No one takes marriage more seriously than God, and no one takes marriage less seriously than those who ignore, minimize, or altogether reject what His Word says about them. Every culture has its confusions and its expressions of brokenness that are counter to God's Word, and you'd expect that there is a living God who has revealed His word and has set apart a people through whom He gave us the Messiah, Jesus, that this God over a broken world would have to counter time and time again the cultures that are throughout the world because His word says that in our hearts we've gone astray. We've made gods of our own image and that we've made idols out of the things in our hearts and the passions that we pursue. And it's not surprising that this God who is over the whole world and has made all things for His great glory would even have things to say to His image bearers about how they conduct themselves in the desires they feel in a broken world. On the issue of marriage, God's Word is not vague. It's not incomprehensible when you look at the topic in God's Word. His Word is not inconsistent on what it teaches about marriage, nor is it contradictory God's word is clear, though it is hard. True marriage is a covenant before God between one man and one woman, and only within the boundaries of their marriage should a husband and a wife act on their sexual desire. This particular passage this morning is written to a first century group of believers who are encountering great suffering and great difficulty and great trial for their faith. And he wants to exhort them in their faithfulness to the Lord and in their relationships with one another to remember one of the things that he is listing being marriage and to have a certain attitude toward marriage. This, of course, is rooted in the book of Genesis. This is not a first century idea. It's not a 21st century idea. It's something rooted in the creation plan in Genesis 1 and 2. The worldview of the Bible sets the foundation. And so let's do something a little unusual in this message, since we have one verse together. I wanted to focus on the topic of marriage. But most of this sermon will be introductory to the verse. Most of the sermon will be foundation laying. Because I think if you see a teaching like this, and if you imagine it standing upright in concrete, and if I'm pointing to this teaching and saying, look, here is what's coming out of the ground, this teaching, Hebrews 13.4, what I want to do is sort of shake it a bit and look at the foundation and say, see how sturdy this is? And I want to do that this morning by looking at the other passages in Scripture that support and strongly undergird the teaching and command of this of this verse. It is a command. We are called as believers to obey this. Let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed be undefiled. And there is a warning to the command. First half of the verse followed by a warning in the second half of the verse for God will judge. And we want to be people who are convinced that the word of God is consistent on this matter and teaching. That is the foundation for a verse like this. The writer is assuming many different things that are taught throughout the scripture. And it's very tempting as a preacher approaching the topic of marriage to say as many things that can possibly be said in a sermon about marriage. But I can't do that. We wouldn't want to sit that long anyway. But there are things that must be said and the things that are clearly connected to a passage like this. So even though we can't say everything that can be said about the topic and that should be said at some point, we can say enough. We can include enough teaching around this topic so that it is clear with regard to what the Bible says. And I want to walk through some assumptions of the Bible with you, some assumptions that the Bible makes about marriage that lead the writer to say the kind of thing that he says. He's operating from a biblical worldview that is determined by certain assumptions and teachings in prior texts. I want to take you, first of all, to Genesis 2. The first assumption that the Bible makes is that Genesis 2, 24 sets the pattern for marriage. Genesis 2, 24. Here's what the verse says. Therefore, a man shall lead his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh. Now, how do we know that the writer is sending forth here a pattern for people? Because Moses is writing the book of Genesis and the ones that follow to Israelites, centuries later, who are being given the law of God that they could obey him in the land. And they are in cultures that are filled with immorality. They are in cultures and know of relationships and perhaps had engaged in it in times themselves. where they are aware of issues like polygamy, and homosexuality, and divorce, and bestiality, and pedophilia, and incest, and all kinds of deviations from God's design in healthy sexual relationships. And God is giving His Word through Moses to them. He's drawing a conclusion from what's just happened in Genesis 2, where God gives Eve to Adam and unites them together in covenant. And in verse 24, the narrator says, therefore, in light of what God has just done, and he's writing this to these Israelites centuries later, who were enmeshed in all kinds of confusion about the issues of sexuality and