Today’s passage is a difficult passage. I’m not going to sugarcoat it for you, as we deal with the subject of “Sexual Sin.” 

But let me start by showing you what we’re up against. Here are some statistics on just how prevalent sexual sin is in our culture today. I hesitate to even give you these because I refuse to engender a defeatist spirit within our church. My goal today is not to send us home today and make us all feel guilty. That’s easy to do. My goal today is to, by the power of the Holy Spirit and the truths of God’s word, empower you to take up the weapons of warfare and wage war against these sins in your homes. I will not give in to a defeatist mentality. And you shouldn’t give in either. 

But let’s get real about what we’re up against. Based upon a recent “Pew Research” study, 

A majority of self-identified Christians (57%) say sex between unmarried adults in a committed relationship is sometimes or always acceptable. 

46% of U.S. adults who attend church services at least once a month say sex between unmarried adults in a committed relationship is sometimes or always acceptable. That number jumps to 74% for those who attend church less often. 

12% of those who attend religious services at least monthly say it is always or sometimes acceptable to have sex on a first date, compared with 38% who attend less than monthly.

Additionally, a recent “Gallup Poll” suggests that,

69% of Americans view sex between an unmarried man and unmarried woman as morally acceptable. 

63% of Americans view gay and lesbian relations as morally acceptable.

62% of Americans view having a baby outside of marriage as morally acceptable.  

9% of Americans view extramarital affairs as morally acceptable. 

36% of Americans view pornography as morally acceptable. 

Speaking of pornography, the following stats are sobering. According to “Covenant Eyes,”

The first exposure to pornography among men is 12 years old, on average.

1 in 5 mobile searches are for pornography.

90% of teens and 96% of young adults are either encouraging, accepting, or neutral when they talk about porn with their friends.

In 2006, the porn industry took in $13 billion. It’s projected that virtual reality (VR) porn should be a $1 billion business by the year 2025.

Teens and young adults (ages 13–24) believe not recycling is worse than viewing pornography.

4.2 million websites are pornographic in nature (12% of all sites on the Internet).

2.5 billion pornographic emails with sexually explicit material are sent every day. 

57% of pastors say addiction to pornography is the most sexually damaging issue in their congregation.

68% of divorce cases involved one party meeting a new lover over the Internet.

56% of divorce cases involved one party having “an obsessive interest in pornographic websites.”

Additionally, 

Recent estimates show that about 40% of births in the U.S. occur outside of marriage. That’s up from 28% in 1990. And that’s up from 5% in 1960. 

Worse than that, more than 20% of all children that are conceived in America are now aborted; These are killed within their mother’s wombs before they ever get to this world. That’s one of the results of the sexual revolution.

Now that I have your attention, let me make a biblical observation. God is not silent on these issues. There is a truth that he has called us to pursue, and that truth is a faithful, monogamous, heterosexual, marital union. And that is a beautiful thing.

The passage today, Proverbs 6:20-35, is pretty straightforward. Here it is in a nutshell: “Stay away from sexual sin.” Let me say it another way, “Don’t have sex with anyone who isn’t your spouse.” And when I say “spouse” I mean spouse of a different gender. I wish I didn’t have to qualify that statement, but in today’s world I must. 

And broadly speaking, all of us need to be on guard against inappropriate sexual relationships that pervert God’s good gift of sex and wreak havoc on ourselves, our marriages, our communities, and innocent bystanders (i.e. your children). If you choose to sin, then you choose to suffer. But if instead, you choose God’s plan for sex, which I admit is difficult in our day, you will experience God’s blessings.

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We’re going to see three things in the text today: 1) the remedy for sexual sin, 2) the power of sexual sin, and 3) the consequence of sexual sin. You and I might’ve saved the remedy for last, but Solomon starts off with it. He wants to get out in front of the power of sin. 

Here’s the first point from our text today. 

1) The remedy for sexual sin: Instruction (6:20-24)

Look at verse 20 with me. Solomon says, 

20 My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching. 

Solomon’s going to sit his son down and they’re going to have a little chat. And Solomon is going to bless his son with the gift of instruction. And he’s going to reinforce and expound on the seventh commandment here: “Do not commit adultery” (Exod 20:14). Every Jewish boy knew the Ten Commandments. Every Jewish boy in Solomon’s day had probably memorized the Ten Commandments. But Solomon is going to reinforce that expectation here with his son.

