Sexual Purity Matters

Sexual Purity Matters

Today’s lesson, Sexual Purity Matters, is classic Baptist Sunday School stuff. When I first read the lesson, I said, “yeah, yeah, anybody’s who’s ever been to Sundays School knows that stuff, we heard it all our lives – but is it real world?

Sexual purity has been an issue for man [and woman] since Adam and Eve. It’s one of those issues for which extreme positions may come fairly quickly. Some voices tell us that anything you want to do is acceptable as long as it is between “consenting adults” and no one really gets hurt. Others would tell us that there should be only limited contact between men and women and those well supervised.

Against this backdrop, we will examine the unsurprising teaching on the subject and then ask about a couple of “buts . . .”

Today’s lesson comes from Genesis 2:18-25; Proverbs 5:15-20 and Romans 13:11-14. However, it’s also important to hear the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 20 and the voice of Ruth at chapter 1.

1. Consequences of Sexual Impurity.
Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs.) IN the old days, it was something to joke about because 50,000 units of penicillin at the health department would fix you up. And then in the mid-80s, the discovered HTLV, which came to be known as HIV infection and it was a killer. STDs aren’t a joke any more. I am writing this on Friday, January 27. Today, I presided at a public hearing concerning the disposition of federal funds for the Ryan White CARE Act program. Ryan White was young man who contracted HIV infection and ultimately died from it because he had hemophilia and took a tainted blood transfusion. His story was so compelling that the Congress named a billion dollar appropriation after him to be given to the states to combat HIV infection.

Remember the “fate worse than death?” Unwanted pregnancy is certainly a by-product of sexual impurity. The birth of a human life should never be a “by-product” should it? Life is too precious for that.

Broken marriages and destroyed families and homes. Everybody knows those stories – most of the time at least one of these stories is close to the heart of each of us.

Everybody knows these consequences, but aren’t there other, subtler, but equally as dire, consequences? Worry, suspicion, dread, doubt and fear.

2. God’s design meets human needs.

Is sex a good thing or a bad thing? With all the consequences listed above, it sounds like pretty much of a bad thing. Perhaps, deep down, some of us really think it is – wrong. God created human sexuality to meet human needs. See Genesis 2:18-25. Adam was watching the parade of the animals pass by –two by two – male and female. It occurred to him that if there are male and female giraffes, pandas and even lizards, for crying out loud why are there not two Adams – male and female? IN that question, Adam expresses the need in all of us for intimate companionship – he passed that need on to us. We all know that God then created Eve and, as they say, “the rest is history.”

3. Marital Boundaries Protect and Satisfy.

After God created human sexuality and human relationships, He instituted marriage. Marriage should allow for freedom to express sexual needs and desires. To protect that freedom, God put boundaries around marriage. Solomon, who knew a thing or two about marriage, [Solomon is estimated to have had 300 wives and a thousand concubines. This is the wisest man who ever lived?] this Solomon is God’s poetic voice to give forth those boundaries in Proverbs 5:15-20.

4. God calls believers to live pure lives.

Jumping forward about a millennium, the Apostle Paul [unmarried as far as anybody can tell] makes the rules pretty clear in Romans 13:11-14 where he cautions against not only sexual impurity but also carousing, drunkenness and even fighting and jealousy.

5. Epilogue

So, that’s the Sunday school lesson, but what if things are not as perfect and joyful as a Cialis commercial? Are there cases when all this stuff doesn’t apply or even hold true? What if you are single or a widow of what if your spousal relationship doesn’t rate as high on the Richter Scale as a dropped Egg McMuffin?

I submit that all that other stuff does, in fact apply – perhaps even the more so. In all situations – good and bad, optimal and minimal – God supplies the “husband.” Just like He met Adam’s need by creating Eve, a “helpmate fit for him,” God creates a remedy for the deficiency each of us as individuals. God says – and history bears this out – that He will be the “Father to the fatherless and husband to the husbandless, a defender of widows.” See Deuteronomy 10:17-18; Psalm 68:3-6 and Psalm 20:1-9.

It is in these circumstances that God does His best work in the words of Air Supply, Making Love out of Nothing at All. God will find a way when there is no way, that’s His specialty. In the Book of Ruth, we find Naomi, who becomes widowed. As you will remember widows were not just without a husband to love them, they wee also without protection and in many cases a way to make a living, thus they were especially vulnerable in society. Naomi had two sons to take care of her, Mahlon and Kilion. They had wives Orpah (not Oprah) and Ruth. Unfortunately, the sons die leave three widows. How will they survive? God met Naomi’s needs by and through her relationship with Ruth who would not leave her. Remember Ruth’s famous words in Chapter 1, which are frequently quoted at weddings – but were first spoken not to a husband but to a mother-in-law.

“Whither thou goest, I will go and whether thou lodgest, I will lodge. They people shall become my people and your god, my god.

So, how do you accept this when it’s your “ox in the ditch?” An my old business professor, Big Al Livingston used to say, “there is no panacea.” There is no “one size fits all.” But thee is a trick. The trick is to

Remain faithful to God – don’t run ahead or drag behind. Remember Ishmael? Now, there was a bad idea gone worse.

Remain in contact with God

Remain alert for what God is doing in your life – see where he is filling in the gaps. See the relationships He uses to accomplish His pure purposes of being the husband to the husbandless.

Lastly, look to the words of David in Psalm 20.

May the LORD answer you when you are in distress;
may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.
May he send you help from the sanctuary
and grant you support from Zion.

May he remember all your sacrifices
and accept your burnt offerings. Selah

May he give you the desire of your heart
and make all your plans succeed.
We will shout for joy when you are victorious
and will lift up our banners in the name of our God.
May the LORD grant all your requests.

Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed;
he answers him from his holy heaven
with the saving power of his right hand.

Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

They are brought to their knees and fall,
but we rise up and stand firm.

[Hosanna!] O LORD, save the king!
Answer us when we call!

Is sexual purity achievable? With God’s help it is – but on our own – I don’t know. I’d rather not find out.