Good Work and Good Rest (Exodus 31)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Exodus 31

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Good morning my name is Chet I'm one of the pastors here we are working our way through the book of Exodus if you will turn to Exodus chapter 31. we looked at Exodus chapter 28 and 29 last week the week prior we looked at 26 and on up and we looked at some of the sections in chapter 31. in chapter 31 there is a section on a census that is to be taken and we won't spend time studying that together but we are moving to chapter 31.

Today and we're going to study through this entire chapter together I um a couple years ago was on vacation and I ran into a store to buy some milk I think that's pretty much all I needed I might have needed one other thing but mostly milk and if you had stopped me on my way into the store and said hey how much should milk cost I would have said I don't know and I don't have any opinions about milk I just need some and I would have been thinking I told you the truth I walked to the back of the store and I get to the gallons of milk and milk was six dollars in.

Something and I said to myself six dollars what on Earth like I'm just standing there staring at this like if his milk lost its mind did this come from a magical cow what what on and apparently I had a lot of opinions about milk that were very deep inside of me that I cared deeply about because I was enraged in this grocery store and I wouldn't have been able to tell you that um two minutes ago and the reason I tell you that story is that this morning we are going to.

Look at a passage that is going to I think shine some light on how we view work how we view work and how we View Rest and how we view our labor and I think it's possible that you might think I don't really have like a philosophy of work I don't have a Theology of work I don't have something that I've I haven't given this much thought I don't really have opinions on it and what I'd like to say is you do actually have some opinions on work maybe you have thought it through.

But if you haven't I'd like to offer that you actually do have some sort of a viewpoint on work you're like me with milk you might not realize it but you have some thought process and I want to tell you the two primary ones that our culture gives us these are the ones that you're handed as like hey pick an option these are the two ways to think about work and I would argue that you probably have you lean in one of these directions option number one work gives you your identity it helps you know who you are and it helps everybody else know who you are and by having good work you are better.

And by having worse work you are worse this is identity this is one of the reasons not the only reason but one of the reasons why we ask people pretty quickly what do you do what kind of work do you do it's not just a good topic of conversation when you first meet somebody it also helps you know what kind of person are you who are you but people don't know how to answer that question so you say what kind of work do you do and it helps us to find that.

So work as identity is one of the cultural options we're given the other one is that work is a necessary evil that is useful for providing the type of life that you want work is a necessary evil that is useful for providing the type of life that you want so if you want a lavish life you need work that will provide that if you want to live in the woods and eat Roots you don't have to work at all you did it.

But whatever lifestyle you want the amount of rest that you want the amount of pleasantness that you want the amount of stability that you want work is there to provide that and you need to work the exact amount that gives that to you and one of the reasons I think I can help you see that this is how we think about this is we ask little kids what do you want to be when you grow up and B is a is an identity word what do you want to be.

When you grow up and we're interested in this answer and I my wife showed me one where this little kid was like going first day of kindergarten and said how they were and it said What class they were going into and then it said I want to be when I grow up and they put chicken nugget and I guess they thought what's the most amazing thing ever I want to set up my sights High I'm going to be a chicken nugget.

But we don't want chicken nugget as an answer you want to hear Dr lawyer scientist astronaut Batman like we want something good to pour yourself into and usually if you're talking to a kid and you say they say they want to be a doctor and you say that's great you are saying that's great either because what a good identity what a good person to be what a good honorable thing to make yourself into or that's great Doctors live at the lake.

And if a kid says something and you say you don't want to do that usually it's because it won't provide the type of life I want for you or it's not the type of person I want you to be because those are our primary things that we're given culturally now as a Christian we add a third thing into this because I talk to people they'll say things like I'm really trying to follow Jesus I want my life to matter is it.

Okay for me to just repair HVAC units my entire life is that okay is it okay if all I ever do is teach kindergarten is that okay like am I okay to do that or have I missed something have I rejected the mission of God somehow and so this passage I think shines some light and gives us some clarity on all of that and will help us have a better approach to how we ought to view work and how we ought to view living lives of a lot of normal work under the leadership of.

God and in worship and glory to him so let's pray and we're going to read Exodus chapter 31 together God we ask for your grace we ask for your help we pray that you would give us clarity as we study your word today that we might be Spirit-filled laborers that we might love you and love our neighbors well through them in Jesus name amen now I do not think that this passage is primarily here to teach us the things that we're going to talk about this morning.

So we're going to read through it and I'm going to try to help you see it in context with Exodus before we're going to walk through and point out some of the things that help kind of say hey this this gives us some handles here on how we ought to think about work so Exodus chapter 31 the Lord said to Moses Moses up on the mountain God's been telling him over and over again all the things he's going to have to do the.

Lord said to Moses see I have called by name bezalel the son of Yuri son of her of the tribe of Judah and I have filled him with the spirit of God with ability and intelligence with knowledge and all craftsmanship to devise artistic designs to work in gold silver and bronze in cutting stones for setting and in carving wood to work in every craft and behold I have appointed with him a holy AB the son of ahissamak of the tribe of Dan and I have given to all able men ability that they may make all that I have commanded you and this is a recap of what we've been studying the past few weeks starting.

In verse 7. the tent of meeting and the Ark of the testimony and The Mercy Seat that is on it and all the Furnishings of the tent the table and its utensils and the pure lamp stand with all its utensils and the altar of incense and the altar of burnt offerings with all its utensils and the Basin and its stand and the finely worked garments the holy garments for Aaron the priests and the garments of his sons for their service as priests and the anointing oil and The Fragrant incense.

For the holy Place according to all that I have commanded you they shall do so God's been telling him you're going to do this you're going to build this you're going to build this this is how you're going to build it this is how long it's going to be this is how wide this is what a span is all those things and then he says and I've set aside specifically these men to help they're going to build it and then he says this in.

Verse 12. and the Lord said to Moses you are to speak to the people of Israel and say above all you shall keep my sabbaths the Sabbath is the day of rest that one day in seven they would work six days and then they would rest and worship in the rest of the Lord and do no work you shall keep my sabbaths for this is a sign between me and you throughout your Generations that you may know that I the Lord sanctify you.

So he says the Sabbath stands here to show you that I'm the one who sets you apart who makes you holy who makes you good I'm the one who rescues you I'm the one who gives you your worth that's what's built into that word sanctify and it's important because of what he's about to say verse 14 you shall keep the Sabbath because it is Holy for you everyone who profanes it shall be put to death whoever does any work on it that Soul shall be cut off from among his people.

Now as we study the Ten Commandments one of the things we talked about is that we don't have a good radar As Americans for the sanctity of God the Holiness of God and so when he says things like you're going to keep the Sabbath and if you don't you're going to be put to death we immediately think that's an overreaction but it's because we have an under reaction to the Holiness of God to the weight of obedience and do you see what a rejection of the Sabbath is it's a rejection of knowing.

God is the one who sets them apart God has invited them into this sanctifying relationship and a rejection of the Sabbath is a rejection of God being the one who makes them holy who does the work and so they're in this in some ways a rejection of Sabbath for them is like a rejection of salvation for us to say that we don't want Jesus I'll be the one who makes myself good I'll be the one who makes myself holy and it does what to us what it does to them which it cuts them off from the people.

Because he said they if if they're to remember consistently that he's the one who redeems and then to to work on that day is to reject that it's a problem and he will not put up with that being rampant in them in among his people and you will be put to death verse 15. six days shall work be done but the seventh day is the Sabbath of solemn rest holy to the Lord whoever does any work on the Sabbath today shall be put to death.

Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath observing the Sabbath throughout all their Generations as a covenant forever it is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed if you have more questions about the Sabbath we taught about it when we looked at the fourth Commandment in the Ten Commandments we won't spend as much time on it today Verse 18 and he gave to Moses.

When he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai the two tablets of the testimony tablets of stone written with the Finger of God so he's handing off to him all that they've talked about Moses is about to go down the mountain and get to work all we've read so far is stuff that he's supposed to do he's leaving with a to-do list in so many ways he's got a bunch of things he's got to do God's given it to him and sitting down the mountain.

Okay so one of the first things though that I think is helpful for us as we try to understand how we ought to approach work because what's happening in this moment is God is giving Moses all these instructions and he's telling him who's going to accomplish it and he's reminding him of the Sabbath and sending him down and that's kind of where this fits in the context of Exodus but I think for us it's helpful for us to notice a few things that clarify how we ought to view work the.

First one is this look at verse two see I have called by name bezalel and then in verse 3 it says and I have filled him with the spirit of God now Moses is hearing this what for he's calling this guy specifically and he's filled him with the spirit of God what for and when we think of being filled with the spirit of God we think prophecy he's gonna he's gonna be like in the Priestly service there's something going to be something something really spiritual is going to happen.

And then he says filled him with the spirit of God he's filled him with ability and intelligence with knowledge and all craftsmanship to devise artistic designs to work in gold silver and bronze in cutting stones for setting and in carving wood to make every craft I filled him with my spirit for work for craftsmanship for competency that he's poured in him ability and intelligence knowledge and all craftsmanship that this is a gift from God and this is really interesting to me it's really encouraging and I also think that.

If we're to consider bezalel I don't think that he was sitting in his tent and had spent his entire life being incompetent and God Zapped him and suddenly he was like I must make artistic designs I don't think that's what happened I think that what happened is what happens in all of life for us where God is at work in this man and he grows in competency I don't think when he made artistic designs for the Tabernacle it was the first time he had ever done it one of the things he had to do was filigree that they were going to do this I want to show you all filigree this is filigree he had.

To engrave precious stones wrap them in that and put them on the shoulders of the Priestly garments I don't think it was the first time he'd ever made filigree I think this was something that he had been good at been competent been growing in that God had poured this ability in him and then God says I've specifically designed him for this purpose so go back look what he gives him his ability and intelligence so and then knowledge and all craftsmanship and these are gifts from.

God which if you think about this if God's the one who gives these things then it glorifies God for bezalel to be good at them that if Moses comes down and he says I'm looking for bezalel a son of Yuri son of her tribe of Judah like he goes to the tribe of Judah y'all got a bezel yeah we got seven okay son of Yuri son of her oh okay we got two that are under her but only one under Yuri that's the one I'm looking.

For and when he says okay show me what you can do how does bezelo glorify God by being excellent and Moses would be watching him and go and then look at God like wow you poured intelligence and ability and knowledge and craftsmanship into him this is amazing to bezel would glorify God well by being good at this and have y'all ever in life seen someone who had ability and it just you kind of marveled at it physical ability they could dance or play a sport they they could play an instrument.

For a moment you just kind of swept up in the actual beauty of it the glory of it because there's God-given ability that's in the world that points us to him it doesn't terminate on itself but it rolls us up y'all ever seen intelligence and just been blown away by it like someone who figured something out came out with something new fixed the problem designed something you ever just your car's not working so you pop the hood and you're sad but impressed.

Because it's like this thing is magical I don't know how to work it but somebody made up something really good here there's intelligence that's done these things but it also says intelligence and knowledge and I love that that's separated because intelligence and knowledge are not exactly the same thing we put them together a lot but someone can have knowledge without being the most intelligent person there have been times where you've interacted with somebody and they just know they know what they're doing they know how to fix the problem they know how to sort a thing out there are people.

If you ever watch anybody who works in food service or fast food that loves their job and does a good job and knows what they're doing have you ever seen like I'll get stuck watching videos sometimes of people who just know what they're doing and some kind of building a craft or working on a thing or who can just flip Burgers real quick or the people who do that little ice cream thing where they take the ice cream from you and they give it back to you or whatever have you ever seen this like you can go to Marble Slab and be blessed by someone being really good at doing what they're doing and enjoying.

It they have the knowledge the competence to do this and craftsmanship He blesses them with these things and he specifically calls him to these things that it's a God-given ability and a God-given calling for this but then he says this verse 6. and behold I have appointed with him a holy AB the son of a hissim a hyssamek of the tribe of Dan and I have given to all able men ability that they may make all that I have commanded you I have given to all able men ability I want you to.

Look at that for a second ability is a blessing can you highlight that for us that ability is a blessing y'all work is not a curse it's cursed by sin so there's aspects of it that are more difficult but work was in the garden God designed us to be competent and to work and that we bring him glory in good work so if God's the one who gives ability if God's the one who gives skill and craftsmanship and knowledge then we can glorify.

God by doing that well therefore all good work can be worship if there's a way in work to glorify God through ability and skill and knowledge and craftsmanship which I would argue that all jobs take something of one of those four take ability or they take intelligence or they take knowledge or they take some craftsmanship that all work takes some sort of then if that's a way to glorify God by doing it well therefore work can be worshipful now there are some occupations that you're not allowed to do like.

If you said God's gifted me with the ability and one of the things that I'm great at is hurting people who owe the mafia money we would just say he's given you other abilities find one of those you might excel at this but this is not an okay thing for you to do but most occupations most work is going to be something that you get to do in a way that glorifies God that's worshipful so there's a way for bezalel to be tied up where he thinks that work is just about himself.

Therefore the only way he could be humble in work is to be bad at it because if he's good at it it terminates on himself it makes him prideful there's a way for him to try to steal the glory from God and make it about himself wrap his identity up and that wrap his worth up and make it about himself but if good work is meant to glorify God then the way to be humble in work is not to be bad at it.

But to worshipfully be very very good at it the way to be humble in work is not to be bad at it but to worshipfully be very very good at it and do y'all see how if work can be worshiped that that undermines our two primary cultural options given to us that in this option work is about you it's about your identity it's about your worth and so that all of your work ultimately just turns around and is about you you don't become a doctor.

Because you want to care for sick people and it's a blessing to the world you don't become a lawyer because we need Justice you become that because those are good things to be and ultimately your work is about you but if my work is worshipful and it rolls up and prays to God then that kills that approach it undermines it you think that work is just unnecessary evil so that you can enjoy the actual good stuff of life when you understand that God's blessed you to be worshipful in your work it can't be evil it's part of the good stuff of life it has purpose in it.

And so this approach this understanding undercuts our approaches to work but I want you to see something else it's not just that work can be worshipful but work the use of skills the exercise of these abilities that God has given us can be done in worship but it's also one of the primary ways that we love our neighbors look at verse six behold I have appointed with him a holy AB the son of a hissamak of the tribe of Dan and I have given to all able men ability that they may make all that I have commanded you Moses has been up on a mountain.

God has been repeatedly telling him he's been repeatedly telling him that he's going to have to do this he's going to have to make this you're going to make this you're going to make this you're going to make this you're going to make this you're going to make this you're going to make a table you're going to make a tent you're going to make a an effort you're going to make a breast piece you're going to have bells and pomegranates it's all going to be.

Finally done it's going to be done really well it's going to be engraved really well you're going to make filigree you're going to make all these things I don't think that Moses was thinking oh no I can't do that I'm a shepherd Moses was a Shepherd he's not about to walk down the mountain and weave a tent I think Moses was thinking what we would think which is we're going to make this because that's how it works and then God specifically says I've blessed all of them with ability to accomplish all these things and all that they're going to accomplish isn't just about worship it's not just about themselves.

But it also blesses everybody around them that it's a blessing to have this kind of ability that I want to I missed a quote that I want to read to y'all and we'll point out to y'all as we understand that work is an act of worship and then work as a way to love our neighbors this is a quote from Dorothy Sayers she's an author and she says this the Church's approach to an intelligent Carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him to not be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours and to come to Church on Sundays.

For the record It's a Good Counsel but then she says this what the Church should be telling him is this the very first demand that his religion makes upon his time is that he should make good tables and in doing that who worship and he'll love God and he'll love his neighbor there's a in his book Tim Keller wrote a book called every good Endeavor and in that book he quotes another book work the meaning of Life by Lester decoster and I want to read this quote to you it's a longer quote.

But I think it's a helpful thing to Think Through he says this work is the form in which we make ourselves useful to others and which others make themselves useful to us we plant with our work and God gives the increase to unify the human race so he says that in work I make myself useful to others others make themselves useful to us and God blesses this this is the concept that Martin Luther has of The Masks of God that God works through work we're told in the Bible that.