And parents, you’ve got to do that too. If you wait until your kids are teenagers to tell them about the dangers of sexual sin, then you’ll have waited too long. You need to get out in front of their temptation with solid, Biblical instruction. 

Dads, you need to take the lead on this. And don’t go up to your kids and talk in ambiguous terms about the birds and the bees: “You know, son, when a man loves a woman… er um, er....” Don’t hem and haw your way through a conversation leaving your children in a greater state of confusion than before. Be clear and be frank. Tell them about good sex, God-honoring sex, in the context of marriage. And tell them about stupid sex. 

Use the Bible. Use Genesis 2. Use Proverbs 5. Use Proverbs 6. Use Proverbs 7. Use Romans 1. Use Hebrews 13:4. Use 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8. and 1 Corinthians 6-7. Use Song of Solomon… wisely. Don’t get carried away. 

I know, as a parent, you’ve got to navigate between guarding their innocence, which is key, and preparing them for the temptations of the world. And that takes wisdom. That takes discernment. That takes courage. It’ll involve multiple conversations with your children and also a lot of prayer. But make sure your communication to them on sexuality is sooner and louder and more compelling than any other voices in this world. 

Solomon says,

20 My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching. 

Notice mama’s involved in this too. This first verse is almost identical to Proverbs 1:8:

שְׁמַ֣ע בְּ֭נִי מוּסַ֣ר אָבִ֑יךָ וְאַל־תִּ֝טֹּ֗שׁ תּוֹרַ֥ת אִמֶּֽךָ

The only difference in Proverbs 6:20 is a few changes in the wording:

נְצֹ֣ר בְּ֭נִי מִצְוַ֣ת אָבִ֑יךָ וְאַל־תִּ֝טֹּ֗שׁ תּוֹרַ֥ת אִמֶּֽךָ

Instead of “listen” he says “keep.” And instead of “instruction” he says “commandment.” But these statements are essentially the same. 

In chapter 1, Solomon followed that statement with a message about “staying away from knuckleheaded troublemakers.” In this passage his teaching, his commandment, and the “torah” of the mother, is on sex. 

So, imagine it this way. The father comes to the son and says, “Son, your mom and I have something very important to talk to you about.” The son says, “What is it, dad?” The father says, “This is important, son. You might want to sit down for this.” 

20 My son, keep your father’s commandment [מִצְוָה], and forsake not your mother’s teaching [תֹּורָה]. 

21 Bind them on your heart [the core of your being] always; tie them around your neck [the part of your body in Hebrew thought that encases your נֶפֶשׁ “soul”]. 

22 When you walk, they will lead you [the מִצְוָה “commandment” of your father and the תֹּורָה “teaching” of your mother]; when you lie down, they [the מִצְוָה and the תֹּורָה] will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you. 

The son at this point is like: “Okay, where are you going with this, dad?” Just keep listening. 

23 For the commandment (מִצְוָה) is a lamp and the teaching (תֹּורָה) a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life, 

They are light and life to you! So, when the rest of the world is groping around in the darkness oblivious to the harm that they are causing themselves and others, you will have light. You will see clearly. You will have instruction. You will have discipline. 

The rest of the world doesn’t want discipline. They see it as burdensome, a restriction to cast off. But you need to see it as a path to life (the דֶ֥רֶךְ חַ֝יִּ֗ים). Discipline is life-giving. “Torah” is light in the darkness.

In the NT era the conviction of the Holy Spirit cultivates life. The flesh kills. And so, before it kills us, we’ve got to kill it. Paul says in Romans 8:13–14: “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” You’ve got to kill it before it kills you. 

 Solomon says now, “Here’s the point, son.”

23 For the commandment (מִצְוָה) is a lamp and the teaching (תֹּורָה) a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life, 

24 to preserve you from the evil woman 

Okay, now the penny drops. Now we find out what he’s talking about: “the evil woman.” The seductress. The femme fatale. 

24 to preserve you from the evil woman from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.

Solomon says to his son, “Son, let’s talk about sex. Let me tell you about the dangers out there in this world. There are evil women out there who want to have you. There are adulteresses and seductresses out there that will try to entice you. Heed my instruction and watch out for them!”

The remedy for sexual sin is instruction. Parents, you’ve got to instruct your children in this area. You’ve got to warn them. You’ve got to do the courageous thing. Don’t let the world get to your children first. You talk with them! 

