a woman in sexual intercourse unifies humanity in a way that no other relationship can. This profound wholeness of a man and a woman in a covenanted, protected sexual union is an emphatic illustration of the union that we have with Jesus Christ. This doesn't mean that we have an erotic conjunction with the Lord Jesus. It means that the oneness re-established in the act of sexual coupling hints at the close bond Jesus creates when he brings us into fellowship with himself. Paul has this in mind when he refers to the Christian as a new creation, one who is in Christ. Sadly, modern Christians do not understand the importance of sexual intercourse between a man and a woman. The rate of pronuptial promiscuity among Christians is virtually identical to that of non-Christians. This is so because Christians tend to view sex in a non-Christian, unbiblical fashion. Indeed, more than one Christian has told me, it's just sex, would admonish concerning their immoral behavior as an unmarried person. That viewpoint is thoroughly unbiblical. It's the same false point of view Paul confronted when he was writing to the church in Corinth. We need to realize that in light of what the scripture says, sexual relations evolve more than a physical act. They join the two persons together. The one who cleaves to a prostitute is one body with her, according to scripture. And the unholy union with a prostitute is a wicked perversion of the divinely established marriage union. So to view sexual promiscuity with indifference is, in fact, a violation of the whole Christian view of persons. Not just of sex, but the whole Christian view of who we are as human beings. It's interesting that the Bible never says anything directly about the dissolution of that bond created between a man and a woman who engage in sexual intercourse, at least not directly when that is what is under discussion. We'll see later that it is touched on or it is actually dealt with in a different way. What Paul does affirm is that the death of a spouse breaks the bond so that a surviving member of the union is free to remarry, according to Romans 7.3. And also Jesus asserts that sexual immorality on the part of a marriage partner allows for divorce and marriage on the part of the innocent party, according to Matthew 19.9. But even here Jesus is not talking directly about the dissolution of the previously established bond, and that's my point. So the letter that I referenced above of Paul to the church in Corinth, and in that letter, as you recall, Paul censures the men of the Corinthian church for their lackadaisical attitude concerning sex with prostitutes. As Paul wrote, don't you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute he becomes one body with her? For the scriptures say the two are united into one, 1 Corinthians 6.16. One would think that this would be the appropriate time for Paul to tell the members of the Corinthian church how that illicit bond might be broken, but he doesn't do that, as I just mentioned. I think I might have said Ephesians 6, but in 1 Corinthians. It seems the Bible, and it seems the reason I should say that the Bible does not talk about how a person might dissolve the one flesh bond created in sexual intimacy is because it's not possible, as we mentioned, apart from death. The words of Christ cited above imply that the covenanted bond is damaged due to sexual sin, but we cannot ignore the primary thrust of his comments. From the beginning they were created male and female, so they are no longer two but one flesh, therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate. Now this doesn't mean that you cannot be forgiven for sexual sin, yet forgiveness is not the same as the nullification of consequences, and a good example of this principle is found in the life of King David. As you recall when David mandated a census of Israel's fighting men, he and indeed the entire nation suffered consequences even though God extended forgiveness to the king. You can read about that in 2 Samuel 24, 10-25. Also earlier in David's life, concerning the sins of adultery and arranging the death of Uriah, David confessed to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord, 2 Samuel 12, 13. What happened next is often overlooked. Nathan replied, yes, but the Lord has forgiven you and you won't die for this sin, nevertheless, because you have shown utter contempt for the word of the Lord. By doing this, your child will die. The prophet had earlier affirmed that now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me, speaking for Yahweh, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus says the Lord, behold, I will raise up an adversary against you from your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of the sun, for you did it secretly. But I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun, 2 Samuel 12, 10-12. So, consequences follow sin, even after forgiveness. These are only two of many examples from scripture concerning the consequences of sin, and certainly forgiveness in Christ is a reality. The Bible tells us, if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness, 1 John 1, 9. But again, forgiveness is not the same as a notification of consequence, much more so when the sin in view is a violation of the created order concerning the relationship of a man and his wife. Therefore, to indulge in sexual promiscuity is to invite consequences, because a sex act joins a man and a woman together, and moving on to another sexual partner, or even one after another, causes a rending each time this takes place. A person desiring a casual sexual encounter may not want to become one flesh with their partner, but in some spiritual sense they do. Part of their being is given over to that person, and it means there is less to give to the Lord and to the partner God intends for them. In the biblical understanding of sex, there is no such thing as casual sex. Sexual promiscuity results in mental, emotional, and spiritual damage that cannot be ignored. By God's design, a neurochemical bond is created when a man and a woman have sex. This is simply a physical and emotional manifestation of a spiritual truth. Accordingly, oxytocin, a neurotransmitter in the brain that promotes bonding, is joined by vasopressin, a hormone that influences feelings of possessiveness and jealousy, and serotonin, a neurotransmitter that can fuel the more obsessive aspects of romantic love. These hormonal events take place even during casual sex, and the sexually promiscuous find attachment to their latest hookup an ever-present problem. By the way, if you want to read this article online, you'll find all the