God strengthens strengthens the bars of the city we're told that God watches over the city we're told that God feeds everybody we all he does but one of the ways he does that is that someone builds the walls in the bars of the city and someone watches there's night Watchmen that watch over the city and there's someone who milks the cow and someone who delivers the milk like God feeds me but one of the ways he does that is there's a Food Lion a mile from my house and every day someone goes over there and unlocks the doors.

For me and puts the lion back in the back where he's been doing night Watchman stuff at night so that he won't attack me like there's there's things that someone does so that I can enter in there and be able to get the food out and it's a blessing and so this is what Lester decoster says he says look at the chair you are lounging in could you have made it for yourself how would you get say the wood would you go and fell a tree I said sure.

But only after first making the tools for that and putting together some kind of vehicle to haul the wood and constructing a mill to do the lumber and making roads to drive on from place to place in short a lifetime or two to make one chair you're gonna go cut down a tree okay make the tools to cut the tree down all right you did it you got your tree down now what you're going to do and it's just a helpful thought process of being like.

Okay another take forever he says if we worked not 40 but 140 hours per week we couldn't make for ourselves from scratch even a fraction of all the goods and services that we call our own our paycheck turns out to buy us the use of far more than we could possibly make for ourselves in the time it takes for us to earn the check work yields far more in return upon our efforts than our particular jobs put in why because of everybody else that we could not in the amount of time have the things that we have live the lives that we live.

But we can together because of everybody else Tim Keller then says in response to this quote the guy ends this quote by saying the difference between a Wilderness and a culture is simply work without if everybody quit work we would just be in a wilderness and Tim Keller says there may be no better way to love your neighbor whether you are riding parking tickets software or books than to Simply do your work and he calls this the ministry of competency you get to work in the ministry of Competency which means being competent being good at the work that you've been given is a way to love your neighbor my granddad grew up in the Swansea.

Area and he said he he joined the Marines he went and signed up he said he walked out of the office got on the bus with a bunch of other guys and they rode to Paris Island he said they get off the bus when they get off this man comes out in a uniform and yells I'm your mama now boys my granddad said he thought I may have made a mistake one of the first things they did was they issued him a uniform and they issued him boots.

And so they went in and they all got measured for all of these things and they you know measure you can give you your stuff he said they measured somebody's foot gave him a boot gave him a pair of boots sent them out measure their gas foot and gave him a pair of boots send them out eventually they measured his foot and apparently he has more of like a Clydesdale hoof than a foot he said his foot is almost as wide as it is long it just is like.

And so they measured his foot and then when looked for boots and the guy who's in charge of this is just looking they're trying on boots looking trying on boots looking trying on boots it's like his first day in the Marines and he's just sitting there trying on chew after two after shoe he said his drill sergeant comes back in and starts yelling at him while the the guy was in the back looking for shoes and then he said one of the most magical things that's ever happened in the Marines happen.

For his his time in the Marines the guy who fits you for Boots outranked the guy who was yelling at him so he said he walked back in and said let me tell you something this Marine's gonna have shoes that fit his feet he's got to be on his feet all the time and he said he just chewed him out he said he just sat there after being chewed out watch this guy get chewed out and then got to sit there until he had boots and he looked at me and said that man found me boots that fit my feet and it was the.

First pair of comfortable shoes I've owned in my entire life that's the ministry of competence that man loved my granddad well do you know how easy it would have been to say I don't think we have the size put these on and how much more difficult life would have been for my granddad as a marine with shoes that didn't fit that's what had happened to him his entire life he had shoes that didn't fit but this man did his job well in this room we have people who work in construction we have people who work in the medical field we have teachers we have people who sell things people who prepare food people who prepare.

Taxes people who help with people's books and finances we have people who sell products fix products cut hair which of those are we willing to give up competency on I know you don't want an incompetent mechanic or an incompetent doctor you don't want them quickly Googling things while you're talking to them you'd like for them to kind of know what they're doing and if they're going to Google at least know where to go but I can WebMD at the house I want you to know what you're doing.

But y'all do we want an incompetent person to cut our hair no have you ever had a really good haircut I really good one and you just walk around like because you just know this person knew what they were doing and they figured out my my head shape and they were able to dodge all the bumps or whatever have you ever had a really bad haircut like a bad haircut that that messes your life up for a short period of time.

But everybody's got to get haircuts yeah you go into a place like when I go into the Verizon store I've gone in before and I felt like I know more about my phone than this person which is bad I've also gone in and after about five minutes of talking I've just relaxed I'm like this person's like my wizard they know what they're talking about the ministry of competence blesses your life and you work one of the primary ways that we love our neighbors is that we're good at our jobs there may be a way.

For you to get another certification there might be some YouTube videos that you can watch there might be some ways that you can grow in knowledge or craftsmanship there might be ways that you can get better at your job that you can learn how to use this type of equipment there's something that you can do that you can be competent that you can help and love and serve people well so that when you go to work you are worshiping the Lord and loving your neighbor and you get to do that day in and day out that completely changes that's counter-cultural to our cultural approaches to work that.

If work is worship and it's not about me and it's not about giving me the good life but it's about me honoring God with the abilities the skills the knowledge the intelligence the talents he's given me and if work is a way for me to love my neighbor then I get to go to work every day just knowing that if I competently prepare this food I've blessed people if I get their order right I've blessed them if I have a good attitude.

If I'm honest when they ask me questions I've blessed people the ministry of confidence is competence is a way to love your neighbor go to Lowe's when you have a problem your day will then be decided by how competent the help at Lowe's is and it makes a difference so what kind of work do you do and how can you get better at it so I believe that begins to answer our question the third question that we have which is is it.

Okay for me to just fix hvacs my whole life can I do pool repair is that okay I think one of the things we've done well as a Church if we told you that one of the ways you can have purpose in your work is by being a missionary that God has already placed you somewhere and that you have co-workers and you have an overseer and you have all these people that God intentionally puts you there that you might reach them with the Gospel and that nobody else is there you've already been commissioned and as a missionary and that's true and I don't want you to lose that.

But I think we've also failed to tell you that one of the ways that you can live a good life is to make really good tables one of the ways do you know how much of life is meant to be normal how much of your life is meant to be go to work eat some food go to sleep it's a continual thing and that one of the blessings we're told is for us to be able to find joy and enjoyment and purpose in our labor our toil that this is a blessing from.

God that's one of the things Ecclesiastes tells us and you actually get to go to work and worship and love your neighbors day in and day out doing whatever good work you find to do and so can you do HVAC repair your whole life yeah if you Worship in it and you love your neighbors well in it I'll tell you one thing when somebody when I need my HVAC repaired I want a competent honest person to show up at my house you ever just like I'm not a hugger.

But sometimes if somebody does something I think I want to hug you I'm not going to but like it's weird for me to hug the plumber but like I want to hug this plumber because they have just they've blessed me and there's a way for you to do that in whatever work you find yourself doing and for someone who says I just stare at a computer I don't have co-workers I don't have anybody that I get to to try to be a missionary with.

Okay well do you know that some people in our Church would die if they had to stay at a computer every day they would physically wither up and fall over dead they do not they have not been blessed with the ability or the skill or the craftsmanship to handle what you are handling and you get to bless people well by doing your job well and you get to love people and you get to Worship the Lord in the skill that he gave you that other people don't have.

So yes you can do that but one of the things that I think is very interesting In this passage that I don't want us to miss because it's a part of this whole thing for us it's part of this whole cultural thing for us is that good God glorifying Rest is an appropriate counterpart to good God glorifying work because go to verse 12. and the Lord said to Moses you are to speak to the people of Israel and say above all you shall keep my sabbaths.

For this is a sign between me and you throughout your Generations that you may know that I the Lord sanctify you why does he say this right here before he sends them down the mountain because he's about to put a tablet of a to-do list in his hands y'all Moses's to-do list is longer than yours do you know how many things he's got to go skillfully make do you know how many animals he's about to have to kill so that they can have priests like do you know this list is long and guess what not going to be done in six days.

And so there'd be a real Temptation for them to go we got work to do this is what we have to do to be the people of God but what's he say above all you're going to keep my Sabbath because I the Lord and the one who sanctifies you that's not what you have to do to be the people of God that's what you get to do because you're part of the people of God but it's not what you have to do to be the people of.

God because I'm the one who sets you apart good rest real rest do y'all realize that in either one of our cultural options you don't rest well this option you don't rest can't rest I'll rest when I'm dead okay because I my worth is here and if I stop working who am I I've got to achieve I've got to make a name for myself I got to get enough money I've got to do it I've got to prove I've got to show back up to my high school reunion and be like whatever and over here rest is the point of life Recreation and pleasure.

And so it gets over inflated here it Withers and dies and here it becomes some monstrosity that it was never meant to be and it's not enjoyable it doesn't work that way it's never enough but if we have worshipful work we get to have worshipful rest and they're a beautiful counterbalance to one another that the people who were worshiping in their work are also the people who can just stop because work isn't about them and it's not about providing the good life they just get to stop and say the Lord's good they get to rest genuinely rest be free I think I think we need to know that rest is a gift and it's a.

Necessary practice to remind us of the place of work rest isn't the goal and it isn't the achievement but it's also not a punishment or a hindrance to finding our significance but it's a blessing and I think that this information is good and helpful but I think it's insufficient I don't think this information will help you actually straighten out your problem not on its own I just don't think it can I think you can leave going I'm supposed to worship and work I'm supposed to.

But here's the problem all of this hinges on God being the one who sanctifies them and so for us all of this hinges on Jesus if Jesus isn't at work in this it doesn't work if Jesus doesn't come in and rescue you because I want you to see something if we say things like my job just isn't good enough usually what we mean if someone said why why why if you had if you were trying to you know if your counselor was like a four-year-old and you just said a statement.

And then they said why why why why you would eventually get to I think it doesn't make me into enough I don't feel like something with this job or it doesn't give me the good life do you have y'all know that wanting identity and value and worth and wanting pleasantness and rest and stability is a longing for Jesus that I want someone to show up and tell me I'm okay I want something that fixes me and lets me sleep at night I want delight and rest and satisfaction I want to be stable I want to know that I'm all right I want to know that I'm loved I want to know that I'm enough do.

You know that's a cry for Jesus so unless Jesus shows up we won't ever be free to approach these the way we're meant to approach them because it's Jesus who comes and rescues and forgives Sinners and gives them an identity it's Jesus who gives us a purpose who gives us a reality who sets us free it's Jesus who gives us freedom and stability and delight and if that's true for you if Jesus has shown up and you've surrendered to him trusted in him and he's at work in you through his Spirit.

Then guess what you can worship and work because you don't need it you don't need it to satisfy you don't need it to fix you you don't need it to make you into something you have that in Christ and therefore you get to just return it back to the Lord and you get to genuinely enjoy your work and if Jesus is the good life then you just you can rest if he's where your Delight comes from and your fulfillment comes from do y'all realize that it's never enough that.

If you're over here in this Camp you've had moments where you're like I did it how long did that last if you're lucky six months before you had to keep achieving you had to keep earning and you had to keep proving and you had to get more and it just you ever had that moment where you think finally and then a mosquito bites your neck I guess it's not enough there's never enough rest there's never enough relaxation there's never it never satisfies you always want more there was never a good enough party or a good enough celebration or a good enough stability It's never enough.

Because they were only meant to point us to our ultimate rest and our ultimate Worth to be found in Christ but if we have Jesus then we get to people who work who worship and work and love our neighbors well who work hard and rest well in the freedom that he's the one who sanctifies us that he's the one who's accomplished all of this for us so that we're free to operate in this way let's pray oh Lord so much of our life is going to be taken up with work and I think it's easy.

For us to to think it's meaningless I think it's easy for us to only care about what it provides for us I think it's easy for us to wrap our entire identity in it and so Lord we ask that by your spirit you would begin to untangle our hearts that you begin to see that we're Sanctified by you that our hope is in you our stability our freedom our rest our Delight is in you Lord for the person in the room who doesn't have you who hasn't trusted in your salvation.

Lord we pray that you would help them to see the emptiness the exhaustion found in placing their worth and value in their work we pray that you would help them to see The Emptiness found in thinking that life is just about what Pleasures they can hoard here we ask that by your spirit you withdraw them to yourself so that they might find what they're actually looking for and for all of us who have found you Lord may you continue to work in us to sanctify us to set us apart to draw Us near to you.

So that we might worship you in our work and we might love our neighbor as well in Jesus name amen Matt and Natalie are going to come back up and and then the minute the band will join them and we'll sing together and we're going to take communion and communion is a rather a regularly practiced reminder that we need Jesus that we needed his body broken for us and his blood shed for us that without him we have no hope and that with him he is the one who sanctifies us who sets us apart.

And so that when you come in to communion that you were proclaiming his death until he returns that we are blood-bought people of God rescued by his work and that our hope is that one day he sets everything right that in the midst of this labor and this desire this Pursuit what we're saying is we want salvation and we want heaven and we stand between those moments as Christians where we have been made right with God by Jesus and we look forward to the moment.

When he rescues and redeems us and that's what communion is if you are not a Christian do not partake in communion it is not for you if you have not yet placed your faith in Jesus we would invite you to do that and Christians in the room take a moment to consider yourselves to consider your approach to work to consider whatever the Holy Spirit's putting on your heart that you might need to repent of that you might need to change in your attitude before you come and celebrate that.

Jesus Christ died to save Sinners and that your hope is in him and that is he that sanctifies so take a moment when you're ready.

Priests (Exodus 28-29)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Exodus 28-30 Priests

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Good morning grab your Baubles and head to Exodus chapter 28. we're going to be looking at Exodus 28 and 29 together today so we're going to go through two chapters we're going to be looking at God as he's giving the instructions to Moses about the garments for the priests and the consecration ceremony for the priest so they're going to do this later but they're going to give the instructions now we're going to study this now as we look at this and I know that as we start going through Exodus and we say hey we're going to work through a book of the Bible that some of y'all were like I'm really looking forward to kind.

Of hearing the the ten plagues and some of you were like I I'm kind of interested to see how we talk through what happens with the golden calf and I know that some of y'all are like I want to talk about those Priestly garments well today is your day we're talking about Priestly garments today so I hope that you are ready as we go through this one of the things that we see in the Bible is that God is preparing since eternity passed.

For what he's going to accomplish in Christ and he's working this out in the story of human history and he's got all of these things that he's putting in place that ultimately get fulfilled in Jesus and there are some movies that have been very popular where there's this kind of twist ending this surprise ending so um Planet of the Apes the original Planet of the Apes was like this it had a surprise ending that was startling for people or maybe the The Usual Suspects to the to the best ones that I've seen that I really appreciated were the sixth sense and Shutter Island had this twist ending and the twist in those what made it.

Particularly good was that you were like oh it made a lot of things make sense some things you were like I should I should have seen that coming I should have kind of known that was and when they went back and showed it and so if you watch the movie the second time it's a completely different movie you're seeing all this stuff that you didn't see the first time and that is a lot of how the New Testament treats the Old Testament the Old Testament informs the New Testament.

But the New Testament looks back at the Old Testament and says see it's like you're watching a friend who's just super geeked out about the sixth sense and they pause it every 30 seconds and go see did you see the way his eyes went that's because that's what the the New Testament does with the Old Testament they're constantly going do you see how God was doing this you see how he's accomplishing this and one of the main things that they point out is that.

Jesus is the Fulfillment of the priesthood that he is the high priest that's what Hebrews goes out of its way to clearly articulate repeatedly Jesus is our high priest he fulfills this so as we read this this morning we're going to pause it and we're going to stop and we're going to say do you see Jesus here do you see how this is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus because there's some interesting things that go into the Garment the clothing that the priests are going to wear.

