God’s Perspective on Sexual Morality and Sexual Sin (Part 1)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. Mike Abendroth here at the helm. Engage. Remember, I�m tempted, you guys sending me these funny business emails, I�m tempted to change the show�s name to Duplex Gratia Radio.

DGR. But then it�d be like Desiring God Radio. Are they DGR? DGR, is that, I don�t know, is that Deutschland or something? Is that what their initials are? Who knows what they are? Maybe that was like East Berlin or something.

You can always write me, Mike, at NoCompromiseRadio .com. We try to do things here so that the Lord Jesus would be exalted. Let�s see how I can get this document working. I started preaching from an iPad, I don�t know, 10 years ago.

Maybe only eight or something like that, but I�ve gone through a couple iPad minis. I�ve got a little larger one now, an iPad Air. Really love it. I always reboot it on Saturday night before Sunday and have a backup on my phone in case something happens.

Some sermons I could preach without notes. I don�t think they�d be quite as good, but I could do that. I was speaking of preaching without notes. I was in San Diego area, Vista to be exact, a couple weeks ago, or last Sunday, excuse me, a couple weeks when this airs, and I was at Tri-City Bible Church.

My son attends there and is a member, and Jonathan Rourke, I think used to be O-Rourke. I wonder if he had a good St. Patrick�s Day. He preached a sermon without notes, and it was a great sermon. That was, whatever day that was, mid-February, like the 12th or something, does that make sense?

Is that a Sunday? I don�t know. 11th? It was excellent. Romans 15. I sat there thinking, �This is an excellent sermon and then I talked to him afterward and he said, �Oh, I didn�t have. I said, �Did you have notes

�Oh, no, I don�t have any notes. But anyway, I�d encourage you to check that sermon out. I think you�d be blessed. So, what am I doing? I have no idea. I�m talking, clearing my throat. I have some, I don�t know what I have.

I have a lung test here in a few weeks for a COVID pneumonia update. I think my lungs are like at 80 or something like that. I�ve had all kinds of GI issues. I think it�s related to COVID, and I think that�s settled down some now that I�m lactose-free.

I don�t do any lactose, and that makes things better without getting into details. I have eaten some gluten, but I heard a lot of COVID folks have GI problems and they get rid of caffeine, gluten, lactose, and therefore all fun.

Just to have a little brie cheese. I have some sprinkled lactose-free cheese on a little quesadilla thing today. It said it melts easily. I�m thinking, how does cardboard melt easily? You know how many minutes I have to microwave cardboard before it melts?

But, glad to not have some of the other problems associated with that, and I�m talking to some folks to kind of like reboot my gut. How about that? So, if you say, �Lord, please help Mike�s gut to be rebooted and his lungs to be back to 100%,� I would appreciate that.

Thanks for praying. Lots of people I saw at the Shepherd�s Conference said, �We�re praying for you. We�re glad you�re alive. I only met two enemies that said, �We wish you were dead. Just kidding.

That�s not true. Even people I�ve clashed with in the past have said to me and reached out, �We�ve been praying for you. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. So, today on No Compromise Radio, I�d like to talk a little bit about the book of Ephesians.

It seemed like it was a month or two ago and a prominent pastor said for support and camaraderie with our Canadian friends, there was some bill about what you could preach on and homosexuality and all that stuff that you should be preaching this Sunday.

I think it was February something, a sermon on biblical sexuality or biblical sexual ethics or something like that. And I was asked by someone in the congregation, �Are you going to do that this Sunday

And I said, �Well, it�s an admirable thing to talk on that topic. I�m in Ephesians 2 now. And when I get to Ephesians 5, I�ll talk about it. And so now I�m in Ephesians 5. I didn�t want to mess up the flow of Ephesians to talk about that and then hit it in chapter 5 as well.

I would say that if I ask you the question in Ephesians 5, what�s it about? Most of the time, you�re going to go to the passage about wives and husbands, right? Christ and the church, wives responding and submission.

Those are the things that would probably come to your mind. Maybe something about don�t get drunk with wine, that�s dissipation. But the first half, it�s not talked about that much, it seems to me, in my opinion.

And it is a very wonderful passage, certainly because it�s God�s Word, it�s apropos. But it talks about sexual sin and it talks about how to live in light of our position in Christ, right? Everything�s rooted in union with Christ, in Him, in Him, in Him, in Christ Jesus, in Jesus, in Jesus Christ, in Christ.