footnotes for some of these things that I'm citing here, and I'm not going to read the footnotes now. We should also say that the very fabric of society is torn when the created order of one man and one woman joined in a lifelong union is ignored. According to a study by Oxford social anthropologist J.D. Unwin, completed way back in 1936, sexual activity unbound by strict prenuptial celibacy and monogamy after marriage, quoting Unwin, always led to the collapse of a culture three generations later. Unwin arrived at this conclusion after studying data from 86 societies and civilizations to see if there is a relationship between sexual freedom and the flourishing of cultures. So Unwin interprets his findings from the standpoint of a Freudian psychology, and he believed that the dissipation of energy in sexual gratification led to cultural decline. Quoting Unwin again, in other words, psychological researchers reveal that the placing of a compulsory check upon the sexual impulses, that is, a limitation of sexual opportunity, produces thought, reflection, and energy. The evidence is that a cultural advance has been caused by a factor which produces thought, reflection, and social energy, and that it occurs only when the sexual opportunity has been limited. I submit, therefore, that the limitation of the sexual opportunity must be regarded as a cause of the cultural advance. So according to Unwin, civilization flowers when the population practices strict prenuptial celibacy and monogamy after marriage because the energy that would have been spent in pursuit of unlimited sexual gratification is turned toward activities promoting the common good. So again, citing Freud, he writes, we believe that civilization has been built up by sacrifices and gratification of the primitive impulses, and that it is to a great extent forever being recreated as each individual repeats the sacrifice of his instinctive pleasures for the common good. The sexual are among the most important of the instinctive forces thus utilized. They are in this way sublimated, that is to say, their energy is turned aside from its sexual goal and diverted toward other ends no longer sexual and socially more valuable. But that sounds great, I suppose, from a Freudian standpoint, but the Bible indicates a different cause and effect process. The development of civilization is not evidence of a redirection of sexual energy, but it is evidence of the blessings enjoyed in adhering to God's law. If you look at Deuteronomy 28, 1-14, or 1 Timothy 4-8, indeed throughout all of scripture, we see that there are blessings for obedience. God established the foundation of society in the creation of a man and a woman as the image of God. Every creation brought into subjection and improved upon is accomplished through the foundational creation of a unified humanity. One man, one woman, joined in lifelong unity. You ignore that, there's going to be consequences. Again, woman was created as a help meat suitable for man. Her presence and participation is required in order to accomplish the task God gave to humanity, and her presence and participation is realized in the united humanity of one woman and one man in committed relationship until death do us part. Sexual promiscuity defies the God-ordained norm and declares God's design for society as illegitimate. It is to say that there is no significance in the creation of one man and one woman in the beginning. Sexual promiscuity is an attack on the most fundamental mandate given to mankind, which is the responsibility of dominion as unified humanity. To the degree that this is ignored, the prevailing society will reflect not order, but chaos. The fact is, this is a satanic scheme to destroy the very engine of dominion and disrupt the process of bringing each life and arena of activity under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. So it's not a matter of psychology, it's a matter of obedience to God's word. When this fundamental order is rejected, the ramifications are felt in the personal relationships of men and women and ripple outward from there. It takes one of two forms. Either the participants become wholly self-focused, seeking personal pleasure above all else, or they struggle with overcoming the jealousy suffered by one who has been denied opportunity to join with one woman as a partner suitable for him. In a sense, a man married to a promiscuous woman is unnaturally joined with every sexual partner she has ever had. And so, when we learn that another person has experienced the deepest, most hidden parts of our spouse, we feel cheated. We feel as though we've been robbed of something that should only belong to us, because it should only belong to one man and one woman. We actually feel violated by sharing our spouse with another person, even if it happened a long time ago. Indeed, this jealousy of a man for his bride is part of that image of God in a man, a God whose very name is jealous, according to Exodus 34, 14, and you can look at Exodus 25, Deuteronomy 4, 24, 6, 15. So the only means of overcoming the damage of sexual promiscuity is found in Christ. Even then, the couple dealing with the damage of sexual sin in their past will experience its consequences to one degree or another in the present and indeed in the future. In this, they must stand with Paul and declare that in their weakness the strength of Christ is revealed. Unwin's research showed that a civilization shunning prenuptial chastity and strict monogamy in marriage would experience cultural collapse within three generations. God's Word tells us that the Almighty visits the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate him, Exodus 26, 34, 6, and 7, Numbers 14, 18. You'll also find that in Deuteronomy 5, 9, and 10. Now the correspondence here is interesting, but it simply reminds us that unless the gospel of Jesus Christ penetrates and overthrows a culture, it is eventually doomed to destruction. In addition, God's promise to visit the iniquity of the fathers on the third and fourth generation of those who hate him should not be seen as an automatic outcome pressed upon hapless humanity by a vindictive God. Instead, it should be understood as an expression of mercy. In other words, God will not allow the abasement of a people to exceed a certain point. Those who hate God will generally teach their children to do the same thing, and their children will do the same as well. However, God does not allow this to be something that continues beyond a third or fourth generation because he is a merciful God, and he will intervene to stop the cycle of rebellion. Now he does that in a variety of ways, but