gender and marriage. And he's saying a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife. So the idea that he's drawing an implication sets forth the idea a pattern is in view. But furthermore, note that the language of father and mother is invoked here. And this is important for the Israelites to understand because Adam did not have a father and a mother. So just think about this for a moment. If all he was doing is drawing a conclusion of what was true for Adam and Eve only, the language of father and mother here makes absolutely no sense. Because Genesis 1 and 2 tell us that God created Adam and Eve as the first people. And we know that they're being set forth here as a pattern for how God will populate the earth and how God will permit the sexual desires of his image bearers to be expressed in the boundaries of marriage, because the language of father and mother will be true for everybody after Adam and Eve. That means this pattern is set forth for everybody that comes after them, because everybody after them is going to have a father and a mother. That's how you and I got here. This is not news to us, but the fact that it is, it requires that. Complementary gender. God says in Genesis 1, he created the male and female in his image in Genesis 1.26. male in the image of God, female in the image of God, together in covenant together in the union of marriage, they are bearing fruit and multiplying, aren't they? We see this taking hold in Genesis 3 onward, and the world of God is being multiplied, and we see that through marriage, God is doing things and picturing things that are going to be taken up later on. So the first assumption is that Genesis 2.24 sets the pattern for how God defines marriage. Secondly, after Genesis 3, sinful people have sinful desires. After Genesis 3, sinful people have sinful desires. The difficulty in a fallen world is knowing that there are desires that arise within us that run counter to God's word. And the challenge is for any culture to recognize the foolishness of saying that the mere presence of a desire or feeling of love toward a particular person or in some way that it would legitimize or justify such a union. No, not the mere presence of desire or longing or feeling of love. Those things are not in themselves, according to the scripture, sufficient or justifying a particular union or relationship. Especially the different deviations of God's design that I listed earlier in the first assumption with polygamy or homosexuality or pedophilia or bestiality or incest. The mere presence of a desire or a longing or feeling, according to the scripture, does not mean that thing is good for you, for others are honoring to God. So I want to take you to Romans one. In Romans 1, we see that in verse 18, the wrath of God is being revealed presently in a certain way against ungodliness and unrighteousness, because people are in verse 21 not honoring God. And in verse 22, they claim to be wise, but have become fools, and then they've exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images. In other words, what you're about to see unfold is connected to idolatry and self-exaltation and self-centeredness. It says in verse 24, God gave them up to the lust of their hearts, to impurity, the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie. They worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator. Verse 26, for this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Women exchanged natural relations for those contrary to nature. The men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another. Men committing shameless acts with men, receiving in themselves a due penalty for their error. Since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what not ought to be done. What's the diagnosis here in Romans 1? The diagnosis is, from the inside out, there is a brokenness and a corruption that is working itself out and wrongful desires being expressed. So the second assumption of the Bible is that in Genesis 3, sinful people have sinful desires. So the mere presence of a desire does not create that very thing being good for you or mean that it's good for others or mean that it's honoring to God. There's a mixture of things in our hearts. There are desires that we should pursue and desires that we should not pursue. Because such desires would be destructive, condemning for your soul, not good for others, dishonoring to God. The third assumption that the Bible makes is that even in a broken world ravaged by sin, God retains the covenant of marriage. So here's something to observe. Marriage ordained by God in Genesis 2. Genesis 3, the fall happens. But what happens after Genesis 3? Does God say, well, let's scrap the Adam and Eve pattern? No. In fact, Moses was recording the account of what happened in Genesis 2 for the Israelites so that they would know this pattern and so they would know what God had designed marriage to be. So that in this third assumption, even in a broken world, ravaged by sin, God retains the covenant of marriage. And why? That's an important question. Not because it had ultimate earthly significance, but because of something it pointed to even beyond this world. It seems that before the foundation of the world, God had purposed in His will to send forth His Son and it would be pictured in the Son's love for the church