Let me say two things about this before we move along in the dialogue between this father and son. 1) I’m a father with a son, and so I’m always thinking in that arena. And since Solomon, likewise, is a father speaking to his son, the words here resonate with me. But the principles can and should be extrapolated from this text for fathers and their daughters as well as mothers and their daughters. 

Dads, you lead conversations with your daughters too. Who knows better the dangers that are out there in this world for your daughter than you? You used to be one of those pre-pubescent and post-pubescent boys! So, you lead the conversation, and you take an active role in protecting your daughter’s purity. 

Now the conversation is different with girls than it is with boys. Your conversations need to be both age and gender appropriate. The temptations of girls are different than they are for boys. Their maturation process is different. Mom can and should reinforce this instruction all along the way. And Moms have a unique vantage point from which to help both young boys and young girls. 

2) And secondly, our need for this instruction doesn’t change when we get old and married. It’s not as if we learn about sex as young people, guard our sexuality until we get married, and then we close that chapter of life and are done. “Whew, we made it! We’re done. So glad I don’t have to read the book of Proverbs for the rest of my life now that I’m married.” 

No, your knowledge base needs to grow. You need to keep learning from older and wiser men and women who have gone before you. The devil doesn’t take a vacation after you get married. In fact, I believe that the stakes are even higher when we are married. The damage is even more devastating on our families, on our reputations, and on the church. So, keep learning and keep meditating on the godly instruction about marriage. 

By the way, the word for “talk” in verse 22 is the word “muse” or “meditate.” Bind instruction around your heart! Tie wisdom around your neck! Get it deep inside your soul, so that you can talk to her (i.e. wisdom), and she can talk back! Psalm 119:11 (KJV) says, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, That I might not sin against thee.”

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Here’s the second point for our message today. Write this down. There’s the remedy for sexual sin, and then there’s the power. 

2) The power of sexual sin: Temptation (6:25-29) 

Now the context of this passage, and the warning the father is giving his son, is about a woman seducing a man. But we all know that this can go the other way. Women can seduce men, and men can seduce women. And, ladies in this room, you likewise need to guard yourselves against temptation, that is against lotharios and womanizers in this world. 

I agree with OT scholar, Tremper Longman, and his statement in his commentary on Proverbs that most of the time it is men who do the seducing. But since the immediate context of this passage is a father’s conversation with his son, we’ll start there before we move on to broader implications.

The father says: 

25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart, 

Let’s just stop right there. Men, that’s your battle in a nutshell. You win this battle in your heart. If you win the battle over your heart, then you’ve won the war. People don’t just have sex uncontrollably with random people because they are animals, and they can’t stop themselves. That is such a lie. People desire something in their heart. They lust after an idea or a reality that is sinful and ungodly and inappropriate, and then their limbs start to act on what their heart desires. 

Some people, and Jesus reminds us of this, win the battle with their limbs and with their sexual organs, but they lose the battle in their hearts (see Matt 5:28; Mark 7:21-22). And that is sin. The battle starts here—in the heart. The battle starts with this prayer, “Lord, change my heart. Help me to love you more than I love this sin.”

By the way, the word for “desire” here is the same word used in the Ten Commandments for “covet.” So this isn’t just about the seventh commandment, this is also about the tenth commandment—“Thou shalt not covet” (Exod 20:17, KJV). Do not lust or covet after that which doesn’t belong to you. 

You might say, “Well she’s single, she doesn’t belong to another man, Pastor Tony.” Um, yes, she does! She belongs to her future husband, and you have no right to her. The single man likewise belongs to his future wife and to God. You have no right to him, until you put a ring on that finger and exchange vows. 

You put a ring on that finger and exchange vows that declare “‘til death do us part” then you can desire her beauty in your heart. Actually, you can do more than just desire it, you can get drunk on her beauty… see Proverbs 5 and Song of Solomon for more details on that.

25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes; 

You know this is a gender-specific command right here. I’ve never looked at my wife and tried to entice her with my eyelashes. Not yet anyway? 

But the idea here is not just the eyelashes or the eyelids or the anatomy of the eyes, so to speak. It’s the gaze… a certain type of gaze. This is a kind of seductive leering glance. 

