- Okay, First Corinthians. Let's open to First Corinthians, chapter one, please. And we're still in chapter one. We're doing, as I said, this is our third lesson in the series, if the first time you've
been in this class. And we're not doing line per line, but I'm selecting different topics as we work our way through. First Corinthians, lot
of interesting topics in this series and in this book. Before we start the lesson from the text, I'd like to read to you a description of some popular television
programs being rerun. You know, they're always doing reruns on various channels. And I'm not making this
up, I'm just reading straight from the TV Guide. So I just copied this out of TV Guide. So the first one is from Friends, a popular show that was on NBC. And this is how they describe it. They say the characters of
the popular Friends series imagine the various sexual combinations they could have had, in
a what-if dream sequence. Situations include threesomes and more. That's the TV Guide describing it. Another show that is on,
called Veronica's Closet. This was a television
series from the year 2000, with Kirstie Alley. And it's also being broadcast in repeats. And it describes one of the
episodes in the following way, again, I'm pulling this
right out of TV Guide. Josh continually denies his homosexuality, even though he constantly
flirts with Kevin, the wedding coordinator for his wedding. Josh's fiancee, also
in enamored with Kevin, faxes him a picture of
herself in the nude. TV Guide. Another show, Dancing With the Stars, that's a program that's on now. And speaking of Kirstie Alley, you know she was on that program last year. This year, this particular
program, Dancing With the Stars, boasts two new stars who will be featured. One of them is Carson Kressley. Carson Kressley is an openly
gay man, openly homosexual. And he was the host for a TV program called Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, where homosexual designers would help heterosexual men kind of spruce up their wardrobe. That was the idea of the show. And another star that's on this year is Chastity Bono. She's the daughter of Cher, and she underwent surgery to become a man. And now she goes by the name Chaz Bono. She'll be there dancing. My question was is she going
to be dancing with a woman or a man, but they tell us she'll be dancing with a man. Have you had enough descriptions? Shall I go on? Eww. This is TV Guide. We're not talking about Playboy, this is just straight out of TV, I just pulled it out of TV Guide. And I mention these because this phenomena of loose public sexual immorality is nothing new. You know, I read some shows from 2000, I'm reading about shows from 2011, nothing's changed, actually
it's gotten a little worse. In Paul's letter to the Corinthians, and you were wondering when's
he getting back to the Bible, [laughing] in Paul's letter to the Corinthians, he deals with the same kind of problem. That's my point. You know we're always thinking, oh boy, everything's so terrible nowadays. 2000 years ago, Paul was dealing with exactly the same problem of loose sexual morality. And there was a reason. The Gentiles, or the Gentiles
who had become Christians in that church, had a
very different background when it came to sexual conduct, than their Jewish brethren. The Jews had been schooled,
had been trained for centuries, in morality, and so on and so forth. They had much higher standards as far as sexual morality is concerned. But the Gentiles, boy,
when they were baptized, they brought a lot of their
habits, ideas, with them into the church. Many of these Gentiles were familiar with the practice of having
sex with temple prostitutes. And Paul actually refers to a case of incest, actually
going on in the church, where a man has his father's wife, in First Corinthians,
chapter five, one to three. I mention this just to say that they had their share of sexual immorality, public sexual immorality,
back in the First Century, and had problems with it in the church. So all kinds of problems in that society, as well as the church, at that time. And nothing has changed. I could go on to describe, in the TV Guide, show after show. I could go online to
look at movie reviews, movie after movie, that have
all one common denominator, regardless of their characters, regardless of the storyline. Each one of these programs, and I'm not saying all
television, obviously, I'm not making a blanket statement here, there are some good shows on TV and there are some good movies, but so much of it today condone and promotes fornication as something that is normal
and consequence-free. You see, every program and situation I described to you before,
in my opening statement, whether it included the free
and friendly sex on Friends, I mean, Friends went for many, many years, that show, and eventually was exhausted. They had no ideas, 'cause
everyone in the show had slept with everyone else. The storylines had nowhere to go. Or the homosexual and lesbian
stories on other shows, or the nudity, or transgender characters, and live-in sex, repeated endlessly in movie after movie after movie. All these forms of sexual identity and activity come under the umbrella of
a single word in the Bible, just one word describes it all. And that word is fornication. Actually, fornication is
not truly an English word. It's one of those strange words. The Greek word, the New
Testament is written in the Greek language, most
of it is, the Greek word for illicit sex, in the New Testament, was the word porneia. This word was first translated,