as a bridegroom's love for a bride. A union and a covenant and faithfulness and sacrifice and forgiveness and cleansing and union and all of those things you see then pictured by the institution of marriage. All of a sudden marriage takes on a great meaning. Mary's takes on a great meaning because from the very beginning, God is using Mary's in the language of marriage to describe how he relates to his people. In fact, you find it very common that when the people of God are straying from God, God calls them spiritual adulterers because he's made a covenant with them and they're being unfaithful to him. So the marriage language is invoked. This is appropriate because in Ephesians 5, Paul says the mystery of marriage is this, Christ and the church. That's what marriage is a parable of. So the reason God retains the parable and the picture and the institution of marriage is because even after the fall, the purpose to send Christ is going forth and advancing so that when Christ comes, we see what the meaning of all of this was for. Even in a broken world ravaged by sin, God retains the covenant of marriage because of what it would ultimately point to. Fourth assumption. The fourth assumption in the Bible is that Jesus affirmed the pattern of marriage laid out in Genesis 2.24. This is a critical assumption to grant. The reason it's a critical assumption is because you will hear it said, in our particular culture, Jesus had very little to say about the kinds of issues of marriage that are running amok in our culture. In fact, Jesus, we would say in some circles would be said, rather, that that Jesus is really lax on this issue and is very flexible. And we should simply love our neighbor and let our neighbor do what they want to do, no matter what that would mean regarding marriage. But I think we should consider Jesus's words in Matthew 19. And if you'll turn there, I want to show you his quotation of Genesis 2. In Matthew 19, the Pharisees come up and they're asking him in verse three about divorce. But Jesus wants to give them a different lesson first. He says in verse four, let's go back to the beginning. Matthew 19, four. Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female? And said, therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. What's important to note here is it says he who created them said, therefore, leave his father and mother as if God himself spoke that. What's important to note, if you go back to Genesis two, though, it's not in quotations. The narrator in Genesis 2, 24 is drawing a conclusion. So the narrator says something in Genesis 2, and in Matthew 19, Jesus says, he who created them said that. So who said it? Did Moses draw a conclusion or did God say it? Well, why would you have to choose between them? Because in the narrator speaking in Genesis, it is God breathing his word through the writer. This is God speaking. Yes, Moses said what he did and wrote what he did in Genesis 2, 24. But that doesn't mean God did not say it. That is, according to what Jesus himself said, God's word on the pattern and on the matter. Jesus says in verse six, so they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let man not separate. Jesus is citing Genesis 2 in this issue about marriage. Now it's sometimes said that he doesn't address the kinds of concerns about culture with redefinitions of marriage that we are facing in our day. But here I simply want to observe that Genesis 2, 24 is the narrator's statement in Genesis 2. And Jesus is saying God's word is behind that. And here in Matthew 19, so that when you see Jesus saying other things in Matthew, like I did not come, I did not come to abolish the law and the prophets. He's not come to redefine, be lax on or more flexible in these matters of the law. What I'd invite you to consider is that in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus did not lessen the degree and strictness of the law. He pointed how inwardly these people were failing to keep it. In the Sermon on the Mount, what you see is not a Jesus who is lax with what the Old Testament says, but somebody who says, yeah, you heard it said this way and you think you're keeping it. But I tell you, the spirit of the law would take it even further. And in your heart, Are you feeling hatred and are you lusting and are you all of these things? So Jesus is making the matter more strict. Jesus was in a conservative branch of Judaism of his day. Those who say that Jesus would be open to redefinitions of marriage or flexible in the matters of marriage or open to expressions of sexuality are ignoring the wealth of evidence of the New Testament itself and on those who have faithfully interpreted it throughout church history. It's simply a desire to make Jesus in one's own image to justify what one wants to do. But let it be clear, Jesus cannot be claimed as an advocate for any redefinitions. For example, in Mark chapter seven, we could say with the disciples in the hand washing issue, The Pharisees are upset the disciples are not outwardly washing their hands and Jesus wants to point them where true defilement is from. And listen carefully to Jesus' words in Mark 7 verse 20. He says, What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts Sexual immorality, theft, murder and adultery. Friends, sexual immorality was a word in the original