Well, open your Bibles, if you would, to Hebrews chapter 13. We are mostly done with Hebrews. I'm not sure exactly how many more weeks we have in this book, but we are at least in the last chapter. Hebrews 13, after describing where we are, that we are on Mount Zion, that God is a consuming fire. The writer applies these truths to the Hebrews and to us. He says, 13-1, Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. Remember the prisoners as if chained with them, and those who are mistreated, since you yourselves are also in the body. And then our text this morning. Marriage is to be honored among all, and the bed undefiled. But fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Let's pray. Father, give us the grace to hear your word. Help us not to flinch from the truth of judgment. To pretend that these words don't apply to us. That they're for other people. No, help us to recognize that they are for us. We who stand on Mount Zion with the innumerable angels and the just men made perfect are more than capable of becoming fornicators and adulterers and of tasting your judgment. Deliver us from that fate, Father. Teach us to honor marriage and to keep our beds clean, just like your son, Jesus Christ, our bridegroom, does. We pray that you would strengthen my mouth, help me to speak boldly, powerfully, and clearly to show the person and work of the Holy Spirit. by speaking Your Word to Your people. Father, we pray these things in His glorious name. Amen. If you are on Mount Zion, worshiping with reverence and awe, as chapter 12 describes, you need to look to your marriage. The way you conduct marriage, the way you think about it, honoring it, Keeping It Clean says a very great deal about whether you are truly on Mount Zion and whether you truly recognize God as a consuming fire. Honoring marriage by showing God-fearing chastity is a key part of right worship. What is honor? Honor is something that we know little about. Honor means showing some recognition, some mark of respect. When I was a child, I frequently went to the Fort Collins Wendy's, and as we were waiting in line, there was a plaque on the wall that we could study that said, Employee of the Month. And it had 12 slots. And a photograph for each month of the year, someone in that Wendy's who had excelled, who was being honored as employee of the month. Honor is anti-egalitarian in that sense. There was not a picture of the entire crew of that Wendy's under every month. One person was pulled out for special recognition. Every person has equal dignity because every person has equal humanity. God has made us dignified, and our culture focuses primarily on that dignity. Everyone should be treated the same. But honor is not like dignity. Honor is variable. Some are more honorable, others less honorable. And the more honorable should be more honored. The less honorable should be less honored. It's very straightforward. though it's also very counter-cultural. Honor is not based on humanity, but on worthiness. Thus, Psalm 15, in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but he honors those who fear the Lord. That's stating it in general terms. The God-fearer honors other God-fearers and despises those who walk in evil. To put it in personal terms, after your order of worship in the bulletin, there's a verse that reads, And all the king's servants who were at the king's gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman, for so the king had commanded concerning him. But Mordecai neither bowed down nor paid homage. In Mordecai's eyes, a vile person was despised. He made no effort to show any respect to Haman, though he was Grand Vizier of the Persian Empire, one of the most important people in the world, he was vile. And Mordecai would not so much as dip his head to this vile, dishonorable man. Haman is still human, right? No question about that. Haman is to be dishonored. While everyone else genuflects before him, Mordecai stands straight. Marriage is to be honored with marks of respect and appreciation. You need to do something, in other words, to obey this verse. Marriage is to be honored among all. That doesn't just mean you should think well of marriage, though of course you should. You need to honor it. How do we honor marriage? Well, that's what we're going to talk about. One of the most important ways to honor marriage in our society is to reject those who dishonor marriage. To stand against the theories and the practices common in our culture, I would say marriage is nothing special. In fact, it might even be a relic of an outmoded barbaric age. Thus, people who act or theorize contrary to the good of marriage people who are practical adulterers and fornicators who actually go out and do that, or theoretical adulterers and fornicators who defend it, who tell us why it's okay to cheat and sleep around, those people should be dishonored. Like Mordecai, we don't bow to them. We do not give their theories or ideas or actions the time of day. Peter tells us in his first letter to honor all men. We certainly need to keep that command. But Peter does not tell us to honor all men equally. We honor some more than others. We honor the God-fearers. Mordecai does not spit in Haman's face. But he also makes