actually, into Latin, for the Latin Vulgate
version of the Bible. And when it was translated into the Latin, it became fornicare. Fornicare, which actually meant a brothel. Now when English translators began working on the book,
the translation appeared, they took the Latin word fornicare, and it became the English word fornicate. In other words, it was not a translation but a transliteration of a Latin word, and we got the word fornicate. And so the English word fornicate came to represent all forms of illicit or forbidden sexual
practices, in the Bible, including adultery, which
is sex outside of marriage, by a married person; homosexuality, which is sex
between two men or two women; pedophilia, sex between
an adult and a child; pornography, depiction
of sex in print or film or live shows; prostitution,
the sale of sex; bestiality, sex between
humans and animals, and so on and so forth. All the forms of illicit sex. In other words, fornication
is sexual immorality, and sexual immorality is sexual activity outside the boundaries of marriage. Now I've gone into a
little bit of detail here about this word, because there's
such a permissive attitude today, about fornication. And sadly, even among Christians. Thankfully, among Christians, we still see the seriousness
and the sinfulness of various types of fornication. You know, as Christians,
we still see adultery, for example, or homosexuality,
certainly pedophilia, we see these things as wrong and sinful, but there seems to be a greater acceptance of sexual intimacy and sexual intercourse, by men and women, outside of marriage. We tend to think, well, it's not so bad. What's the problem? - [Congregation Member] A big one. - Huh? A big one, yeah.
[laughing] Well basically, it seems that Christians are as opposed as ever to
unfaithfulness in marriage, and certainly sexual perversion, but it seems we're more accommodating to the heterosexual relationships
before people are married. We say well, that's no big
deal, that's not a biggy. Now there was a time when
there was considerable shame and guilt, if a couple
fell into temptation and had sex before they were married. But today, it seems that the
only time we feel ashamed or guilty of sin is if our
premarital sexual activity produces a pregnancy, or perhaps a disease. And so to remind us and to caution us concerning this pervasive and
powerful element in our lives, I want to review some of
the important teachings that the Bible sets forth on
the subject of fornication, and is a key admonishment, here in First Corinthians, especially in chapter six, because it was a problem in the church, because there was kind of a laissez-faire, you know, no big deal attitude about that, in the church in Corinth. So what does the Bible
teach on fornication? Well first of all, the first teaching is that fornication is sinful, very simply, that it's sinful. Whenever the Bible mentions fornication, it's always in the context of sin. There's no such thing as
fornication in moderation. Eating in moderation, yes, exercise in moderation. But fornication is never in moderation. There's no such thing as good fornication, it's always bad. It's intrinsically evil. Jesus Himself specifically
mentions this activity as being sinful, if there's
any doubt in our minds. He says in Matthew, not
in First Corinthians, but obviously, in Matthew, chapter 15, He says for out of the
heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things that defile a man. So note the various
activities that He mentions along with fornication, what He lumps fornication in
with, murder, stealing, lying. So if you're not convinced
about the seriousness of this particular sin, look at the company it's keeping, in Jesus' estimation. No one, especially Christians, would doubt for a moment
that these things are wrong. I mean, murder and stealing, lying, who would say that there's
anything good about those things? We all agree they're
immoral, they're evil, they're against God and
they're against man as well, and yet many times we doubt, at times, the seriousness of the
sexual sin of fornication. That's my point here. Make no mistake, fornication is a sin. It was a sin when Jesus taught
about it to His apostles, it was still a sin when Paul
was dealing with that problem with the church at Corinth. It's still a problem today, in 2011. Okay, teaching number two. Teaching number two is:
all fornication is sinful. It's sinful, and it's sinful all the time. Now this point may seem redundant to you, but there's a reason why
I'm re-emphasizing it. Many Christians, especially younger ones, are beginning to make
distinctions among the various sexual activities covered by the Biblical term fornication. For example, they see as wrong and sinful, those sexual practices that they feel are perverted and disgusting. You know, child molestation, young people, no, that's wrong, send that guy to jail, or rape, are you kidding me? Send that guy to jail. And many times we, young Christians will reject homosexuality and other forms of perversion, but certain sexual activity promoted and accepted by
this society and the media, for many young Christians, oh
yeah, this is okay, they say. For example, sex between two
people who may not be married, but who love each other. Oh, well, then that's okay. Who made up that rule? Who decided that that was okay? Or casual sex between friends, that may not include intercourse, but permit oral sex or nudity, or various ways of
stimulating and satisfying each other's sexual feelings. Oh, that's okay. - [Congregation Member] No. - Yeah, we agree.