language in the first century that included everything as an umbrella catch-all term that was outside the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman. So those who say, you know, Jesus never addressed issues of bestiality or incest or homosexuality. This particular term is a term that includes it. It includes it. And Jesus is saying, out of the heart, these things come. These desires come. And that is what defiles a man, Jesus says. An honest reading of the text, an honest reading of the Old Testament and how it is used in the New, an honest assessment and evaluation of church history, One must come to the conclusion that if we're going to go with what God's word says, then what God's word says is that marriage is between one man and one woman in covenant before him. Jesus cannot be twisted and contorted. by postmodern writers and interpreters to mean anything other than what he is saying here, what must be done if one is to say, well, then I'm going to live and express my desires no matter what. It will be in contrary position to what God's word says. It will be after one rejects the authority of God's word. More and more people are realizing this after all. There are a lot of contemporary writers on issues of marriage and sexuality in our culture who are saying, you know what? We are recognizing that this is what the Bible teaches. So what we're simply going to say is, we just don't want to live according to what the Bible teaches. That's actually a more honest response to the situation, to at least acknowledge that what the Bible says is what it says. And if you want to live contrary to what the Bible says, then at least admit that's what you're doing. Don't say that you're trying to make the Bible say something other than what it's plainly saying. In Matthew 19, what is the alternative to living in marriage between people of the opposite sex? In Matthew 19, the model of the eunuch is upheld in Matthew 19, 11 and 12, which is celibacy. Celibacy. So Jesus doesn't view a third way. some mutation of paths that can be trodden. There is marriage and then there is remaining single until marriage or avoiding marriage if you feel that you would have the gift of singleness. But there is no alternative than one of those two options. Marriage, celibacy. And both of these are institutions in which people can flourish in great fulfillment. Jesus was single. Paul was single. Many great church leaders in history were single. You can find great fulfillment and thriving and flourishing as a single person or as a married person in the Church of Jesus Christ. But my plea with you from the Scripture is to not live in ways contrary to what God's Word says and feel that your desire is justified. What I'd invite you to consider is the truth of Genesis 3 onward that in a broken world we have broken desires and God has retained the covenant of marriage because of what it points to and that Jesus affirms this pattern as well in our fourth assumption. Here's assumption number five. The apostles who spoke about immorality spoke in the authority of Jesus Christ. The apostles are far more specific on things than even Jesus was in certain language. And you can look in Examples like First Timothy and other places that we'll turn to in just a little bit or in Romans chapter one, like I read to you from Paul or here in Hebrews 13 or in the letter of Jude or in first Peter four. And these apostles speak with the authority of Jesus Christ. Sometimes a very tragic thing happens when you look at the scriptures. You see that Jesus's words are used to almost overturn the words of his apostles, which is ridiculous because they speak with his authority. all of their words might as well be read from Romans through Jude. All of the words are the authority of the risen and enthroned Christ whom they represent. It's not as if, well, Jesus says this, and he's maybe ambiguous here, and Paul says this more specifically, so we're going to go with Jesus. No, it's all the words of the risen Christ. To create some sort of disjunction It is an unnatural break in scripture. They represent the risen Christ in their writings to the churches to apply the teachings of Christ and the message of the implications of the gospel to their people. They are working out what Jesus has given them for the people of God. They're not creating something new or something different from what Jesus has said. They're helping them see, even with greater specificity, what God's will is for them. So fifth assumption is the apostles who spoke about immorality spoke in the authority of Jesus Christ. When Paul spoke about sexuality, he represented what Christ said. Here's the sixth assumption. The sixth assumption, sexual activity outside the covenant of marriage is sin. No matter what form the activity takes, sex is a good gift from God. But outside marriage, God calls you to self-control. Whether marriage ever happens or until it happens, sexual activity outside the covenant of marriage is sin. Assumption number seven, it is not loving to others and it is not pleasing to God if we affirm as permissible what the Bible condemns as sin. It is not loving to others, nor is it pleasing to God if we affirm as permissible what the Bible condemns as sin. From Genesis to Revelation, God's design in marriage is for a covenant between one man and one woman