Category: Sermons

Many scriptures speak of God being in control of the presence and absence of rain and withholding rain as a sign of His displeasure.

Dt. 28:15 “ But it shall come about, if you do not [a]obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

23 [a]The heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron. 24 The Lord will change the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed. (cmp. Lev. 26:19).

The metaphors of heaven as bronze and earth as iron spoke of a rainless sky and a barren land. Such realities would be frightful to any people.

Zech. 14:17 And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them.

Acts 14:17 and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, [a]satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”

James 5:17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed [a]earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.

Amos 4:7 “Furthermore, I withheld the rain from you
While there were still three months until harvest.
Then I would send rain on one city
And on another city I would not send rain;
One part would be rained on,
While the part not rained on would dry up.

Jer.5:24 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if My People who are called by my Name will humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive there sin and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7: 13-14)

God created the world as a good environment which would normally provide ample water and food for mankind (Genesis 1:1).

0lder Calvinists saw an interruption of rain as God’s just judgment, Thomas Watson in 1670,

“It is God who brings droughts and rain, and who opens and stops the clouds, the bottles of heaven, at his pleasure:

Watson then cites Jer. 14:2-4,

“Judah mourns, her cities languish; they wail for the land, and a cry goes up from Jerusalem. The nobles send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns but find no water. They return with their jars unfilled; dismayed and despairing, they cover their heads (as a token of great grief and sorrow, as mourners do.) The ground is cracked because there is no rain in the land; the farmers are dismayed and cover their heads.”

Watson, like many of the older Calvinists saw the productiveness of the earth as related to people’s obedience to God.

They could look at the sins of Adam, Eve, and Cain as those sins resulted in unfruitfulness of the earth (Genesis 3:17-18; Genesis 4:12).

17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;

Cursed is the ground because of you;
In [a]toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.
18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the [b]plants of the field;

As a result of Cain’s sin,

12 When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth.”

The Older Calvinists could look at Israel’s relationship with God and how the sins of Israel also directly affecting the fertility of the Promised Land.

When the people obeyed God, the land was productive (Deuteronomy 11:11-14). However, when they disobeyed, judgment came on the land by drought and famine (Leviticus 26:23-26; Deuteronomy 11:16-17; 1 Kings 8:35).

I Kings 8:35 “ When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain, because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name and turn from their sin when You afflict them,

At the same time the Old Testament contains promises that God will protect His faithful ones in times of famine (Job 5:20, 22; Psalms 33:18-19; Psalms 37:18-19; Proverbs 10:3)

Ps. 33:18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him,
On those who [a] hope for His lovingkindness,
19 To deliver their soul from death
And to keep them alive in famine

Ps. 18 The Lord knows the days of the [a]blameless,
And their inheritance will be forever.
19 They will not be ashamed in the time of evil,
And in the days of famine they will have abundance.

While the Bible states that some famines and droughts are the judgment of God (2 Samuel 21:1; 1 Kings 17:1; 2 Kings 8:1; Jeremiah 14:12; Ezekiel 5:12; Amos 4:6), not all such disasters are explicitly connected to divine punishment (Genesis 12:10; Genesis 26:1; Ruth 1:1; Acts 11:28). However, when God did send drought and famine on His people, it was for the purpose of bringing them to repentance (1 Kings 8:35-36; Hosea 2:8-23; Amos 4:6-8).

So older Calvinists used to read visitations upon the land as God communicating to His people by Divine providence. Those negative visitations could be lack of rain, they could be fire that raged through a city, or they could be capture by one’s enemies. The point is that older Calvinists, in difficulties or in blessings and abundance saw the hand of God.

For example,

Thomas Watson on the great fire that decimated London in 1670,

“That the burning of London is a national judgment, is evident enough to every man who has but half an eye.”

“O sirs, you are to see and observe and acknowledge the hand of the Lord in every personal judgment, and in every domestic judgment. Oh how much more then in every national judgment that is inflicted upon us! And thus I have done with those ten considerations, that should not only provoke us—but also prevail with us, to see and acknowledge the hand of the Lord in that recent dreadful fire, which has laid our city desolate!”