[laughing] In other words, there's this effort today, to pick and choose within the different activities of fornication, and make some parts of it acceptable. But the Bible doesn't do that. When Jesus condemned
fornication, He condemned the child molester and
the couple having sex before marriage, in the same sentence. The only acceptable and
blessed sexual union is that which God ordained between a man and a woman in marriage. All others are fornication, whether it be two lovers on a beach, or the seller of pornography. It's, you know, well okay,
maybe one may be a crime, but in God's eyes, there aren't those
mitigating circumstances. But we love each other! Yeah, okay, then get married. [scoffs]
We can't afford it. Well then wait. Save your money. But we love each other. Then get married. But we can't afford a big wedding. So have a small wedding. I've had people say that to me, and I've said I'll do
your wedding for nothing. I'll pay for your license. Oh, well, just a minute. Yeah, right. Yeah, it's not about the money, it's about the commitment. Since this is a class, I
won't get on to preaching. We'll move along. Teaching number three: fornication is destructive. Now, some might be thinking teaching number two is pretty tough. Who can accept it? And this is why there's
teaching number three, about the destructiveness of fornication. The problem is that we
can more readily see the destructive and dehumanizing effect that rape has, for example, a terrible sin, a terrible violation, or the molestation of a child. Oh, my! A terrible thing. We see the destructiveness that this may have on a person, and this is why this form of fornication is easier to see as a sin, because it's so destructive,
it's so violent. But many, especially the young, don't always see the destructive nature of premarital sex between heterosexuals. This, they figure, has no consequences, and nothing could be
further from the truth. This type of fornication is
hard for them to see as sin. You know, in the movies and on TV, people are having sex all the time, and they're happy, and they're satisfied, and it's fun. The problem here is that TV and movies are make believe. In the real world, premarital sex, whether it be full intercourse
or partial sexual foreplay, has a negative, not a
positive effect, on people. If the movies were true,
and if what was happening in the movie was reality and true, then all these movie stars
wouldn't be getting divorced all the time. [laughing] For example, an unplanned
and unwanted pregnancy. Isn't it the oldest story in the book? An unplanned and unwanted pregnancy, and yet, and I'm looking out there, haven't some of us either
have experienced that in our lives, or in our children's lives, or families that we know. You know what I'm saying? Was that like a yipee, happy, oh great, my 16-year-old is pregnant, I'm so happy? I'm not sure about that. Of course we love the child. The child is innocent. What did the child do? We love the child, but
are we really overjoyed that our 16-year-old is pregnant, or that our 17-year-old
son has impregnated a girl? I mean, are we really
overjoyed about that situation? I don't think so. And sexually-transmitted diseases, young people say oh, you're
just trying to scare us. Well let's go to the
clinic, and let's talk to the doctor, and we'll
see how scared you are. And of course, statistics,
just statistics, I'm not preaching here, I'm
just quoting statistics. For couples who have sex before marriage and then go on to marriage, their marriage is twice as likely to
have problems and divorce than the couple who waits until marriage to engage in sex. Brothers and sisters, that's not doctrine. That's statistics, and it's statistics that are compiled people
who are not believers, who have no ax to grind
either way, about religion. It's just statistics. And why these problems? Why should these problems occur? Well despite sex education
and condom distribution, and the glorification of sex in the media, and the ridiculing of
Christian views on sex, despite all of this, fornication, especially the premarital
sex kind of fornication, still causes problems. Why? Well, because God created sex and placed His boundaries on sex. You understand what I mean? He created this thing, this activity, and all that surrounds it, called sex, but then He placed a boundary around it. God did this, God's the one that put the boundary, not man. Man is always trying to push the boundary further away, take the
boundary out of the way, always trying to do
something with the boundary. But whenever man violated the boundary that God has placed around anything, but now we're talking
about sexual activities, whenever man violates the boundary that God has placed
around sexual activity, he will suffer, no matter what he thinks or says or does. Remember, the Bible
says the wage of sin is? Is death. If the Bible said the