before him. It's not unloving to say what the Bible says. It is dangerous to reject what the Bible says. It is wise to humble yourself and subject yourself to the teaching of Scripture. It is foolish to say, I want what I want, and I don't care what the Bible says. Friends, it is not unloving to say what the Bible says. Now, you will be told that in this culture. You will be told it is cruel and bigoted and hateful. Now, I do think that people can be hateful in the ways they say what the Bible says. I do think people can be unnecessarily unkind and crass and rude. But at its core, it is not unloving to say what the Bible teaches. It is an expression of the desire for somebody to obey Christ. To worship and honor God. For them to see sin for what it truly is. Sin is blinding. Sin is hardening. And when people speak the truth of God to situations like that, the tendency of the darkness is to hate and reject the light. I don't want you shining your light on this. Don't touch this part of my life. And yet, we must know that it is not unloving to affirm what the Bible teaches. It is not loving or pleasing to God, rather to affirm what's permissible if the Bible speaks it as condemning. which is sin. Assumption number eight. And this, this needs to be shouted far and wide and long. God's design and His revealed will in these matters is for your joy. God is not out to hide the greater pleasures of sin, for the lesser pursuits and burdensome life of obedience and holiness. You have it backwards if that is what you think is the case. The Bible wants to expose the fleeting, shallow, no good, condemning pleasures of sin for what they are. so that you would know God and what He has designed for your life to be and the relationships that you have for them, how they should function according to God's Word, especially in the covenant of marriage, and that you would know the joy that God has for you. Holiness is not a joyless road. That is the lie that sin tells you. Following God's will and obeying Him is not a burden that you have to bear looking longingly at the pleasures of Egypt saying, oh God, if you had not given us the exodus, if we had only gone back to Egypt, it was so much better there. It's never better in Egypt. That's the lie that the wilderness wandering tells you. There is a promised land. There is joy. And Psalm 1611 says that there are eternal, everlasting pleasures at the right hand of God. Friends, if you want to know joy, and you want to be satisfied in God, and you want living water, then you need to forsake your sin. Jesus says to the woman at the well, if you knew who it was, and she had sexual sin in her life, He said to her, if you knew who it was that offered you a drink, you would say, sir, give me this drink. Where can I get this living one? If you want bread that never leaves one hungry for something in this world again, it is the bread of life, which is Christ. He gives this bread and he gives this water. In other words, it's himself. To take Christ. If you reject Christ, you are left with the delusions and the fleeting pleasures of sin that do not satisfy and only heap up your condemnation. But if you will take Christ, then not only will you be satisfied in him and knowing him and glorifying him and honoring him, you will look back at the life he has saved you from and the sins he has cleansed you from, and you will see them for what they were. And you will say, this was my life. This is what I love. These were the passions of my heart. And I was dead in them. And He made me alive. And He has saved me from them. Friends, Christ can save you from this. Here's what Jesus says in John 15. In John 15, verse 8, He says, By this My Father is glorified that you bear much fruit, and so prove yourselves to be My disciples. It says in verse 9, As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you. Abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's and abide in His. And here's verse 11, These things I have spoken to you. Why? That My joy may be in you, and your joy be full. There is no one more joyful or happy in the universe than the Son of God. And he wants you to know his joy. He wants you to know true joy. He wants you to know gladness and satisfaction that sin never provides. Sin is not freeing. Sin is bondage. Look around at our culture. All the desire to be liberated in everyone's pursuit of sexual expression has left people in bondage and homes destroyed and a culture confused and blinded and hardened. It has not gone in a positive way. Sin is not freeing. That's the great deception about sin, is it presents itself as the desirable option. But that is not the truth about sin. And we need to preach to ourselves often the truth about sin. Rebelling against God is not the way to lasting joy. Jesus has living water for you. So this eighth assumption is that God's design and his revealed will for these matters is for your joy. God wants you to be glad in Him. He has made you to know Him in everlasting joy and sin. We'll never give you that. We should expose sin for what it is. Number nine. Assumption number nine. There are ten, so these are the last two. Assumption number nine. Professing Christians must heed what Scripture teaches about sex. professing Christians must heed it. So I'm saying I know Christ. I'm saying I'm a Christian. I'm saying I follow