When other Puritans in the New World experienced starvation and Indian attacks, they reasoned it was God’s will and possibly also His punishment for their materialism and other sins. When they were victorious in battle with the Indians or reaped a bountiful harvest, they gave thanks to God.

Mary Rowlandinson, a Calvinist preacher’s wife in the New World was captured by Indians in a raid on their town.

Rowlandson believed that God was punishing his people for breaking their special covenant as his chosen people. She described the relationship between the Indians and the colonists as one orchestrated by God. As she surveyed her home after the attack bv the Indians, she credited the destruction not to the Indians, but to God, when she quoted “Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He has made in the earth-“[10] When pondering the escape of the Indians, weighed down with the burden of their wounded captives, from the English army, Rowlandson concluded that “God strengthened [the Indians] to be a scourge to His people.” Rowlandson believed that “our perverse and evil carriages in the sight of the Lord have so offended Him that, instead of turning his hand against [the Indians], the Lord feeds and nourishes them.” She reinforced her conviction that God punished her people through the Indians by quoting the scriptural voice of God saying “Oh, that my people had harkened to me, and Israel had walked in my ways; I should soon have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries.”[11] The Indians’ success over the Puritans was a result of the failure of the Puritans to uphold their covenant with God. The warning that John Cotton preached over forty years earlier, that if the colonist, “degenerate, to take loose courses, God will surely plucke you up,” had become prophetic to Mary Rowlandson

Remember, the point that I’m trying to make here, is that whether it was drought, or some other hardship, Older Calvinists believed that God’s sovereign providential hand was in the matter. Whatever they were dealing with it did not come to them by chance or happenstance. And generally they believed if what came to them was hardship, then they had need to repent.

Maybe they drew too tight a connection between the hardship and the specific sin in their lives they were being chastened for, but at least they understood that the world was Governed directly by God whatever concrete event may come into their lives.

I think there is danger in drawing to tight a connection between hardship that comes into our lives and some specific exact sin, though Scripture clearly teaches God chastens those He loves. If we draw to tight a connection between hardship and some exact sin we could fall prey to the thinking that success always equal righteousness while hardship always equals some wickedness. Scripture gives us plenty of examples that counter that so that we will not fall into that thinking.

Having said that, I also think that we have fallen into the greater danger of not seeing the world alive with God’s providential superintendence like the older Calvinists. We too often fail to see God’s providence in all the affairs around us. We too typically forget that all that happens, happens by divine ordination and with the concurrence of Divine providence.

For the older Calvinists God’s hand was seen in everything. To often for us, God is a spectator, along with us, in the
vicissitudes of life. And because we don’t seen God’s providence in all that comes our way we are slow to turn to Him in every situation, casting our all upon Him.

Now we ask why did the older Calvinists view life with this high sense of God intimate providence?

Because they saw it taught everywhere in Scripture,

Amos 3:6, “When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it?”

Whatever the judgment is which falls upon a city—God is the author of it; he acts in it and orders it according to his own good pleasure. There is no judgment that accidentally falls upon any person, city, or country. Every judgment is inflicted by a divine power and providence… including drought.

“The Lord said to him—Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” Exodus 4:11.

“See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand!” Deuteronomy 32:39.

“The Lord brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up. The Lord sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts. 1 Samuel 2:6-7.

“When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other.” Ecclesiastes 7:14.

“This is what the Lord says: As I have brought all this great calamity on this people, so I will give them all the prosperity I have promised them.” Jeremiah 32:42.

“Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?” Lamentations 3:38.

“When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it?” Amos 3:6.

“For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal.” Job 5:18.

“I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.” Job 42:2.

“Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.” Psalm 115:3.

“I know that the Lord is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods. The Lord does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths.” Psalm 135:5-6.

“I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.” Isaiah 45:7.

“The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me!” Ruth 1:21.

“I was silent; I would not open my mouth, for you are the one who has done this.” Psalm 39:9. “He is the Lord; let him do what is good in his eyes.” 1 Samuel 3:18.

“The Lord brought all this disaster on them.” 1 Kings 9:9.

“‘I am going to bring disaster on you.” 1 Kings 21:21.

“The Lord has decreed disaster for you.” 1 Kings 22:23.

“Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle!” 2 Kings 21:12.

“The Lord works out everything for his own ends– even the wicked for a day of disaster!” Proverbs 16:4.

“Therefore this is what the Lord says: I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them!” Jeremiah 11:11.

We see, by the witness of Scripture, that the older Calvinists had good reason to have a strong belief in God’s providence. It was part and parcel of that which makes Calvinism, Calvinism, and that is the belief in the Sovereignty of God.

So what is our attitude to be in the face of natural disasters?

1.) We would do well, in every natural occurrence, to see the hand of the Lord, and to look through the instrument that God uses to effect His end to the invisible God who wielded that instrument. Winds do not blow, floods do not come, rain is not with-held, unless God be in it. (“Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it?” Is. 10:15).

2.) We don’t blame God as if He is guilty of our demands. Could any of us say that we are as Holy in our walk as our righteous Father Job was, and yet, God in His providence laid Job low and Job learned not to put God in the dock. When hardship comes our way we must remember that God’s dealings with us are altogether just, and that none of us, if honest with ourselves, can indict God for His dealings with us, as if we deserve better than whatever God brings.

3.) Repent. Repentance means a change in our thinking and then our lifestyle. We have to abandon our humanistic fantasies and return to taking the entire Word of God seriously. Why should we find it so difficult to call for repentance in the time of drought? Our whole life should be characterized as a life style of repentance and if that is so hardship should doubly call us to examine ourselves unto repentance, amending of thinking and acting where needs be and trust in Christ alone.

4.) Understand the truth of God’s “Severe Mercy.” Providentially, God sends hardship into our lives, often to put us into the refiners fire of sanctification. God’s severe mercy, often painfully, yet exactingly conforms us to Christ. We should pray that we might be able to say,

“I thank thee Lord for the Rod, the file, and the refiners fire, for grace tried and proven is better than grace left untried.”

(Paul’s thorn in the Flesh — God’s grace is sufficient.)

5.) We reach out with compassion to those who are suffering from natural disasters. We demonstrate the Love of God. We show the love of God in ministering to the needs and hurts of those immediately affected. It is an opportunity to show the love of Christ. It is an opportunity to relieve physical suffering [as Jesus did when He walked the earth], and point people to the only way to relieve spiritual suffering and know Peace w/ God.

By way of opening this morning I want us to consider how Scripture portrays the violation of the 10 commandments as being Characteristic of the Devil. Scripture teaches us that God’s Law-Word is the Character of God so we should not be surprised that in are enemy the Devil we find a person whose Character is defined as being the antithesis of what God’s Law-Word establishes.

I open with this because I want us to understand that we either live as Children of God who walk increasingly in His character or we walk as Children of the Devil who walk increasingly in His character. The more we refuse to reflect Christ, who was the incarnation of God’s Law, the more we reflect the Devil who is the antithesis of God’s law.

In the words of the old Bob Dylan song …

“You’re gonna have to serve somebody. Now it may be the Devil or it may be the Lord but you’re going to have to serve somebody.”

1st Word

God said, “Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods before me

The Devil aspired

Isaiah 14:13 You said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north;[a]
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’

2nd Word

God said, “Thou shalt not bow down to worship false gods”

Contrary to God’s explicit word Satan tempted Jesus to fall down and worship him.

Matthew 4:8-9 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”

3rd Word

God said, “Do not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain”

We learn in Job that Satan’s goal in his affliction of Job was to have Job curse God

Job 1:11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”

Further, we find the Devil taking God’s name in vain when he quotes Scripture to Jesus during Jesus temptation. He cites God’s words for his own twisted end, using God’s words to undo God’s authority.

4th Word

5th Word

6th Word

God said, “Thou Shalt Not Kill”

In Scripture we find the Devil as,

John 6:10 — The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

John 8:44 — “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies

7th word

8th Word

God said, “Thou Shalt Not Steal”

In the parable of the sower it is said of Satan that he steals away the word sown

Elsewhere Jesus said of Satan

John 10:10 — The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Some scholars identify “The Thief” here as “The Devil,” while others identify “the Thief” as the Pharisees but as the Pharisees were directly identified as acting in ways consistent with their Father the Devil, it comes much to the same thing.

