(#031) - 1 Corinthians 6 & 7 - Sexless Marriages Encourage Adultery

Class Outline:

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Are you poor at enriching your unity?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome To 

BARAH MINISTRIES

a Christian Church

 

Rory Clark

Pastor-Teacher

 

Good Morning!

 

Welcome to Barah Ministries…an intimate, local Christian Church with worldwide impact.  My name is Pastor Rory Clark.  At Barah Ministries we know this truth…that Jesus Christ is God.  As the Lord He is 100% Deity… He is God the Son.  He is also 100% human just like you and me, and His name is Jesus Christ.  The Lord…God the Son…became flesh…Jesus Christ...and lived among us.  He is the uniquely born One…the God-Man… He is the Sovereign God of the Universe…He is the Savior of the whole world…and He is the Jewish Messiah.  

 

Those who make Barah Ministries their spiritual home are Christians…we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and we have a deep, intimate, and personal relationship with the Lord because Christianity is a relationship, not a religion…and the Lord Jesus Christ is a Person.  He is not a thing and He is not a concept.  Just as we do with anyone whom we love, we spend time getting to know the Lord through the study of His Word.  You can’t get to know the Lord without knowing His mind, and the Bible is His exact thinking.

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

Sexless Marriages Encourage Adultery

 

I’m going to shock you now!  God created sexual intercourse between men and women.  When God said, “Be fruitful and multiply,” there’s really only one way to do that.  Do I have to spell it out?

 

What is God’s attitude toward sex, especially sex within marriage?  If you’re married, is your attitude toward sex within your marriage the same as His?  Or is your viewpoint of sexuality perverted by prudish parents and by a legalistic world that always seeks to steal the joy from everything good?  In today’s lesson, we’ll learn God’s intention for sex within marriage so you can orient yourselves to His will for your lives.

 

SONG INTRODUCTION

 

When you become a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Father places you on a predetermined course for your life.  Factoring in your free will choices into the course, and allowing them all as part of His master plan, the Father directs your path.  Romans, Chapter 8, Verse 28 says…

 

ROMANS 8:28

And we believers in Christ know that God the Father causes all things to work together for good to those who love God the Father…for those who are called according to the Father’s purpose.

 

All the things that happen to you are woven together by God into a tapestry that is for your benefit. June Murphy says it this way in her song…as believers in Christ we have a DESTINY!

 

MUSIC AND REFLECTION

Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ

Enjoy the Singing of His Praises

 

DESTINY

June Murphy

 

OPENING PRAYER

Let us pray...

 

We’re grateful, Heavenly Father, for the privilege of studying Your absolute truth...the Word of God…

 

Father, thank you for having a plan for everything…especially thank you for having a plan for the sin problem…the sacrifice of Your Son and our Lord Jesus Christ who went to the Cross to pay for every sin we would ever commit…past, present, and future…thank you for inclining Your ear to us during the times when we pray, even though we don’t pray as we should… …thank you for providing God the Holy Spirit to intercede for us during prayer with groanings too deep for words.

 

Father, illuminate the deceptions in our lives…cleanse us from all the ways we deceive ourselves…help us to learn the perfect provisions You have made for us…help us to rest in the comfort of the protection You surround us with…

 

…we ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit…in Christ’s

name...Amen.

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

Sexless Marriages Encourage Adultery

 

We’ve been studying the apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian Church for the past eight months and we’re almost halfway through it.  What we know about the church at Corinth is that it is populated by believers in Christ who are new believers…they’re immature, meaning not fully formed… they’re not fully educated in the Word…they’re in the initial stages of Christianity…so their approach to Christianity is to mix the world’s viewpoint into Christianity.

 

For the first six chapters of our study of First Corinthians, the apostle Paul has been highlighting the problems the church is experiencing as reported by some of the more mature and inquisitive members of the Corinthian church.  Of course, mixing in the world’s view of things into Christianity causes divisions in a congregation…First Corinthians, Chapter 1, Verses 10 and 11…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:10 

Now I (Paul) exhort you fellow believers in Christ, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree…and that there be no rivalries among you…instead, that you be made complete…in the same mind and in the same purpose.

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:11 

For I (Paul) have been informed concerning you, my brethren (in the church at Corinth)…by Chloe’s people…that there are rivalries among you.

 

Next, we'll be studying First Corinthians, Chapters 7 to 16 where Paul is addressing problems brought up to him in the form of questions by Chloe and other people.  Paul is interested in correcting erroneous thinking.  Let’s begin with First Corinthians, Chapter 7, Verses 1 to 5.  As we begin Chapter 7, we’ll include the last section we studied because there is no chapter break in the original languages.  Chapter 7 is a continuation of what Paul started at the end of First Corinthians, Chapter 6, Verses 12 to 20.