Jesus. Well, then you need to hear what the apostles have to say to the churches of Jesus Christ about these matters. Why? Because our verse tells us God is judge. And there are many people who may profess to know Christ, but when it comes to this area, they will say, I will not submit to Christ in this area. I will have my desires and they will be mine. I will be Lord of this. Friends, Those who live according to the flesh, it says in Romans 8, will not see the kingdom of God. Without holiness, Hebrews 12, 14, no one will see the Lord. If you are professing Christian, you should repent and turn from any sexual activity or sensual enticements that are directed to anyone who is not your spouse. You should flee from it. That's the word of God to those who are professing to be believers. Flee from sexual immorality. If you profess to be a believer, then you know what God's redeeming work in Christ means for you. It means he will govern and even be Lord over your sexuality. So ninth assumption, professing Christians must heed what scripture says on these matters. Number 10, lastly, number 10. Assumption number 10 is, there is forgiveness in Christ for sinners. I don't have any better news for you than this. This is climactic, world-shaking news. There is forgiveness in Christ for sinners. Friends, when we look at a culture like ours, and we see the brokenness that is around us, and the homes that have been ravaged by the abuses, sexually and emotionally, If you come to Christ, He will cleanse you, forgive your sin, and make you new. This is the message of the gospel. The message of the gospel is your sin and your rebellion against God are so deep that you can do nothing to fix it. You cannot pull yourself out of it. You cannot get your act together. You can't turn over a new leaf. You can't clean your slate. You've got to come to Christ or you're going to perish. There is forgiveness in Christ for sinners and He will cleanse you and make you new. His blood is more powerful than any sexual stain in your past. He will wash away your sin if you will go to Him in faith. If you will go to Him and say, I need the cross of Christ and the Redeemer who died for sinners because I have no other hope. Friends, Christ will not turn you away. You should go to Christ. He will forgive your every sin. You should turn from your sin. You should trust in him and his redeeming work. There is a redeemer for sinners, and that is the good news of the gospel. All of these assumptions help to establish for us the greater biblical context of our passage this morning, our one verse, just a few phrases here in Hebrews 13, 4. Let marriage be held in honor among all. You see now, if not even a greater way than you did before, after looking at all these different assumptions and all these different scriptures and all the different implications that, yes, we must hold marriage in high honor. Because it belongs to God. Marriage belongs to God. Marriage doesn't belong to any one individual. It doesn't belong to a society. It doesn't belong to a government. It doesn't belong to the majority of voters. Marriage belongs to God. It is God's institution. He has created it as a picture of Christ and the Church, and we cannot do anything with it and still call it marriage. This is God's design. This means we must hold marriage in high honor. What does it mean to hold marriage in high honor? I think you can hold something in honor in your attitude and in your actions. Your attitude and in your actions. Maybe I can work out a few examples practically of how to do this. First of all, holding marriage in honor with an attitude would include things like believing what the Bible says about marriage and your role in it. What it says to you for your role as a husband or what it says for you in your role as a wife. One way you honor marriage and hold it in high value is that you believe what the Bible says about it and what it says to you in it. Also, you could say that in your attitude, you could be an encourager to other marriages. You can be an advocate for marriage. Marriage is a gift from God. Marriage is a good gift from God. It is so devalued and belittled in our culture, it is tragic. You don't need just the Bible to tell you this. You can read studies of anthropology and sociology and biology and all the developments of children and what flourishes in society. And also the research and survey doesn't even come close to overturning the truth that it supports in every case without fail that the way to create a flourishing home and a flourishing culture by implication is for people to remain married with each other and to rear children. We need to pray for families in our church, pray for families in the churches of Louisville, pray for our city, pray for the state and the country. We need to pray that people would obey Hebrews 13, 4. I just want to invite you to consider the fact that in verse 4, this is a command. You are commanded to hold marriage in high honor. It says among all, hold it among all, which may mean all believers here in the immediate context, because he's talking about brotherly love in verse one and hospitality to strangers who are believers in verse two and their fellow believers in verse three who are in prison because of their cost for the faith that they're paying. And in verse four, he's saying, let