Further the whole story of Scripture casts Satan as the one who would steal God’s Glory.

9th Word

God said, “Thou Shalt not bear False Witness

But it is said of Satan

John 8:44 — “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies

10th Word

God said, “Thou Shalt Not Covet”

As we learned earlier on the 1st Commandment, Satan coveted God’s position as God

And we learn that the Sin that he plied in our First parents was coveting.

Fruit in the Garden … the desire to be as God

————-

This opening up of Scripture examines how it is that we reveal ourselves to be either Children of God or children of the Devil. If we are God’s people we will desire to walk in God’s character and confess before God and bring accusation against ourselves when we do not walk in God’s character.

However, it also opens up again our need as Christians for Christ and His Righteousness. We hear God’s law and we see God’s character in His law and we understand the requirement to conform to that character without fault or with the slightest deviation. And when we are honest with ourselves we understand that we must have a obedience to God’s character that comes from outside of us because even on those days we are most obedient in walking in God’s character we also see that it is not good enough. We are, with the Apostle Paul, the Chief of Sinners. And so while we esteem God’s law, we also look to the one who is our Law keeping righteousness that is acceptable before God, our Lord Jesus Christ who is to us our Wisdom, Righteousness and Sanctification.

And so the Law teaches us not only the Character of God that we are to walk in as God’s people, but it also teaches us that Christ’s perfect walk as God’s Covenantal Head for His people is that which we must hold fast to at all times as our only acceptability before God.

Similarly, when we look at Scripture we see the Character of Satan which is the antipode of God’s character and we understand that because we are Children of God, by the work of Christ alone, we are

22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

You see, as Christians we are to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God. And where do we learn of the likeness of God that we are to put on?

In Jesus Christ who was the incarnation of God’s ten Words.

And so we are the elect ones, who out of God’s sheer mercy and grace are covered in Christ and so being covered in Christ, and always being acceptable to the Father, we seek ourselves, as led by the Holy Spirit, to be miniature incarnations of God’s law word, increasingly conforming to Christ.

Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to have no God but God.
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to not bow down to and serve false gods
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to esteem the name of the Lord our God in vain
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to honor the Sabbath
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to honor our Parents
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to esteem life
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to remain chaste our whole lives
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to promote the advantage of our neighbor in every instance
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to be truth tellers
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to be content with what God has appointed unto us

I John 3:8 teaches that Christ came to destroy the works of the Devil. In His death for sinners Christ destroys the accusatory work of the Devil who would bring charges (Romans 8:33) against the Saints. There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And in the resurrection life that Christ freely gives to us (Romans 6) Christ destroys the works of the devil in our lives and makes us increasingly walking exemplifiers of God’s character so that we are an attraction to those who are called of God and reviled by those who are of their Father the Devil.

The Church is to be the Character of God. A living embodiment of the reality that the strong man has been bound and God’s people have been set free to walk in newness of life.

Here we see the hope of global Reformation. When God is pleased to grant Reformation, we can expect to see the continuing defeat of Satan’s character at every turn and the establishment of God’s character in its place.

One thing we should keep in mind here when approaching this text is that St. Paul was writing to Saints (3). The issues he touches upon were issues within the Church. If they had not been issues within the Church he would have had no need to touch upon them. It is interesting that he brings this subject matter up not only for the Ephesian Church but also for the Church in Colosse.

3 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. 5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to [c] immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. 6 For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come [e]upon the sons of disobedience, 7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.

To the Saints in Corinth St. Paul could write,

1 Cor.6:18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 1 Cor.6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 1 Cor.6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

And so it is to the Saints that these injunctions are made and they are consistently made in light of the fact that the people of God have been translated from the Kingdom of Darkness to the Kingdom of God’s dear Son.

In the Ephesians passage the Saints have just been reminded that Christ gave Himself for the Church. The injunction to walk in this new morality is connected to the new reality established by the fact that Christ gave Himself for us. In the Colossians passages the Saints were reminded that they were raised with Christ. This being raised with Christ is connected elsewhere with being raised to newness of life. In the Corinthians passage the Saints are called to purity in light of the fact that they have been purchased by God. The thought being, having been purchased by God we now have a responsibility to walk in light of His ownership.

