W. Robert Godfrey: Glorifying God in Our Bodies

[Applause] well you all know that i'm a very serious person and um because of my seriousness chris is always worried about what i'm going to say about him and so he tried to steal all my thunder by being so nice to me and chris larson is a wonderful person one of the greatest gifts god has given to ligonier ministries and we are so thankful for him and his leadership and let me say how thankful i am for all of you who are here it would be uh somewhat more difficult to talk to an empty room so uh you can't imagine what an encouragement you are to us um that you are eager to be with us and to want to grow in the faith and it is very much an encouragement to all of us your enthusiasm for what we're doing and you're joining with us in this great work now you may not know this but one of the things that speakers at ligonier talk about is who came up with the topics and who assigned the speakers to those topics and so the question that immediately came to my mind with the topic assigned to me was who decided i would be good for the sex talk i flirted with the notion just for a moment until i talked to my wife that i might have been chosen because i was the hottest teaching fellow why are you laughing then i thought i'm not sure you can use the word hottest at a liquored air conference so as i as i pondered i realized the logical reason that they wanted me to do this is because i'm the oldest and therefore one of a increasingly diminishing group of people in our country who can remember life before the sexual revolution was raised in a family where if someone said breast of chicken my father blushed and left the room it's hard to imagine a world like that but it once existed but it doesn't exist anymore and so it seems to me my assignment for today is to try to get us thinking about in the brave new world in which we live how do we still seek to glorify god in our bodies my topic title is taken from first corinthians 6 verses 18 and through 20 where paul wrote flee from sexual immorality every other sin a person commits is outside the body but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body or do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy spirit within you whom you have from god you are not your own for you were bought with a price so glorify god in your body some 60 years ago as a product of increasing cultural change we went through the sexual revolution which was a dramatic turning point in the history of the west big changes startling changes attitudes changed whereas at least public morality said before the sexual revolution that profanity was wrong do you remember the moment of sitting in a hotel lobby and hearing the language going on all around you profanity was wrong pornography was wrong promiscuity was wrong premarital sex was wrong divorce was wrong i can remember my parents talking in lowered voices with friends that they actually knew someone who was getting a divorce and it was a shock homosexuality was unmentioned but lifestyles have changed as the attitudes have changed you're all too young to remember ozzie and harriet who though married had to slip sleep in separate beds on television now almost anything goes and it really feels as if the raunchier the better on television before nine o'clock the laws have changed homosexuality in the 1950s was illegal and classed as a mental illness by the american psychological association and now gay marriage is legalized it has only been legalized for six years but to see cultural attitudes you'd think it's been legal for centuries and that anyone who would oppose it must be the most bigoted kind of hateful person imaginable questions of identity have changed who are you who are you and the answer increasingly in our contemporary world is i'm a person who could be anything i want some of you may have seen a new book an important book by carl truman the rise and triumph of the modern self written by a very thoughtful reformed christian after a lot of study and um there are many good things to be said about the book but one of the things that struck me is he had a brief reference to simone de beauvoir a leading french feminist from the 50s partner wife who knows exactly what of paul sartre the jean-paul sartre the the existentialist and he quoted her as saying in her day in the 50s biology is a form of tyranny biology is a form of tyranny that's really striking when you think about it but that sentiment has clearly come into its own in our time why should you have to be bound by what you are physically when your identity should be part of your freedom so we can transcend our biology except maybe until we die we'll come back to depressing things like that we're in a new world of pronouns i hate this i read an article about a woman ordained as a priest and she didn't want to be he and she didn't want to be she so she was they and there are other alternatives but it becomes very confusing for the elderly have they no compassion what happened to ageism and of course this revolution in all of its big changes has been advanced under the big claim that it's all about freedom that it's the logical extension of freedom freedom from fear freedom from the fear of disease freedom from the fear of pregnancy freedom from the fear of public opinion and of course above all freedom from the fear of god freedom for fun isn't life all about happiness freedom for