Two Introductory Principles

The point: Start your thinking about sexual purity from the foundational truth that sexuality originates with God, or your efforts will be 'out of line'.

An analogy of buttoning a shirt with the first button in the wrong hole, leading to everything being skewed, illustrates how starting with a wrong foundational principle about sexuality will lead to wrong thinking and actions.

Our sexuality, including our desire and capacity for sexual pleasure originates with God and not with the devil. Our sexuality, including our desire and capacity for sexual pleasure originates with God and not with the devil. This is the absolute baseline starting point without which no thinking will end up where it ought to end. Some of you have had the experience of having your mind somewhere else when you went to button up your shirt or button up a dress with 10 or 15 buttons. And so you started and you got all the way to the end and you made a very disrupting discovery. You got the first b...

13:33 - 14:40 Read in full sermon

The point: Start your thinking about sexual purity from the foundational truth that sexuality originates with God, or your efforts will be 'out of line'.

Adam's naming of the animals and his inability to find a 'help meet' among them illustrates his unique need for a counterpart, highlighting the distinctiveness of human relationships and the purpose of Eve's creation.

work was a noble enterprise flowing out of God's creative design and his express will for man his image bearer God was a worker he makes man in his image to be a worker he puts him into the garden to dress and to keep it but now we read in verse 18 and the Lord said it is not good that the man should be alone I will make a help meet that is a help answering to him out of the ground the Lord formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heaven and brought them unto the man to see what he would call them and whatsoever the man called every living creature that was the name thereof and th...

19:11 - 20:39 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And God looks upon it and said it is all very good and he didn't say accept this sex business God didn't say that and you must not say that and you must not think that

God causing a deep sleep to fall upon Adam before creating Eve is humorously referred to as the 'first incident of anesthesiology in human history,' emphasizing God's direct and intentional action in creating woman.

but we can imagine that Adam may have sought to communicate and he talks to a dumb beast and the beast may look at him with a blank stare but there's no language coming back there's no communication of mind and of soul and Adam is brought to feel very keenly in the midst of all of the profuseness of God's creative genius there's nothing answering to my need so what does God say? God takes the initiative and says it is not good that the man should be alone alone amidst all the beauty that I've made alone amidst all the animals I've made I will make a helper meet or answering to him so how does ...

22:07 - 23:36 Read in full sermon

The point: Immunize yourselves against the 'horrible brainwashing job' that misrepresents Puritan views on morality and sexuality.

Martin quotes John Milton's 'Paradise Lost' to counter the misconception of Puritans as prudish, demonstrating their beautiful and biblical understanding of marital love and sexual intimacy as God-given and pure.

Nobody's read the Puritans who says that. Now Leslie, you're not going to be able to follow me on this. I'm going to quote a few lines from the poet laureate of the Puritans, John Milton. Want to hear how prudish Puritans were?

35:25 - 35:42 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The God who designed and created us with our sexuality is the only one who has the right to determine and impose its legitimate functions

The analogy of a car's manufacturer's manual (owner's manual) is used to illustrate that the creator (God) has the exclusive right to determine the legitimate functions and proper use of what He has made (human sexuality).

nonsense it's a beautiful maybe you can't appreciate that I get the goosebumps reading it there's nothing in there that is sinfully erotic it simply paints in beautiful verse what the word of God says God beheld all that he made and it was good that's the first principle second principle and I hope to establish it now I hope to establish it more quickly or I should say proposition second proposition is this the God who designed and created us with our sexuality is the only one who has the right to determine and impose its legitimate functions the God who designed and created us with our sexual...

38:36 - 40:05 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The God who designed and created us with our sexuality is the only one who has the right to determine and impose its legitimate functions

An absurd illustration of a car on its back, spinning its wheels and honking, thinking it can determine its own function, highlights the folly of humanity trying to define the legitimate functions of sexuality apart from its Creator.

so that you get optimum use of that thing which the manufacturer made with a specific end in view that it would be a functional safe means of transportation who knows better how to write the manual than the manufacturer that's why the owner's manual comes from the manufacturer comes with the car you say okay pastor obvious so do you think I'm stupid sure I am I understand that well suppose now just suppose we have to use our imagination just suppose you should go out in the parking lot tonight and there you see a vehicle over on its side and suddenly this vehicle has a mind and it can talk and...

40:05 - 41:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not determine right or wrong in fulfilling sexual desires by cultural consensus, but by God's Word.

The 'sexual revolution' of the sixties is cited as an example of societal rebellion against God's design, with the resulting 'plague of AIDS' and high illegitimacy rates presented as God's judgment.

to jump the boundaries of God's own directives by the grace of God we shall be a people marked by unblemished sexual purity and uprightness it is possible in this cesspool of our present society by the grace of God to be like a Joseph there in Potiphar's court he resists every overture to violate the law of his God and he comes through his gold tried in the crucible of testing maligned and slandered but eventually wonderfully vindicated now as I try to ask and answer the question why is that first principle critical why is this second principle so critical well again for a number of reasons bu...

53:08 - 54:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not determine right or wrong in fulfilling sexual desires by cultural consensus, but by God's Word.

A personal anecdote about a letter from a young man who declared his homosexual lifestyle as 'well pleasing to God' illustrates the aggressive agenda of the gay rights movement for approbation, not just toleration.

and what did God give our nation as his thank you for that revolution plague of AIDS illegitimacy at levels it has not been in the history of our nation but that pressure is upon us add to that the aggressive frighteningly militant so called gay rights movements who are determined that every one of you sitting here and this man standing here will not merely say that I will give to an outspoken committed homosexual male or female not only the right to conduct himself with the freedoms secured by our constitution but I must give to him the approbation that his lifestyle is as pleasing to God as ...

54:34 - 56:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Young people, keep yourselves pure for your future spouse, so you can say with a glow that you have kept yourself for them.

The recent news of a well-known preacher living with his homosexual lover is cited to emphasize the increasing power of the 'whirlpool' of sexual perversion and the urgency of being 'straight' on these issues.

You'll not get damaged goods on our wedding night. Have a young man look a young woman in the eye and say by the grace of God God has kept me from being sucked into the vortex of this cesspool that's become a whirlpool. And I tell you, the whirlpool gets more and more powerful when you hear as I've heard recently of a well-known preacher in another country shamelessly declaring he's gone to live with his homosexual lover. I tell you folks, this is not whistling Dixie or a crying fire fire when there is no fire.

61:24 - 62:01 Read in full sermon