no effort to show the slightest mark of respect to anything Heyman is or does. The single most important way of showing honor to marriage in our time and place is to reject the lies about sexuality. This is our first step in honoring marriage. We need to know to believe and to defend the truth that we are mankind, male and female. One race, two sexes. All human, some are male, the rest are female. You would think that that goes without saying, but we know of course that it does not go without saying. There are many powerful people, institutions, propagandists who say otherwise. Marriage is dishonored by those people. Marriage is a comprehensive union of one man and one woman for life, ordered towards fruitfulness. That is literally impossible for a same-sex couple. It's not possible for them to be a man and a woman, for one thing. It's not possible for them to have a comprehensive union. It's not possible for them to be fruitful. We must give no honor whatsoever to arguments, imaginations, propaganda lies, or any so-called free speech that tries to make biblical marriage anything other than normal, privileged, and honored. Marriage is to be honored among all. My late grandfather watched a lot of CNN and believed far too much of what he saw. And he would say to us regularly, How does it hurt my marriage if the gays move in together? Why can't they do that? Doesn't hurt my marriage. And of course, we argued with him at great length on that point. The fact is, grandpa, yes, it does. It does hurt your marriage. Allowing it, paying for it, letting it be normal says that intercourse is not the reward for obedience and faithfulness in marriage. We've severed the link between sexual pleasure and family life. And if that link is broken, then sexuality is all about me and my desires. It has nothing to do with love, faithfulness, commitment, or basic human happiness of being part of a functioning family with people who love you and are loyal to you. and don't abuse you. All of those things are out the window if we affirm or give any honor to notions of homosexual mirage. Fornication says you can get the benefits without the work. And that destroys the relational familial aspect of sexuality. Takes it out behind the barn and shoots it in the head. And if you doubt me, listen to Taylor Swift. She sings about this in every song. The sexual revolution says you are a fool for investing in your marriage. Don't honor marriage. You can get all the pleasure with none of the work, bozo. That's what the sexual revolution says. It dishonors marriage. and defiles the bed. But those who dishonor marriage will find that their family and society dishonors them in life and that God himself will say at the end, I never knew you. Reject those who denigrate the work you're doing to build a family. Don't listen to them. They're all over social media. They're all over the TV telling you You're married, you're raising children, you're stupid. God says something different. We need to honor marriage in theory by rejecting the lies. We also need to honor marriage in practice by not allowing adultery, divorce, or fornication to be an option in our lives. If we think those things are okay, If we do those things, we are dishonoring marriage and defiling our beds. We train our children and help them form clean, God-honoring romantic relationships. If relatives who are living together want to come visit, we shame them. What do I mean? We say, you will sleep in separate bedrooms in my house. We don't say, shame on you, but we tell them, we honor marriage here, And we refuse to honor people who are dishonoring marriage. Yes, they will feel ashamed. And yes, that is a good thing. That is what this verse says. Marriage is honorable to be honored by all. If you don't honor marriage, we don't honor you. We're Mordecai. Sorry, Haman. I don't bow. I don't genuflect. I don't say, oh, that will make them feel uncomfortable, so I won't say anything. Part of honoring marriage is making the dishonorers of marriage feel uncomfortable. Rightly so. We also honor marriage institutionally. We fight against insurance benefits for domestic partners. We don't believe in that. That dishonors marriage. We fight against hospital visitations and decision making rights for domestic partners or gay spouses. Those things dishonor marriage. And therefore we dishonor and reject them. They're institutional forms of honor. The same way we reject films featuring scantily clad women. That also dishonors marriage. No need to get married. Just turn on the television. Individually, we honor marriage by thanking our parents for staying married. If we had that privilege. We honor marriage by honoring our own marriage. Thank your spouse for being a good spouse. Honor your spouse who honors you by keeping the marriage covenant. Do the same in return. Honor the marriages of your friends and fellow believers. I encourage them. Thank them for staying married. Offer to swap them for babysitting. Things like that. You honor marriage above all, again, by keeping your own bed clean. What defiles a bed? Well, all kinds of things defile a bed. The very basic level, looking with lust, that Jesus talked about, that defiles your bed. Don't do that. Honor marriage