fulfillment you've got to be yourself even if you don't know who that is you've got to be fulfilled you've got to be true to yourself you've got to create yourself that's what we're hearing today and you know who would not be the least bit surprised by all of these developments the apostle paul the apostle paul he anticipated it all he gave us a theology of history in really just a few verses in romans chapter 1. what are the worlds we live in it's a world where they have exchanged the truth about god for a lie and worshiped and served the creature the creature rather than the creator and who's the creature being served it's me it's me was in a bookstore i think it's a couple of years now and saw uh on the new book table for you younger people there are such things as bookstores and books a book by a fellow named yuval noah harari entitled homo deus a brief history of tomorrow i could have been a rich man if i could think of such clever titles but it was not the subtitle a brief history of tomorrow that grabbed me it was the main title and i thought of rc homodeus obvious obviously i thought obviously a play on the great book of anselm deus homo it's a big fat book i looked in the index no reference stand some i have no idea where this fellow's ever heard of anselm or not he's a brilliant writer he's a thoughtful fellow he's widely read he claims to be entirely scientific in what he says and you know what we learned from today from from tomorrow and from yesterday here's the big reveal are you ready here's the big reveal life is meaningless you are meaningless so try to enjoy yourself till you die i was in a somewhat snarky mood you'll be amazed that such things happen and i said to myself has he never read epicurus there's nothing new under the sun once you exchange the truth of god for a lie it doesn't much matter which lie now there are worse lies than others lennon and stalin had a pretty bad lie adolf hitler had a pretty bad lie but modern secularism is a pretty bad lie when you begin to look at lives aborted lives distorted lives destroyed all the happiness on television the self-created lives of the lives of fulfillment as people live just the way they want to live and it's all a lie now i'm sure there are some of them that are happy or think they're happy but where's the reports on the pain and the loneliness and the frustration and the pills and the suicide this is the lie in which we are being asked to participate and the truth is we as christians have to face the fact that in a whole new way since the sexual revolution and symbolized so powerful powerfully by the sexual revolution is that we live in a world that is post-christian as late as the 1970s 1980s even maybe 1990s there was a at least a tipping of the hat to christian values as public morality now lots of people didn't live according to it lots of people mocked that christian morality but there was still a tendency to show some occasional respect to christian morality but in the last 10 or 20 years that has ended and now christian morality is not just seen as comical or restrictive but is dangerous and that's what carl truman has shown in his book if you are critical of homosexuality you are hateful and bigoted if you don't support transgender people you are hateful and bigoted if you suggest that young people should wait till marriage to have sex you're a fool of course and an object of derision but you're harming your children this is the new world in which we live this is the fruit of the sexual revolution and the question is what do we do about it and the good news i have for you is there's a simple solution there's a simple solution and paul gives it to us in four words flee sexual immorality flee sexual immorality and paul wrote that in a world that is remarkably like our world we're facing a post-christian sexual morality paul faced a pre-christian sexual morality i remember being on a on the ligonier cruise to the mediterranean a few years back and we went to ephesus and they took us on a tour of ephesus and the guide took us to the remains of the beautiful facade of the ephesian library and he said one of the jokes i used to tell around here was that there was a tunnel under the street from the library to the brothel across the street and so it was a joke ho ho ho that husbands went to the library and then took the tunnel under the street to the brothel and the guide said that's just absurd because in ancient ephesus no one cared if you went to the brothel or not you didn't have to go through the tunnel you didn't have to tell a story so paul faced a world exactly like ours well not exactly but his world was not as crazy as ours but it was close and paul had a simple solution to the sexual revolution did you catch that the simple solution was flee sexual immorality in other words paul very simply held up the biblical standard to which christians were called and what was that standard it was a standard that sexual intimacy outside of marriage of one man with one woman was immoral and the christians were called away from it now we all know simple solutions are wrong right i remember you remember see i'm i'm so old all my illustrations are you know people forgotten long forgotten do you remember when ronald reagan was president oh no now now now this is not a political rally but i meant to bring you greetings from the people's republic of california nancy reagan his wife got involved in a