Sermon Tone Analysis

God’s View of Modern Morality

 

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.

Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Therefore do not associate with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.

But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.

Therefore it says,

 

“Awake, O sleeper,

and arise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you.”

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.[1]

The Twentieth Century has been referred to as the Sexual Century.

I make no claim to qualify as an expert, having lived through but one half of that century, but I do know that during the brief years of my life I have witnessed a change of tidal proportions in the prevailing attitude toward sexual morality.

What is acceptable within society today would have been shocking not so very many years past.

Taboos have fallen with amazing rapidity and the landscape is forever altered.

Our television went on the blink when we lived in New York City.

Aeroplanes landing at LaGuardia Airport caused the picture to roll.

I sold it to one of my professors at the Einstein College of Medicine for twenty-five dollars in December of 1969.

Lynda and I agreed that we would purchase another television when we got to Texas.

Somehow, other priorities shoved television from our family radar.

Years passed, and children were born, and one day we realised that our children had grown to adulthood without benefit of television.

When we moved to Jasper in April of 1998, a friend in Burnaby gave Lynda a television.

For the first time in twenty-nine years, we again had the familiar one-eyed monster which defines the modern home.

For nearly three decades we had been sheltered.

I thought I knew something of the mores of the world about us, but I quickly discovered that I actually knew nothing at all.

Christians are not prudes.

We Christians are not particularly Victorian in our attitude toward sex.

We know that sex is not sinful, but instead we view sex as a gift from God.

As God’s gift, we recognise sex as good.

It is not so much that we have a distaste for sex, but we abhor vulgarity.

Our view of sex is not warped, neither are we ashamed of sex or afraid of it.

Instead, we hold a high and holy view of sex, maintaining it to be God’s good gift.

We do not, however, wish to cheapen sex, but instead we recognise sex as a divine gift.

All God’s gifts—including sex—are subjects for thanksgiving, rather than joking.

To reduce God’s gifts to jokes is to degrade them.

To thank God for them is the way to preserve their value as the blessings of a loving Creator.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to maintain a proper attitude toward sex and sexuality in a world which has lost its way.

The prevailing standard of our present world appears to be “If it feels good, do it!”

Restraint is depreciated and even ridiculed as harmful.

Self is firmly established at the centre of all activity.

What brings personal happiness is considered the *summum bonum* for human existence.

The response of the churches has proved disappointing.

Led by media superstars, Christians mount one noisy, ineffectual crusade after another, seeking to vote in a new morality or endeavouring to impose some new ethic on society.

Instead of mounting noisy crusades to change the morals and ethics of those who inhabit this fallen world, I am convinced that we who are Christians need to remember our own standards.

Pastors need to teach a biblical standard and the churches of Christ, His holy bride, need to hold their members to that standard.

Some Practises have no Place even being Debated among the Saints of God — Sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.

Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

We think that ours is a dreadful age unlike any other age in history.

Perhaps we need to recall that premarital and other immoral sex, insolent speech and sexual humour were as common in ancient pagan society as they are today.

Paul did not water down God’s standards to accommodate the culture; instead, he warned that those who engaged in this lifestyle would not be among God’s people in the world to come.

What is meant by the practises named—/sexual immorality/, impurity, covetousness [porneiva de; kai; ajkaqarsiva pa`sa h] pleonexiva]?

It will prove helpful for us to know precisely what is improper for Christians to practise or even debate.

Sexual immorality [porneiva] is a broad term referring to sexual intercourse outside of marriage.

A former United States President was unable to define sexual immorality, but most rational people understand that anything which stimulates an individual sexually would fall under this definition.

In older translations of the Bible, porneiva was translated *fornication*, a word which has lost whatever impact on society that it once had.

I should note that some Christians act as if sexual sins were the worst sort of sins.

This is an incorrect assumption.

Sexual sins are less destructive than are sins of the spirit, but among the sins of the flesh, sexual sin is terribly destructive.

Paul is right to place this particular category of sins first in his catalogue because it is so harmful both to the individual and to society.

Scripture condemns sexual sin most severely.

Thus, despite the tenor of the times, sex outside of marriage is wrong, both because it offends the holiness of God and because it is destructive to the individual.

Paul also speaks of impurity.

In fact, he writes condemning *all* impurity [ajkaqarsiva pa`sa].

The word which is translated impurity, embraces the sexual sin referred to before it [porneiva], but it probably goes well beyond that word to embrace a host of particularly defiling practises.

The Greeks, among whom the Ephesians lived, were notorious for both the practises of prostitution and homosexuality—practises which were rampant throughout the societies of that day.

You perhaps recall the uproar in Ephesus as result of Paul’s ministry in that city [see *Acts 19:21-41*].

The uproar resulted from a perceived attack against the goddess Artemis of /the Ephesians/.

/Artemis of the Ephesians/ was the goddess of fertility; and sexual orgies were regularly associated with her worship.[2]

Solon allowed the introduction of prostitutes into Athens and then the building of brothels.

With the profits of prostitution, the Temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, was built.

In Corinth, each young woman was expected to give a year as a sacred prostitute in the temple of Aphrodite.

The Greeks saw nothing wrong with building a temple with the proceeds of prostitution.

Men, also, willingly served as male prostitutes.

Prostitution was part of the culture of ancient Greece, much as prostitution is becoming a part of Canadian culture.

Already, voices in the legal community as well as leaders among police chiefs are openly advocating legalised prostitution in our nation.

Likewise, homosexuality was commonplace in Greek society.

Among Christians, however, such practises are not even to be hinted at, as they are an offence to Holy God.

Guard yourself against any act or thought unworthy of Him who is All-pure.

Covetousness [pleonexiva], or greed, is the third great sin that Paul warns against.

Perhaps you think covetousness is out-of-place, situated next to sexual immorality and impurity, but these sins are simply different expressions of the same basic weakness of fallen nature.

Each is an expression of an uncontrolled appetite.[3]

The sexually immoral and the greedy each desire to satisfy the appetite by taking what does not belong to them.

The desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes [*1 John 2:16*] would describe these two sins.

In fact, the Apostle says there must not eve be a hint of these sins among us.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes of covetousness, “This means, of course, avarice, love of money, love of money as money; love of money partly for itself and partly because of what it can do for us, the things we can buy with money, the things we can procure with money, the things we can do if we have money—in fact, the love of all that money can do and achieve—that is what Paul is condemning under the word covetousness.”[4]

In our society, we have almost unconsciously adopted the view that greed is good.

Credit is readily available to almost anyone.

We watch television and reflexively absorb the concept that we can have it all … now!

We can have it for just a few easy payments.

Christians need to consider the view of the Master.

Jesus cautioned us about the impossibility of loving God and money.

You cannot serve God and money [*Matthew 6:24*].

This is precisely the reason for the apostolic warning that anyone who is found to be sexually immoral, impure or covetous is an idolater [*Ephesians 5:5*].

The concept conveyed by use of this word, covetousness, may well be that of sensual indulgence at the cost of others.

Modern entertainment has almost convinced us that there are no consequences to gratifying our base desires.