Listen, I desire for us at this church to have healthy interactions between men and women. We don’t have to avert eye-contact with one another or get all weird in mixed company. And women don’t need to wear burqas in order to protect the purity of their brothers in Christ. There can be eye-contact and words of affirmation and even tenderness displayed between men and women who aren’t married to one another. 

The thing that we have to watch out for is the heart. And we have to watch out for the fixed gaze… the flirtatious, seductive gawking at another person’s spouse. Men, don’t you ogle another man’s wife. That’s sinful. And ladies, don’t seductively or flirtatiously gaze at another woman’s husband. Don’t do that in this church!

Look at verse 26 with me. This is difficult.

26 for the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts down a precious life. 

The Hebrew here is tough to translate. The NIV reads this way, “for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread.” That’s one way to translate this verse. But I think that the ESV captures the sense better. The idea here is that the consequence of an illicit liaison with a prostitute pales in comparison to a liaison with a married woman. If you solicit a prostitute for a small fee, you bring shame upon yourself and your family, and it’ll hurt. But if you sleep with a married woman, thereby destroying two families and infuriating an angry husband (we’ll get to that in a minute), you are in fact jeopardizing your life. It’s not a matter of good versus bad. It’s a matter of bad versus worse. It’s a matter of dumb versus dumber.

And I think in both cases, the other matter to consider here is the matter of your wife back home. Solomon doesn’t address this directly, but it’s still a factor. Sure, the consequences of sleeping with a prostitute will be less as far as the prostitute is concerned. She’s not going to come after you. And her husband (if she has one) isn’t going to ruin you, because that’s her profession. But there are still consequences unaccounted for when your wife back home finds out about it. “Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned.” 

When Sanja and I were engaged we had a conversation about fidelity in marriage. I thought it was going great. I expressed my undying devotion and loyalty to her. She reciprocated. And then she said this, “If you ever, ever, cheat on me….” I’ll spare you the rest of her statement. Needless to say, she terrified me that day! I know you guys think of Sanja as sweet and tender and gentle. She is. But let me tell you, she can talk turkey when she has to. 

Does she have a right to tell me that? Absolutely she does! And if I had equivocated in that moment or belittled her concerns for marital faithfulness, she might very well have broken off our engagement. That’s her prerogative. In fact, if I had a daughter, I would tell her to say the same exact thing to her future husband. And if she gave me permission, I’d be willing to say it to him for her. 

Let me say something quickly to those of you who are unmarried. Let me just make this statement. Someday, when you sit down with your future wife or husband, you are going to have to tell them all the stupid and spectacularly stupid things that you have done before you met them. You’ll have to come clean with those things. So, you need to consider that before you do something stupid or spectacularly stupid as a single person. 

If those stupid things are part of your past, and you’ve repented from them, then praise God. Praise God that you have been forgiven and freed from them. But if those spectacularly stupid things are a systemic pattern in your life that have occurred all the way until your current dating relationship, that’s a red flag! That is not fruit in keeping with repentance. You need to think about that now before you get married. And you need to deal with that stuff before you get married, so that you don’t take that stuff into your marriage. Marriage is not a cure-all that fixes all your sexual sin. It helps, I assure you (see 1 Corinthians 7:9 for more on that). But if you’re not careful, you’ll take all that sin right into your marriage and it will destroy your marriage.

Look at verse 27 with me.

27 Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? 

This is a rhetorical question, obviously. I’ve never carried fire or hot coals in my clothes. I don’t plan on trying it anytime soon. This image would have been especially vivid for the Israelites. They were constantly around fire. They were offering sacrifices every day. And the Levites had ways of carrying fire. They had firepans to carry the fire and altars to contain the fire. They would never use their garments or their ephods to carry fire. 

And just so you know, fire is often used in Scripture as a metaphor for sex. 

Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? 

28 Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? 

The Hebrew word for “feet” is often used as a euphemism for a man’s genitals. And at least one reputable Proverbs’ commentator thinks that “chest” in verse 27 is a reference to a man’s lap or his groin. That adds a little more urgency to this passage. Can a man play around with fire near his groin and not get burned? Can a man play around with sexual sin and not get burned? 

29 So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; 

That is barely a euphemism in verse 29! That is a description of copulation. Solomon isn’t mincing words or being unclear with his son.

29 So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; none who touches her will go unpunished. 

We’ll talk more about punishment in just a second. But let me just say a couple things about this before we move to the third point. 