by keeping lust-inducing material out of your home. Dads, pay attention to this. Where can the web browser on your computer and phone go? And what can the kids see? You honor marriage by protecting your family from these things. The sexualized mindset, thinking that others exist for your gratification, that defiles your bed. Divorcing is the single most intense sin against the honor of marriage that you personally can commit. To get divorced is to say to God's honorable institution, you were bad for me. I will not and cannot live with you. To be divorced is to be sinned against by your spouse. Beware, brothers and sisters. We can also mention that assisted reproductive technology defiles a bed. In vitro fertilization, the creation of human embryos outside the human body, human surrogacy, sperm donation, the freezing of eggs for later use. These things dishonor marriage and misunderstand what the human being is for. We are not pleasure-seeking animals. Having children is not a right. It is a gift. In the old days, now we call it assisted reproduction. In the old days, we used to call it slavery, buying and selling human beings. If you go to a fertility clinic today, and you say, I would like some in vitro fertilization, please. They'll say, all right, we'll withdraw about two dozen eggs, and we will fertilize them all. You'll have two dozen children. And we will select the sturdiest and healthiest and strongest and implant them and we'll put the rest in the freezer where they will sit until the freezer breaks down. Brothers and sisters, in all seriousness, if you think there's something morally or ethically acceptable about that, you need to go home and study the Ten Commandments. Pray through the larger catechism. on the Ten Commandments. Choosing some of your children for life and others for the freezer is not, is never, okay. The Word of God is very clear about death. And if you say to the fertility clinic, I only want one embryo made, they'll say, sorry, we don't do that. You do it on their terms or you don't do it at all. Don't do it on their terms. Don't do it at all. Keep your bed clean. How do you keep your bed clean? In positive terms, you need to know what God's Word says. You need to understand the 7th commandment. Thou shalt not commit adultery. What does that mean? Obviously, it means don't have an affair. But it means so much more than that, as Jesus said. Don't look with lust. Don't think in sexualized terms, as I just said. Understand chastity as a moral virtue, meaning using your sexuality well. You are male or female all the way down. I'm a man when I'm using heavy chains to pull bulldozers out of the mud. And I'm also a man when I'm crying and getting in touch with my feelings. Manhood is not a certain set of things you do Manhood is who you are. Sex is a characteristic of persons, not of actions. To be chaste means to make right use of your sexuality. I need my manhood to be a dad, to be a pastor, but I also need it for everything else that I do. Ladies, same goes for you. You're female, not just so you can give birth, though that's a huge benefit of being female. You're just as feminine if you're hanging drywall or punching cattle. Your femininity is also God's gift to you and to our whole community. Chastity simply means being a good woman, using your womanhood well. Chastity means being a good man, using your manhood well. There's so much more to it, in other words, than just abstaining from sexual sin. Yes, that's very important. But God didn't make you a man so you could abstain from sexual sin. He didn't make you a woman so you could abstain from sexual sin. These things are positive goods, wonderful blessings. And the devil's assault on chastity attacks manhood and womanhood. If you assault chastity, If you sleep with the girl next door, if you just look at the girl next door wrong, you are assaulting chastity, and that means you're ultimately assaulting masculinity, femininity, and therefore humanity itself. We are the male and female image of God. Misusing that is a way of attacking the image of God. There's a direct line, in other words, between whatever sexual sin you might feel tempted by, something that seems very okay, and all the creepy queer transgender stuff. A direct line between those things. An assault on chastity is an assault on humanity. Don't assault the male and female image of God. Don't fight against these things. Dishonoring marriage means dishonoring your entire nature as a sexed being. Fornicators and adulterers are to be dishonored because they dishonor God and humanity alike. We do not privilege that. We refuse to de-center marriage so that the marginalized can become normalized. Our society is hell-bent on doing that. We are heaven-bent, so to speak, on opposing that. The marginalized needs to stay marginalized. We will continue to push fornicators, adulterers, in vitro fertilizers, pornographers, and more to the outskirts of society. Not to do so is to invite the judgment of God. That's what the writer says. Fornicators and adulterers, God will judge. Being single does not make sexual sin okay. If you're unmarried this morning, that doesn't mean that, oh, this is okay. I can look with lust because I'm not cheating on