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:12 

You Corinthian believers say, “All things are permissible for me” … but (I Paul say) not all things are beneficial for you. You Corinthians believers say, “All things are permissible for me” … but I (Paul) will not be mastered by anyone or by anything.

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:13 

You Corinthian believers say, “Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food…and one day God the Father will do away with both the stomach and food.”  (I, Paul say)…your body is for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body…yet the body is not for sex for hire with a stranger…your body is the Lord’s possession.

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:14 

(To demonstrate the importance of the body) … God the Father has not only raised the Lord Jesus Christ’s body from the dead, but He will also raise believers in Christ’s bodies from the dead through His divine power (omnipotence).

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:15 

DO YOU NOT (ouk) KNOW that your bodies are members of Christ (in union with Him)?  Shall I then take away the members of Christ (from His possession) and make them members of a prostitute (letting them become one flesh with EVIL)?  May it never be (this is unimaginable)! 

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:16 

Or DO YOU NOT KNOW that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “The two shall become one flesh (they shall become fused).”

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:17 

(In contrast) … the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:18 

(Therefore a command from God)…Flee sexual immorality (don’t do it)!  Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, except for sex for hire with a stranger…this is a sin man commits that is against his own body. 

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:19 

Or DO YOU NOT KNOW that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is indwelling you (believers in Christ) … whom you have from God the Father?  You are not your own!

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:20 

For you believers in Christ have been bought with a price (the blood of the Lord at the Cross)!  Therefore… (another command)…glorify God in your body (do it)!

 

Here’s the passage we’re studying today…it’s a passage on sexuality within marriage…First Corinthians, Chapter 7, Verses 1 to 5…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 7:1

NOW CONCERNING the things about which you wrote…it is good for a man not to touch a woman.

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 7:2 

But because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband.

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 7:3 

The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband.

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 7:4 

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.

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 7:5 

Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may

devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

 

The first thing you need to know about this passage is that Paul is not teaching about marriage.  If he were, what is written here is quite incomplete.  Actually, Paul is responding to the problems surfaced by Chloe and other people.  Let’s take a look at the problem that surfaced.

 

There were many attacks on the Corinthian church designed by the enemy of God to destroy it.  One such attack came from married people who practiced asceticism.  What is asceticism?  It’s legalism…

 

ASCETICISM
The practice of attempting to gain a higher moral state through self-denial.

 

This was a group of married people who contended that they achieved a more spiritual state by practicing celibacy in marriage.  What is celibacy?  When someone is…

 

CELIBATE
A person who abstains from sexual intercourse

 

Can you imagine married people abstaining from sexual intercourse?  Yes.  You can.  Because MOST married people do abstain from sexual intercourse.  Then they are shocked when a partner within the marriage commits adultery.  Paul is celibate, and he thinks celibacy is preferable but not superior to sexual activity as we'll see later in the passage.  This celibacy in the marriage group thought they would get a sympathetic ear from Paul because he is celibate.  They were wrong.

 

What were you taught about sexual intercourse, especially in marriage?  Most of the teaching about sexual intercourse doesn't come from well-informed parents.  It comes from ill-informed teenagers.  Here are some of the things we are taught about sex.  It's dirty…it's wrong…it's bad (what a lie!)…if you're female and you have sex, you're a whore…you're a slut (most of those comments perpetrated by women against women)…when you have sex it will always lead to pregnancy…it will always lead to a sexually transmitted disease…God will hate you if you do it…it's a sin…in marriage it’s a duty…it’s not something to be liked…it contains a lot of unnatural acts…it is to be used against your spouse in exchange for what you want…the list is endless.

 

Who taught you a single thing that makes sense about sexuality?  If you had someone who taught you well, thank them.  The Corinthian ascetics were selling the idea that couples should abstain from sex when they are married and it would make them more spiritual.  Hogwash!  The apostle Paul took only five verses to clear up the question of sexuality in marriage. 

 

When we return from our five-minute break, we’ll take your offering, and then we’ll hear what Paul has to say about sexuality within marriage.

 

FIVE MINUTE BREAK

NOBODY

Casting Crowns

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

Sexless Marriages Encourage Adultery

 

Everything God gives to us is given in abundance.  Let your mentality in giving reflect His…give in abundance as well.  Avoid the mentality of scarcity, and watch what God does with the abundant mentality in your life.

 

Let’s welcome up Deacon Denny Goodall with the offering message.

 

THE OFFERING

Deacon Denny Goodall

 

OFFERING VERSE

 

REVELATION 3:15-16

"I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot…I wish that you were cold or hot…so because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold…I will vomit you out of My mouth.”

 

OFFERING SONG

THERE IS NONE LIKE YOU

David Bauer, Instrumental

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

Sexless Marriages Encourage Adultery

 

Welcome back…let’s study First Corinthians, Chapter 7, Verses 1 to 5 Verse-by-Verse…let’s learn God’s attitude toward sex in marriage.