So as we start this morning I want to read from Hebrews 3 before we get into Exodus 28 here's Hebrews 3 verse 1. therefore holy brothers that's Church family you who share in a Heavenly calling consider Jesus the Apostle and high priest of our confession and so we're going to do that this morning we're going to consider Jesus the high priest of our confession that as Christians he's our high priest so as we learn about the inauguration of the priesthood we're going to consider.

Jesus so let's pray and then we'll do that together father we thank you for your fulfillment of your promises and that what we have in Christ is infinitely eternally better than what you gifted to your people of Israel that you have accomplished what we're going to read today you've accomplished in Christ for us so may we Delight in the Fulfillment of these things and may we worship you as we study them together in Jesus name amen Exodus chapter 28. God's talking to Moses and he says.

Then bring near to you air in your brother and his sons with him from among the people of Israel to serve me as priests Aaron and Aaron's sons naidab by who eliasar and ithamar a priest is someone who stands in God and the people so to be a priest in this role at times the priests would stand representing God to the people and then at times the priest would stand representing the people to God but as a mediator is an intermediary.

And so that's what this role of a priest is is someone who's in between God and the people and so he says this is going to be given to Aaron and his sons ultimately it's going to be given to the whole tribe of Levi to be levitical priesthood which is where they're the tribe they're from but Aaron and his sons are going to be the line of high priests and it's given to them so we're going to talk first about as we.

Look at these garments we're going to see the representation of the priest representing God to the people as he stands in the middle and faces the people on behalf of God we're going to look at some of the indications of that in the way that the garments are made so verse 2. and you shall make holy garments for you air in your brother for Glory and for beauty now this is interesting because that word glory is used throughout the Book of Exodus and it is used to describe.

God and His glory and the glory that he's going to get from what he does and the glory that he has in his person and himself the glory that's displayed on the mountain and then it's used in two places to describe the clothing that will be given to the priests and so in a way God is sharing some of his glory with the priesthood that there to have a bit of Glory as they represent God to the people that the priesthood is going to stand in in a way to represent him and he's going to make them garments specifically.

For their Glory now if they had done this on their own it would have been bad if they were like you know what I want some glorious garments I'm going to elevate myself I'm going to be the fanciest person that would be bad that would be frowned upon but when God says no I'm intentionally doing this they're going to have special garments for Glory and for beauty as they stand in to represent him and it says this you shall verse 3 you shall speak to all the skillful whom I have filled with a spirit of skill that they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate him.

For my priesthood consecrate means to set aside to place him in this role these are the garments that they shall make a breast piece an ephed a robe a coat of Checker work a turban and a sash they shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother and his sons to serve me as priests now an effort is translating the word ephed much like our word taco means Taco ifad means if it it's this special garment given to the priesthood so if you were like I kind of understand some of these things I got an idea of what a turbine is what's an aphid an iFit is going to be explained to us.

Because it's a special garment that goes here with the high priest so it says verse five they shall receive gold blue and purple and Scarlet Yarns and fine-twined linens here are the Glorious garments they're going to make it's going to look something like that huh that thing in the middle there is the breast piece the iFit is the thing that is uh woven multi-colored around it um or that hangs underneath it but they're going to make this and it's intentionally designed with a bunch of imagery that I think.

Because because God knows what he's doing and ultimately Jesus is going to fulfill this there's a bunch of images that go into this that ultimately point to the finished work of Christ now he is dressed like a walking Tabernacle that phrase that we just read received gold blue and purple and Scarlet Yarns and find twindling and we're going to read that over and over again but we already read it over and over again when they were making the Tabernacle that this is how they made the covering of the Tabernacle and the inside veil in between the holy place and the most holy place.

And so he's dressed up to look like the Tabernacle and I don't think that's on accident that if the Tabernacle is the place where God meets Earth where he's going to put his footstool where he's going to be present in his particular specific way then the priesthood is also going to represent him so if the Tabernacle is the representation of him meeting with the Earth then the priesthood the high priest is a walking representation of that and those are some of the things that help us understand that he's intentionally set up to be leading and standing in between.

God and the people that's it's used in Exodus 21 verse 6 Exodus 26 verse 31 so he's dressed for Glory and for beauty in a way that looks like the Tabernacle but he's also giving a breast piece of judgment and so we're going to read about that look at verse 6. and they shall make the ephot of gold of blue and purple and Scarlet Yarns and find twine Linens skillfully worked and she'll have two shoulder pieces attached to its two edges.

So that it may be joined together and the skillfully woven band on it shall be made like it and be of one piece with it of gold and blue and purple and Scarlet Yarns and fine twined Linens you shall take two Onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel six of their names on the one stone and the names of the remaining six on the other Stone in order of their birth as a jeweler engraves Signet.

So you shall engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel you shall enclose them in settings of gold filigree and this is gold filigree well yeah there it is so they're going to have two stones with the names of the sons of Israel encased in that on his shoulders pretty verse 12 and you shall set the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel and Aaron shall bear their names before the.

Lord on his two shoulders for remembrance verse 13 and 14 will talk about how to attach it let's move to verse 15. you shall make a breast piece of judgment so he's going to have this breast piece of judgment that's that square thing you saw in skilled work in the style of the ephid you shall make it of gold and blue and purple and Scarlet Yarns and fine twine linen shall you make it it shall be square and doubled a span its length and a span its breath this is a span tip your thumb pinky a span cubits tip your fingy thingy finger that's a thingy twice that's awesome this is a finger elbow nailed.

It all right I didn't hear it till the second time I might have just moved on with my life and not knowing I did that all right all right shouldn't have told you what a span is okay verse 17 you shall set it in four rows of stones then it's going to talk about how the stones are what stones to use in verse 21 it says there shall be 12 Stones with their names according to the names of the sons of Israel they shall be like signets each engraved with its name.

For the Twelve Tribes so there's two stones six names on each shoulder and then there's a breast piece that has 12 Stones with engraved names of each tribe then it's going to take some time to tell you how to attach it so it doesn't fall off and then go down to verse 29. so Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breast piece of judgment on his heart when he goes into the holy place to bring them to regular remembrance before the.

Lord and we're going to talk about this bringing them to Remembrance in a minute and in the breast piece of judgment you shall put the urum and the thumbem and they shall be on Aaron's heart when he goes in before the Lord thus Aaron shall bear the Judgment of the people of Israel on his heart before the Lord regularly and we'll talk about that again in a second that he's bearing their judgment but the urum and the thumbum are specifically given to the high priest to discern the will of.

God they consult urum and thumbem to understand God's will so this breast piece of judgment is not just bearing judgment but it's also making judgment that you would bring someone to the high priest so in Exodus 22 it says that if someone borrows some property and then it ends up gone that you then would bring them before God bring them near to God and whatever God decided would tell you whether or not they had stolen and there's just some questions there as to like how did they do that.

Well most likely they did that with yerman where the high priest would use yerman to understand God's will now we don't know worked we can outline we can trace out a few things and we'll walk through that but anything that tells you this is exactly how they worked is some speculation because we really don't know but what we do know is enough to know how they worked and we have enough to know what we need to know so they would use this to make judgments Ezra 2 we.

See this says the governor told them that they were not to partake of the most holy food until they should be a priest to consult urem and thumbem that they would go before God and ask questions and the yerman thumb and would help them know a judgment from God as Moses is handing over the Reigns of leadership to Joshua in numbers 27 it says and he that's Joshua shall stand before Elias are the priest who shall inquire for him by the Judgment of urum before the.

Lord so even though Joshua is going to lead the nation he would still go to the priest to understand what they were supposed to do to answer questions about God's Will and God's desire for them this is still going when Saul's King in first Samuel 14. says therefore Saul said there's a dispute between him and his army and he says oh Lord God of Israel why have you not answered your servant this day if this guilt is in me that was answered in they lost the battle as.

If this guilt is in me or in Jonathan my son O Lord God of Israel give urum but if this guilt is in your People Israel give thumbem and Jonathan and Saul were taken but the people escaped so it's some way of casting lots of discerning truth of finding reality empowered by God it's not as simple as like flipping a coin because in first Samuel 26 it says when Saul inquired of the Lord the Lord did not answer him either by dreams or by urum or by prophets which means there's a way.

For you to use urum and thumbem and get no answer for God to not respond so it can't be flipping a coin just right or left yes or no because that always would give an answer so that's about all we have we know they used it we know that God specified it and that God empowered this for judgment now some of you as we were talking through that might have thought that's crazy they made decisions by like rolling some dice and some of you might have thought that sounds wonderful can we do that can I just get some dice and be like all right.

If it's a seven I take the job and the answer to the first person is that's not crazy because it was God's specific given way to discern his will that he empowered so he gave this as a gift to his people of Israel and specifically to the priesthood to make judgments on behalf of the People by God that God would make these judgments for them so it was an empowered gift given to them for them to be able to discern God's will and to the.

Second person no we can't make decisions like that first of all because this was only given to the high priest not as just the way that everybody got too many decisions and secondly that's not the means by which we are given to make decisions we are we have something so much better we have been empowered by the Holy Spirit and been given the Church that the Church collectively for Jesus says where two or more of you are gathered in my name there I am in the midst of you and whatever you bind on Earth is bound and whatever you lose is loose this this gift given to the Church that we might collectively make decisions.

So that you're empowered by the spirit and that you can walk under the guidance of the spirit but you also get your Church family to help make decisions to help discern the will of God and so that is how we are designed to make these decisions but we see in him having this judgment that God was empowering the high priest to stand in his stead and to render judgments based off of God's will and so the high priest stood representing God to the people.

Now pause Jesus fulfills this beautifully infinitely more because it's not a walking representation of the Tabernacle he's not just a representation of God he is God himself this is what Hebrews 1 says he is the radiance of the glory of God he's not just shared a little bit in the clothing he wears he's the display of God's glory is seen in Christ he's the radiance of the glory of God the exact imprint of his nature so that where he the uh the high priest would wear clothes made of the same stuff as the Tabernacle that.

Jesus is made of the same stuff he's the same exact imprint he is God not just a representation of God he is God who has come to redeem and to work on our behalf and so that our high priest is not a person who's a stand-in and we hope he does his best but he is God who has come to redeem and to work on our behalf it says he upholds the universe by the word of his power and so our high priest Christ is.

God he's not some sort of representation but he is fully and completely accomplished this but the high priest didn't just represent God to the people but he also represented the people to God and you'll see this we already read some of this but look back at verse 12. it says you shall set the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the epha the stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel and Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders.

For remembrance and then in verse 29 it says so Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breast piece of judgment on his heart when he goes into the holy place to bring them to regular remembrance before the Lord so the high priest wears the names of the tribes of Israel before God to bring them to remembrance and to Bear their judgment so that if you were in the tribe of Reuben or if you were in the tribe of Simeon or.

If you were in The Tribe of Benjamin that you knew that knew the high priest when he went in before God took you with him that he represented you before God in his sacrifices and in his offerings that you were covered too and it doesn't tell us why the names are on him twice says he's going to have their names on their shoulders for remembrance and he's going to have the names on his heart for remembrance and for judgment but when I consider.

Jesus I think it's beautiful that he carries Us in the same way he carries Us in his heart that he loves us that he cares for us that he carries judgment for us but he also carries our weight he Bears our guilt that he carries the cross on his shoulders to Calvary that he takes with us takes our sin with him and takes us with him when he represents us before God so that we have a high priest who carries you.

If you belong to Jesus your name is written and it is carried before the Lord and you are atoned for and cared for as John says in first John that he wrote these things that we might not sin but if anyone does sin we have an advocate with a father we have someone who's standing before the father right now that bears our names before him to forgive us to be our propitiation for our sins so that our high priest does this as.

Well verse 31 you shall make the robe of the ephid olive blue it shall have an opening for the head in the middle of it with a woven binding around the opening like the opening in a garment so that it may not tear on its hymn you shall make pomegranates of blue and purple and Scarlet Yarns around a Tim with bells of gold between them a golden Bell and a pomegranate a golden Bell and a pomegranate around the Hem of the robe and it shall be on Aaron.

When he ministers and its sound shall be heard when he goes into the holy place before the Lord and when he comes out so that he does not die now I think if I was Aaron and Moses was walking me through this and he was like Oh and around to him was going to be a pomegranate and then a bell and then a pomegranate and then a bell I'd be like all right cool and then he'd say and the bells are going to make noise.

When you walk right yeah yeah so that you don't die and now let me tell you about the turban I think I'd have been like wait go back to the bells part but you see Aaron and Moses understood that Aaron and all the high priests are doing dangerous holy work because they're sinners and sinners don't just get to be in the presence of God this would be a very real thing to consider that that you don't get to just uh presume to be in the presence of.

God but I think it's really interesting that woven into him of this garment is pomegranates and bells I want to show you all this is a pomegranate I had to look it up I didn't know what pomegranates look like that's the pomegranate it's red I think it's about the size of like an orange it's uh that's not to scale that's way bigger than they are in real life it is full of seeds just full of them and so a pomegranate is a promise of life and blessing and fruitfulness that it holds This Promise of.

God fulfilling his promises that he's going to bless them he's going to multiply them he's going to provide for them that there's something good to come it's got seeds it's all these promises that are held inside of it and so in His Garment he has promise of blessing and life and fruitfulness right next to a bell that clings reminding him of his sinfulness and the danger that he has when he approaches God and I think that's beautiful he walks around with the Garden of Eden a place of promise and beauty and God's desire to love humans and to bless them and also the place of our greatest failure where sin enters the world and we're.

Up for Destruction and y'all Jesus has that woven into his person blessing and life and fruitfulness and the Fulfillment of promises and he carries our sin and our guilt and our death in him when we get into eternity we will be unmarked by sin but Jesus won't Jesus carries in his resurrected body the scars on his hands and on his side that when John sees him in the Book of Revelation and they declare look it's the line of the tribe of Judah and John says I looked.

But what I saw was a lamb that looked like he'd been slain that our high priest carries life and death in himself as well blessing and fruitfulness and promise and Hope but also a reminder of the sinfulness that would separate us from God verse 36 you shall make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it like the engraving of a Signet holy to the Lord and you shall fasten it on the turban by a cord of blue it shall be on the front of the turban it should be on Aaron's forehead and Aaron shall bear any guilt from the holy things that the people of Israel consecrate as their holy gifts it shall regularly.

Be on his forehead that he may be accepted before the Lord so the high priest is going to carry the people on his shoulders and on his heart he's going to carry the Judgment of God on his heart he's going to carry their guilt on his forehead and he's going to have pomegranates and bells around the Hem of His clothing and so when the author of Hebrews says he's our high priest we get to look and go yeah he's done that he Bears our guilt before the.

Lord that he carries Us in remembrance before the Lord that he carries in himself life and our death as he has conquered death so that we might be able to conquer death in him that he carries promise and hope and fulfillment and resurrection and that he brings us before the Lord in Hope just as the people of Israel would be able to look to their high priest and see the work that he was doing and trust that God was allowing it to work we get to.

Look to our heart our high priest and know that God has blessed and worked as well in verses 39 through 43 is going to talk about the clothes that will be made for Aaron's sons and the undergarments that they will have to wear all taking into consideration the unholiness of the priests which leads us to okay but how does this priest get to go be in the presence of God and that's where chapter 29 comes in he's going to be consecrated he's going to be set apart.

For it there's going to be sacrifices made on behalf of the priests and so God's going to tell Moses how to go about that so we're going to read the first part of Exodus 29 we're going to read the first part in the last part and I'll explain the middle chapter chapter 29 verse 1. now this is what you shall do to them to consecrate them that they may serve me as priests take one Bull of the herd and two Rams without blemish.

If you're reading the Old Testament and animals are introduced do not get emotionally attached to them this is a pro tip and unleavened bread unleavened cakes mixed with oil and unleavened Wafers smeared with oil and you shall make them a fine wheat flour you shall put them in one basket and bring them in the basket and bring the bull and the two Rams you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water.