anyone. I can have an affair because I'm not cheating on anyone. Ulrich Zwingli, one of the reformers, before he was converted. He was a Roman Catholic priest in Switzerland. He said he had two rules for himself. No married women or virgins. He considered that to be chastity. Brothers and sisters, that's not chastity. Being single does not make sexual sin okay. You have come to God the judge of all. But obviously, if you're married, sexual sin is even worse. There's a lot of beautiful women in this church. To me, they're all strange women. But one, when Proverbs talks about this strange woman, it doesn't mean she's a foreigner, she's from an exotic other place, that she's a professional sex worker, It means she's not yours. She doesn't belong to you in marriage, therefore she's a strange woman. Don't get too intimate with her. Solomon says that over and over and over. If you sow to that temptation, if you covet your neighbor's wife, sitting here in church or anywhere else, God will judge you. And the more you sow to that temptation, the more you will taste the sting of God's judgment in this life as your children despise you, and quite possibly in the next too, as you throw away heaven for a woman. Many a better man than you has already done it. David, Solomon, Samson, Adam, the list goes on and on. Adultery will destroy your family and her family. It will take a giant bite out of our church. It will make us a laughingstock to the world. It will dishonor marriage. It will make you effeminate in her mannish and a frankly disgusting way. And the list goes on. In Tolstoy's great chronicle of adultery, Anna Karenina, Anna throws herself in front of a train at the end of the book. If you think that you like a woman who is not yours, in this church, at work, at school, on the internet, or anywhere else, just ask yourself, brothers, how much do I want her to commit suicide? She may or may not physically throw herself in front of a train, but to hit on her is asking her to commit spiritual suicide. to walk away from Christ by getting in bed with you. By the same token, sisters, there are lots of godly men in this church. You, too, need to control those thoughts. Oh, so-and-so. Wow, what a great spiritual leader. Unlike this sorry excuse for a man that I'm stuck with. Control those thoughts. If you don't, You will bring disaster on your home, your children, and above all on the spiritual formation you think you're craving. If you want a man who will lead you in the truth of God's Word, I can promise you that the man who will commit adultery with you is not that man. If you're offended by the notion that some women here are more beautiful than you, you should be equally offended by the notion that some men here are better spiritual leaders than the one you have. Frankly, it isn't true. The man you have is the best man for you. Handpicked by God Himself. Don't think that Proverbs warnings against the seductress are pure male fantasy. That you could never try to attract a man's eye and thereby catch his heart. Yes, you could. There but for the grace of God go all the sweet chaste moms in the room, all the manly dedicated fathers. It's not worth it. The one who sins against chastity wrongs his own soul. God will judge the adulterer and the adulteress, as our verse says, with what? With depression, with pain, with angry children, with bitter exes, with financial problems and jealousy and rage and a gaping wound in the heart where your spouse and family used to be. And those are just the natural, inevitable consequences. I'm not even talking about the judgments of sickness, rejection by parents and friends, loss of spiritual vigor, slavery to sin, and eternal hellfire that are all too likely to fall upon the heads of adulterers. Beware. God will most certainly judge fornicators and adulterers. Beware of the propaganda of the sexual revolution, especially the canard that free speech requires pornography. It does not and never has. Honor marriage. Dishonor those who dishonor marriage because they dishonor the perfect bridegroom. His name is Jesus and you belong to Him. Don't cheat on Him. He is a jealous God. Pray to Him for the grace to be faithful. Honor Him and He will honor you. Stay faithful to Him and you will be blessed beyond imagination. Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would give us the grace to keep our beds clean. For many of us, perhaps we feel or we know for a fact that our bed is already very defiled. Father, your son is not only the great physician, but the great launderer, the one who washes, cleans us up. Lord, we pray for those who are defiled, who keenly feel that about their beds, that you would cleanse them this morning. Wash the sexual sin off us. Make us true men and true women. Give us the grace to walk in perfect chastity towards one another because we love our perfect bridegroom. and also because we rightly fear his judgment. Let us honor marriage, and Father, we pray that you would dishonor and destroy those who dishonor marriage. Take down the propagandists and the pornographers, we ask. Give us the freedom to be faithful to one another as spouses and to teach our children the same. We ask it in the name of Jesus, your son, our perfect groom. Amen.