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 7:1

NOW CONCERNING the things about which you wrote (such as), “Isn’t it good for a man not to touch a woman?”

 

To “touch a woman” in this verse is a euphemism…the substitution of a vague expression for one that is thought to be offensive…or too direct.  Many of the Bible translators have a problem reporting what the original languages of the Bible say because the things being said don't correspond to their legalistic attitudes.  There is a lot of legalism surrounding sex.  God forbid any of us should indicate that we actually enjoy sex.

 

To “touch a woman” means “to have sexual intercourse” with a woman…an in this case it is a reference to a married woman having sex with her own husband.  The question being asked isn’t really a question.  It is a statement posing as a question.  Also, it's one-sided in that it asks, “What should a married male do in the matter of ‘touching’ a woman?”    

 

If it was a real question it would have been asked this way, “Is it good for women and men to have sexual intercourse within marriage?”  The ascetics proposed that to be a good Christian you have to abstain from sex during marriage.  In my view, this very same approach is the operational methodology for more than half of the married couples in the world.  Sexless marriage destroys marriages.

 

There are so many taboos concerning sex.  It infects every relationship in our lives.  When it’s time to discuss sex with our children…when it is time to discuss sex with our friends…we just don’t.  We get this stupid little giggle, and we get embarrassed, and we don’t want to have a real conversation about it.

 

Paul rejects the ascetic assertion…and he goes on to teach the sexual norms each partner signs up for in marriage.  Voluntary restraint toward a basic urge, like sex, is likely to end in defeat.  Why?  You don't have the willpower to resist temptations.  Your will is not stronger than the flesh.

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 7:2 

But because of (the temptations of) sexual immoralities (like fornication and purchasing sex for hire with strangers) … each man is to have sex with his own wife…and each woman is to have sex with her own husband.

 

Marriage is the only God-sanctioned environment for sexual satisfaction. When sexual satisfaction is not provided at home, one or the other partner will seek satisfaction by illicit means.  If you’re married, and you don’t get that, you’re awfully naïve.

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 7:3 

The husband must fulfill his sexual obligation to his wife (by making himself available to her)…and likewise also the wife must fulfill her sexual obligation to her husband (by making herself available to him).

 

As quiet as it is kept, women enjoy sex.

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 7:4 

The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband has authority over her body…and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body…but the wife has authority over his body.

 

One word describes the sexual relationship in marriage…MUTUAL!  It must work for both parties.  Sexual intercourse in a marriage distributes authority differently.  There is equality.

 

Many men have taken advantage of women in marriage by insisting that if the man wants sex the wife has to do it.  That is not what the Bible teaches.  The man’s God bestowed authority in the marriage relationship does not extend to the sexual relationship in marriage.

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 7:5 

(Now a command) …STOP DEPRIVING ONE ANOTHER…except by mutual agreement for a time…so that you may withdraw to devote yourselves to prayer…and then come together again (another euphemism…have sexual intercourse again) so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

 

Lack of self-control is sexual passion.  Those who are unmarried with sexual urges should marry.  However, marriage is NOT to be used as a way to legitimize sex…as a lawful outlet for sexual urges.  There is a lot more to marriage than sex.

 

Paul dispenses with the argument of married people who practiced asceticism in the Corinthian church.  What married individuals choose in the matter of sexuality in marriage does not make them more pleasing to God or less pleasing to God.  It is erroneous to think sexual abstinence in marriage is holy.  It encourages adultery…so don't be surprised when it happens to you.

 

GOD WANTS YOU!

Make the Most Important Decision of Your Life

 

The closing moments of our study are for the benefit of anyone who does not have a personal relationship with the Sovereign God of the Universe, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  We want you to know that GOD WANTS YOU. 

 

I’ve got bad news for you. 

 

The bad news is that all of us are born in a state of unrighteousness.  We are born physically alive and spiritually dead as ungodly, unrighteous unbelievers.  It’s not our fault, but it is our circumstance.  In First Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verse 22, the bible says…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:22a

For all in union with Adam at physical birth (and that is every human who comes to earth) are set to die the second death in the Lake of Fire…

 

But in the face of this bad news, there's good news!  The Sovereign God of the Universe, the Lord Jesus Christ, provides a way for you to be saved!  The good news is preached in what Christians call the gospel message.  Let's see what happened when the gospel was preached in a prison in first-century Rome in Acts, Chapter 16, Verses 25 to 34…

 

ACTS 16:25

…about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God (from their jail cells), and the other prisoners were listening to them…

 

ACTS 16:26

…and suddenly there came a great earthquake…so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken…and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened.

 

ACTS 16:27 

When the jailer (a prison guard) awoke and saw the prison doors opened… he drew his sword and was about to kill himself…supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

 

Allowing prisoners to escape carried a penalty of instant execution for prison guards!