So the first thing they're going to do is be washed with water then you shall take the garments and put on air in the coat and the robe of the effort and the e-fit and the breast paste breast peace and gird him with the holy crown on the turban you shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him and then they're going to bring the sons and do the same thing and it says the priesthood shall be theirs by a statute forever sorry they're going to dress them in their clothes they're not going to point anointing poor anointing oil on the on the sons.

So they don't do exactly the same thing but it says there the priesthood should be there is by a statute forever thus you shall ordain Aaron and his sons they're going to set them apart and then they're going to lay their hands on the head of the bull and sacrifice the bull and they're going to place the blood of the bull on the corners of the altar the horns of the Altar and then they're going to put the blood against the altar to atone.

For the altar then they're going to burn up parts of the bull and burn up the rest of the bull outside the camp as a sin offering they're going to take the sin out and they're going to burn it up to help a tone for them and to Mark the altar is Holy then they're going to take the first Ram lay their hands on its head which is signifying that they're passing their sin over to it that this land is lamb this Ram is representing them.

And then that Ram will be sacrificed and burned as a burnt offering to the Lord and they'll see the smoke Ascend up to the Lord just as Jesus ascends up to the Lord the smoker sends up to the Lord in a pleasing fashion to him and then they're going to take the third Ram Place their hands on its head and it will atone for their sin as well some parts of it they will burn some parts of it they will cook and they will partake in a meal and it says they will eat of the ram that atoned from them and I'm reminded of something that we do quite often as we read through that.

That Jesus Christ dies for our sins and then he says if you don't partake in me then you have no part with me and he says that you will this is my body broken for you this is my bloodshed for you and one of the things that we do is we partake in Jesus our sacrificial lamb who atoned for us and we remind ourselves that we are welcome in by what he has done and that's what they do they kill this Ram.

Then they partake they eat a meal before the Lord then they go through a ceremony the last seven days with evening and morning sacrifices and then God says that these evening and morning sacrifices are going to continue forever that that's what they're going to do they're going to have an evening and morning sacrifice the evening and morning sacrifice go to verse 42. oh sorry the ram that they eat they put blood on their ears blood on their thumbs and blood on their uh big toe on their right side and they sprinkle blood all over them.

So they are covered in the blood of this Ram that has atoned for their sin and this is a picture of the fact that their sin deserves death they are covered in the blood this is why we sing songs about blood that were washed in the blood we're covered in the blood because this is what Jesus has done for us that he has washed us clean set us apart and paid for and atone for our sins by his blood and they did this with a ramp.

So they're covered in blood and then they eat a meal um together verse 42. it shall be a regular burnt offering throughout your Generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord where I will meet with you to speak to you there there I will meet with the people of Israel and it shall be Sanctified by my glory I will consecrate the tent of meeting in the altar Arrow Aaron also and his sons I will consecrate to serve me as priests I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their.

God and they shall know that I am the Lord their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them I am the Lord their God if you were an Israelite at this time you could look to the Tabernacle you could look to the Smoke rising in the morning and the smoke rising in the evening and you could trust that there was a high priest there representing you before God and that your sins were being atoned.

For that you could see this and Trust but the sacrifice had to happen again the next day it had to continue to happen that he had to continue to to go before the Lord and receive this sacrifice and this hope that had to happen over and over and over again through all their Generations this had to happen but you could trust that the high priest was placed there by God that God was accepting the sacrifice that he was representing you before.

God bearing your guilt carrying your judgment bringing your name in remembrance and you could watch as this happened over and over and over and over again and Christians we get to look to Christ the Fulfillment of all these things who has perfectly accomplished our forgiveness I want you to see this this is Hebrews 10 and this is where we're going to end we're going to end in Hebrews 10 and we're going to take some of the conclusions that the author of the Hebrews draws from us having.

Jesus as our high priest and we're going to consider them as we finish up this morning Hebrews 10. 11 verse 11. and every priest stands daily at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins so they can help pay for sin short term but they have to happen against tomorrow again tomorrow and they can never take it away they can't fix the problem so while this was a blessing to the people of Israel and a reminder of God's love and presence that he was doing all this.

So that he might dwell with them they never fix the problem when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins he sat down at the right hand of God waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet for buy a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified this is we talked about this earlier this year when we talked about the Ascension but that Jesus Christ dies on the cross he's buried on the.

Third day he rises and then he ascends into heaven and he takes a seat because he has perfected once for all time those who are being Sanctified he has fixed the problem of sin he has does not have a need to do this repeatedly and this is wonderful this is why Protestants when you look at a cross Jesus isn't on it because he's not there he's seated at the right hand of God the work is finished when you see an empty cross you get to be reminded that this isn't a work that has to be renewed.

For you but that it has been accomplished there is no smoke rising up daily it's been accomplished that we get to trust in the finished work of Jesus who has seated at the right hand of God who has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified we have a wonderful glorious high priest move down to verse 18. it says where there is forgiveness of these there is no longer any offering for sin verse 19 therefore brothers so because of this since we have a since we have.

First thing confidence to enter into the holy places by the blood of Jesus now the only person in the Old Testament who had confidence to enter into the holy places was the high priest the priest could go with him into the holy place but never could go into the most holy Place only the priest could do that but he says in the book of Hebrews the author of Hebrews says that we now because of the work of Jesus are welcomed in it's the.

First thing it says since we have confidence to enter into the holy places by the blood of Jesus by the New and Living Way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh and since we have a great high priest over the house of God then he's going to tell us because of those two things because we get to walk in like a high priest and since we have a great high priest then he's going to give us some conclusions.

So I want to to try to help us what do we do with this other than see how glorious Jesus is and how much better he is as a high priest what do we do with this how do we respond and since the author of Hebrews says since we have a great high priest let's do these things I thought hey let's do those things so you're welcome we're going to read those three things quickly to see what we're supposed to do with the fact that.

Jesus is our high priest and that he's made a way for us to enter verse 22 let us draw near with a True Heart in full Assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water the consecration ceremony of the priests was that they would be washed and then they would be sprinkled with blood in our faith in Christ we've been covered by his blood and we walk that out in baptism and what he says is you've been consecrated to enter into the presence of.

God you've been set apart so that you might enter into the presence of God and so he says with confidence and full Assurance do that pray with confidence and full assurance not Pride because it's not based in you it's confidence because it's based in Christ so with confidence and full Assurance go walk in speak to the Lord relate to him love him that's the first thing that we should do we should have full Assurance because it's worked out in Christ and that we've been consecrated and set apart by the Gospel the.

Second thing he says is let us hold fast the confession of Our Hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful let us hold fast the confession of Our Hope what's the confession of Our Hope it's that Jesus has accomplished this Jesus has worked this out on our behalf our hope is in him and it says the reason we can hold fast to this is that he who promised is faithful I grew up in the Aitkin North Augusta Edgefield area of South Carolina and there's a drag strip in Jackson where buddies of mine would go drag race.

And if you went to the drag race and sat in the car and let's say I don't know if they let you have passengers but this is imaginary so imagine that you could be a passenger let's say I'm the passenger in one of my buddies cars and we're about to race somebody and the guy next to us is Rev in his car because he's cool and you're supposed to do that so he's doing that and I look at my friend he's about to drive and I say I just don't know I just don't know.

If I can do this he says we got this and I said I just don't know if I'm fast enough my friend would look at me like I was stupid because that has nothing to do with what we're doing I don't have to run I'm pretty sure we're disqualified if I get out of the car I don't even know if I'm allowed to be in the passenger seat we've already established that this isn't a foot race and I'm not driving it's based off the car and this person driving.

And when we as Christians at times say things like I just don't know as I'm in sin I just don't know because I'm struggling I just don't know I have these doubts what does that have to do with it he who promised is faithful we just get to sit in the passenger seat it's based off of our confession of Hope which is Christ and what he has accomplished if we were in the tribe of Reuben and I looked at you and just said I just don't know.

If I'm going to be a good high priest you'd say bro I don't think you have to worry about that you're you're not you're not gonna so we're good and so when we at times go I just don't know I just yo we have a great high priest who has opened the way we get to hold fast to our confession and we get to do this with full Assurance because it's not based off of us and when we walk with confidence.

And when we hold fast Our Hope and when we do it with full Assurance we give great glory to Christ because we magnify his work not ours and our trust and our hope is in him not us so because we have a great high priest sleep well at night repent of sin with delight that he forgives and walk in confidence that you're okay not because you're great that's not the point you don't walk in confidence because you're well behaved you're welcome confidence.

Because Jesus forgives Sinners and you have a great high priest who has perfected once for all those who are being sanctified the third thing he says and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works I find it so interesting he says because we have a great high priest and because we get to enter in let us consider how to stir one another out to love and good works it's not about our love and good works it's not accomplished by us.

But let us consider this and y'all do we do that do you give intentional thought and effort to how to stir up your brothers and sisters in Christ towards love and good works with your community group before you're going over there to spend time with them before your group meeting time before y'all going to go get dinner together do you think how can I stir them up to love Jesus more to to go about accomplishing good works If we're honest I think more often we give consideration not about what they're getting from us.

But what we're getting from them that we might more often think I just don't I mean I just don't know what I'm getting out of that I know we're to consider what they're getting from us we're to consider how we might encourage and build up and drive them on it says this not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day Drawing Near not neglecting to be together.

If we're going to consider and be give effort towards stirring one another up to love and good works you know what you have to do to stir one another up be around one another and so if you've gotten in the habit of being around on Sundays once a month or hanging out with your group every third time or every other time or when it's you've had a long day and it's tiring and you're frustrated you're just thinking I just don't know.

If I want to do that right now I don't think you're considering how to stir them up I think you're considering how it applies to you and I think we're forgetting and neglecting to make this a regular habit that we're around God's people because we have a great high priest who works on our behalf so that we might walk in love and good works behind him and he says all the more as you see the day Drawing Near we ought to outpace the New Testament Believers in stirring one another up and an encouragement.

Because the day is nearer to us than it was to them and there is a day there is a day when we stand before the king washed of our sins covered by his blood and welcomed eternally because we have a great high priest who's entered in before us and may we praise His name let's pray Lord Jesus thank you thank you for surprisingly shockingly fulfilling what you had intended to do since eternity passed to wreck to Res to rescue and to redeem sinners.

Lord may we walk with confidence because of your sacrifice and your glory and may we draw near in hope to the praise of your name amen

The Tabernacle (Exodus 25-27)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

The Tabernacle

Spencer Cary

The Mosaic Covenant (Exodus 24)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

The Mosaic Covenant

Spencer Cary

Transcript

Good morning my name is Spencer I am one of the pastors here we are continuing to walk through the book of Exodus and we are in Exodus chapter 24 uh today which in your blue Bibles is page 37 if you want to follow along there the text will also be on the screen one of the things that I get to do as a pastor that's very fun is about once or twice a year I get to perform wedding ceremonies and they're a lot of fun it's a it's a big powerful moment to be a part of and one of the things that I do in weddings is I use traditional wedding vows I try to.

Find more traditional language for the vows that uh that the husband and wife can are going to commit to do in with one another so here's a few of the lines from what I use I promise to love and support you in times of Plenty and in want in sickness and in health till death do us part and what's powerful about that moment is that as the husband and the wife are saying those words there's no way they have absorbed how weighty and how hard and how wonderful and how difficult it is going to be to live out those vows there's nothing that can prepare you.

For being able to live that out like I promise to love and support you through all kinds of things what if he gets really into like weird Niche Hobbies like puppetry Sports which is a thing what what if she decides to be a mom fluencer and goes hard after that like what through all of that like how do you love and support someone through things that you may not care about at all in times of Plenty and a want we all think about the plentiful times where things are going to be great where he gets a raise.

When she gets a raise and he gets six figures and all of a sudden we can buy a boat like that you have in mind is everyone as they're projecting out their marriage and say over time we're going to keep growing in income but what about the times when you were in want what about the times where he loses his job he can't find work for four or five months what happens when the bills are mounting up and a kid sticks a bean in his ear and has to be taken to the ER in the middle of the night.

And then all of a sudden you've got a thousand dollar medical bill that just gets put on the stack what about times of sickness and in health one of the moments at the end of life where five six seven years she's fading away from dementia she's not even remembering who you are what about till death do his part when you're holding his hand as he breathed his last breath no you're not ready for all of that when you take those vows you're taking a leap of faith to.

When the time comes you're going to be ready those are powerful in weighty words that you commit to as you enter into the Covenant of marriage today where in Exodus 24 and we're going to watch the nation of Israel enter into the Covenant relationship with their God and it's going to be like a bit of a like like a wedding where they're going to commit to following God and there's a lot that's built into that that they can't even begin to.

See yet so we're going to look at the details of this Covenant ceremony that we're going to see in Exodus 24 and then we're going to look at it as Christians looking back at that and what that means for us in our Christian faith now so let me pray and then we'll walk through this together Heavenly Father we thank you for the good news of the Gospel that we just got to sing for the truth of the Scriptures that opens our hearts.

God I pray that you help us be present I pray that you'd help us here and receive so that we can walk out your word and faith and in Repentance and in worship and delighting in you we answer this in Jesus name amen all right so the back end of Exodus we've said we're taking a little bit differently we've moved around a little bit we've taken mostly topically so let me just kind of reorient where we are in the Book of Exodus uh as we step into 24.

So in Exodus 19 God calls the people to Mount Sinai the Israelites are out Mount Sinai and then they receive the Ten Commandments which is really the header of the law we walk through those Ten Commandments one by one now what follows that for that is some laws pertaining to a few different things we looked at the laws pertaining to servitude we look at some of the laws last week that pertained to the feasts and then at the end of chapter 23.

God previews what's going to happen when they enter the promised land when God pronounces his judgment on the people of the land and creates a a promised land and a space for his people to be in his presence he's previewing that this is what's coming and then we get to chapter 24. we pick up in verse 1. then he said to Moses come up to the Lord you and Aaron nadab and abihu which neighbor and by who are the sons two of the sons of Aaron in 70 Elder seventy of the elders and worship from afar Moses alone shall come near to the.

Lord but the others shall not come near and the people shall not come up with him all right so again it's hard to remember where we are but Exodus 19 all the way up until really verse 4 of chapter 24 is actually all one day we've been in this for months but this is all one day and there's a lot that's happening in this one day and he's calling them as they're going to ratify this Covenant that he makes with his people a covenant is an agreement the treaty that he's making with his people.

But this Covenant that he's about to ratify the people are about to finalize that started in Exodus 19 earlier in the day which for us was months ago but if you can remember back when Exodus 19 this is when it all begins in verse 5 and 6. now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my Covenant you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples for all the Earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

So this is when the Covenant began earlier in the day saying you are going to be my treasured possession my kingdom of priests my holy nation that's what they're going to be to the lord they're going to be a kingdom of priests so that means that the surrounding Nations that will be around the promised land they do not know God they do not honor God you get to be a kingdom of priests that declares the glory of God to the surrounding Nations he did not know him as my holy people in keeping this Covenant keeping the Ten Commandments and the law.

And then when we get here to chapter 24 this Covenant is being ratified it's being finalized and what we're about to witness and the ceremonial events that are included in this are a little bit foreign to us it's it may seem even weird if you've never encountered this in the Scriptures before but we have to remember we're very far removed from the context of the people three thousand years plus removed from an ancient nearest in context where this would have been more familiar ceremonial aspects.

For them it's foreign to us in the same way that if you took the Israelites and put them in a time machine and brought them to today and if they're out in front of a building and then there were people in front of this building and then all of a sudden they stretched out this long red ribbon and then somebody came in with giant swords that had handles and then cut that ribbon and then all the people clapped and they walked inside that would be pretty foreign to them.

Because they're not they don't know what that is but we know what that is it's a ribbon cutting ceremony it's a business opening up that's so we're removed from the context here and some of these details are going to be difficult to wrap our minds around what's happening but I just want to give you the highlights of what we're about to see we're about to see God come together with his people his kingdom of priests they're going to come together both parties will be represented there will be sacrifices that are made the terms of their agreement are going to be read The Ten Commandments.

