- [Narrator] Sex and your spiritual life.
We can investigate several examples
of how God used sex to drive home a spiritual message.
The scripture is full of such passages.
However, let us first think about the connection
between sex and your own spiritual life.
How does your sexual behavior influence
your relationship with God?
Even in Old Testament times,
God showed his people that their sex life
and their spiritual were mutually influenced.
This connection is the reason why God laid down
so many marriage rules,
why he was so protective
in matters of adultery and promiscuity.
He gave men and women sex
for sacred and healthy reasons
and he did not want to see them desecrated.
Furthermore, he knew that a wayward sex life
would lead a person to dishonor God in other areas.
It would be the first step
toward complete spiritual decline.
So God regulated the conduct
of a person's sex life with tremendous care.
The book of Leviticus contains some very interesting laws
that revealed the connection
between the sexual and the spiritual.
Leviticus 15, for example,
prohibits a man from worshiping in the temple
if he has recently had sexual intercourse
or if he has touched a woman
during her menstrual period.
Leviticus 15:16-19.
"When a man has an emission of semen,
he must bathe his whole body with water,
and he will be unclean till evening."
17, "Any clothing or leather that has semen on it
must be washed with water
and it will be unclean till evening."
18, "When a man has sexual relations with a woman,
and there is an emission of semen,
both of them must bathe with water,
and they will be unclean till evening.
When a woman has a regular flow of blood,
the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days,
and anyone who touches her will be unclean till evening."
Scholars argue about what this text means.
Surely it cannot mean that these natural processes are evil.
I think it shows that God expects a person
to spend some time meditating and praying
and preparing for worship
before actually coming to the house of God.
And God knew that a person who was overly preoccupied
with physical things could not worship him
with all his heart.
Matthew Henry commented that this is also helpful
at this point.
He says, "These laws remind us that God sees all things.
Even those which are concealed from human eyes,
and escape the censures of men."
As we have said all along,
God does not separate a person's physical
and spiritual life.
Both are part of the same life.
Anything you do sexually affects every other aspect
of your life, including your worship.
God wants to keep you mindful of that.
In the Epistles of Paul,
he often warns early Christians
to keep their sex lives pure
because it will affect their spiritual life.
This is such a waning from Paul's first letter
to the Corinthians.
First Corinthians 6:18-20.
"Flee from sexual immorality.
All other sins a person commits are outside of the body
but whoever sins sexually sins against their own body.
Do you not know that your bodies
are temples of the Holy Spirit
who is in you, whom you have received from God?
You are not your own.
You were bought at a price,
therefore honor God with your bodies."
Many of us have memorized verse 19
where it says, "Do you not know
that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit
who is in you, whom you have received from God?
You are not your own."
I have heard this verse quoted
to condemn cigarette smoking,
drug abuse, and drinking.
All these are valid applications
but the original application was sex.
God tells us that our bodies are holy temples
in which he can live and reign
but we defile these temples
if we indulge in promiscuity.
Loose living exposes our bodies
to venereal disease and infection
leading to heart disease or worse.
To put it bluntly, promiscuity
can destroy the temple of God.
It can ruin any chance we have to serve God
with our physical bodies.
So promiscuity raises both a physical danger,
and a spiritual danger,
demonstrating once again
that sexuality and spirituality
cannot be neatly broken apart.
Anyone who lives a life of sexual perversion
cannot be a victorious Christian.
That should be obvious.
A prostitute does not glorify Christ
by the way he or she lives.
You do not have to be a theologian to realize this.
Any method that abuses or corrupts the bodies God
has given us is a shame
and a mockery of the Gospel.
It cuts off the testimony
that a person could otherwise give to the Lord.
Christians must purge them out of their lives.
They must get rid of any sexual deviancy or sin
in order to live lives that are holy unto the Lord.
He uses sexual symbols to convey some
of the most breathtaking images of the Gospel.
This is one of the most misunderstood aspects
of human sexuality.
Popular sexual manuals would have us believe
that sexual fulfillment
is simply a matter of biology or emotions
but it is also a matter of the mind.
If you are not in harmony with the God
who has made you a sexual creature,
you cannot expect to be in harmony with your sexual partner.
Moreover, sex can affect your spiritual growth.
The Bibles uses sex
to represent the deepest spiritual truths.
God has some very practical things to say about sex
because God is very interested in our well-being
and he knows that sex is an essential component
of our well-being.
However, we would be deceiving ourselves
if we did not notice the spiritual side
of God's Word on sex.
Sex as a spiritual symbol.
The Bible uses marriage, adultery, and prostitution
and other sex-related acts
to demonstrate spiritual fact.
Possibly the best-known instance of this
is found in the book of Hosea.
Here the prophet Hosea is told to marry a prostitute
to illustrate God's love for his rebellious people.
The result is one of the most bizarre,
and at the same time, most beautiful stories
in the entire Bible.
When the Lord began to speak through Hosea,
the Lord said to him,
"Go marry a promiscuous woman,
and have children with her
for like an adulterous wife,
this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord."
So he married Gomer, daughter of Diblaim,
and she conceived and bore him a son.
Hosea 1:2.
Imagine what Hosea's neighbors thought of this action.
A young prophet marries a prostitute
and says the Lord has commanded me to do it.
I believe that his friend said, "Huh, that's what he says.
I wonder what the real story is."
But God had indeed told Hosea to marry this woman
of the night.
He commanded the preacher to become a living example
of how God would treat the wandering nation of Israel.
Preachers can have some strenuous assignments,
but I can't imagine a more difficult calling
than Hosea had.
God made Hosea and his wife Gomer an abject lesson
to the whole nation.
Hosea was able to tell his people,
look, you have made yourself prostitutes
with all kinds of pagan gods,
just as Gomer has made herself a prostitute
with other men,
but God loves you and forgives you,
just as I forgive Gomer and marry her.
Gomer proved to be unfaithful again.
After she had given birth,
she left the house and became the concubine
of another man.
Hosea corrected her, bought her from the other man,
and brought her back to his house.
He never stopped loving her despite her infidelity.
As one commentator remarked,
his love for her was a beautiful equilibrium
of loving tenderness and severe judgment.
I can't imagine a more dramatic way
to express how God loves us
and redeems us from our unfaithfulness to him.
If a husband forgives an adulterous wife,
and brings her back to his home,
that's true forgiveness and love.