marriage be held in honor among all. He may be talking about believers in its immediate context. And I think we could agree that of the people in the culture who should certainly have a high view of marriage and hold it in honor, it should certainly be above all believers who do. We know what marriage points to. We know why God made it. We know the picture and parable of marriage and what it represents with Christ and the church. What about in our actions? How might we honor and hold marriage in honor by our actions? Well, I would say, listen, every husband and wife in this room, be faithful to your spouse. Be faithful. You have made a covenant, so hold fast to it. This means you must guard your heart, not just your outward life, but your heart from all the snares that are around you. You must work and cultivate and till your marriage like something that should be cared for and preserved. Husbands, you should lead out in this. You should devote time to your marriage. Friends, it's helpful to read books on marriage. It's helpful to memorize verses on marriage. It's helpful to find marriage mentors, to pray for your marriage, to pray together for your marriage. And there are times when a husband and wife may argue with one another, fighting with one another, but I wonder if there is more the case where we are fighting for one another. We don't war and wrestle and struggle against flesh in this world, but against principalities and powers. Satan would love to see every marriage in Cosmosdale destroyed and left in pieces on the ground. What we want to do as a church is to obey Hebrews 13.4 and hold marriage in high honor. He goes on to say, let the marriage bed be undefiled, which is even more specific, addressing the issues of faithfulness. There are many snares that are available for marriages in ways that will destroy them or plant a seed of destruction. And the advances of technology have not made this any easier. You have rampant pornography in our culture. Every second and every day, every second of every day, millions of dollars spent on an industry objectifying people in states of bondage. Look up and down Dixie Highway, places to go, things to see. There is ungodliness around us. There is bondage and defilement. What we must do is guard our hearts and guard our lives, guard our marriages, The writer warns us with the example of Esau about immorality in Hebrews 12, 16. Paul tells you in 1 Corinthians 6, 18 to 20, that you should avoid immorality because you are bought with a price. Have you considered the fact that Jesus's atoning work means something for how you conduct yourselves in the body? Your atoning work, friends. The atoning work of Jesus has practical application on your body. I've opened to first Corinthians 618. Listen to these words. 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 spirit within you, whom you have from God? You're not your own. You were bought at a price. So glorify God in your body. Here are some exhortations, Christian. Your body is for righteousness now. Romans 6.12, let not sin reign in your mortal body that you would obey its passions. Don't present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness. Present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life. And your members to God as instruments for righteousness. What Paul is saying is, look, if you've been brought from death to life, then you will conduct yourself differently. If you, for crying out loud, if you have been raised from the deadness of your sins and been regenerated from the heart by the spirit of the living God with his law upon your heart, you will not conduct yourself in unrighteousness as you did when you did not know Christ. You will instead give yourself to God. So Christian, your body is for righteousness, not immorality. This means we are not to use our bodies in any ways that are inappropriate or sinful with others. Whether that include hobbies, whether that include fantasy, whether that includes someone's job, you have to stop it immediately. Romans 6 is all the words of resignation you need. Friend, if you're married and you are currently at this moment engaged in flirtatious, sensual or sexual behavior with someone who is not your spouse, oh, for the sake of the cross of Christ and the confession of Christ that you make, you must cease this today. You must stop it immediately. The Bible says you were slaves of sin, Romans 6.20, but now you are slaves of righteousness. Paul asks in Romans 6, what fruit were you getting at that time from the things that you were ashamed of? He says the end of those things is death. I mean, sometimes it's helpful to just work out in our minds what the fruit of sin is. Paul says, let's think about this together. Let's work out together where sin leads. Sin leads to death. physically, spiritually, he says, then you've not been set free to remain in those things. He says you've been set free from sin and become slaves to God. The fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, which is eternal life. Friend, if you are not married, but you are engaged in sexual immorality, you are violating God's word and his will for your life, and you should cease it immediately. You should repent. You should forsake sin. It's a fleeting pleasure. It will not satisfy. Instead, in wisdom and in Christ, you should pursue