And then they're going to come together and celebrate and a big Feast that follows and that's the gist of what we're going to see the details we're a little bit removed from so let's walk through this together verse 3. Moses came and Moses came and I told the people all the words of the Lord in all the rules and all the people answered with one voice and said all the words of the Lord has spoken we will do and Moses wrote down all the words of the.

Lord so this is what we're seeing right here is the rehearsal before the ceremony which is going to be the next day so he he reads the words and says all right are y'all in are we doing this and the people like at a rehearsal or saying yes all the words the Lord has spoken we will do it's all right come back tomorrow next morning and we're going to finalize this he rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and 12 pillars according to the 12 tribes of Israel.

So he builds an altar and this altar represents the presence of God this represents God's presence as a part of this Covenant agreement that he's making with the people then he builds in Rex 12 Stones 12 pillars and these 12 pillars represent the 12 tribes of Israel now both parties are present for this agreement verse 5. and he sent young men of the people of Israel who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen II the Lord so then he sends out young men and they gather sacrifices animals to be slaughtered.

Now and if you keep reading you're going to learn more about what these sacrifices are later in the Book of Leviticus but they offer burn offerings and peace offerings burnt offerings which you we can learn about later if you keep reading these are are for atonement the idea of this animal's death and its its death is covering your sin and Rebellion so this is atonement and also peace offerings which is meant to celebrate the fellowship that they have with God so they have burnt offerings and peace offerings which is foreign to us.

But that's what it represents that you all have sinned and you need covering for that sin and also fellowship with God those are offered together and then Moses does something very specific with the blood of the sacrifices for six and Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins and half of the blood he threw against the altar so he takes some of the blood of the sacrifices puts in the basins represents the people and then on the altar which represents.

God in this transaction and this Covenant ceremony blood goes on both bringing them and tying them together now super smart nerdy commentators theologians debate what's the significance of the blood and what's happening here and bringing them together and you can read some commentaries they're going to make compelling arguments about what's actually happening here is the inauguration the beginning of the kingdom of priests that some of the language here similar similar to later in Exodus 29 when the levitical priesthood the actual Priests of the people are consecrated.

When they are really inaugurated as the priests will represent the people and carry out the sacrificial system and all the responsibilities but actually What's Happening Here is that the whole nation is the kingdom of priests they're going to be a kingdom of priests to the surrounding Nations so a lot of the rituals here that this this Blood that's being spilled here it's meant to signify that and that's fairly compelling and then you see other commentators that go no what's actually happening here is that this is very very ancient near Eastern Covenant uh marital type ceremony stuff this is the coming together of two parties together as one.

And then the feast that follows after this which we'll read about in a moment this is actually this is more of a wedding and they'll make compelling arguments on both sides but guess what both are true because it is a little bit shades of the kingdom of priests who are going to represent God people and it is also to come together of two parties God and His People Israel together in holy Union that's what's happening in this ceremony and the ceremony continues in.

Verse 7. then he took the book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people and they said all the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient so no longer rehearsal we're in it now they are giving their vows all that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient we're talking about The Ten Commandments and What flows out of the Ten Commandments the rest of the law they're saying we're in I do we're doing this we're going to be obedient.

God we're going to follow your laws and your words and your statutes I do so it's red they commence their vows and Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said behold the blood of the Covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words and that becomes a very tangible reminder of what is at stake in this Covenant part of what's Happening Here is is that in this Covenant you need covering so some of this is atonement type being poured out on the people.

But also this is a sign of what's going to happen if you break this Covenant it's a sign of judgment that you've committed to follow the law you've committed to be obedient but if you aren't obedient this is what's going to happen judgment is going to come so shades of atonement and shades of judgment are found in the pouring of the blood on the people and then we pick it up and verse 9. that Moses and Aaron nadab and abihu in the 70 and 70 of the Elders of Israel went up.

So we're going to see them actually go up and they're going to now leave this part of the way of the ceremony and they're going to have a reception they're going to have a feast to commemorate this ratification this I do this commitment in this Covenant relationship with God and his people verse 10. and they saw the God of Israel there was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone like the very heaven for clearness and he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel they beheld.

God and ate and drank and boy oh boy when you read verse 10 11 there's a lot of what what's happening at this this reception this and there's a lot going on here and there's a lot of debate over what's happening here because the Hebrew kind of gives some flexibility on interpreting how this is I don't want to get caught in the weeds of this section I just want to give you a general idea of what's Happening Here the people of.

God represented by the seventy Elders the priesthood which is Aaron and his two sons the beginning of the priesthood and Moses they go further to have reception before God and they behold the glory of God they behold his wondrous Glory we sang that Revelation Song earlier holy holy holy and all the imagery that went with that from The Book of Revelation they're catching a glimpse of that they're they're getting to eat a meal before the glory of God it says before his feet not his face which we.

See later on in Exodus 32 that if you see the face of God sinner is in the presence of a holy and perfect God in the face of God cannot stand and live but they are before the feet of God in ways that kind of break our brains and they have this meal before the glory of God and I can't the the imagery here and how spectacular and wondering how all filled this is that after this holy ceremony and commitment they have this wonderful glorious all-inspiring reception it's powerful.

And then once that's done it continues in verse 12. the Lord said to Moses come up to me on the mountain and wait there that I may give you the tablets of stone with the law and the Commandment which I have written for their instruction this will be the tablets The Ten Commandments are written upon so Moses rose with his assistant Joshua and Moses went up into the Mountain of God and he said to the elders wait here for us until we return to you.

Behold Aaron and her are with you whoever has a dispute let him go to them so the Elders of the people Moses Aaron Aaron's two sons they moved up the mountain to have this feast this reception and then they Moses and Joshua continue to ascend up the mountain further and we're going to see in a moment that Moses is going to be the one that keeps going and this is symbolic here because Moses is the one who's leading them in the wilderness and later on Joshua is the one who is leading them and to the conquest into the promised land.

So both of them enter up the mountain further verse 15 then Moses went up on the mountain and the cloud covered the mountain and this is where I think Moses keeps going Joshua doesn't go the full distance verse 16 the glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai and the cloud covered it six days and on the seventh day he called out to Moses out of the midst of the cloud now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain and the sight of the people of Israel which just imagine being an Israelite deep at the base of the mount looking up and seeing the.

Glory of God like a like a devouring fire encircling the mountain maybe you can see in the distance there's a tiny little person that's Moses and he he's going to enter into the presence of the glory of God and that's how this chapter ends in verse 18 Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain and Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights and this is the finalizing of the Covenant that began in Exodus 19. the Covenant that.

God is making with his people that's called the mosaic Covenant the Covenant through his servant Moses to the people and the two parties coming together and it's an awesome event it's a Monumental event the people of Israel would remember for years would tell of for Generations that they committed to following God they committed to being obedient to God to display the Holiness of God unlike any other people and it began back in Exodus 19 but there's something very significant there's something very significant back in Exodus 19 that gets brought into what we read in.

Verse 24 and we can't miss it he says now if you will obey my voice and keep my Covenant you will be my treasure possession now if now therefore if you obey my voice if if is a conditional statement which shows this Covenant is what is called a bilateral Covenant the Covenant that they're making here is a by lateral Covenant it is a two-sided Covenant it means that disagreement to be held in place it's responsible upon both parties which is familiar to us almost every contract you can think of that we would sign and this world both parties have to fulfill the obligations in that contract that's what's happening here this is a bilateral Covenant.

If you obey my voice if you keep my Commandments if you do this then God will find favor upon them will protect them will provide for them that's the exchange here obedience favor if this is very different than the Covenant of Abraham which is back in Genesis 15. that if you are reading through the Bible and you get the first really or the second Covenant that you see in the Bible in the Book of Genesis chapter 15. God makes a covenant with Abraham and that one is not a bilateral Covenant that is what's called a unilateral Covenant one that.

God chooses Abraham in order that he might bring he might bless the Nations through Abraham by building a great nation through him and in that Covenant that God makes only God is responsible it is not incumbent upon Abraham to keep that Covenant God is going to keep that Covenant promise I am going to bless the Nations through you that is only the work of God but in this Covenant it is different in the Mosaic Covenant that we just read that we just saw celebrated and ratified that is a two-party Covenant the Covenant of Moses clarifies the people must live in right relationship with.

God and if if they break their marital vows if they don't abide by the law if they don't obey the voice of God the marriage is over if they become an adulterous people and chase after foreign Gods this Covenant will be shattered one of my favorite I always actually say my favorite rom-com is the breakup the breakup throwback to the 2000s just show a fans raise your hand if you've seen the breakup so I know what I'm working with all right generally half.

Okay I love that movie my family we love that movie if you haven't seen it just go to YouTube and type in the breakup dinner scene that's all you need the rest of it's good but I could literally look at my parents and go tap tap tappy tap tap tappy and they're gonna go Gary on the kick drum it's wonderful it's hilarious we love that movie but when I saw that movie in theaters and then other people saw other people did not like it and it's not.

Because they were dumb it's because it's because they were disappointed they're like they they break up why do you want to watch a rom-com or about a breakup they break up and it's like did you not see the title yeah did you not it's literally in the title it's called the breakup I mean goodness if if Old Yeller was called he shot the dog you would not be disappointed at the end when he shoots the dog you see it coming it's in the title The Breakup.

But it makes the rest of the movie difficult to watch at times because you're watching a couple just break up and that's what it feels like if you know the rest of the Old Testament and when you read Exodus 24 in light of the rest of the Old Testament man it can be a painful read because you're seeing them take this vow I'm gonna we're gonna be obedient God we're going to do it and you know they're going to do everything they're going to do exactly what.

God told them not to do but they're going to forsake God they're going to chase after foreign gods and you also know that ultimately God's going to bring judgment upon them the Assyrians the Babylonians and judgment is going to be poured out on the people all the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient this Earnest desire we will be obedient and then the looming word that's attached to that in Exodus 19 is if if and when you.

See that for what it is it's like how could the people commit to this all the how how did they know what they were getting into and there's a little bit of when you read it it's like what is God doing calling this people into this Covenant knowing good and well that they are such a wayward people knowing that they're so driven to chase after other idols they're going to so deeply struggle to fulfill this what is God doing and even calling these people into this Covenant there are a few reasons I'm going to give you three quick ones.

First God is Creator he is the God The Sovereign God over all things he gets to dictate the terms of the relationship so when the people say we'll be obedient they should God is Holy and we should be holy as God as holy so when he says that he absolutely is with they should want that they should agree to do that but there are unable due to their sin they're unable this Covenant will be shattered and that's the second thing is they just the Mosaic Covenant reveals that the people of.

God couldn't do this in the first place they could not obey the law which means that which doesn't mean that this Covenant has no purpose if they cannot obey the law But ultimately what that does reveal is is that there is someone who is going to have to obey the law there is someone who's going to have to say all the Lord has spoken I will do and be obedient and it's going to have to come through Abraham because that Covenant is a promise that will come true and ultimately it's going to come from the tribe of Judah ultimately he's going to come from the household of David in the Covenant that is made there.

Later on and of course the descendant who comes to fulfill this Mosaic Covenant in a way that the people could not fulfill it is Christ that ultimately this Covenant was made so that Christ could come and fulfill it for the people so that Christ could obey the law perfectly and at the right time Jesus is born and for the next 33 years he lives under the Mosaic Covenant and obeys it perfectly every single law every single marking he spotlessly righteously.

Then instead of having another oxen slaughtered and blood spilled to cover the sins of the people Jesus Takes that perfect record and he goes to the cross goes to the Cross where his blood is poured out to cover the sins of the people there's a reason we as Christians sing songs like there's a fountain-filled blood there's a reason that we're seeing as Sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains for those who do not know the Gospel that sounds weird.

But the hope that we have in Christ is is that that's our only hope we could not obey the law we could not fulfill the Mosaic Covenant we are sinners in need of mercy and the blood of Jesus is poured out on us on the cross and that's our hope and then when Jesus is buried and Rises on the third day and conquers the power of death and its grip that is held upon us he ultimately is fulfilling Exodus 24 he's fulfilling this Covenant which means we as Christians get to.

Look back at Exodus 19-24 we get to look back at this Mosaic Covenant differently and the key to understanding it and our relationship with the law is in a few places but one of them is Romans 7. so go to Romans 7. start again verse one this is how we as Christians get to approach the law or do you not know Brothers for I am speaking to those who know the law and specifically context here in Romans this is he's really talking to Jewish Christians right.

Now Jewish Christians who had spent their lives trying to fulfill the Mosaic Covenant on their own he says I'm speaking to those who know the law that the law is binding on a person as long as he lives four verse 2. a married woman is bound by the law Bound by law to her husband while he lives but if her husband dies she's released from the law of marriage highlighting that the Covenant that you make in marriage is binding until death do you part.

But when he or she dies it's no longer binding verse 3 accordingly she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive but if her husband dies she is free from that law and if she marries another man she's not an adulteress meaning that if her husband dies and then she remarries she's not adulterous because that Covenant of marriage is over and a new covenant begins in its place and this Paul takes that understanding.

And then explains the law likewise verse 4 my brothers you also have died to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another to him Jesus who has been raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God he's saying your relationship with the law is over it's over that marriage is done you have died when you place your faith in Jesus death to life happens and you were born again into something and someone knew a new creation in Christ.

Therefore because of the death of Jesus is because this new established Covenant of Faith you aren't married to the law anymore you're wedded to Christ you belong to Jesus and not the law of verse 5 4. while we were living in the flesh our sinful passions aroused by the law we're at work and our members to to bear fruit for death verse six but now we are released from the law having died to that which held us captive so that we serve in the new way of the spirit not in the old way of the written code.

So Christians we have a new covenant in Christ we have a new relationship in Christ the Israelites served under a bi-lateral covenant that required both sides there is no if in Jesus there is no if in Christ there is no two-sided agreement in Christ Jesus unilaterally unconditionally saves us he redeems us and then sets us apart to be a people for his own possession and then he puts his Holy Spirit in US and then God carries us and Carries us and Carries us and Carries us all the way and to our future Promised Land which is eternity with.

God that is a unilateral Act of God that is not a two-sided Affair God unilaterally saves us the bilateral Mosaic Covenant ultimately was meant for Christ to come and fulfill it so that we would not be a people that worked for our salvation but trust only in the finished work of Christ which means brothers and sisters some of you need to stop treating your faith like it's a bilateral Covenant some of you need to stop treating your faith like it's a two-party transaction some of you need to stop treating your faith like it's a conditional faith it's not and some of you some of you have this misunderstanding that being a Christian means being a.

Good person that you bring your good works and you maybe even see yourself as a good person that I'm a Christian because I go to worship on Sunday or I'm a part of a community group I read my Bible or I pray or I serve others or I give or I do all these things which are good things to do and you say I'm a Christian because of all these things that I do and your misunderstanding that's that's not the Gospel you're a Christian.

Because God and His Rich kind Mercy saved you in spite of your sin he redeemed you and some of you may not see yourself I'm okay now I'm not I'm not like that I don't I don't see myself as I actually see my sin but like I just I I feel this need like I've got to do I gotta prove I gotta I gotta grind I gotta I gotta I gotta keep earn like I'm gonna lose the favor of God because of the sin of my life I just got I gotta and it's this endless toil and this endless striving where your soul is never at peace and it's never in rest and you keep.

Thinking that your side of the agreement you've got to fill and the works that you do I've got I've got to keep filling it up as if it's some type of scale that's going to balance out and there's not enough good works in the world that could ever outdo this in our lives and then there's some of you that have you know I have some of you like I have this I understand this by Grace have been saved through faith it's not of works I'm not saved by works I'm not saved by works.

But all you can see in this relationship with Jesus is your sin that all you can see is is the sin beneath you this indwelling sin that's in all and it leads you to a place of no longer actually seeing Christ in in overshadowing your sin you you all you can see is your sin and therefore it leads to this pattern of self-loathing of self-hatred that in this relationship with Jesus all you see is your sin and you don't like yourself at all and that's all you can.