And the book rehearses our election, our redemption, the sealing ministry of the Spirit, Jesus Christ, the one who is our peace, Jews and Gentiles together, exalted in the church, mysteries of God about bringing Jews and Gentiles together in the church, one people of God.

It�s a wonderful book. And then chapter 4, it swings to how do we respond to this? God is the justifier, the sanctifier, and the glorifier. And we respond with good works, right? Just like with confessions.

Justification, sanctification of good works. And we here at No Compromise Radio aren�t going to talk about our sanctification, meaning what we do. Sanctification is done to us. And it enables us to say no to sin, mortification, and vivification, yes to righteousness.

Viv for viv, to live, viva, viva. Well, it also discusses things that are important when it comes to sexuality. Ephesus was crazy. Diana, the goddess there, was a crazy goddess. And some think all those things on her front, on her chest, were breasts.

It looked like there are, I don�t know, 70 of them there. Most scholars think they�re not that. They think they�re testicles. And you just go, �Oh, just how gross can you get That�s the point. And that�s what sexual sin is.

It�s as beautiful and as wonderful as sexual relations are in a marriage between a man and a woman, who�ve always been men, who�ve always been women. It�s just as opposite in terms of the gross side. I talked to somebody not that long ago.

They were married late in life. Their wife was also older when they got married and both were virgins. And the man said to me something about, you know, it�s the way God intended and it�s beautiful. And I thought, you know what?

That�s true. That�s true. When I�m doing premarital counseling and I ask them, have you two been engaged in sexual relationships with each other? I�m not asking what they did before. But sometimes they tell me, you know, we�re both virgins and we�ve been waiting.

And I just commend them. I praise the Lord for that. And I almost want to cry because it�s just, in the old days, that was kind of more the norm. And now it�s so exceptional that a pastor can even be brought to tears.

What does the Bible teach about sex and sexuality? The world teaches a lot. The world is pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing. One of the reasons why I wrote the book �Sexual Fidelity� is because I wanted my son and I to have a relationship where we could talk about these things.

Because the world is going to talk. The world has a megaphone, and that megaphone is amplified by telephones, smart phones. And people can get on there and watch whatever they want. They don�t even have to ask what that is or somehow sneak to a 7-Eleven and buy a dirty magazine.

They can see it in blazing, with blazing pixels, never to be forgotten. I think our society is like Judah in Jeremiah 5. Why should I pardon you? Your sons have forsaken me and sworn by those who are not gods.

When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery and trooped to the harlot�s house. They were well-fed lusty horses, each one naying after his own neighbor�s wife. Shall I not punish these people, declares the Lord?

And on a nation such as this, shall I not avenge myself? Jeremiah 5, 7 -9. How can we be holy people, live holy lives, obey the Lord, be faithful in areas like this, when the world is totally in a free-for-all when it comes to sex and sexuality?

I mean, I�m glad I wasn�t a pagan in the swipe-right world. Somebody�s got a desire, you�ve got a desire, you think they look pretty. Or if you�re a lady, you think they look handsome. And you swipe right and you just meet and it�s like, well, I have an urge, you have an urge.

And this is 1 Corinthians 6 stuff, right? Food for the body and the body for food. No one ever says, �Mike, you�ve got a moral problem because you were hungry and you went and had some fish tacos in Oceanside.

I�m hungry, therefore I eat. It�s just part of life. And similarly, that�s the way people think of sex today in a utilitarian fashion. They say, �You know what? I have a desire, and they have a desire, and so what�s the problem

Right? This is just something we have. It�s a chemical desire, it�s a mental desire, and off it goes. So, it�s just crazy. It is lawless, right? The world is antinomian. Remember, antinomian has a specific definition.

Historically, and I�ll use it loosely now, the world, of course, they don�t obey the third use of the law. But they don�t obey any laws. They are the capital A antinomians, not Luther�s definition. How should we think?

What should frame our thoughts and our minds in this area? And so Paul is going to tell the church something, but before he tells them to do something, he�s not going to only tell them what to do. Let me rephrase that.

I was wrong when I said the first sentence. It�s true if you think, �Okay, who are we in Christ Jesus 1 to 3 in Ephesians But here, even in chapter 5, he�s going to give a command, but then he�s going to give the reason for the command.

He�s going to give the motivation for the command. He�s going to make it Christ-centered. He�s going to say, �It�s not just gospel that we talk about here when you get saved, justified, that is. It�s even in sanctification because our response to God�s try you in sanctifying supernatural sovereign work, well, there are things we do, right?