wage of sin is happiness, the wage of sin is freedom, the wage of sin is enlightenment, the wage of sin is whatever, well then maybe we could
believe it, but God said the wage of sin is death. Man is the one that says the
wage of sin is happiness, fun, freedom, enlightenment. And that always gets us
into all kinds of trouble. You see, you cannot cross God's boundaries or laws, without consequences. That's the terrible reality that we learn as Christians, isn't it? It's sometimes suffocating. Sometimes it's frightening, but once we get the idea, we
cannot cross God's boundaries without consequences,
especially sexual boundaries. So what are the boundaries? Well God has said that within marriage, a man and a woman have
a lifetime to enjoy, to create, to share, to explore human sexuality
to their heart's content. I think that that's a
pretty wide boundary. We have freedom to explore, to share, to create. We have that freedom within marriage. To me, that's all the way to the horizon. But this privilege and
gift belongs exclusively to those who make a lifetime commitment to live as husband and wife. And you wonder why. Because it takes a lifetime
to know each other. You know how you see a movie sometimes, and boy meets girl, they
have the cute little meeting somewhere, a little talk. It's really the screenwriters
figure out all these little smart things that they say to each other. And 20 minutes later, in movie
time perhaps a week later, a day later, they're already
sharing a conjugal bed. And in the movie, it's all so great, but in real life it's not so great. It's forbidden to all other people, and those who cross
this boundary are guilty of the sin of fornication
in all of its many forms. God also says that there will be physical, which I mentioned before,
and spiritual consequences for those who violate His
commands concerning fornication. In First Corinthians, Paul says, in chapter six, verse 18, he says flee fornication. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, he says. But the sexually immoral man sins against his own body. That's why sexual sins are so painful, because the scar you're leaving is on you. You steal from somebody,
the scar is on them. You took their stuff, you
ransacked their house. You beat somebody up, the scar is on them. But he says when you sin sexually, the scar is on you,
you're scarring yourself. So Paul, here, summarizes the dangerous physical consequences that
result from sexual sin. He goes on, in First
Corinthians, chapter six, verse nine and 10, and he says or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, nether,
and look who he puts first, fornicators, first, he puts fornicators even in front of idolaters. Fornicators, idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the Kingdom of God. A lot of people, modern translators, modern critics, they
say oh well, you know, Paul didn't really mean
that about homosexuals because that was just in those times, people had those ideas,
but ideas have evolved. And they say the same
thing about fornication, but look, have ideas
evolved about stealing or being an alcoholic, or thieves? So this list here is
not subject to culture, it's just innate sinfulness that men and women have,
since the beginning of time. So this is pretty clear
as to the sinfulness and the seriousness of fornication. He puts it first. So Paul teaches that those
guilty of this sin will be lost, will not go to heaven. That's how serious it is. So we seriously, in action, that has the power to
both ruin our physical and emotional health, as well
as condemn our souls to Hell. I think that's pretty serious stuff. Satan has seduced us well into thinking that fornication is normal, it's actually healthy, it's even something better
than purity and self-control, and obedience, oh no. Are you kidding me? Purity? Self-control, obedience? That's for losers, that's for chumps. Let's not be fooled. Paul says do not be deceived. Don't be fooled. Well who do you think is
going to try to fool us? The world's going to try to fool us. Satan will try to fool us. We'll try to fool ourselves. But Paul says don't be deceived. Fornication in all of its forms is an offense to God, because
it crosses the boundary which He has set for human sexuality. And He's put that boundary there, not to take anything away from us, He's put that boundary
there so that we can have what He's given us to its fullest measure. That's why He's put the boundary there. Let's not be fooled. Fornication in all of
its forms is destructive to one's body and emotions. It's the cause for losing one's soul. It's a serious thing. [clears throat]
Excuse me. You know, people in the
world write their own rules when it comes to sex. As Christians, we follow
the rules written by God concerning this and other matters. Okay, teaching number four. We're winding down here. I've said it before. Flee fornication, run away from it. If I were to summarize