See and you might protest but you don't you don't know me if you knew the thoughts there in my head if you knew what I did in the quiet of the night if you saw my sin if you knew there's no reason that God should want me and all you see is your sin and I want you to hear the words written by a pastor named Dane ortlin that describes the unilateral love and mercy of Christ that you so desperately need to hear.

So I just want you if that's you this morning I want you to hear this so very clearly he says that God is rich in Mercy means that your regions of deepest shame and regret are not hotels through which Divine Mercy passes but homes in which Divine Mercy abides that the parts of you where you feel the most shame and regret that your life is not a hotel where God's mercy comes from a moment that Fades away it is a home where it abides it means that it means the things about you which make you cringe the most make him hug hardest it means his Mercy is not calculating and cautious like ours it is.

Unrestrained flood-like sweeping magnanimous it means our haunting shame is not a problem for him but the very thing he loves most to work with hear that again The Haunting Parts the parts that make you cringe the most are the parts of you that Jesus Delights in working with the most it means our sins do not cause his love to take a hit our sins cause his love to search forward all the more it means on that day when we stand before him quietly unheardly we will weep with relief shot at how impoverished a view of his Mercy Rich heart we had that is the unconditional unilateral Mercy of.

God this is not a two-party agreement it's a one-sided affair with a deep Abiding Love of God that we sang about earlier where his Mercy is so much more than we could ever possibly imagine that's the God who loves you that's the God that loves you so much that He sent Jesus to die for you and to rise for you so that you might not stare at your sin so that you might not put your works in your hope and works.

So that we might be a people that when we see our sin we see our glorious savior that's the Savior that fulfills Exodus 24 that's the Savior who died for us and that's the Savior we get to sing about let me pray for us Heavenly Father I pray that you would help us see how wonderful it is that we don't live under the law that we don't have to fulfill the obligation the requirements of the law that we get to when we.

See our sin look to you as our only hope and I pray that for the Christian in here that is so deeply troubled by their sin in a way that they cannot seek you clearly that today you would absolutely open their eyes to the mercies of God that they so desperately need to see and I pray that you would go to work in the hearts of anyone that have not that has not experienced this yet who asks in Jesus name amen we're going to sing one more song and the reality is that some of you have never actually tasted and seen that the.

Lord is good some of you have never actually seen the good news of the Gospel and made that your only hope that maybe you've thought all along that being a Christian means I got to clean myself up or being a Christian means I've got to bring I gotta get back into Church I got to do good things I gotta be a good Christian and I want you to hear so clearly this morning that's not the Gospel the Gospel is you seeing your sin and seeing Christ as your only hope we're about to sing a song called all I have is Christ in it and it says you looked upon my helpless State that's our confession.

God you looked upon my helpless state because I could not fulfill the law because I could not be obedient enough you looked upon my helpless state it led me to the Cross some of you have never made that decision some of you have never actually made that commitment to say I need Christ I'm a helpless State I am a sinner and this morning the invitation is there our God is before you sang Come experience my mercy and my goodness and my love and my grace it is offered.

But you have to take it you have to take a step of faith and place your hope and the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus and my hope is this morning so as we sing this song some of you need to sing this as a confession of what you believe but something you need to confess it for the first time foreign.

Consumeristic Sexual Individualism

What is the purpose of sex? Should it be casual and convenient? Apocalyptic and ultimate? Or something different altogether? Is sex an appetite we satisfy, or a gift we enjoy?

Consumeristic Sexual Individualism

Chet Phillips

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Transcript

Well, good morning. We are in our sixth week of our Theology of Sex series, and today we are talking about sex. So if you are just now hanging out with us, that might not seem surprising. If you've been here for the other five weeks, you may be thinking, I thought that's what we were going to talk about the whole time. It's about time. Why have we waited so long?

It wasn't bait and switch. Really what it was is there's so many other things we had to say before we could ever talk about sex by itself, for us to even understand how God designed it and what his goal was for it and what his aim was for it. And so we had to kind of build a framework for God's good design for sex before we could ever even talk about sex. It's kind of like jumping right in and talking about trigonometry. If you don't know how to add and subtract, it's like we got to cover the basics first. We got to understand the framework here before we can we can talk about sex.

And so for five weeks, we've spent some time walking through different passages of Scripture, trying to understand gender, trying to understand God's design. And so I'm going to try to recap that a little bit, maybe using some different words to help us understand what we've been looking at for the past five weeks. So we talked about God created humanity in his image, that we were designed by God for his purposes. And what we're seeing there is that God, who is very different from us, makes us similar but different from him. So humanity made in the image and likeness of God is similar to God, but very different from God.

And hopefully we're all tracking with that. You're like God. You are not God. So just if you're confused about that, we can talk about it later. But you are not God.

You're like him, made in his image and likeness. And so there's this idea of similar but different. And then when God made gender, he did the same thing. He kind of followed the same pattern where he made both male and female similar but different. He designed us distinct from one another. And so it follows that same setup, that same paradigm of similar but different.

And then we saw that Christ's love for the church, Jesus' pursuit of the church in the cross, was his covenant love for the church. And that is where this very different being from humanity joins with humanity, makes himself one with humanity to join together in a covenant relationship and to make himself one. So the church is called the bride of Christ and Christ's body. So we're both his pursuit and what he loves and cherishes and also we're made one with him. And then we saw that marriage is actually a small picture of that. Marriage is these two similar but different beings coming together and becoming one and covenanting together with one another for a life of devotion and submission to one another.

And so we see that God designed humanity similar but different from him. He designed gender similar but different from one another. And then God through Christ makes a covenant with humanity and makes us one with him and that marriage is designed to be the same thing, to be similar but different brought together in a covenant relationship. And only in that relationship sex is designed to exist. So sex exists inside of this covenant relationship.

And so we've kind of walked through all of that. And now we're going to spend some time today talking about sex. So we're going to go to Genesis 2 real quick. You don't have to flip there. We're going to have it on the screen. We've gone there every week.

You should about have this memorized by now. This is vastly important for our understanding of who we are, how we were designed, and how we view and understand God and understand our place with one another and understand sexuality. So it says, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And so we spent time last week talking about this. This is the covenant relationship in marriage, that two become inseparably one. So Paul's going to go to this verse in Ephesians 5 and say, this actually gives us a small picture of the love that Christ has for the church, how he dies on her behalf, how he sacrifices to pour out his love and to just give and just to lavish love on his people.

And that's the design for marriage. And then Jesus is going to go there in Matthew 19 to say that whatever God's brought together, we're not supposed to tear apart. And so then it says, And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. This is the very beginning of Scripture. In the very first few pages, what we are given is that God creates humanity distinct from himself. He creates gender distinct from one another, and he designs them to be brought together.

And he sets them in a garden naked without shame. And then he tells these shameless nudists to be fruitful and multiply. It's one of the first commands that God gives in Scripture. And so from the very beginning of humanity, God designs covenant marriage and sex and sexuality to play a part in his good design for humanity. Now, in our culture, jump ahead thousands of years, we, you would not have to do much cultural research at all to see that we have begun to place a lot of value on sex. You can't stand in line at the grocery store without looking over at the magazine racks and seeing that we have concepts like sex sells, but you can't look at a magazine rack without seeing little on the sides.

It's not always the main thing, but they'll be on the side, this little article tells you what's going to be inside it, and you'll get five tips on how to wow your man. Seventeen tips to a sexier summer. Thirteen tips for making your bed the best place ever for sex or whatever. Like, there's just all of these kind of, and it's like, really, farm and garden? Come on, man. Like, take it easy.

But it really, we've overemphasized this. You can't watch a TV show, watch a movie, without some sort of message about sex and sexuality being pumped into our brains. And now we have the pornographic revolution that has come with the internet, and we are overly inundated with sex and sexuality, and we have some competing views in our culture where we both, we say things like, when two people love one another very much, and we act like sex comes out of this emotional, deep connection, and it's designed to be love, and we call it lovemaking, and it's supposed to be this meaningful thing. And then we also, at the same time, will say, it's also kind of like a game of checkers, like just a recreational activity for enjoyment.

And it doesn't really mean anything at all, and it just kind of depends on how you approach it. And so what we need to do is to grow in our understanding of what the Bible says about it, how God originally designed it, because He's the one who invented it. I heard someone put it this way. God created Adam and Eve, put them in a garden, naked. He did not come back later and go, Oh my goodness, what are you doing? Like, He came up with the idea.

He invented it. He made it for a purpose, for a reason. And God's design for sex was to exist inside of this covenant relationship and to be a covenant renewal ceremony. So throughout the Bible, God makes covenants with His people, and then He has physical Acts, physical, tangible reminders that they go through to remind themselves of their covenant. So an example of that for us is my wife and I got married six, seven years ago, and we stood up in front of people and we held hands and we like said things to each other and we repeated after this guy and then we had to keep holding hands while he talked and I would kind of forget what we were doing and let go of my wife's hands and she still fusses at me about that so that when I do premarital stuff with people, I say, Hey, hold hands the entire time or your wife will never forget it.

Because it was like it was just going on forever and I just kind of let go and be like doing like this. But during that, what we said was we were making an invisible commitment to one another. But then we said we're actually going to take something visible, a tangible reminder, and we're going to use this to remind ourselves and to show other people what our relationship is designed to be. We have an invisible, physical, emotional, personal attachment to one another, spiritual connection to one another, but we're going to take a symbol. And it wasn't this one because this is like I'm on my third one because I keep losing them.

But it was something very similar to this. And we put it on my hand. We put one on her hand. She still has the same one. And we celebrated that this is a physical reminder of this spiritual, emotional, invisible reality. And sex is designed to be that in marriage.

Now, it's not as public as this one. It shouldn't be. You're doing it wrong. But it is a tangible, physical reminder of your vows, of your covenant. It is a covenant renewal that is designed to be. It is a covenant renewal that is designed to say all of me belongs to all of you.

Everything I have, everything I am, everything I will be, I sacrifice and submit to you. That's celebration of the covenant that you have. And that is God's good design for sex. He made it as an intentional covenant renewal ceremony inside the context of marriage. So as we walk through the day, we're going to continue to talk about that definition.

We're going to continue to pull that up. And we're going to hold that up as our, this is what sex was designed to be. Therefore, this can't be correct. So as we walk through and look at these other things that we believe about sex, we're going to hold that up and keep saying, because this is true. So from the very beginning of the Bible, it lays that out as this is what sex is.

And so for the rest of scripture, anything that falls outside of a covenant marriage, anything that falls outside of any sexual activity that falls outside of that is considered sexual immorality. It's outside of God's good design. So that's why the Bible is going to treat so many other things as, no, you're not supposed to do that because God's good design for it was very specific. So we're going to actually find a lot of help as we study this in first Corinthians. So if your Bible looks like this, go to page 620.

I'll give you a second to get there. Then we're going to pray. And then we'll talk a little bit about what's going on here in this passage before we kind of dive in and begin to look at what Paul's saying here. Okay. Let's pray really quick.

God, we thank you for sex. We thank you for the good that it is. We pray, Lord, that we would rightly view it, rightly understand it, that we would see the beauty in your design for it in a way that might cause us to worship you. We pray, Lord, that married or single, we would rightly appreciate, view sex so that we might rightly love and worship you. We pray that as we study this today, Lord, you would give us clarity and wisdom and lead us to repentance where we've begun to believe lies about this good gift. In Jesus' name, amen.

So Corinth, think Las Vegas. So the city of Corinth was what happens here stays here kind of a place. It was a port city. They had a very lucrative sex slavery trade, sex trade, and a lot of prostitution. They had temples with prostitutes. They had other regular just prostitutes.

And then they had a very, people would come in. They would reload their ships. They would re-get supplies. And people would go visit prostitutes. And so that was a big thing in Corinth. And in the midst of that, Jesus saved some people.

A church was formed under Paul planting churches. And Paul's, in this letter, writing back and forth with the Corinthians and coaching them up. And so it honestly, it's a young church. It reminds us some of us, reminds me some of us, where we've got a lot of people who've just met Jesus. If we asked you a couple years ago, would you be following Jesus, you would have laughed. But now there's people who are repenting, following Jesus, and just trying to figure out what that means.

And so they're writing a letter to Paul, and they have all these questions about sex and sexuality because their culture has just bombarded them with how to think about it. It's kind of like this. If it's raining really hard, even if you get an umbrella, even if you put on a rain jacket, if it's just pouring, I mean sheets of rain, sideways rain, when you get inside, you are still wet. You did everything you could to cover up, but you're still wet. And Corinth's culture and our culture is similar when it comes to the concept of sex. We can do everything we want to to try to protect ourselves or guard ourselves, but some of it still soaks in.

Some of it still gets into our thought processes, into how we approach it. And so they're writing to Paul saying, isn't this true about sex? Isn't this true about sex? And Paul is going to be responding. And so everything we see in quotations, that's Paul saying, y'all said this. Here's your answer.

So it's a Q&A session with the church in Corinth. And surprisingly, they have a lot of the same thoughts and questions that we have. So we're going to go through and see what they ask and how Paul responds to help us better understand God's good design for sex. So chapter 6, verse 12. In quotations, he's quoting them. All things are lawful for me.

And then he says, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything. So he's saying, okay, y'all said this, and it's in the context of sex. He said, y'all said this, and let me help answer that. So what they said was, all things are lawful for me.

And here's basically what their question was, what they were saying about sex. Question one is, isn't sex an individual and private matter? So when they say, all things are lawful for me, it's kind of like our phrase, well, it's a free country. What they're saying is, if it doesn't hurt anybody, if it's just my private business, why does it matter? Live and let live. If whatever I do in my own personal sphere doesn't matter.

And so sometimes this has been taught as what they were saying was, all things are lawful for me in Christ because Jesus has fulfilled the law for me. That's less likely because the Corinthian Christians weren't well-versed in the Old Testament and were significantly dealing with cultural issues. So really what they're saying is they're kind of repeating a cultural thing, which is, it's a free country. If I'm not hurting anybody, why does it matter? If it's my personal business, why does it matter? And so Paul gives a quick response to that and he's going to keep responding to it as he goes through the rest of the section.

But the first things he says are very helpful. So really, when we ask questions like this, there's an underlying belief system that makes us ask that. And so it's really the first lie that they believe and that we believe, because we say this same thing, is that sex is individualistic. That's the first lie that we believe when it comes to sex. That's what they were putting forth. Like, why does it matter?

It's just a private thing. Why does it matter what I do? Sex is individualistic. Now here's Paul's quick response to that. First of all, sex is an individualistic approach. Paul says it's not helpful.

And given the way he uses that phrase throughout the rest of his book, what he means is, nuh-uh. He's saying sex is not individualistic at all. It's not helpful. There are other people involved. So a quick recap of what sex is.

It's two people coming together. So when I say sex is just about me, then I'm doing it wrong because there's supposed to be two people coming together. It automatically means that there's someone else involved. So it can't just be an individualistic approach. It automatically affects other people. So Paul's response is no.

It's not individualistic. That's not a helpful way to approach it. Other people are involved. Other people, if you just approach it as what do I get out of it? If it's just a, it's about me and my enjoyment and my pleasure, then you've undercut and you don't even view it correctly. You're not approaching it correctly.

That's not helpful and that actually harms other people. And then he gives a response. So our immediate kind of pushback on that is, yeah, okay, sure, you can't say that sex with another person is just individualistic because other people are involved. But we've done a lot of work in our culture to make sex as individualistic as possible, primarily through pornography, that that can be enjoyed by yourself and does not harm anybody else. First of all, Paul's first response helps you because he says, no, it's not actually helpful in the context of community. Your life and decisions don't exist in a vacuum.

What you do does affect other people. And so when he says it's not helpful, he means it doesn't work well in the context of community, in the context of society. Looking at pornography creates a demand for pornography and pornography is videoed prostitution. It is videoed sex slavery. That's what the porn industry is. And studies are beginning to show that it seems that there's a link between pornography and an increase in sex slavery and sex trafficking because people are moving from what they're viewing to enacting that.