So, these moral injunctions are not given absent of the objective realities of the Gospel of Christ for sinners. These moral injunctions are given in light of both these objective realities of what Christ has accomplished for us — outside of us — and the effect of the Gospel in the lives of Believers. Before the negative prohibitions are stated the positive is set forth. The positive is that we are a freely Redeemed people. We have been won and wooed by Christ. All of our acting, thinking, and living is now done in light of He who hath freely reconciled us with the Father. This is no moralism for the sake of moralism that the inspired Apostle is pursuing. This is morality in light of the fact that we are a people set free from the dead traditions of those who have the Devil as their Father.

But we circle back to the idea that these words were written to saints. Saints have a need to be reminded of these things for Saints are sinners also. The Church is a hospital and the Christian message, in the broadest sense of that idea, provides the elixir and the therapy whereby we go from renewal unto renewal. And so St. Paul reminds these Saints that because of who they have been declared to be in Christ Jesus they now have the mission of increasingly becoming. And this means that certain behavioral sins (Fornication, etc.) are not to be even named among the Saints.

That St. Paul would had to have written the several Churches about these matters is not surprising given the backdrop of the 1st century world.

The Greco-Roman culture in the 1st Century was devoid of the kind of moral standards that once characterized nations that had been leavened with the Christian faith. The moral life of the Graeco-Roman world had sunk so low that, while protests against the prevailing corruption were never entirely wanting, fornication had long come to be regarded as a matter of indifference, and was indulged in w/o shame or scruple, not only by the mass, but by philosophers and men of distinction who in other respects led exemplary lives.

As one example, in Corinth, the Chambers of Commerce maintained regularly around 2000 prostitutes for all visiting businessmen. Corinth was a manufacturing town and so had numbers of visiting businessmen and nobody thought that there was anything immoral with men having relations with prostitutes. This was all taken for granted. So, in the Gentile Churches the moral standard could be pretty low.

Everett Ferguson, whose scholarly work deserves high regard, writes:

“All kinds of immoralities were associated with the [Greco-Roman] gods. Not only was prostitution a recognized institution, but through the influence of the fertility cults of Asia Minor, Syria, and Phoenicia it became a part of the religious rites at certain temples. Thus there were one thousand “sacred prostitutes” at the temple of Aphrodite at Corinth.”

This first matter that is not even be named among the Saints is “porneia.”

The term “porneia” (fornication) is to be taken in its proper sense and is not to be restricted to any one particular form — the license practiced at heathen festivals, concubinage, marriage within prohibited degrees, serial intimate relationships, unnatural physical affections or the like. Porneia thus while inclusive of adultery, and uncleanness, might be considered broader in significance so as to include what has been mentioned.

Fornication then, like adultery, is an attack upon Biblical marriage and Family.

Where you find a culture characterized by porneia you will find the family on the rocks. But understand that porneia is a symptom and not a cause. Porneia and the disintegration it brings to the family is caused by a turning from the God of the Bible so that we should say that the cure to porneia will only come secondarily by laws legislating against it. There will no laws that can successfully legislate against the flood of porneia we see in our own times without a return to the Christian faith. Laws in general, and laws against porneia specifically arise and are successful only when men are affected by the Gospel.

And so we who are affected by the Gospel must live lives such as that which is called for by God. Among us porneia should not even be named. We should flee from it. If this becomes increasingly true in our assemblies then one of two consequences will arise.

1.) Either those outside of Christ will be attracted to the Gospel that makes for porneia free living

The Christian life is the abundant life. Our lives are set free from all the real dark drama that accompanies those caught in the net of porneia. Imagine how attractive Christianity might be to someone living with the consequences of porneia to witness a healthy Christian family. As our unbelieving culture spins further and further into dark night and old chaos the ability to function well as a Family unit based upon Christian truth will serve as salt and light for those wanting out of the darkness created, in part, by porneia.

2.) or those outside of Christ will attack us for the standing rebuke we are to their ongoing dissipation.

Harvard Sociological expert Carle Zimmerman could say,

“When familism is distinctly weak in a society, all the cultural elements take on anti-family tinge.”