all of what the Bible says about dealing with
fornication in our lives, I could not do it better
than what Paul says in First Corinthians,
chapter six, verse 18. Run away, flee. In today's words, stay away, run away from every form of sexual sin. Every person has, for whatever reason, weaknesses in the area of
sexual feelings or desires or expression, everybody. I've said this before. Everybody has a different
sexual character. Some are tempted to exhibitionism. You know, they want to show themselves. For others, it's pornography, they want to look. And for still others it
may be the constant lure to be unfaithful. And of course, the most common form is various activities in premarital sex. Because of our sinful nature we are drawn to any number of
forbidden sexual practices under the general heading of fornication. It's natural for us to
be drawn to these things, because we're human, we're sinful. So how do we, as Christians, deal with these temptations
to sin sexually? A couple things to remember: number one: let's remember who we are. We're not animals, regulated
solely by our feelings and our instincts. We're not unbelievers,
we're not slaves to sin, to whatever stimulus
Satan puts in the world. We're not those people. We're Christians. We're washed in the blood of Christ. We're powered by the Spirit. We're instructed by God's word. We're the people who can
hear this kind of sermon, and hear it for what it is. Our goal is not sexual gratification, our goal is much higher, much
more satisfying than this. Our goal is to please the
God who saved us from sin and with whom we will
live in purity forever. Therefore, Paul says, this
time in Second Corinthians, chapter five, verse nine and 10. He says therefore, also
we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent,
to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be
recompensed for his deeds in the body, according
to what he has done, whether good or bad. You know we'll be judged. God knows, we can't hide it from Him. So sex is for this life,
and it's a good thing within the boundaries
that God has given us, but it's for this life
and it's for this world. We, as Christians, we're made to live in this world, but we're also made to live in the world to come. Let's not forget that. Number two: remember who we belong to. The argument for much illicit sex is that this is my body and
so long as it's consensual, I can have whatever sex I desire. So long as I want to do it and so long as I don't hurt anybody, I
can do whatever I want to do. But this argument is just false, because it's based on a false premise, and the false premise is:
my body belongs to me. That's a false premise. In reality, our bodies
are given to us by God, as a vessel to carry our eternal souls, which are also given to us by God. Just because nonbelievers reject this idea doesn't make it untrue. Christians understand that their life is a stewardship of the
body given to them by God, and redeemed by the blood of Christ. As a matter of fact, our
bodies belong to God. And they belong to God twice over, once when He created us and once again when He saved
us through Jesus Christ. He owns us twice over, not just once over. Paul says that our body
is not for fornication, but for the Lord. Again, First Corinthians,
chapter six, verse 13. Our bodies belong to God, and we must use our bodies
to serve and honor Him. Again, within the boundaries of marriage, we're serving God when we fulfill our partner's needs and desires. That's part of God's plan. We can serve and honor God
with our sexual activity, but only when we keep
it within the boundaries that He has set, otherwise
we dishonor ourselves and we dishonor Him. Number three: remember to flee. Remember to flee. Since sexual power is so strong, we need to remember that the best way to deal with temptation is to run away. I used to say to my daughters, I trust you up here. I trust you up here,
because I know you know, because I know you know
what I've taught you. So I trust you up here. But I don't trust you down
here, because you're young, because you're human,
because you have feelings. And feelings sometimes overpower, this overpowers this. So let's make sure we set boundaries, in their dating lives
and so on and so forth. Remember to flee, is what I used to say to them, in essence. Don't put yourself into situations with people or activities,
or dress in such a way where you know you'll be tempted. And do decide and declare ahead of time what your boundaries are,
to yourself and to others. I think I mentioned this in another class, about our daughter Julia when
she was in the Marine Corps. Cute little blonde, blue eyes, you know. She didn't look like a Marine. She was a girly girl. And she used to have a lot