There's also a link now between males that view pornography and then how they treat a real female when they are with them in a very aggressive, domineering, physical, unromantic, unemotional way that is portrayed for them in pornography. And where young boys as early as 10 now is the average age of the boy seeks out pornography. At 12, most young men in advanced cultures that have the Internet have a significant exposure to pornography. A Canadian researcher went to do a study on porn use in college students, college males. When you do a study, here's how it works. You need the people you're studying and you need a control group so that you can compare them.

So if you were studying smokers of a certain age, you would need to find same gender, same age, non-smokers. The problem with his study was he couldn't find non-pornography users when he went to college age males. He could not find a control group large enough to use. So it would be like if everybody smoked and then you asked, does smoking affect you? And you said no. But then we also put out reports that said all humans get lung cancer by the age of 40.

It's just a thing that happens to humans. It's like, no, if we had a control group that showed non-smokers, we'd realize that wasn't a human problem. And so the problem with his study was he couldn't find people who had not been significantly exposed to pornography, and some of them for over 10 years. And here's what happens. That affects how they view females, how they approach females. It affects all the females who are looking at pornography, how they view males, how they approach males.

It becomes an unhelpful problem. But here's Paul's second response to that. But I will not be dominated by anything. When we approach sex in an individualistic way, specifically for our culture through pornography, it becomes very addictive. Sex was designed to be addictive anyway. It sets off the same pleasure sensors in your brain that other addictive drugs do.

So you were designed by God to become more addicted to your spouse. That was the way sex was designed. And inside the covenant of marriage, that's beautiful. Outside of it, that's kind of scary. Because it creates an addiction that is crushing people in our culture, that is crushing through pornography. There's a lady named Naomi Wolf.

She's just been doing some research on this. She was an analyst or an advisor to several different presidents, President Clinton being one of them. She wrote an article called The Porn Myth. And so here's what she says in that. But does all this sexual imagery in the air...

She's not a Christian, by the way. She's just been studying this. Does all this sexual imagery in the air mean that sex has been liberated? So we act like we're free, we're open about it. Sex is free. It's liberated.

Or is it the case that the relationship between the multi-billion dollar porn industry, compulsiveness, so addiction being dominated by it, and sexual appetite has become like the relationship between agribusiness, processed food, supersized portions, and obesity? If your appetite is stimulated and fed by poor quality material, it takes more junk to fill you up. But people are not closer because of porn, but further apart. People are not more turned on in their daily lives, but less so. Mostly when I ask about loneliness... She goes around to colleges and speaks to young adults a lot.

Mostly when I ask about loneliness, a deep, sad silence descends on the audience of young men and young women alike. They know they are lonely together, even when conjoined, and that this imagery, porn, is a big part of that loneliness. What they don't know is how to get out. Because of an individualistic approach to sex, which is not how sex was designed, it crushes our ability to have meaningful relationships because we only begin to respond well to pornography, and we begin to hold everybody up, every significant other, every person as a sex object, or we compare them to past relationships, or past videos that we have watched, and it begins to erode our ability to appropriately approach sex in the way that God designed.

I saw a guy doing a TED Talk, and he said that one of the problems with this, one of the problems with constant pornography viewership and then having real relationships, is that pornography viewership cuts out all of the beautiful stuff about sex, like conversation, laughter, touching with your hands, kissing, emotional connection. It turns it into this really male-dominated, aggressive, twisted, constantly changing to other things, and he said it erodes a lot of the beautiful... He said when he used to fantasize, this is not a Christian guy, he's just talking through this, that he used to think about having a conversation, and where that would lead, and how he... And he said once he began to view porn all the time, that wasn't there anymore.

There was no more intimate, emotional connection, because an individualistic approach to sex dominates us, becomes addictive, begins to control how we view it, and takes it out of what God designed it to be, which was not individualistic at all. So the major problem with this is this is a massive misunderstanding of what sex is. Sex was designed to be not just for personal pleasure and fulfillment, although that's a part of it, but it was to be complete surrender. It was to be you making yourself vulnerable and giving yourself to someone else for their pleasure and their enjoyment in the context of a covenant marriage.

Because it was a covenant renewal ceremony, because it was a pouring yourself out on behalf of another, the way you are in life in a covenant, in marriage in a covenant, sex becomes a gracious response and a gracious, humble giving yourself to someone else. And when it's approached in an individualistic manner, it's robbed of that. So this can be seen in dating, where someone just uses another person for sex. A person, a lot of times we see this as in males, but it can be anybody, just uses someone for sex, and once they have sex, they just move on, because that was the only goal. So they've treated a person with a soul, made in the image of God, like nothing more than an object.

This same individualistic approach can be seen in marriage, where somebody is just, I want to have sex right now. That's it. That's my approach. And you need to have sex with me, regardless of context, regardless of how you feel. And on the other side of that, someone who in marriage is never in the mood. So that as long as that's the hurdle, I don't feel like it.

And all that is on both sides of that fence is just sex exists for my individual pleasure. So if I want it, let's go. Or sex exists for my individual pleasure. So if I don't want to, no. And that's still the same approach. These aren't just problems for single people.

This is a problem with how we view sex in general. C.S. Lewis says that this approach to sex, that this idea of sex without covenant is like chewing food and then spitting it out without swallowing it and digesting it, which does not leave us more satisfied, but more hungry, which ultimately guts eating food of what it was designed for in the first place. Question two, they ask. So Paul's response to the first question, the question two, they ask.

He spends a little more time here because he's also still addressing the first question. 13. Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food. So they say, okay, Paul, food's meant for the stomach, the stomach for food, which what they're really asking is, isn't sex just an appetite? Isn't it just an appetite? Isn't it just like, okay, Paul, let me break this down for you.

I have a stomach. My stomach sends signals to my brain. It says I'm hungry. My brain sends signals to my hands. I grab food. I stick it in my mouth.

It goes to my stomach. My stomach exists because food exists and food exists because my stomach exists. And that's the same way that sex works. I have sexual parts and sexual urges and they exist in relation to one another. It's just an appetite. I love that this question is in here because we think we have progressed so far.

We are so far beyond all of those morons that used to live in history because I have Google. I'm so much smarter than everybody else who knew how to actually do things. I can just read about things and that makes me smart because I can buy shoes from Reebok. I don't know how to make shoes, but I can buy them. I'm smarter than all of these people. We just, history has just moved forward and progressed.

And here's the thing. We say stuff like this. We say stuff like, it's just a private matter. We say stuff like, sex is just an appetite as if we've moved on and outgrown. That argument's 2,000 years old. They have the same thoughts, same questions.

I got a stomach. I eat. I have sexual organs. I sex, right? Thank you, Paul. You are dismissed.

I have defeated you with logic. And so Paul responds. And this is really the second lie that we believe about sex comes from this, this idea that sex is just an appetite, is that sex is consumeristic. It's just a consumer good. It is designed for us to partake in however we feel because it's just an appetite. Now here, sex is, does have a desire that goes along with it, does have appetite that goes along with it, but it's not just that.

And it's not the same as eating food because if you don't eat food, you will die. And although some people in our culture might would argue that not having sex will kill you, it will not. Sex is not just physical. That's the argument being made here. It's just physical. It's just an exchange of goods, just a physical enjoyment.

And so Paul responds. One of the best examples of this in our culture right now, I believe, is the app Tinder. Tinder is an app, for those of you who are not familiar. It's on a smartphone. You take a picture of yourself and I think there's a little bit of information, but it's not like bogged down by information about the human. It's mostly just the picture.

And then you just swipe one way or the other to like the human or unlike the human. I don't know what it's called. It's just called swiping and it's become like a manic. People do this all day long, looking at people and swiping one way or the other they're based off of. And really what it is, this is a very advanced form of human shopping. It is a handheld brothel in so many ways.

Now, some people would say, no, no, no. You can make real, meaningful connections through Tinder. And that's what I'm using it for. Okay, maybe. The majority of people aren't. The person on the other side swiping your picture probably isn't.

And if you've been on Tinder for a while, via the text and pictures they have sent you, you might have picked up on that. It is a lineup of humans with souls that we have reduced to a quick ability to say, nope, don't like that one. Nope, don't like that one. Yes, yes, yes. Nope. Nope.

Yes. It's a brothel app. It's used that way. There's an article in Vanity Fair that is a very difficult read because of how painful it is to see how devastating this is. Now, you may say, okay, but hold on a second. Isn't that what people do when they go to bars?

Isn't that the same thing people have been doing forever when they showed up and looked around for a person to talk to? Yes. In a lot of ways. We've just become more efficient. In that article in Vanity Fair, they're talking to three guys and they say, why do you like Tinder so much? A couple of different things.

They said it was easy to meet Tinderellas. They said, it used to be you'd have to go to a place like a bar, put forth energy. You can only talk to one, two, maybe three girls a night. But on Tinder, you can be in 15 conversations at once and one of the other guys piped in and you don't have to spend any money. And they were like, yes, that's good too. Now, that's people shopping, but it grows out of how we've begun to approach sex.

It ought to be free. It ought to be easy. It ought to be simple. Humans exist for my pleasure. Sex is a consumer good. We ought to be able to line this up easily.

We ought to be able to get supply and demand connected. And so, Paul is going to respond to this, I have a stomach, it's designed for food argument. This sex is just an appetite. This lie that sex is consumeristic. And so, Paul responds with a couple of things that I find very helpful. Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food and God will destroy both one and the other.

The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. Okay, his first response is very helpful. First of all, sexual immorality, when you see that in the Bible, mostly coming from the Greek word pornea, which is just sexual junk drawer. It really means all sex outside of God's covenant designed for marriage, all sexuality outside of God's covenant designed for marriage. So, everything, if you're thinking, well, does it include this? Yes.

Yes, it does. All of the sexual activity outside of marriage because making a list would have taken too long and then we would have invented something new and said, that's not in there. So, it's just everything outside of God's covenant design. He says, your body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord. Here's what he's saying. Sex is not ultimate.

That does not sound profound. It's very helpful for our culture. You can live your entire human life and never have sex and be fine. I'm going to go over here and say that. You can live your entire human life and never have sex and be fully complete and fully satisfied and fully human be fine. Jesus came and was single.

He is the God as a human perfection held up for us and he lived his entire life, never got married, never had sex. This is so bizarre to our culture that we make up. Obviously, he had to have secret lovers. Obviously, he's got some lineage somewhere. Obviously, this effeminate drawing here is not a boy, but it's some kind of a girl who's not very pretty. But what are you going to do?

Like, sorry, that was a very Da Vinci Code stuff there. If you haven't, you don't know what I'm talking about, that's fine. I was like, that got weird. Yeah, it did. It did. Read it.

It gets weird. It's so bizarre to us, but the truth is your body does not exist for sex. You will not die. You are okay. You can live your entire life and never have sex. Sex is not ultimate.

You were given a body designed for God and His glory and His worship. You were made in the image of God to reveal what He is like to the rest of creation. And that doesn't have to be sex. That's very helpful and sadly profound for us. Next thing He says, so first of all, you don't have to have sex. You're okay.

You were designed for something else, something bigger, something better. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? He's talking to Christians. He's saying, don't you know Jesus' covenant love that He's already poured over you that when you place faith in Him, He made you His and He loves you. You are His bride and He's made you one with Him.

You're part of His body. You're members of Christ. Like, you know, like your arm is a member of your body. That's what He means there. Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Okay, so this is getting deeper than we understand.

So let's keep moving here. Members of a prostitute never, or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? Okay, two things we need to know. One is, prostitution was the big socially acceptable way to have sex outside of your marriage. That's why He refers to prostitution. That was the big Corinthian way, perfectly fine, socially acceptable way to have sex outside of a covenant marriage.

So people were married young and you weren't specifically interested in having a good sexual relationship with your spouse. Wives were not allowed to have sexual relationships outside of their marriage relationship or they were in big trouble, but men could do whatever they wanted to and going and visiting a prostitute was perfectly normal, sexually acceptable way to have a sexual outlet. So, when He talks about prostitution in our culture, that honestly includes most everything. There are really three things that our culture is going to say aren't okay when it comes to sex and sexuality, just culturally.

Anything forced? Not okay. Anything with children of a certain age? Like, we kind of have an age limit on it. Not okay. And the third one is cheating and that one's more of a gray area for people, but mostly frowned upon.

Cheating's not good. So, those are kind of the only three. So, when He says prostitution, He's talking about the way they would have approached sex outside of a covenant relationship. And so, for us, He really just means all the sexual things that we're kind of okay with when He's talking about prostitution. Does that make sense? Tracking there?

Some of you are. Cool. Okay. Okay. Do you not know this is 16? Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her?

Okay. That's not very profound if you just take it for what He's saying. He has to mean something deeper because what He just said is do you not know that he who's joined with a prostitute is joined with a prostitute? Yep. Like, if He just means physical, that sentence isn't helpful and doesn't make a lot of sense. But what He's doing is He's approaching sex the way the Bible always does, which it is much deeper than physical.

Much more going on than just the physical act. So when they say, isn't sex just an appetite? Isn't it just physical? Isn't it just a consumer good? Paul says, no. It's not.

There's so much more going on. The same reason that we in our culture know that there's a difference between physical abuse and sexual abuse. because there's more going on there than just a physical interaction. Paul's acknowledging that there's much more to sex than physical, that it's actually emotional, psychological, spiritual. There's a pastor in New York. He wrote a book called The Meaning of Marriage. In one of his chapters on sex, he says this.

I think it's helpful. The Bible says, do not unite with someone unless you are also willing to unite with the person emotionally, personally, socially, economically, and legally. Don't become physically naked and vulnerable to the other person without becoming vulnerable in every other way. Because you have given up your freedom and bound yourself in marriage. So Paul's point here is that sex is wrong and out of place in all other circumstances than inside of this covenant.

Because it means more. So the Bible's argument is not that you have too high a view of sex. The Bible argues that you have too low a view of sex. The Bible's going to push us that we don't believe enough about sex. That we don't have high enough view about sex. That's the Bible's point.

The reason we're willing to flippantly have sex, the reason we treat it the way we do is not because we value sex too much but we value it too little. We don't understand all that's happening there. This is, sex creates a deep connection. It's a symbol of an invisible reality. That's what it was designed to be. That's how it functions all the time.

So here's what happens. Let me help you out here. During sex, when you have an orgasm, your body fires off a bunch of chemicals like explosions in your head. They are designed to create addiction. Same pleasure centers we talked about that earlier. They're designed to bond you to whatever is causing that.