 

ACTS 16:28 

But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying to the guard, “Do not harm yourself…for we are all here!”

 

ACTS 16:29 

And the jailer called for the lights to be turned on and he rushed in…and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas…

 

ACTS 16:30 

…and after the prison guard brought Paul and Silas out, he said, “Sirs… what must I do to be saved?”

 

The guard had obviously been listening to the spiritual songs Paul and Silas were singing.

 

ACTS 16:31 

And Paul and Silas said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved…you and everyone in your household who also believes.”

 

There are no works of any kind necessary to be saved…it is simply faith, expressed in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, that is the ticket to eternal life.

 

ACTS 16:32 

And Paul and Silas spoke the Word of the Lord (the gospel message…the good news) to the jailer together with all the people who were in his house.

 

ACTS 16:33 

And the jailer took Paul and Silas that very hour of the night and washed their wounds…and immediately the jailer was baptized (by God the Holy Spirit)…he and all his household (who also believed…and they all did).

 

ACTS 16:34 

And the jailer brought Paul and Silas into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed in THE God (the Lord Jesus Christ) with his whole household.

 

How did our jailer friend get saved?  In a crisis, he recognized He needed a Savior.  He asked someone who knew what it took to be saved.  Believers in Christ presented the accurate gospel message.  The jailer did what was suggested. 

 

Don’t wait for a crisis to be saved!  Do it now!

 

Who is this God who saves you?  The apostle Paul describes the Lord Jesus Christ…in First Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verses 3 and 4… 

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:3

For I (Paul) delivered to you as of first importance the gospel message I also received…that it was Jesus Christ who died for our sins according to the Scriptures…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:4 

…and that He was buried…and that He was raised from the dead on the third day…according to the Scriptures…

 

It’s bad news if you choose not to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation.  Romans, Chapter 1, Verses 18 to 20…

 

ROMANS 1:18

For the wrath of God the Father is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and against the unrighteousness of men (unbelievers) who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness…

 

ROMANS 1:19 

…because that which is known about God the Father is evident inside of them…for God the Father made it evident to them (from inside of them). 

 

ROMANS 1:20 

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible attributes…God’s eternal power…and God’s divine nature (His Deity) … have been clearly seen by all mankind… being understood even through what has been made (in nature… God’s creative work) … so that all mankind is without excuse before God.

 

God makes Himself clearly visible to human beings in ways that make sense to human beings…both from the inside of them and from the outside of them.  Remember what Paul and Silas said to the jail guard, in Acts, Chapter 16, Verse 31…

 

ACTS 16:31 

“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and everyone in your household who also believes.”

 

So accept the invitation and heed the warning in John, Chapter 3, Verse 36…

 

JOHN 3:36

“He who believes in the Son has the resurrection life right at that moment… but he who does not obey the command to believe in the Son will not see the resurrection life…instead the wrath of God (the Lake of Fire) abides on him.”

 

Don’t miss your opportunity…take advantage of the good news NOW!

 

SONG INTRODUCTION

 

Can a believer in Christ lose his salvation?  John, Chapter 10, Verse 28 says…

 

JOHN 10:28

“…I (the Lord Jesus Christ) give eternal life to believers in Christ, and they will never perish…and no one will snatch them out of My hand.”

  

Romans, Chapter 8, Verse 35 combined with Verses 37 to 39 says it in an even better way…

 

ROMANS 8:35

Who will separate us believers in union with Christ from the unconditional love of the Christ? Will tribulation separate us…or distress…or persecution…or famine…or nakedness…or peril…or sword? 

 

ROMANS 8:37

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us unconditionally.

 

ROMANS 8:38 

For I (Paul) am convinced that neither death nor life…nor angels nor principalities…nor things present nor things to come…nor powers…

 

ROMANS 8:39 

…nor height nor depth…nor any other created thing…will be able to separate us believers in Christ from the unconditional love of God the Father…which comes from being in union with Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

Here’s June Murphy to express these ideas in a song…as she asks the question…WHAT CAN SEPARATE YOU?

 

CLOSING SONG

WHAT CAN SEPARATE YOU

June Murphy                                

 

PROVERBS 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. //In all your ways acknowledge Jesus, and He will make your paths straight.

 

DEUTERONOMY 31:8

“For the Lord is the one who goes ahead of you…He will be with you…He will not fail you or forsake you…so not fear or be dismayed.”

 

ISAIAH 30:18

The Lord longs to be gracious to you…He waits on high to have compassion on you…for the Lord is a God of justice…blessed are all those who wait for Him.

 

FIRST PETER 5:6-7

Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time…//…slamming all your cares on His back, because He cares for you (God considers your problems to be His responsibility).

 

CLOSING PRAYER

Let us pray...

 

Thanks for coming!

Thanks for watching!

Thanks for listening!

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