of people wanting to date her in the Marine Corps. Can you imagine? So I asked her once: Julia, how do you deal with all that? You know, guys hitting on you, blah, blah. She says oh well, I have a spiel. I said oh, you have a spiel. Yeah, she says I have a speech I make. I said really, what's your speech? She says well if somebody
asks me to go out on a date or something like that, we have the talk. I said what do you say to them? She says well, she says
I say to them look, I will go out and I'm
happy to go out with you, get to know you, whatever, but there are a couple of rules. And the guys say oh, sure, rules. No, I'm all about rules,
I'm a Marine, you know. And she says okay, rule number one: under no circumstances,
there's absolutely no way in the world that I will have sex with you in any way, shape or form. It ain't going to happen. Nothing's going to happen to
make me have sex with you, unless we're married. Rule number two: we
will not drink alcohol, we will not take drugs together. We will not do that. There is no situation that will happen that will enable me to do that. And number three: you will never hit me. You will never hurt me, 'cause my brother is also in the Marines, and he'll take care of your blank. [laughing] She was a Marine then, she had different vocabulary at times. That was the talk. That was her way of
setting the boundaries. And I said you must not
have gotten a lot of dates. She said no, but the
ones that I had were fun. And she found a guy who was willing to go along with those
things, a wonderful man that she ended up marrying. So remember to flee. Do decide and declare ahead of time what your boundaries are, to yourself and to others. We're weak sinners, we easily fall, so take precautions and head for the hills at the first sign of temptation. Then the last thing, remember heaven. Remember heaven. The hardest thing for people,
especially young people, to do, is to take the long view. But the issue of sexual
sin is all about taking the short view over the long view. Sexual sin is short-lived,
a passing passion, usually over as quickly as
it takes to be lured in. But the consequences are usually felt over a very long period of time. Only takes a moment to create a child, takes a lifetime to raise it. Remember the promise of heaven, remember the peacefulness and the joy of a clear conscience,
remember the strength that comes from doing what is right. When you're not sure about the situation, ask yourself: will this help
me or will this hinder me from going to heaven? That has a very cold-water effect. [laughing] If the young woman said to the young man who was getting a little too passionate: is this going to help us
to get to heaven, or not? I have a feeling that
might be a cold blanket on that situation.
[laughing] So you've probably heard these ideas today, before, certainly you won't hear 'em on radio
or television, concerning sex, and that's because what
you're hearing today is what the spirit says about sex. And what you see in the
world is what the flesh wants you to hear about sex. As Christians, young and old,
remember what the spirit says concerning the sin of fornication. I need to quit here. One, very quickly, fornication is a sin in all of its forms. Number two: no matter how
appealing and acceptable the world makes it,
it's always destructive. Number three: because of our weak flesh, we need to make every effort to avoid people and situations
that will lead us there. And one last thing I want to
remind you of this morning: fornication, like any
other sin, can be forgiven. Paul says of those who
were guilty of fornication, and such were some of
you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified,
but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. It's very true that sexual sin wounds us deeply, but the blood of Christ
and the grace of Christ is able to go as deep,
to heal those wounds, and to set us back again, to have a clear and clean conscience. One last story. There was a young woman
that came to see me once, that I was going to marry. I mean, I wasn't going to marry her, I was going to perform her wedding. And she had a secret, and her secret was that
she had had an abortion before she had become a
Christian and so on and so forth. And she felt very badly about that. It was a sexual sin,
and then that sexual sin grew to even a worse sin. And she wanted to know if she could wear a white wedding dress, 'cause she was marrying a nice, wonderful, young Christian man,
and so on and so forth. And I said yes, absolutely, because when you confess to Christ, when you went into the waters of baptism, God washed away all of your sins, purified your soul and your heart. You are a virgin in His eyes, and if you're a virgin in His eyes, you can wear that white wedding dress with a clear conscience. Well that's the lesson, a less textual, more
topical, this morning. We'll continue next week with more lessons from First Corinthians. Thank you for your attention.