crusade against drugs and you remember what the name of that crusade was see it worked didn't it just say no and i remember how she was mocked for that just say no just say no well if you don't just say no whatever else you do doesn't really matter does it if you explain all the reasons people take drugs and don't say no you haven't helped them and that's what paul is doing here paul is not necessarily necessarily saying it's easy to flee sexual immorality but he says if you don't see clearly the goal you won't get close to it and that's what he's saying to christians interestingly paul's not talking to the world he's not saying to the roman world you know if you'll only flee sexual immorality you'll be ready to be a christian i see what he's saying he's saying you who would be christians flee sexual immorality and of course the very fact that he says that demonstrates that he realizes this is a problem for christians you know you never need a command about something you're not tempted to do my mother never had to say to me don't eat the broccoli commands are given in situations where there are real problems to be faced and paul is saying to the christian community in effect i know you are facing real problems i know you are facing real temptations i know this advice is not easy but i want you to know what god wants of you and god what god wants of you is purity he wants purity in your bodies because he created you to be a people who serve him with your bodies we were not created to be spirit beings we were created to be [Music] beings of soul and body we are not going to become purely spirit beings when jesus returns in glory to make all things new what's he going to do he's going to raise our bodies from the grave the call to the faithful pure use of the body is grounded in creation god created us male and female to serve him in the bodies that he has given us and he's given us those bodies so we might fill the earth and subdue it now we can talk to the environmentalists about whether we've overdone it but that's how we created us and why he created us and when we used our bodies to rebel against him eating that which was forbidden god provided salvation in the body of his son the word the eternal word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth because he came in the weakness of a body to redeem us and he not only came in the body he died in the body on the cross here's the heart of our redemption that the eternal son of god took on a body to give up the body in the suffering of the cross and the curse of the father that we might be redeemed god cares about bodies and that he rose gloriously in a body so they might change all of us in our bodies you know one of the things paul says so powerfully in romans 1. three times he says god gave them up what an awful awful sentence to hear god gave them up romans 1 24 god gave them up to this to the dishonoring of their own bodies amongst themselves god gave them bodies he gave them bodies as a gift of his love he gave them bodies with which to serve and glorify him and they chose rather to dishonor their bodies following the lie and paul wants to to stress the importance of his words here when he says do you not know that the unrighteous including the sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom of god this is a salvation issue now what does that mean for us well the first thing that i mean for us is a recognition that 95 that's an approximation not the result of scientific study 95 of sexual immorality is heterosexual i have an amen that means we have to begin at home it's easy to talk about the sexual sins of others it's easy to denounce sexual sins to which i am never tempted it's a little harder to listen to the apostolic call against sexual immorality and to flee those sins to which i am tempted and part of the lack of credibility on the part of the church in relation to these issues is precisely a result of the church closing its eyes to sins it found convenient to tolerate and that means we as we are indignant about sins we don't like have to be just as indignant about the sins we do like and we have to hear the simple word of the apostle flee sexual immorality and paul realizing our our tendency to perhaps to uh criticize the sins of others in first corinthians six verse nine says do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of god do not be deceived neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who practice homosexuality nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor revilers or swindlers will inherit the kingdom of god sex money and alcohol our temptations when abused will lead us to hell that's what paul's saying it's really serious isn't it and paul says to the christian community you're the ones who have to flee sexual immorality don't worry so much about that what the non-christians are doing worry about what you're doing and we need to help our young people with it the message to young people that this culture just floods them with is sex is fun you ought to do it if you don't do it you're weird you're missing out on the fun you're harming yourself and you really can't not do it i mean they're bombarded on every side by the lie the lie the lie and paul's simple solution is flee sexual immorality now paul also knows the new testament also knows that this simple solution requires a lot of struggle for resolution that's a little stretch revolution solution