Preacher: Pastor Tim Redfield

Date: July 25/28, 2019

Text: 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5

God intended marriage to be a great blessing. Think about how God created the first woman. He said that it was not good for man to be alone. Therefore he created woman. Eve was the perfect companion for Adam. The pattern set down for Adam and Eve is the pattern that God wants for all husbands and wives. The three main blessings of marriage are life-long companionship, sexual happiness, and children. When people sin against the sixth commandment, it attacks these blessings. God wants these blessings to be enjoyed inside of marriage. It is sad that many people don’t see it that way and want these blessings outside of marriage. As we meditate today, we think about how we can Honor God’s Plan for Marriage.

Part 1: There are many possible sins

Our Gospel lesson gives us good context for our marriage focus today. It identifies that there are many different ways that people can sin against this commandment and it also goes back to God’s original plan for marriage. The Pharisees came to Jesus with evil intentions. They weren’t really concerned with living a pure and God-pleasing life. There were some of them who were even using what Moses said as an excuse to allow divorces that God identified as sinful divorces. They knew Jesus would have a problem with this and they just wanted him to disagree with Moses so that they could ridicule him.

Jesus took them back to God’s original plan for marriage. “Haven’t you read, that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate” (Matthew 19:4-6). Of course the Pharisees brought up what Moses said but Jesus pointed out that Moses was simply speaking about courtroom decisions that needed to be made since the people were sinning against the sixth commandment. Divorce always involves a sin against the sixth commandment.

Jesus pointed out in verse 9, “I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.” That is a little different than how we normally think of adultery but that is how God defines sins of adultery. People break the sixth commandment when they get divorces for reasons other than marital unfaithfulness and malicious desertion. In situations of marital unfaithfulness or malicious desertion there is one guilty person and one innocent person. In that case one person sinned and the other didn’t. Because of the particular sin, a divorce might happen. If people get divorces for reasons other than marital unfaithfulness and malicious desertion, then both people are sinning against the sixth commandment.

In chapter 19 Jesus was only speaking about sixth commandment sins involving divorce. There are many other sins with this commandment. That is why I had us also read the verses from chapter 5. There Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” When we understand that lustful desires are also sins against the sixth commandment, we understand just how pervasive this sin has become in our world today. The truly sad thing is that people will defend their sins and even boast about their sins against the sixth commandment.

Our lesson from 1 Thessalonians reminds us that we want to avoid the sexual immorality of our world. We should avoid the passionate lusts of the unbelievers who do not know God. But it is difficult to avoid these sins as we live in a world that embraces so many sexual sins. Think about how many times you might encounter things on a daily basis that are designed to tempt you to lust. It is almost impossible to watch TV shows or movies in which there are not people who are sinning against the sixth commandment. There are many songs on the radio in which people sing about their sixth commandments sins. Magazines at the grocery store have people dressed in provocative ways so that they can try to get customers to possibly buy those magazines.

Then there is the pornography industry. The pornography industry brings in billions upon billions of dollars in revenue each year. Pornography is easier to access today than it was a generation ago. The internet provides free access to these sinful images. Pornography has been proven to be incredibly harmful for all kinds of reasons and yet people still defend it. There are many who act like it is not a problem for people to look at pornography.

Lust leads to many problems. Look at the scriptural example of David and Bathsheba. There are many sins we could talk about with King David but his affair with Bathsheba started with lust. He saw Bathsheba bathing and he began to have sinful desires for her. From there it became a sexual relationship. It became such a bad situation that David had no repentance in his heart. He didn’t even realize that he was continuing to sin. He failed to see his sin until God’s prophet Nathan came to confront him about his sin. At that point David realized his sin and repented. You can see his repentance in many of the Psalms. He hated his sin and wanted to never commit such a sin again.

With all the sexual sins in our society today it is easy to overlook these sins or make excuses for our sins. Just like King David, we might need a fellow Christian to confront us and tell us what we have done wrong. The sad thing is that many people don’t react like King David. I think about many people who break the sixth commandment by living together outside of marriage. They are probably having sex outside of marriage but even if they aren’t, they are giving people the impression that they are having sex outside of marriage – that is sinful too. Think about Ephesians 5:3, “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.” It is wrong for us even to give a hint or impression that we are breaking the sixth commandment.

I think about times that I have confronted people about sinning against the sixth commandment. I think about sins of young men and women living together outside of marriage. The sad thing is that many people do not repent of their sin. Rather than turning away from their sin, they find another pastor and another church that will not tell them that they are sinning. They don’t repent. They turn away from the truth of God’s Word. Churches and pastors that support their sin are actually pointing them toward Hell. The Bible is very clear that people who continue to live in sinful ways will not inherit heaven.

Part 2: Motivated by Christ we strive for purity

This is why repentance is so important. Repentance clings to the forgiveness of Christ. When we are repentant, we are sorry for our sins. We are ashamed of our sins and we don’t want to commit those same sins again. We might still stumble into those sins again but we don’t want to sin. We try to avoid sin. A repentant heart wants to serve God. Like it says in 1 Thessalonians, “each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable.” We want to do this out of appreciation for the forgiveness that Jesus won for us through his perfect life and his innocent death.

Many people in our world claim to be Christian but they don’t live in repentance. There are people who celebrate their sexual sins. We have people who celebrate their sexual sins with Pride days and parades. People will defend their sins. When they are confronted about their sins they will claim that their sins are ok and they were not actually sins. They will attack the person who confronted them. They will call us judgmental or something worse. They might even claim that Jesus doesn’t judge them for their sin. They show that they don’t truly understand repentance. The repentant heart isn’t proud of sins. The repentant heart doesn’t defend sins.

Many people can even use Scripture to defend their sins. They know part of the story of the woman caught in adultery. They know that Jesus dispersed the crowd by telling the people that they shouldn’t cast a stone at the woman because they too were sinners. Lots of people seem to be able to quote that part of scripture when they are confronted with their sin. They fail to recognize what Jesus said to the woman after the other people left. Jesus told her to leave her sin behind. Jesus wanted her to be repentant. Repentance means trying to turn away from sin. We can speak to others about sin when we recognize that we need Jesus too. We need forgiveness. We are motivated to turn away from sin. We want others to do the same.

Our Old Testament Lesson gives us a good example. Joseph resisted temptation. He recognized the main problem. The sexual temptation wasn’t just a sin against Potiphar. It was a sin against God. Joseph literally ran away from temptation. When Potiphar’s wife tried her best to seduce him, he ran out of the house. This is actually the advice that many people give about sexual temptations. We shouldn’t see how close we can get to the line of sin without going over. We should stay as far away from the line of sin as we can. This is good advice for people who are dating. Stay as far away as possible from the temptation to break the sixth commandment.

This can be very difficult in a world that promotes sixth commandment sins. We want to remain pure and set apart for God. We want to conduct ourselves in ways that honor God. We do this because Jesus loved us so much that he gave up his life for us on the cross. As Christians, we are the bride of Christ. We are married to Jesus. As we live in repentance, we honor our Savior.

Conclusion

It is difficult to honor God’s plan for marriage in our world today. We live in the world but we are not of the world. There are many forms of media that promote sins against he sixth commandment. I don’t think it would be possible to completely run away from everything. However, we need to be careful as we live in this world. There will be some kinds of entertainment that ought to be avoided because they promote sinful values. Watch out for these sins. Flee from temptation. Live in Jesus. He forgives you for your sins and gives you the strength to have the best kind of life. Jesus’ forgiveness motivates us and helps us to Honor God’s Plan for Marriage.