The subject of sex has long been ignored by the church and left to parents. But many parents shirked the responsibility and left it to the schools and now we have a society that has learned about sex from the classroom, the magazine rack, the internet to the bragging of a person who has experienced sex before they even had a learners permit to drive a car. 52% of the marriages in our country end in divorce, we have people who are confused about what gender they are, and adultery has become socially permissible if a couple is separated or having problems.
More than ever before we need to know what the Bible says about sex.
1. Sex is Good because God designed it.
A. The Bible addresses human sexuality from a holistic perspective of God’s intention and design. In contrast to both pagan sex rituals and our modern obsession with sex, the Bible places sex within the total context of human nature, happiness, and holiness.
B. Scriptures about God’s design.
Genesis 2:18 ESV – Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him
Genesis 2:24 ESV – Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh
Genesis 2:25 ESV – And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord
Knew – “yada” is a Hebrew word that means more than that Adam and Eve procreated. Shalom doesn’t mean peace. It means a wholeness which brings peace. Yada doesn’t mean, to make love, it means they really knew each other in body, soul and spirit. They were “one” in spirit which led to being “one flesh.”
1. The secret to great “one flesh” is being one is spirit and soul and mind. It’s the difference in having sex and making love.
2. What we see as fun, God’s sees as worship. Yada is also the root word for worship. God made us and when we are function for the purpose we were created for, that is interpreted as worship from his perspective.
1 Corinthians 7:3-5 ESV – The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 5 Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
A. KJV – due benevolence
NKJV- due affection
Greek – states it more like a legal contract. It’s a legal right.
2. Satan Perverted it because it is a natural desire
A. Adultery – Proverbs 7:5-27
B. Homosexuality – Romans 1:22-28
C. Pornography- # 1 temptation of Israel
There are 3 gods which Israel fell to in temptation over and over.
The gods were Baal, Asherah and Molech.
Molech was the god of violence. You worshipped with acts of anger, murder and violence.
Baal worship was considered “love worship.” It was the contrast of Molech. Baal was a male god with a female counterpart Asherah. Baal was called the father of all gods and Asherah was called the mother of all gods. You worshipped these gods to receive fertility in the land and in your body.
Asherah is the name of the wife of Baal. Baal was worshipped in a rhythmic, cyclical way. The Asherah poles which were high, hence high places is where the worship took place. Baal is associated with weather patterns, seasons, and fertility. It was believed that Baal died every winter and then was born every spring by Asherah. With his birth comes the spring harvest and blossoms. Asherah poles were erected on high hills to control the weather. In order to bring for good weather, believers in Baal would participate in public, cultic sex in order to bring his rebirth every spring. Baal worship included female and male prostitutes along with homosexual acts and sex with many unknown partners. Sexual rituals revived Baal every spring, which they believe became evident with the earth revived.
(Now you know why the children of Israel were worshipping naked in front of the Golden calf. They were trying to revive their god, who was asleep.)
In order to revive Baal these sexual acts had continual, whether with a partner or by oneself. So they carved images of sexual acts in stone and wood to provoke and arouse the people. This is the earliest form of pornography. Sex is not a sin, within the confines of marriage, but pornography use whether in marriage or outside of marriage is ALWAYS IDOL WORSHIP.
Fornication – πορνεία – porneia; ; harlotry and idolatry
Colossians 3:5 NKJVS – Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth:fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
D. Sexual brokenness
Because of sin, many people are broken because of sex. Something God intended to be a beautiful express of love between two people has become a self centered act of idolatry and has left victims in it’s wake. This is a part of you that needs to be healed.
3. God’s Plan for Marriage and Sexuality
The ultimate joining together of a man and woman–the joining together of two spirits; the joining together of two minds; and the joining together of two bodies. In the Old Testament the term for sexual intercourse was “to know” (a husband or wife). The most intimate knowledge of marriage partners comes about through these three joining in a Christian marriage.
Hebrews 13:4 NKJV – Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
A. As long as the two of you are in agreement and you are honoring one another, you can express love any way you choose, except with pornography (fornication) and adultery. (Sex outside of marriage)
B. Proverbs 5:18-19 says that you should become “intoxicated” with love when you are together. The NKJV says, “enraptured.” It means, literally, go out of your mind.
C. The Farmer and the Field
Genesis 9:20 KJV – And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard.
1. The word husband is the Hebrew word for “farmer.”
2. God designed the man to be the farmer and the woman to be the field. Even in procreation, he plants a seed and she gives him a son or a daughter. She is created with such giftedness and amazing complexities that whatever he plants in her, she has the ability to give him back a garden of the same thing. He he sows love, she gives him a garden of love.