1) The battle for purity is a communal struggle. Isolationism is not a remedy for sexual sin. Isolationism doesn’t cure temptation. Some people think that the best way to deal with sexual temptation is just to run away into the desert or isolate themselves from the world and thereby protect themselves against this sin. But hear me on this, if you are going to take Jesus’s mission seriously, you can’t do that. You can’t isolate yourself. 

You can check yourself into a monastery, banish women from your life forever, and piddle your life away as a monk, but you will still struggle with this sin. You can’t escape this battle by running away. You’ve got to face it. And you face it with community and accountability and transparency among brothers and sisters in Christ. 

2) I’m going to direct this second statement to the married folks in this room. Listen up, husbands and wives. The best weapon that you have against adultery is each other. The best weapon that you have against illicit sex is sex. It’s meeting the needs of each other. Now sex should not be equated to marriage, and if you idolize sex, you need to repent and understand that sex is a gift from God and it’s an aspect of marriage. But it’s a very important aspect of marriage. 

So, when temptations start to manifest, what’s the solution? 1 Corinthians 7:5 says this: “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.” 

That goes both ways. Husbands as well as wives need to satisfy the needs of their spouse. Roy Ortlund says in his commentary that in New England in the days of the Puritans, churches would remove men as communicant members if they refused to have sex with their wives. All a wife had to do was file a complaint with an elder or pastor. That church meant business. They took 1 Corinthians literally for men and women both.

Look, I don’t want to regulate this as a church. Take care of each other, married couples. Meet each other’s needs. You have something that you can give your husband that nobody else in this world can give him. Likewise, husbands you have something that only you can give your wife. So, take care of each other. 

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Now Solomon has given his son instruction on sexual sin. He’s warned him about the temptations of sexual sin. But now he’s going to deal with the consequences of sexual sin. And the rest of our passage in verses 30–35 is a profound warning about the consequences of sexual sin. As I said a few weeks back, sometimes it’s not the plea for purity or the encouragement to delay gratification that keeps us pure… sometimes it’s the threat of consequences and retribution. 

Here’s the third point from our message: 

3) The consequence of sexual sin: Retribution (6:30-35)

Now before we walk through these final verses, I want to teach you a new word, a great Shakespearean word. Here’s the word: “cuckold.” A cuckold is a man who is married to an unfaithful wife. 

“Cuckold” comes from the word “cuckoo” (I’m not making this up), because the cuckoo bird (the female hen, that is) had a reputation in the Middle Ages for unfaithfulness. And so, a cuckold came to describe a man who has been “cuckolded” by his wife. 

It’s an appropriate word for the verses that follow, because we are going to see the reaction of a man who has been cuckolded. His wife has cheated on him with another man. And interestingly enough, the anger displayed here is directed towards the male adulterer not the adulteress wife. I know I’ve said before that “Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned.” Well, you might say in the verses that follow, “Hell hath no fury as a cuckold scorned.” 

Look at verse 30.

30 People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry, 

31 but if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold; he will give all the goods of his house. 

Now this is just a simple analogy. And it’s communicating a “how much more” argument. A thief that steals to feed himself will receive compassion from people. They understand his predicament. Nevertheless, when he gets caught, he will pay dearly: sevenfold. Even though people sympathize with his predicament, they’ll make him pay. 

And here’s the point: “How much more than this will an adulterer have to pay when he gets caught?” Nobody is going to sympathize with him when he gets caught, certainly not the cuckolded husband. Nobody’s going to take it easy on him. In fact, the husband is going to require a pound of flesh from this man.  

Therefore, Solomon says in verse 32,

32 He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself. 

In other words, the man who sleeps with another person’s wife is an idiot. He lacks sense. He has no morals and no brains. 

Actually, the word for “sense” in verse 32 is the Hebrew word לֵב for “heart.” That’s the core of a person’s being. The seat of his mental, emotional, and volitional forces is lacking. This man is dull, you might say. He’s got no heart, no brains, and no volitional fortitude. And he destroys himself.  

33 He will get wounds and dishonor [here comes the retribution now], and his disgrace will not be wiped away.

Praise God for the blood of Jesus, right? That blood washes away all of our sin, even our sexual sin. Even though there are lingering consequences to our sin here on earth. STDs don’t automatically go away when we get saved. Awkward family dynamics and damaged community reputations are sometimes the result of our sinful actions. Those things can linger on till death. But praise God, they don’t follow us into eternity. 