marriage with someone of the opposite sex who is a believer. You should forsake your sin and flee in faith to Christ. Why these hard words from the writer about holding marriage in high honor and not letting the marriage bed be defiled and all of this? He says in Hebrews 13, verse 4, lastly, for God will judge the sexually immoral and the adulterous. He's not saying that other sins aren't subject to judgment. There are a number of lists in the New Testament where there are sins that come up by the writer's hand. And I just want to give you a few examples of the seriousness of some of these things. In First Corinthians, chapter six, it says in verse nine, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Don't be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor the drunkards, nor the revilers, nor the swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God." What he's saying is, if you're living in rebellion against God, living in sin, it doesn't matter what form the sin takes, you're not going to enter the kingdom of God. Believers are not people who are perfect. Believers are people who are turning from sin. And we need to recognize in the scripture what the Bible calls sin, so that we might turn from it and live. So that we might turn from it and not be condemned. Listen to Second Corinthians, Chapter 12. Second Corinthians 12, 21 says. I fear, Paul says, when I come again, that my God may humble me before you and I have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality and sensuality that they practice. So Paul's pleading with them to repent, just as I'm pleading with you to repent. And Paul is so concerned that when he goes to see them again, there will be people there who still have not repented and they are still in their sin and they're still in the blindness and the delusion, the hardness of their immorality, and they will not turn from it. It's a heartbreaking situation. People love the darkness and not the light. Galatians chapter 5, Paul says in verse 19, the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy. He goes on and on, showing that sin expresses itself in many different ways. But just because there are many ways to live against God doesn't mean you can choose one and put your arms around it and say, this one's mine. God will not be the judge of this. Friend, he will be the judge of this. He must turn from your sin. The testimony of the New Testament is consistent on this. I'll read you one more. This is from Revelation 21. Revelation 21, verse eight. It says, as for the cowardly and the faithless and the detestable and the murderers and the sexually immoral, the sorcerers, the idolaters, all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. Friends, God is judge and there is a judgment coming. And the only refuge for sinners is Christ. There is forgiveness in Christ. Paul says in Romans chapter 13, that in this new life, we conduct ourselves differently. Romans 13, 11, he says, You know the time. The hour has come for you to wake from sleep, for salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is gone. The day is at hand. Let's cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let's walk properly as in the daytime. There was a time in the fourth century when Augustine was reading these words when he was not a believer. And Augustine records that in his book, The Confessions, his autobiography, he read these words from Romans 13. He had been living in sexual immorality. He had been living, pursuing all the acts of the flesh and all the passions that he could muster. And he read these words and God stopped him right there like he'd hit a brick wall. And at that moment, Augustine realized where he stood before God and he repented of his sin and he was born again by the Spirit of God who revealed to him his sin and revealed to him the provision of Christ as a Savior. Friend, the Bible says in Romans 13, 14, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. There is a Redeemer for sinners and Christ will not turn you away. You should go to Him in faith. You should hold marriage in high honor, even if your past has been different than that. Friends, this is a new day. And tomorrow is a new day if the Lord grants tomorrow. But all we have at this moment is right now. So what will you do before God? Will you believe the Bible's testimony about our hearts and the sinful desires that we have, that we should turn from? And will you believe the Bible's testimony about your need for a Savior, that you would turn from your iniquity and believe in Christ, who atoned for your sin, who is your only faithful substitute, perfect in every way and sufficient, that you might be saved if you turn from him? There is no other provision. According to the flesh, if you live according to it, you will die. But the Bible invites you to know the joy of God. The Bible invites you to know the joy of Christ, that it might be in you. Psalm 1611, the Bible invites you to know the pleasures of God at his right hand forevermore. The Bible wants you to expose and know the shallowness and the lies of sin. Do you believe the Bible's testimony on these things? Do you see Christ as the all-consuming and compelling Redeemer and Savior? And see sin as the heinous and horrific and judgment-causing reality that it is? And will you turn from it? And will you believe?