I don’t mean to treat anyone along this continuum as better or worse than another. I acknowledge that in these years of sexual desire there are many people with very vigorous, and people with very mild, sexual desires. When I ask the question, why God created sexual desire, I have in mind that normal craving for sexual stimulation and intimacy that begins with early adolescence and continues, for some it seems, indefinitely, but for many mellows out into a less visceral craving but nevertheless real desire for personal and bodily intimacy. Homosexual desires, like many other kinds of desires, are abnormal, and those who have them should seek through prayer, fellowship, and Christian counseling to be changed. The practice of homosexuality is sin it is contrary to God’s revealed will. If you are here and homosexual, I pray that you will not feel driven away, but will stay and seek help. Until I have a chance to preach on homosexuality I’ll just say three things about it: First of all, I am not including homosexual desires. The question I want to start with is this: Why did God invent sexual desire? Before I try to answer that question from Scripture, let me define sexual desire. Therefore, the Bible goes beyond the general admonition, “Glorify God in your body,” to the more specific guidance, especially in the matter of sexual desires. If I were to stop here with this general admonition, our consciences would give us some guidance in specific cases, say, of whether we should smoke, or drink, or use drugs, or overeat, or never exercise, or get too little sleep, or engage in sexual relations outside marriage, or masturbate, or wear enticing clothing, or other things that misuse or abuse the body.īut what our consciences approve and disapprove of is not always an accurate guide to what God approves of. He created them, he bought them, he owns them, he indwells them, and what we do with them demonstrates to the world who our Lord is. God is concerned about what you do with your body. For sin will have no dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Do not yield yourselves to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as people who have been brought from death to life, and your bodily parts to God as instruments of righteousness. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey their passions. “The body in which you dwell is not yours to do with simply as you please.” God bought your body from the curse of sin by the payment of his own Son, and now your body should serve one all-encompassing purpose: “Glorify, God in your body.” As Paul said in Romans 6:12–14, The body in which you dwell is not yours to do with simply as you please. Oh, what an offensive word to our rebel human nature. So glorify God in your body (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20). Then I would be able to say to everyone in this room, do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, within you, which you have from God? You are not your own you were bought with a price. And my prayer at the very outset is that you might turn from your rebellion and unbelief and disobedience, and that you might trust Christ for forgiveness and live for the glory of God. He sent Jesus Christ into the world to overcome your rebellion and to make peace by the blood of his cross. He made you and has an absolute right to tell you what is good for you. Though you rebel against his ownership, you are God’s. The sexual life of the unmarried person (we will talk about married people next week) is of great concern to God.Įven those of you who have not entrusted yourselves to Christ for salvation and do not love God, even you are obligated to obey what God has to say about your sexual desires. If the Bible addresses an issue with unrelenting frequency and urgency, and if that issue is one of the strongest natural forces in the world today, then ministers of the word of God are obligated sooner or later to declare God’s will on that issue.
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