God doesn�t live a holy life for us in terms of practically, oppositionally the Lord Jesus did. I�m not talking about that. And Ephesians 5 says something that�s really, if you think about it, it�s shocking.

It�s a shocking statement that�s rarely talked about in the realm of sexual purity and sexual temptation. Ephesians 5 .1, �Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children. Okay, you struggle with sexual sin, imitate God.

Now, what do you mean by that? I mean, if you�re thinking about the triune God or the Father or the Spirit, you�re like, well, okay, that doesn�t work in the realm of sex because they don�t have bodies, right?

And you think, okay, the Lord Jesus, He had a body, but He never sinned. Can you imagine? He never looked at a woman with lust. Of course, to be tempted isn�t to sin, but you think, that�s amazing. If He would have gotten married, of course it wouldn�t have been wrong to have sex.

We can talk about who His bride is and all that. I don�t even want to get into that rabbit trail. I don�t know why I�m talking about it. I should have this edited out. �Be imitators of God as beloved children.

Literally, become imitators of God as beloved children. I can�t think of any place else where we�re told to imitate God. It seems like a pretty high standard. Wink, wink. I mean, Paul said, �Imitate me 1 Corinthians 4.

He said, �Imitate me as I am of Christ 1 Corinthians 11. �Become imitators of us and of the Lord 1 Thessalonians 1 .6. That says, you know, you became those. But now it�s saying, do that. Mimicking God.

Lloyd-Jones says, �Is not this gross exaggeration? Has not the apostle run away with himself and allowed his eloquence to dazzle him? Be imitators. It�s where we get the word �mimic our mime. Right?

He talks about becoming kind and gentle-hearted and forgivers in 4 .32. Now, we copy God. I remember when I was younger, and it was before there were all kinds of copy machines. We called them Xerox machines, because I think Xerox was the one that made them.

And everything therefore was a Xerox. You know, like Kleenex? Pasta Kleenex? A name of a brand. Versus a facial tissue. Facial tissue. You put your face on the glass copy machine, and then close your eyes, and then you�d hit, and you�d see all your stubble and your chin and all that stuff.

It was kind of fun. Put a lot of bad facial oil on the paper, on the glass too. Okay, you�re a child of God, and so you�re supposed to mimic Him. And we could talk much about, okay, children imitate their parents, right?

For good or for ill, that�s what they do. They�re, you know, a chip off the old block. You know, they�re like father, like son type of thing. Like mother, like daughter. But he says something in 5 .2 that Christianizes it, if you will.

�And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Then he�s going to talk about sexual sins in the rest. Sexual immorality, verse 3. Impurity, covetousness, don�t have it be named.

Any kind of sex talk in verse 4. Nope, don�t do it if you�re sexually immoral or covetous. You don�t have an inheritance in the kingdom of God. Watch out for who talks to you this way. Don�t become partners with them.

That�s the rest of that section in Ephesians. So, no compromise radio listeners. You get what you pay for around here, and here�s what you paid to hear. I don�t think you paid anything, but here�s what you paid to hear.

Imitate God. What do you mean imitate God? Like His omniscience? Try that. His omnipresence? Try that. No, He tells us, �Walk in love as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us. Here�s the cool part.

God�s love, Agape�s love, Jesus Christ�s love for you, is a love that gives. Is a love that wants what�s best for its object, for its loved one. God�s love gives. Sexual sin takes. And there you have it.

Why should we imitate God in this particular arena? Because we�re supposed to be givers, not takers. And sexual sin takes what isn�t yours. If you have a wife, she is yours, 1 Corinthians 7. You are hers.

She is yours. And it�s a giving. Right? When you talk to couples and they�re newlyweds and they�re virgins and they would maybe ask for advice, if you would tell both of them, if you just try to give to the other person and please the other person and love the other person, everything will work out.

Right? If the wife does that, the husband does that, they�re both there to give themselves and to please their spouse, well, okay, there you have it. Everything will work out if that�s the attitude. And that should be the attitude because we�re to become imitators of God.

Christ gives, Christ loves. And here in verse 2, it�s a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. That�s why we�re to walk in love. Because God�s love gives. He gives himself up. Greater love has no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friends.

John 15. Galatians 2. Who loved me and gave himself for me. 1 John 3 .16. We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. And this kind of love, this kind of giving, self-sacrificial, on behalf of, for the other person, this is a wonderful offering and sacrifice to God.