In your head. They are designed to create addiction. Same pleasure centers we talked about that earlier. They're designed to bond you to whatever is causing that. There's multiple brain chemicals that take place during this that are designed to connect you far beyond a physical interaction. Some of the same chemicals that are given off when a mother breastfeeds, the skin-to-skin contact stuff, it's become real big recently so they've been pushing for men to have skin-to-skin contact

With their babies because mothers get to and it helps you bond to the baby and so that was one of the things they talked about like in the hospital I should have some skin-to-skin contact with Archer and so when they first went to hand me him they were like here you want to hold him and I was like yeah let me take my shirt off first and they were like okay and I was like I'm kidding and they were like well a lot of dads do that and I was like I didn't mean to mock them

I just I was a joke I'm sorry just give me the baby not doing it I'm not stripping down to hug a baby it's not happening sorry if that's you you go for it bro that's great proud of you it was just one of my things but there's something to the chemicals there that take place with a mother bonding to a baby with the skin and it happens during sex and it is designed by God

Who invented sex to make you addicted to your spouse to make you more aroused by your spouse whatever is causing this interchange whatever is causing this explosions in your head it almost slows everything down for you to suck it all in so it becomes a smell it becomes the context of what's going on it becomes the person this is why this becomes so devastating

Outside of a covenant marriage so beautiful here so beautiful that God designed you to become more and more addicted to each other that is beautiful and it becomes almost horrifying when you take it out of that context because your body is designed to latch on to people and you have to begin to if you're having casual sex

With people you have to begin to harden your heart on that you have to begin to shut that off you have to begin to over time grow callous to that so that you're not hurt over and over and over again this is why relationships become much harder to break off once sex enters the picture it's why people stay in relationships with morons because they've begun to do something that happens

On an emotional psychological spiritual basis where God's bringing them together designed and they feel like they owe the person something the person owes them something they become beholden to one another and they shouldn't be this is why pornography addiction becomes such a problem because you're rewiring your brain

To be all the things that were designed for you to soak in and be aroused by it's now being alone looking at a screen clicking changing from image to image novelty whereas in marriage it's designed to be so many other things so Paul says don't you know when you have sex when there's sexual interaction with another person so much more

Is happening here Bible clearly teaches that sex is designed for the context of marriage and the reason that we approach it the way we do is because we have too low a view of it not that we think too high of sex but too little of it so or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her

For it is written the two will become one flesh so he's talking back Genesis he brings it up again and says this is this is why this is a problem because it was designed for something else but he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit

With him so he's saying you already have this relationship this fulfillment in Christ you don't need to pursue it other places and then he says this 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 the temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God so he says flee flee from

Sexual immorality we're pretty terrible at this flee means be afraid and run as fast as your little feet can carry you that we should have such a high view of sex that we should run from anything

That would lead us outside of what it was designed to be we should flee from it for some of us practically that means putting some blocker things on your computer that means having a dumb phone that only receives phone calls and is

Almost useless that means having some very serious conversations with the person that you're dating about where you're going to go ahead and pre-build in some lines build some fences in your brains to protect yourselves that means that maybe

Netflix and chill isn't an option for you because chill becomes way less chill after a while that you just have to build some ways that we're going to run from this and that's difficult but the reason we don't run is that we

Believe lies about sex we don't understand what it was designed to be so we're willing to toy with it a lot more when it actually has a lot more power and a lot more value than we understand man then Paul says this which means a lot to them and I'm going to try to

Help us understand it do you not know this is verse 19 do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God you are not your own for you were bought with a price so glorify God in your body they were not far removed from the slave trade the way to gain freedom from slavery

Was to be bought out of it that was it you were enslaved or you were bought out of slavery so when he says you are bought with a price what he's referring to is that when Jesus Christ went to the cross and gave up his life on our behalf he paid our debt to set us free

From slavery that we do not have to be enslaved to anything but that we were bought with a price and owned by Jesus who purchased us by his blood and who loved us so much to pursue us so far as to go to the cross and die for us to make us his you're not

Your own if you're a Christian you've already been bought you've already been purchased by a much better slave owner by a much better king who set you free from everything else so that you might enjoy a real true depth of relationship with him when it comes to our approach to sex

Paul says hey you don't have to be a slave to it it doesn't have to own you don't have to be a slave to your appetites you don't have to be a slave to your own personal desires you've been purchased by Jesus to be free and only through Christ can we actually find freedom so then they

Move on to the next question which is kind of a reaction against the first two questions I can almost see the Corinthian church wrestling over this and people being like okay we'll put this in the letter put this in the letter and someone's like no put this in the letter and so he gets to this

Next thing he says now concerning the matters about which you wrote so he's saying okay now you've said this verse chapter seven it is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman okay so sex isn't just individualistic it's not just consumeristic there's a group in Corinth saying no no no no

Just no sex whatsoever right like shouldn't we just avoid sex whatsoever so the third question is isn't sex dirty like isn't it just kind of wrong like there's you see so much abuse of it you see this handled so poorly shouldn't we just avoid it that's the third question and it kind of lines up with the third lie we believe which is that sex is dirty or it's at best a necessary evil like sex is good because it makes other

Humans and we should have other humans but that's really it and this this I think has been taught in the church some some people could kind of sum up with what the church has taught at times not not it's we've been fixing this I think but there are some churches who basically taught sex is gross and dirty and wrong save it for your spouse and give them that gift when you get married that's so beautiful thank you so basically they're saying shouldn't we just react against this and avoid this and it best to just

Not have sex at all I remember when Anna and I were going through marriage counseling we just the the church has just kind of avoided this in some ways I remember going through marriage counseling it was like a one session thing and the pastor flipping through a book and talking to us about like do you have a budget just different things and he flips over in his book and like the heading said sex and he goes now when you get married you you'd be able to have sex do y'all have any questions about that

And I couldn't do it I couldn't bring myself to do it I really wanted to be like I have a lot of questions I hope you got a lot of time on your hands no I just we're just like no and he goes well good here's some books you can read and he just moved right along and the truth is this our culture has a lot to say about sex and the church has just kind of avoided it I know parents a lot of times Christian parents don't want to talk to their children about sex if you're not talking to your kids about sex television is their friends are the internet

Is at some point we got to step in and start redeeming this picture and so this response was isn't it dirty shouldn't we just avoid it and Paul begins to answer this question so here's what he says now concerning the matters about which he wrote verse one it is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman he says okay but because of the temptation to sexual immorality each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband what he's not saying is everyone has to get married because you may be tempted what he is saying is pursue marriage if you are overly tempted

Towards sexual things you need to reign that in but you can pursue marriage it's perfectly fine to desire marriage that is not wrong you should not feel bad it's perfectly fine to have a desire for sex that's that is it is a desire it is an appetite it's not just that it's not just a consumer good but he's saying yeah you can pursue marriage to keep you from sin each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband the husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights and likewise the wife to her husband for the wife does not have authority over her own body but the husband does likewise the husband does not have authority over

His own body but the wife does okay first of all don't get caught up on the word conjugal I know it sounds prison-y it's not he's just saying when you're married you should have sex and then he says something that is mind shattering in their culture he starts off by saying the husband owns the wife's body and there were people just not in the law correct that is true you are right Paul when I married her I own her now I can do what I want she does whatever I want and then he says the wife owns the husband's body and people got whiplash they were like read that part again in that letter where he said that crazy stuff because they didn't believe that they

Believe that the wife belonged to the husband that was it and what Paul says is no let me tell you a few things that you've misunderstood about sex first of all it's good you should have sex with each other and your marriage was designed to be a place where there was enjoyable sex so they would have approached it as you got married to have kids and then if you want to have enjoyable sex you would just pursue that outside of marriage what he's saying is no marriage is designed to be a place filled with enjoyable sex and for the enjoyment and pleasure of one another both the wife to her husband and husband to her wife and so then he follows that up with this for the husband should give his wife this is verse 3 husband should give to his wife

Her conjugal rights and likewise the wife to her husband for the wife does not have authority over her own body but the husband does likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body but the wife does do not deprive one another except okay so he's gonna give us the reasons why you can deprive one another perhaps okay except perhaps is like he's limiting this down by agreement okay this has got this is a lot of caveats here Paul for a limited time joke for real except perhaps by agreement for a limited time so Paul's not married he doesn't have anything to gain from this he's just explaining how this works so he says you you own her she owns you you should have sex with each other except perhaps if you both agree for a little bit of

Time so he like even if you agree we're gonna take a year off Paul's gonna say nope I don't care if you agree on that limited time that you may devote yourselves to prayer okay y'all you've been having so much sex you ain't praying y'all might need to take to agree to fast from it for the purposes of prayer what else but then come together again okay that was it that's the only one he gives but then come together again and he says this so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control okay that's massively helpful and sounds a little bit crazy to us and here's why that sounds a little bit crazy to me okay I it is odd I mean maybe odds not the right word doesn't happen often I guess that's another way of saying odd but for people to get married and have the same sexual desire on the sexual desire scale it doesn't always happen

So sometimes you have a wife who has more desire for sex a husband who has more desire for sex culturally we act like it's always the husband that would but that's not true like it it just kind of ranges and so here's what Paul says here's what I would have thought he would have said but because I have kind of a wrong view about sex but here's what I thought what he would have said y'all need to agree what works for both of y'all if one of you likes to have sex more than the other person should have more sex but one of you likes to have sex less than this person who likes it more should have less sex y'all should kind of come to an agreement and figure out what works for y'all and and mutually agree on that it's not what he says what he says is your body doesn't belong to you you give conjugal rights to your spouse and you do not deprive one another which sounds to me like that's not really fair to the person who doesn't

Like to have sex as much here's why he says it if sex is individualistic and consumeristic what Paul just said is wrong and harmful and kind of rude to the person who doesn't like sex as much but if sex is a covenant renewal ceremony that always means more and was designed for you to sacrifice be vulnerable and give yourself to another then what Paul says makes a lot of sense that you in marriage are designed sex isn't for your own pleasure so if one of you desire sex more the person who desires it less should give graciously servingly because sex always means more always accomplishes more it's not just a personal desire it's not just a if I want to if I don't want to or for my own personal pleasure it's for the other it's for the other person for a mutual service and sacrifice to one another and it always accomplishes more so in marriage when we act like if I don't feel like it we shouldn't have sex and you should calm down

To not want to have sex all the time and maybe you're more gracious than the way I just put that but when we treat it that way what we are saying is I still believe sex is individualistic and consumeristic now for the person who desires sex more in marriage you can still be approaching sex in an individualistic consumeristic way I want to have sex I enjoy sex I don't care what you say don't pull this out Paul Bible naked don't do that not helpful and you're wrong you should repent your approach is not sacrificially serving and pursuing your spouse so if you if you're in a marriage and one person desires to have sex more often than the other person both of them need to consider each other the person who desires it more needs to figure out how to pursue their spouse and the perfect person who desires it less needs to figure out how to serve their spouse and once sex becomes a way to give to one another a way to pleasure

One another that your focus is less on yourself and more on your spouse then it becomes very beautiful and exactly what it was designed to be that I'm giving myself to you the same way I've given myself to you in marriage I sacrifice everything I have belongs to you for your good and your enjoyment and when both of spouses are saying that and approaching it that way it can become very beautiful and very enjoyable and it takes a lot of work and it's very difficult but Paul gives something else he doesn't just say sex is given sex is poured out for the other he does say that give realize that in sex in a marriage you are giving yourself to another you're not taking from them it's not for your own personal enjoyment you are figuring out how to give them enjoyment Tim Keller in his book where he talked about sex he said once sex becomes what's the most enjoyable thing about sex becomes giving enjoyment to

Your spouse then it becomes what it was designed to be then it becomes very beautiful but here he says this too he gives another reason for this this is helpful for single and married people I'm in first Timothy for some reason so give me a second here we go I was like this doesn't look right do not deprive one another except perhaps by agreement for a limited time oh you don't have sex you wanted to pray let's pray sorry okay anyway for a limited time to devote yourselves to prayer then come back together again so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control sex because of the covenant power that it has is actually a guard for your marriage against the enemy against a lack of self-control how the enemy works towards bitterness and anger and towards leading us away from our spouse let me tell you something about Satan's real we've talked about that

Before I could probably point you to a message that we've already said if you're confused by that or questioning that but Satan's real he's actively at work against us when Bible talks about Satan it's not just the main Satan guy it's always his forces in the world but here's how they work prior to marriage Satan wants you in bed because that goes against God's good beautiful covenant design and after marriage Satan wants you out of bed at least with your spouse because that goes against God's good covenant design so when I do premarital with couples and they're like yeah okay well we're struggling with sex right now but when we get married it'll be fine no that's a misunderstanding of how sin works what you're currently saying having sex prior to marriage is this is an area where we won't submit to Jesus this is an area where I'm going to hold what I believe above what he says and prior to marriage that

Means a lot of sex but after marriage that means a lot of withholding a lot of bitterness a lot of selfishness and a lot of not sex because the enemy works to bring us together prior to marriage and apart after marriage and one of the best defenses for your marriage is to covenantally continually give yourself to each other okay six finish here now as a concession not a command I say this what he's talking about is you don't have to get married because he says I wish all were as I myself am he's not married so he's saying I wish all of you could be not married and be okay so I'm not saying you have to get married I'm saying that if you do get married this is how it ought to work I wish all were as myself am but each has his own gift from God one of one kind and one of another the Bible is going to say that singleness is a

Gift and marriage is a gift and God graciously give some people with singleness don't use that against single people like what's a gift when they're like struggling with their singleness don't don't pull that out to like harm them like well just enjoy your gift why don't you shut up it's but it is a gift is God gifts singleness to some people the ability to be single and he gives marriage to some people and the only way either one of them works is for us to realize that Jesus bought us out of slavery with his covenant love to make us his when you are single it is so easy to believe if I just had a spouse I wouldn't be lonely I'd be full I'd be complete I could just get married I'd be okay and the only way to live single is to know the love that Jesus has for you and the fulfillment that is found only in him that he pursued you to the point of death on a cross to make you his and it's so easy when you're

Married to think you're supposed to fulfill me you're supposed to complete me you're not doing that right now and I'd be much happier if I could just be single or if I could find the right person you're obviously not it and the only way to exist in the covenant relationship that we're designed to exist in where we give ourselves continually regardless of what we're getting back is for us to be so filled up by Jesus and his love for us that we're free that we've been set free from slavery to our appetite set free from slavery to our individual desires to just love the person we're married to and just sacrifice and give John Donne is a poet he wrote he's lived in England during the Renaissance and he wrote a poem and he ends it this way he's talking to God take me to you imprison me for I accept you enthrall me never shall be free so he's saying God take me lock me up with you and unless I'm enthralled by you I'm going to be a slave to everything else unless you

Enthrall me never I never shall be free and then he says nor ever chased except you ravish me chased means sexually pure and so he says I'll never be sexually pure unless I'm so overwhelmed and filled up by you this is impossible and that's what Paul's saying here we've been bought with a price that God in his grace has gifted us and equipped us and the only way single people that you can remain single and have joy is to lean into Jesus and married people the only way you can remain married and have joy is to lean into Jesus then sex gets to be what it was designed to be not ultimate but a good gift from God for the covenant of marriage and we get to be free free from sex free from individualistic desires free from consumeristic desires and free to just love our spouses serve them be gracious towards them bands gonna come back up we're gonna sing and make much of Jesus who through the gospel went to a cross on our behalf to set us free who the God of the universe who designed

Things for our good for our joy for his glory some some single people in here you need to begin to you need to begin to flee need to begin to rightly view sex so that you're not putting yourself in compromising situations you need to be running from it for the sake of what it was designed to be as you glorify God realizing it's not ultimate need to begin to lean into Jesus and know know that it's his love that that sets you free and gives you hope and joy and fulfillment married couples needs to be some repentance over believing one of those three lies or some version of all three that sex is individualistic it exists for my pleasure until you treat your spouse like an object sex is consumeristic so if I want to or don't want to that's final I don't eat when I'm not hungry I eat when I'm hungry if I want to have sex we should have sex if I don't want to have sex we shouldn't have sex you need to pray about that and repent because sex was meant to be given and for those of you who have treated sex as a necessary evil in your marriage I

Pray that God would help you see the the beauty that he designed for it and how it protects your marriage and guards your marriage makes you addicted to one another need to have some gracious conversations so you might begin to have a sexual relationship as God lays it out he's not against sex if you believe he is read the Song of Solomon it's not against it he invented it was designed to be good and it's for us to graciously give and serve one another in a way that strengthens our marriages so I pray that we would see Jesus setting us free from selfishness and sin so that for single people there can be no sex whatsoever and you'd be fine for married people there can be a lot of sex that continues to draw you closer to one another and all of us realize it's not ultimate it's not where happiness comes from it's not what fills us up that we're free because Jesus sets us free let's pray God we thank you

That you're good thank you for your love for us that you give us hope that we don't need anything but you and that you give us other good gifts to enjoy that get to point back to you and glorify you in distinct and beautiful ways I pray God that you would work on our hearts that there might be repentance for the single people in here who've been wrongly viewing sex that you'd set them free that you'd let them run to you who've died for them to set them free that you're not going to crush them but love them and welcome them for the married couples in here who've been viewing sex wrongly

There is a small glitch at 9:20 in this recording that cannot be fixed. We apologize for the hiccup!