that works resolution that's a little bit of a stretch i'm hoping you'll remember these three points it's a struggle the interesting thing is the world sells it at itself as realists about sex and suggests that when paul says flee sexual immorality that's a utopian idealistic notion that's impossible the truth is that christians are realists and it's always the world that is idealistic in a untrue fashion saying there's all this fun to be had out there all of this joy and fulfillment where's the fulfillment for the abandoned wives and the abandoned children but we're realist to say sexual fidelity avoiding sexual immorality is a struggle peter remarkably wrote first peter 2 verse 11 beloved i urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh that wage war against your soul now there's realism isn't it your own desires can be at war with your soul and the calling is to fight the good fight so we're realists and we recognize that where one person may be particularly tempted to sins in the abuse of money and another person may be particularly tempted to the abuse of sins related to alcohol some people may be particularly attracted to the sins that are related to sex and we need to have compassion on people waging war against those sorts of desires whether they're heterosexual desires or homosexual desires we need to have compassion on people who are struggling against sin and it's not that some are more noble whatever the sin is you're struggling against you need the support and love of the christian community to help you if you're struggling with issues of sexual identity you need help in that fight you need love you need support you need compassion you need forgiveness you need encouragement if you fall to seek the mercy of the lord but the church will be of no help to any of us in our struggle against sin if it's since if the church says that sin is not sin we've done a lot of study about alcoholism and maybe that study is genuinely helpful to lots of people but no matter how much my family background and my dna presupposes me to be a drunk one of the things i have to say is one of the things i have to hear is be not drunk with alcohol so we have to know where we're going if we ever hope to get there and so we as a christian community have to be recommitted to fleeing sexual immorality and maybe we need to see that in this new world perhaps people will be a little freer to come to us and say i'm wrestling with a problem can you help me and we ought to be there to help people to pray for people to encourage people to take them in but we ought to do that out of our passion that there's only one identity we ought to have and that's the identity of christian remember paul wrote after listing the sins that would be disqualifying for the inheritance of the kingdom of god i think he lists those sins in terms of thinking of people with that identity who is that person he's an adulterer who is that person she's a drunk that's their identity they will not inherit the kingdom of god but then he goes on to say first corinthians 6 11 and such were some of you you were washed you were sanctified you were justified in the name of the lord jesus christ and by the spirit of god so that you're a temple now of the holy spirit who are you you're a christian in whom the holy spirit dwells that doesn't mean that you've arrived that doesn't mean you're perfect that doesn't mean that you've been delivered from every bit of the warfare you may have to fight your whole life long against the desires of the flesh that wage war against your soul but jesus says if you're a christian i'll never leave you or forsake you and it's that life the life with a clear goal and the life of a clear new identity and the life committed to living for jesus no matter how hard it is it's that life that will be a remarkable witness in this world right after verse 11 peter wrote verse 12. that's the kind of thing you'll learn in seminary first peter 2 verse 12 keep your conduct among the gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers that's the intolerance sinclair was talking about it's coming for us we're evil doers for defending the family and defending chastity and defending a biblical standard of morality when they speak against you as evildoers they may see your good deeds and glorify god on the day of visitation our our lives are to be pure not just for our sake and for god's sake but for the world's sake if they never hear the truth if they never see the truth lived out what hope is there that they'll ever know the truth but we are called by our god to glorify god in our bodies and as we seek to do that we will be lights shining in a dark place and the good news is the spirit of god will gather the elect and not one will be lost praise god amen you

Channel: Ligonier Ministries

Views: 15,502

Rating: 4.8899999 out of 5

Keywords: be transformed by the renewing of your mind, breaking god's law, christ, christian, christian ethics, christianity, christians, glorifying god, god, god's law, ligcon, ligonier ministries, ligonier national conference 2021, men and women, our bodies, renewing your mind, right now counts forever, robert godfrey, romans 12 1-2, scripture, sexual ethics, sexual sin, sexual transgressions, sins, the christian mind, the kingdom of god, the mind, w. robert godfrey

Id: bc96tmGKOI4

Length: 40min 18sec (2418 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 19 2021