And I would add that as familism can only be produced by Christianity the anti-family tinge will also be a anti-Christian tinge.

As porneia comes more and more out of the closet the expectation will be that those who are chaste will have to go into the closet.

When St. Paul reminds them that porneia is not even to be named among them we are reminded that to allow porneia to be named among our assemblies is to turn our assemblies into synagogues of Satan. When we turn a blind eye to unrepentant and indifferent unchasteness in our membership we do our Lord Christ, our congregations, our denominations and those persons a grave disservice.

The Heidelberg Catechism reinforces what we are teaching when it teaches

Question 109. Does God forbid in the 7th commandment, only adultery, and such like gross sins?

Answer: Since both our body and soul are temples of the holy Ghost, he commands us to preserve them pure and holy: therefore he forbids all unchaste actions, gestures, words, (a) thoughts, desires, (b) and whatever can entice men thereto.

And here we pause to consider those last 6 words. This 7th commandment forbids whatever can entice men to the violation of the 7th commandment.

These are difficult words in our information age that so easily conveys the sensual. In our information age it seems as if it is almost impossible to escape the enticing. Listen to the radio. Watch the television. Go to the movies or plays. Drive down the highway being exposed to the billboards. Listen to music. Read a magazine or a novel. Surf the web. Attend your sex education class. Is it really possible to escape whatever can entice men to uncleanness?

Still, we must seek to cut out as much as we can in order to be innocent regarding evil.

Of course all of this will work to make us a peculiar people. This not naming porneia among us will distinguish us and make us different.

When we turn to Ephesians 5 again we notice this list of sins that are not to be named among us and I would like to suggest that this list is not random.

The prohibition to porneia, which by the Greek language construction is a prohibition expressed in the strongest of terms, suggests to me that the other sins listed are somehow connected to the prohibition against porneia. The connection between Uncleanness and porneia is rather more obvious but the idea of covetousness might not be. Porneia is pursued by people who want something that is not their’s to have. Behind porneia is a covetous disposition seeking to seize what is not rightfully to be had. And so, after forbidding porneia God can forbid that which drives porneia and that is illicit desire …. covetousness. So here we see a natural connection between the 7th commandment and the 10th commandment so that we might say that it is impossible to break the 7th without also breaking the 10th.

Further, I would suggest the foolish talking or coarse jesting is likewise related to porneia. That is to say that the speaking that is being forbidden here is connected to illicit intimacy. We sometimes call this “Potty talk,” or “Locker room humor.”

And finally the Apostle connects the 7th word and the 10th word with the 1st word. The Apostle says that the kind of man he is describing is an Idolater. Of course this fits. The porneia man who is driven by his illicit covetous desires is a man who is prioritizing himself above God. Depending on how one looks at it the porneia man has made a god above God out of whatever it is he is wrongly desiring or he has made himself, with his unnatural desires, his own God.

Well, then can we understand why the Apostle would say that such a thing is not to be named among God’s people. Should those who serve false gods be named among those who serve the true God?

As we end we are reminded that the reason we take seriously the 7th word is because of the love of the Father we have and the gratitude for all that He has freely given to us in Christ. We take the 7th word seriously because we can’t help but to take it seriously since we have been given the Spirit so that we might walk in the newness of life with God’s law as the standard of what that life looks like.

Question 108. What does the seventh commandment teach us?

Answer: That all uncleanness is accursed of God: (a) and that therefore we must with all our hearts detest the same, (b) and live chastely and temperately, (c) whether in holy wedlock, or in single life. (d)

I.) God’s Disposition Towards “Uncleanness”

Adultery proper indicates that a man, either married or unmarried, has unlawful relations with a married (or betrothed) woman. He takes into possession what does not belong to him (Deut.22: 24).

Notice that while the commandment forbids “adultery” the Catechism includes in its teaching on the 7th commandment that which is forbidden includes all uncleanness.

Leviticus 18 gives a list of the uncleanness that is accursed by God. In the list includes the prohibition against marriage within family lines, and prohibition against un-natural acts. It is interesting that when one gets to the NT there is reiteration of how God finds several of the un-natural acts listed in Lev. 18 to be accursed.

