April 20, 2018 – Ray Stedman – The Truth about Sex

Read the Scripture: Leviticus 18

No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the Lord. Lev 18:8

Next to the preservation of life the most powerful human drive is sex. Sex, as we are beginning to understand these days, is like a great river which, when it flows quietly between its banks, is a boon and a blessing to us. But when it is raging in full flood, inundating the landscape in permissiveness and promiscuity, it is terribly destructive and hurtful. God’s Word is careful to regulate us and help us in this area. It is amazing that God takes the risk of letting us have this fantastic power in our lives. He doesn’t take sex away from us if we misuse it. He takes that risk with us, with a plea to us that we learn to keep it within its banks.

You can see how God underscores the purpose of these instructions. They are to make you live, not die — not be restricted, not narrowed and hemmed in and prohibited from expressing yourself. No, quite the contrary! They are there so that you might live, might enjoy life to the fullest degree, might find it whole and rich.

So God instructs us, now, in this area of sex and here we learn truth about sex that you will never learn by reading a secular book. Here in Scripture you get the truth about sex. All through the Scriptures we are taught that sex is to be a total union of a man and his wife, expressing physical, emotional, and spiritual oneness. That is what sex is all about. It is a total union. Therefore marriage is its only possible expression — anything else immediately becomes abortive and hurtful because the union cannot be total outside of marriage.

Sex with the wrong person is always harmful. And the most harmful of all, according to this passage, is sex with those who are near of kin. That is what God goes on to warn his people about. When a proper regard for the sexual limitations prescribed by God is broken down, the barrier which protects us from the unseen forces of darkness which surround us is vitiated and demonic invasion can then occur very easily. This is what destroys a race. A nation begins to fall apart at that point. Society comes apart at the seams. You only need to read the first chapter of Romans to see how inevitable is the decay and the decline.

Father, thank you for the revelation of your truth. How it goes below the shallow thinking of my day and ties together things that I would think are quite disparate. Lord, help me to understand this, and enable me to be an island of righteousness in the midst of a sea of iniquity.

Life Application: The Bible is our Creator’s handbook for His creation, with instructions specific to our full enjoyment of life. Are we heeding His wisdom, seeking His guidance and honoring His Presence in all aspects of our lives?