Paul�s going to use this Jewish sacrificial language about sacrificial death and offering and a fragrant aroma, a sweet-smelling savor, a sweet-smelling aroma. This is a love that gives. And this love that gives pleases God.

You remember certain smells, don�t you? I remember if I were ever camping, I didn�t camp a whole lot, but the smell of coffee when you�re camping. Maybe you didn�t get up early and your spouse did or friend did and they put the coffee on.

Oh, the smell or the bacon. You wake up in the morning and somebody�s smelling bacon. Oh, what a pleasing aroma. How about cheese? Oh, I guess I�m lactose-free now. This is a sweet-smelling odor. There�s not always odor that�s bad.

And, therefore, love gives in marriage. Love doesn�t take selfishly outside of marriage. Now, we shouldn�t do it in marriage either, but the purpose here is the opposite of love for Paul�s argument is taking.

Love, look at Jesus in his life, gives. And, of course, we�re to have Christ as an example in some things, and this is one of those things. Not in everything. We need to substitute more, and WWJD doesn�t apply everywhere, but 1 Peter 2 it does, and here it does.

Love gives. Love doesn�t take. And in sexual sin, you�re taking. The person�s not yours. And that person on the computer monitor, they�re not yours. And so, instead of self-sacrifice, it�s now self-indulgence.

No, we don�t want to do that. That�s unlike God. That�s impure. That�s not holy. That�s taking. That�s self-centered, self-gratifying at the expense and hurt of someone else. You say, �Yeah, but they�re consenting.

No, no. Sexual sins, there�s a taint, sadly, forever because of those. But, and of course can be forgiven, but never forgotten. We see the comparison. God�s love gives. Sexual sin takes. And so, even in marriage, you think, okay, giving to my spouse.

Outside of marriage, taking something. You say, �Well, we�re engaged, and we don�t really go all the way. What�s the text say? Verse 3, �But immorality, that�s any kind of sexual sin. It�s outside of marriage, any kind.

Premarital, homosexual, pornography. It�s just a catch-all term, immorality, pornea. Or impurity or greed must not even be named among you as is proper among saints. This kind of impurity, it needs to be cleansed.

It�s just kind of like everything from actually committing adultery to sexual things short of the act. Ideas about things. Facebook fantasies. Pornography. Flirting around, thinking about things that you ought not to.

This is an insatiability. It says even greed here. It�s like greedy. You can�t get enough. And by the way, when you look at people like Wilt Chamberlain and other people and rock stars, and with a braggadocio comment that they�ve had thousands, tens of thousands of sexual encounters with different people, you see that greed.

It�s not a husband and wife. In the marital bed, which is undefiled, Hebrews 13 says, kindly, sacrificially, pleasing the other spouse. And then everything can just be simple. I mean, it doesn�t have to be, but in that realm, it�s just the opposite.

I mean, I start talking about this, and I�m like, how did I get on this subject? But this is what I�m preaching on Sunday. I�m going to say it differently on Sunday, hopefully. But this kind of sexual sin that just takes, it shouldn�t even be named among you.

Herodotus said, one may not speak about what one may not do. Or not to do it. It�s not fitting. It�s not proper among the saints. There should be conduct befitting a saint. And there�s conduct unbefitting a saint.

And it�s this. Say, well, it�s private, consenting to adults. No, no, no. Fornicators and adulterers God will judge, Hebrews 13. Yes, we live in a culture that is crazy, obsessed with sex. Sex is an idol.

There are no boundaries in any way, shape, or form. But that was just like back in the day where Paul writes. And therefore, I think it�s important for me to say, if you�re here listening and you are flirting around with somebody on Facebook and texting and saying things that you ought not to because you�re married, you need to stop that.

If you�re watching pornography, you need to stop that. If you�re having sex outside of marriage because you�re engaged or you�re dating, you need to stop that. If you�re being selfish in any way, shape, or form, you need to stop that.

And you need to continue, if you�re married, to just please your spouse. As Christ loved us and gave himself for us. And you say, well, I�m struggling, I�m single. Well, then you need to find a wife, right?

That�s what the Bible says. He finds a wife, finds a good thing. Well, my name is Mike Abendroth. We are talking about this subject, hopefully trying to be delicate about it. And we�ll pick it up next time as well on No Compromise Radio in Ephesians chapter 5,.

Imitate God. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God�s Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We�re right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.