the point is that God generally brings judgment and renewal after three or four generations of rank rebellion in order to limit the damage of humanity that humanity, I should say, inflicts upon creation. This doesn't mean, by the way, that a civilization will be Christianized after three or four generations of rebellion, but it does mean that an ungodly civilization will not be allowed to spiral into an unending chaos. At some point, God will bring that period of destruction to a close, and typically this is within three or four generations of its origin. The scripture also indicates a civilization that honors God and then turns away from Yahweh will typically experience judgment within three or four generations. At that point, God pours out his spirit in revival and evangelism, and this oftentimes takes place after severe judgment, and you can read about that in Genesis 15, 16, Deuteronomy 2, 34, 7, 2, and 16, Revelation 21 and 22, and so on. So, as we see in the history of ancient Israel and Judah, the third and fourth generation countdown was an identifiable starting point. For example, King Manasseh of Judah has done many detestable things, quoting from 2 Kings 21, has done many detestable things. He is even more wicked than the Amorites who lived in this land before Israel. He has caused the people of Judah to sin with his idols. With the exception of his grandson, Josiah, the next four generations of Judean kings followed in his footsteps. Even Josiah ignored the clear word of God at one point, which resulted in his premature death, and if you want to read about that, you'll find it in 2 Chronicles 35, 20-24. Eventually, God brought Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian armies against Judah. The land was subject to Babylon for many years, and in time, Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed and the people carried into exile. The scripture tells us that all of these disasters happened to Judah because of the Lord's command. He had decided to banish Judah from his presence because of the many sins of Manasseh. So we see a generational process. We see God bringing an end to generations of apostasy and wickedness. While it's true that the United States has never experienced a Christian golden age, it is also true that a noticeable shift away from a Christian foundation began some 55 years ago. The counterculture of the 1960s led to the decadence of the 70s and 80s, and since then, popular cultures become increasingly sexualized and perverse. The last ten years, it seems that the floodgates have been opened, and every form of perversion is practiced and celebrated. In the midst of this sensual chaos, God's standard for sexual behavior has been abandoned by the majority. The church at large is nearly as bad as the world in this regard. While so-called evangelical Christians may not fully embrace the homosexual, transgender, polyamorous, etc. propaganda, their level of participation in extramarital sex is very similar to that of the world. As noted earlier, Unwin's research concluded that sexual activity unbounded by strict pernuptial celibacy and monogamy after marriage always led to the collapse of a culture three generations later. This constitutes a generation, or thereabouts. So if we locate the beginning of the sexual revolution in the United States with the Griswold, Connecticut case in 1965, the third generation from that point will end in 2055 and the fourth generation in 2085. Let's put that another way. The third generation after the beginning of the current sexual chaos will be fully realized in 35 years, and it's hard, frankly, to imagine the cultural degradation that will result from 35 more years of moral decline. I'm not telling you this because I think all is lost. There remains time for followers of Jesus to reverse the cultural decay. This will require repentance and obedience on the part of the church. Believers must repent of their worldliness and their willful ignorance concerning God's moral standards. The church must reject emotionalism and end-times heresy that cut the ground from beneath efforts to bring one's life and arena under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, in obedience to the Dominion Mandate, by the way, and the Great Commission. And those who claim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior must build their life upon God's Word and seek to obey His commands so that His blessings are realized in this realm. Truly the church must understand that while God's grace precedes our obedience, our obedience is a prerequisite for enjoying the full benefits of election. That's something we see throughout Scripture. Deuteronomy 19, Ephesians 2, Titus 2, James 1. In other words, we do nothing to produce our salvation, nothing to procure our salvation. But we must do something in order to enjoy its benefits. As Paul wrote, work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deforeverance and fear. Philippians 2.12. Sexual attention needs to be given to teaching our young people the grave importance of living in obedience to God concerning sexual activity. They must be taught that one man and one woman in a lifelong covenant relationship is the only acceptable course. Christians, young and old, must be instructed concerning the tremendous damage done when men and women ignore God's standards for sexual purity. The truth is, the last two generations of Christians have accepted the world's sexual mores and contentedly fiddled while the culture around them has burned. It doesn't matter if a majority of professing evangelical Christians have toed the line when it comes to sexual behavior, a large percentage of people who claim Christ have not done so, and the marginally righteous have turned a blind eye to the rapidly degenerating state of affairs in the church and the world. To expect society to flourish while ignoring the God-ordained mechanism for cultural husbandry is foolish. No doubt there are many sins this generation is guilty of, chief among them the worship of false gods. Nevertheless, it will be impossible to turn the tide of chaos apart from repentance and renewal in the realm of sexual ethics. It is not possible for humanity to fulfill the creation mandate short of widespread obedience to God's plan of one man and one woman in a lifelong sexual relationship. Without it, there is no godly offspring. There is no appropriate governing of creation or reign over God's creatures, according to Genesis 1.28 and Malachi 2.15. Unless the followers of Jesus Christ begin to teach and practice biblical sexual ethics, Western civilization will fall. Time is short, but there is time enough.