The Seventh Commandment: Guarding Marriage

In a fallen world our feelings, instincts, and impulses are not normative for sexuality. God's law is the path to true freedom and joy.

Scripture:  Exodus 20:14; Psalm 32; 51

Sermon Notes:

1. God's law is the path to true freedom and joy.
2. The sexual promiscuity of our day is not freedom, but tyranny and exploitation.
3. The early church rejected the sexual perversion of pagan culture.  Still today, the preaching of the gospel is received as a condemnation of the culture.
4. The original plan of God for man and woman was marriage and sexual reproduction.
5. The Bible endorses and encourages sexual intimacy in marriage (1 Corinthians 7; Song of Songs).
6. Much of the early church improperly frowned on marital sex. The 19th century church prudishly shunned the topic of sex.
7. The Puritans by contrast celebrated and elevated the biblical view of marital romance and sexuality, embracing God's purposes of marital pleasure and joy.
8. The penalty for adultery reflects the value God places on faithfulness within the marital bond and the sacredness of human sexuality.
9. The Victorian era's prudishness was followed by a sexual revolt against biblical norms in the 20th century.
10. The attempt for man to be as God in sexual matters ruins social relations, breaking down marriages and families.
11. Marriage is a realization of an aspect of life under God in community.  We must submit to God's greater understanding.
12. In a fallen world our feelings, instincts, and impulses are not normative for sexuality.
13. In sexual sin, we depersonalize other people, and reap for ourselves slavery, guilt, and misery.
14. Biblical faith leads to a proper view of sex; false religion leads to perversion (Romans 1:22-25).
15. Refusing to worship the Creator who has all generative power, we regress to worship our own generative powers.
16. The second commandment is connected to the seventh. If we do not have an exclusive relationship with God, why would we have an exclusive relationship with our spouse?
17. Sexual sin is an explicitly religious idolatry which seeks to find fulfillment outside of relationship with God.
18. The Law of God gives us the proper context for human sexuality in the marriage covenant (Genesis 2).
19. In the one flesh union of marriage we observe sanctity in the fact that life can be forthcoming.
20. The two become one while maintaining their individuality.
21. Biblical marriage reflects our unity as humans and diversity as male and female, protecting against both bestiality and homosexuality.
22. What God has joined we cannot separate; faithful heterosexual marriage is the only form of sexuality which is not a violation of God's purpose for sexuality.
23. Any other lifestyle choice invites God's discipline and judgment upon adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, etc.
24. Only 70 countries still regard sodomy as a criminal offense.  The tolerance of homosexuality is based on an evolutionary worldview.
25. In “pride parades” sinners revel in subverting God's law.
26. You cannot love your neighbour by rejecting God's law.
27. The entertainment industry has displayed sexual perversions in a positive light.
28. God unmistakably condemns homosexual practice.  Promiscuity and early death are almost universal among homosexual men.
29. When we endorse such homosexual behavior, we are supporting a culture of death.
30. Almost half of all children will live at some point in a home with only one parent, leaving them with no idea what a normal family is.
31. We as God's church need to be ready to live and speak out obedience to God's word.
32. Faithful marital sex brings joy (Proverbs 5:15-23); adultery brings ruin (Proverbs 6-7).
33. The central offense in scripture is not treason against the state, but treason against the family.
34. Living in a culture of sexual brokenness we recognize God’s purpose for restoration through confession and repentance (Psalm 32; 51).
35. Historically, confession was part of the life of the evangelical church.  We are all to minister the life, grace and forgiveness of God to one another.
36. Deal with any sexual sin in your life today: stop reveling in lust; end any extra-marital sexual relationships; end any dangerous co-dependent emotional relationships.
37. Guard your marriage by respecting your spouse in public, solving problems together in marriage, relating to each other in conversation, romancing each other, etc. 
38. If there was more courting in marriage there would be fewer marriages in court.
39. When we resolve to embrace fidelity in marriage we will be blessed.

Application Questions

1. What is God’s purpose for marriage and sexuality?
2. What are the sins forbidden in the 7^th commandment?
3. List several ways we can guard fidelity in marriage.
4. How should we respond to the sexual brokenness of our culture?
5. What is God’s plan to restore lives broken by sexual sin?