9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals,[a] nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

Scripture teaches that God visits the punishment of the uncleanness upon the land in the OT and so the land vomited the purveyors of such unseemliness out of the land.

(a) Lev.18:27 (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) 28 That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.

The destruction of such civilizations that were practitioners of such uncleanness is not unique to OT times. Theodore Momsmen, in his book, “History of Rome,” writes of the breakdown of Greek and Roman civilizations,

“What ideas as to divorce prevailed in the circles of the aristocracy may be discerned in the conduct of their best and most moral hero, Marcus Cato, who did not hesitate to separate from his wife at the request of a friend desirous to marry her, and as little scrupled on the death of his friend to marry the same wife a second time. Celibacy and childlessness became more and more common, especially among the upper classes … we now encounter in Cato … the maxim which Polybius a century before traced the decay of Hellas, that it is the duty of the citizen to keep great wealth together and therefore not to be beget too many children…. In consequence of such a social condition the Latin stock in Italy underwent an alarming diminution, and its fair provinces were overstepped partly by parasitic immigration, partly by sheer desolation.”

We find here a number of social traits characteristics of civilizations in decline because of the uncleanness that is accursed by God of which the catechism speaks.

Playing off of Momsmen’s analysis Harvard Sociologist Zimmerman could write

What we find in families and civilizations in decline is increasing development of extra-family carnal relations, the decay of mores of the upper class families (which continually then move downward infiltrating the lower classes), the rise of unclean abnormalities, the increasing refusal of women to be sedate in an unsedate world; the decline in the seriousness with which adultery is considered, the purely formal adhesion to the moral code; the increased popularity and frequency of absolute divorce and separation; the rise of celibacy and aggravated birth control; … the replacement of the native populations by immigrants, slaves, and non-natives; and the development of an antagonism to the whole system of values upon which the society formerly operated.

So this uncleanness which was accursed by God in the OT record and which led to a removal of the former people from the land by God is an uncleanness that can be found elsewhere in recorded history and likewise was found to be accursed by God as seen in the eventual destruction of subsequent civilizations.

So we can see in Scripture and in history that all such uncleanness is accursed by God. And we would add that such uncleanness that the Catechism teaches, following Scripture remains accursed of God. Finally, on this point we would offer that if God finds such uncleanness accursed among those who made no claim upon Him as His people how much more accursed is this uncleanness when it is found among those who makes some kind of claim upon God’s name?

II.) Our Disposition Towards Uncleanness

therefore we must with all our hearts detest the same

The catechism instructs us that our disposition towards these sins ought not to be merely casual but that our whole being is to be set in opposition towards this kind of uncleanness.

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines

DETEST, v.t. [L., to affirm or bear witness. The primary sense of testor is to set, throw or thrust. To detest is to thrust away.] To abhor; to abominate; to hate extremely; as, to detest crimes or meanness.

The idea here is that because God finds such uncleanness accursed we should, as His people, detest what is accursed by God. In the old legal sense we are to bear witness against such uncleanness.

But of course our detesting of uncleanness are as those who would point to a God who does forgive all such uncleanness. We are reminded in the very NT passage that we cited earlier that speaks of God’s opposition to uncleanness that immediately thereafter the Apostle can say,

I Cor. 6:11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

And so any detesting that we are called to is a detesting done so that people who are involved in various kinds of uncleanness, such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, etc. may discover and know the joy of being clean again in Christ Jesus who alone can take our uncleanness away and by His animating Spirit give us a desire to go from cleanness to cleanness as we walk in newness of life.

Another thing we should say about this detesting is that this disposition towards these sins is not done in these sense that we are made of better dirt than others. We are sinners who ourselves have been and are continually forgiven of our sins and so there is to be no self-righteousness about our detesting of these sins that we are called to.

Jude teaches what our manner here should be,

Jude 1:23 And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

The whole purpose of our detesting is one of compassion. Those caught in adultery, or other uncleanness are caught in a lifestyle that is destructive to them. And so we oppose their uncleanness precisely because of compassion and sympathy for them.

Now let’s spend a moment speaking about the psychological end of this.