But in the here and now, Solomon writes that the result of adultery is as follows:

 34 For jealousy makes a man furious, and he will not spare when he takes revenge. 

35 He will accept no compensation; he will refuse though you multiply gifts.

You can’t pay this guy off. You can’t assuage his anger with the increase of bribes. He wants vengeance. He wants a pound of flesh. 

In the Hebrew world, adultery was punishable by death. Leviticus 20:10 reads, “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.” Deuteronomy 22:22 reads, “If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.” So this man, who has been wronged, can take you to court, and if convicted… you’re a dead man. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or if you’re poor. If he wants to press charges against you and have you executed, he can. 

Now, there’s enough latitude in the law, and there is enough leniency to allow a wronged husband to look the other way for a bribe or some other form of compensation. And that’s the point of this text. He won’t look away. His anger burns against you. And it should; it’s righteous indignation. 

Solomon wants his son to be terrified about ever committing adultery with another man’s wife. God is attempting right now to scare each one of us in this room, men and women both, from ever, ever committing adultery. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. 

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When I was in seminary, we went on a retreat with all the students in our class. And it was a fun refreshing time. And we were laughing and rejoicing in the Lord. It was special. And one night after praise and worship, the mood got really serious. You could feel it. And one of our professors, got up and shared a testimony about a pastor who had committed adultery with someone in the congregation and disqualified himself for ministry. 

This was fresh on his mind. It had just happened in the church that he attended. And he pointed his finger at us (and his finger seemed about two feet long) and he yelled at us, “Don’t you ever, ever do that when you get into the ministry!” He scared the stuffing out of us. There I was, 23 years old, newly married, wanting to serve the Lord in ministry. And he made a lasting impression on me.

Some might say this: “Yeah, well what about grace?” “What about grace, Tony?” Well, grace my friends, is not a big pile of mush. Grace has a backbone. And God’s grace compels us to obedience. 

I heard a story once about John Calvin. Nobody understood God’s grace or wrote about it more than Calvin. He fought for sola gratia. And yet, I heard once that Calvin was battling a group of libertines in Geneva when he was a pastor there. And these libertines had mistresses. Everyone in Europe at this time had mistresses. It was regulated at the local level. Many cities made a law that said you can only have one mistress. 

Well Calvin fought against that mentality. And many libertines developed a heretical theology that God’s grace covers all our sin, so let’s just live it up and indulge or flesh. More sin, more grace. Well Calvin and his elders excommunicated these libertines and wouldn’t let them take communion. How’s that for the great grace-defender! And these libertines sued in civil court in order to take communion. And they showed up at church anyway. And at the end of a service, they rushed forward to the front of the church to take communion. 

And here’s what Calvin did. He flung his arms around the elements. And his voice rang through the building, “These hands you may crush, these arms you may lop off, my life you may take, my blood is yours, you may shed it; but you shall never force me to give holy things to the profaned, and dishonor the table of my God.” 

And after this, says Beza, Calvin’s first biographer, the sacred ordinance was celebrated with a profound silence. That’s how John Calvin felt about, what you might call, “cheap grace.” 

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Let me be clear. I’m not preaching today for legalism or moralism. I am preaching today for “grace that changes our view of sexuality.” I’m preaching for the gospel that “changes our lives and conforms us into the image of Christ.” I’m preaching today for gospel sexuality. Are you with me? Do you want that?

Let’s do this. Let’s get still right now. Here’s what I want you to consider: “Have you ever made a vow before the Lord concerning your sexuality?” Have you done that? Or have you said, as many people do, “Lord you can have my whole life, but you can’t have my sex? That’s mine. You can’t take that from me. You can’t take my pornography away. You can’t take my idolatry to sex.” 

I’m going to challenge you right now, in light of God’s word, to lay that down. Do you love the Lord more than you love sex? Do you love God more than you love sin? That’s the question. 

Some of you need to make a decision right now, a vow maybe, to rekindle your marital relationship. Some of you might need to pray right now for ways that you can better meet the need of your spouse. Some of you need to consider right now if you have made sex into an idle. If God took that away from you forever, would you be content? That’s the real test of idolatry. If God took it away, would you collapse spiritually? Lay that down before him. Pray for victory over these sins, including the sin of idolatry.