Sermon Tone Analysis

*Inscription: Writing God’s Words on Our Hearts & Minds*

*/Part 17: Sex! /*

*Leviticus 18*

*/April 18, 2010/*

 

* *

*Prep: *

·         Read first page of leftover

 

*Scripture reading: Romans 13:12-14 *(Jewel)

 

 

Intro

 

As the slide says, I am going to be talking about sex today.

I can see the reaction on your faces.

The funny thing is that you seem to forget that.

·         Last time I spoke on sex, one *visitor* told me (as I spoke) that she was sleeping with her boyfriend, by her smirk.

She was thinking you’re a *prude*, you’re an *idiot*, a *fundamentalist*, you don’t *know* what you are *talking* about.

And that is pretty much how the *world* views me.

Counter culture

 

Q   In what area do you think Christians are most considered “counter culture”~/*backwards*?

Our sexual standards: We are accused of being *prudish*, *stupid* *repressed*, *homophobic*, *hatful*, *controlling*, and *dangerous*:

 

Christopher *Hitchens* (“God is not Great”): “[Religion] is both the result and cause of dangerous sexual repression.”

Comment *online*: “[The grand crime of Christianity is that] it promotes and sustains a neurotic, life-crippling prudishness about sex and relationships that damages people in and out of the church.

This is what *people* *think* of us (not all this articulate).

Do they have a point?

Q   Are our sexual standards (esp.

homosexuality and premarital sex) at best out of date and at worst dangerous?

Prayer

 

Reading this week what folks say about you and your rules for sex, I feel like a *friend* is being *slandered*.

Your laws bring life, not death.

Whatever you command is for our benefit.

And help us navigate a way through this *sex*-*crazed* *culture*.

Obsolete commands?

Last week, we talked about the *kosher* and purity laws in Leviticus, how God used things ritual practices to *teach* Israel about what it meant to be *holy*.

They were external “training wheels” to teach them about *internal* holiness.

·         But when Jesus was on earth, he *set* *aside* the ritual laws and took off the training rules by making the focus on holiness.

Now we look at Leviticus 18 and the many *other* *passages* that address sexual purity.

Let’s look at some of them:

 

*Leviticus 18:5-9 * “Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them.

I am the LORD.

No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations.

I am the LORD.

Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother.

She is your mother; do not have relations with her.

Do not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; that would dishonor your father.

Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.”

So far no one disagrees with this stuff, it’s pretty sick.

However, we know that some sick stuff happened in *Egypt* (where they had been) and *Canaan* (where they were going).

·         Furthermore, since they couldn’t *marry* “*outside*” they needed rules for how close was too close.

*Leviticus 18:22-23 * “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.

Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it.

A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.”

Here we get more *controversial*.

Homosexuality is consider a normal, loving option.

Bestiality isn’t really considered normal and loving, but it makes for great redneck jokes.

We don’t think of it as a perversion.

Q   The *million* *dollar* question: Are they *obsolete* commands (like not eating pork) or *enduring* moral commands (like stealing)?

After all, in the next chapter:

 

*Leviticus 19:27-28 * Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.

Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves.

I am the LORD.

If *tattoos* are sin, most of my congregation is sinning, and if *trimming* your beard is, than all of the guys are in trouble.

·         Many liberal churches say the OT’s sexual ethics are obsolete.

That’s a *nice* *solution* – we can all get along, live and let live.

The *problem* is that Jesus and the NT writers clearly considered them to be enduring moral commands:

 

1.

Jesus, even as he declared all foods clean, specifically listed *adultery* and *sexual* *immorality* as sin (Mark 7:21).

2.

In the *Jerusalem* *Council*, sexually immorality was listed (Acts 15:29, note that Paul discarded all the immorality).

3.

*NT* *writer* frequently link *holiness* and sexual purity:

 

*1 Thessalonians 4:2-5 *For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality [Gk: /porneia,/ “sex outside of marriage”]; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God...

 

·         Putting it together: Our sexuality is as much about holiness as is not *stealing* and not *murdering*.

Like it or not, Christianity’s sexual standards are a *part* of our *faith*, and can’t be *ignored* unless you want ignore Jesus.

 

 

the sexual revolution

 

Notice what Paul says: We are not to live as the heathen, who are *controlled* by their *body*, rather we are control our bodies.

Is this was Hutchins and others mean by *sexual* *repression*, being in control?

Yep.  

 

·         Since the “*Sexual* *Revolution*,” it’s not control, instead it’s expression instead of – *consenting* *adults* is the new rule.

Like all cultural phenomena, the sexual revolution was an *overreaction* to some genuine problems.

Very early in *church* *history*, Christians got squeamish about sex, but that didn’t come from the *Bible*, which is *positive* about sex.

 

·         It was driven by a pagan *dualistic* *philosophy*.

Have many *Christians* been *afraid* of sex? Absolutely!

I’m glad to live in an age when pastors are able to open *preach* on sex as *God’s* *gift*.

·         But I fear that the *cure* was far *worse* than the *disease*.

Maybe we were repressed, maybe the church sometimes used sex to control people, but look at our current mess: *STD’s* rampant, teenage *pregnancy* (not to mention depression), more *rape*, more *pedophilia*, and the highest *divorce* rate in history.

·         Is this really *progress*?!?

 

 

Back to the purpose

 

The *goal* is not to go back to viewing sex as an inherently bad thing, but to find *balance* and go back to *God’s* *purpose*.

Let’s think about...*keys*.

A house key for instance.

There are a lot of places you can stick a key.

You can stick it in a light *socket*, in your *nose*, in your *mouth*, as a *nail*.

But all of these fall short of its purpose: To open your house.

Q   What is God’s *primary* and *highest* purpose for sex?

 

*Procreation*, right?

*Wrong*!

I know this is what most people say, but I don’t think that the primary purpose .

Q   Ask a different way: How is *human* *sexuality* different than *animal* sexuality?

Between us doing it and our dog doing it?

Many in our culture (esp.

*evolutionary* *philosophy*) say sex just animal instinct (“You and me ain’t nothing but *mammals*, so let’s do it like they do it on the Discovery Channel.”)

·         */Procreation?/* It’s important, and it is vital that children be brought into a healthy family, but that’s how they have kids.

And if it’s just for having kids, and now that 1) have *enough* *kids* and 2) have figured out how to “do it” *without* *kids*, we can do *whatever*, *whenever*, *wherever*, and with *whoever* we want!

 

·         */Sexual pleasure?/*

No, why else does my neighbor’s dog have a go at the couch?