If one was to live in a culture that was characterized by this uncleanness and if one was to have the disposition that the Catechism calls for one could expect that the response might be that we will be detested by those who are involved in uncleanness. For example in 2008,

A Christian photographer in New Mexico was found guilty in 2008 of breaking state law for refusing to take pictures of a lesbian ceremony. Recently that decision was upheld by an appellate court. The appeals process continues.

Elaine Huguenin of Elane Photography was contacted in 2006 by a same-sex couple wanting pictures taken of their “commitment ceremony.”

After Huguenin told them she only photographed traditional marriages, the couple filed a complaint for discrimination against their sexual orientation.

The case was taken before the New Mexico Human Rights Commission, which heard the case in January.

On Wednesday, the state commission ruled that Huguenin violated the state’s Human Rights Act. An order was issued for the photographer to pay close to $7,000 for the couple’s attorney’s fees.

And so these Christian Photographers found out the price for detesting uncleanness and we may as well in the way of being unpopular, or losing friends, or even having other Christians break fellowship with us, or in other ways. We need to keep in mind here the words of Jesus here in John 15:18,

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.”

III.) God’s Answer For Us To Uncleanness

live chastely and temperately

The word “chaste” has a similar meaning to the word “pure.” The word “temperate” means to exercise self control.

1 Thess.4:3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: 1 Thess.4:4 That every one of you should know how to possess his own body in sanctification and honour; 1 Thess.4:5 Not in the lustful passion, even as the Gentiles which know not God:

In times where the world is spinning increasingly out of control when it comes to the issue of uncleanness an effective witness to the glory of Jesus Christ in his ability to freely save is to live in self control. Though it must be said even here that living in this way quite without saying a word can also earn the enmity of those who are convicted. I know of a person for example, many years ago who was relieved from her job simply because she would not join in the gutter talk at the work place with the other co-workers.

And here we can turn to speak to the Father’s for just a moment on this Father’s day. Fathers the ability of your family to live chastely and temperately will be largely reflective of your living chastely and temperately. You have the opportunity to set the standard, in the home, for the chaste and temperate lifestyle that the catechism calls for here.

Recently, I was encouraged in a conversation I had with one of the Dads here in his attempt to maintain a standard for the chaste and the temperate in an activity in which his children were involved. He had a sense of the chaste and the temperate and he desired that standard to be enforced. This is becoming a Christian father.

Fathers when you love your respective wives you are folding into your children, by way of living example, future families where adultery will most often be a stranger. Fathers your influence upon your children and their future families will either be an influence towards cleanness or uncleanness. There are plenty of influences in the broader culture upon them for uncleanness and so let your influence be towards cleanness.

IV.) This Lifestyle Is To Be Characteristic Of Us Regardless Of Our Marriage Status

The catechism speaks of the single life and we would admit how difficult it must be to live in this culture as a single person temperately and chastely. But we recall that the purpose of this section of the Catechism is to instruct us how we can live to the glory of God, and so, if single, by the Spirit’s aid, chaste and temperate lives are sought out.

One thing to keep in mind that might help to this end is all that uncleanness promises in way of allurement it can never deliver. Sin has its passing pleasure but it can never satisfy. This is perhaps nowhere more true than in relation to this issue.

Whether single or married we must keep in mind,

3 But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let them not once be named among you, as becometh saints;
4 neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not befitting, but rather giving of thanks.
5 For this ye know: that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.

Those that are married are likewise called to this chaste and temperate life. The State of marriage is honorable

Heb.13:4 Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

Now what might we say to those who have slipped and fallen in the mire of uncleanness that is so prevalent in our culture. We would say that there is forgiveness in Christ Jesus. Following Scripture we would remind the believer that if we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. We would remind that all of us in Christ stand received by God only upon the basis of Christ’s cleanness put to our account.

To those outside of Christ who might be weary and heavy laden with assorted uncleanness you can be assured that if you will come to Christ in faith He will wash your sins clean in Baptism and will pour out His Spirit so that you can say no to the lifestyle that promised so much but delivered so little. There is no need to amend your life before you turn to Christ for forgiveness and healing. Regardless of your present uncleanness, Christ will not turn you away.