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Affirming the Goodness of God’s Restrictions on our Sexual Relationships - Part 1 Genesis 2:18-25; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. Genesis 2:24 (NIV84) 2 2

Affirming the Goodness of God’s Restrictions on our Sexual Relationships. 3

God has not changed His mind about what constitutes marriage. Genesis 1:26-27 (NIV84) 26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, in Our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 4

Genesis 2:20-24 (NIV84) 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, He took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man. 23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. 5

Psalm 55:12-13 (NIV84) 12 If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. 13 But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, 14 with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God. 6

The Goodness of God’s Restrictions on our Sexual Relationships. 7

Genesis 3:4-5 (NIV84) 4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 8

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NIV84) 3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 9

Be certain that the weapons we do use are not the weapons of the world but the weapons God provides us with. 10

Take up our God-given weapons to wage war, not against our enemies but against the deceptions of this world. 11

Ignoring or rebelling against God’s plan for our sexuality comes at a very great cost to us. 12

1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 (NIV84) 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 (NIV84) 1 Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8 Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you His Holy Spirit. 13

Our holiness is expressed in our relationships with both God and people. 14

Psalm 139:23-24 (NIV84) 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. 15

Heal my heart and make it clean; Open up my eyes to the things unseen Heal my heart and make it clean; Open up my eyes to the things unseen. Show me how to love like You have loved me; Break my heart for what breaks Yours. Everything I am for Your kingdom’s cause; As I walk from earth into eternity. Hosanna in the Highest by Irving Burgie and William Attaway of Hillsong United 16

Our close, interpersonal relationship with Jesus Christ Second layer of the foundation God’s gift to all humanity of a differentiation between the sexes, male and female First layer of the foundation Our close, interpersonal relationship with Jesus Christ 17

Truth is at the heart of love, for love cannot exist if it is not rooted in truth. 18

Our close, interpersonal relationship with Jesus Christ Second layer of the foundation God’s gift to all humanity of a differentiation between the sexes, male and female First layer of the foundation Our close, interpersonal relationship with Jesus Christ 19

What is God’s intention for marriage? 20

The affirming word of God The corrective word of God Hear The affirming word of God The corrective word of God 21

Marriage is God’s idea! 22

From the beginning of history to the end of history, marriage is the picture God has chosen to convey to the world that He loves us with a sacrificial and persevering love. 23

Genesis 2:18 (NIV84) 18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” 24

Genesis 2:21-25 (NIV84) 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, He took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man. 23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. 25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. 25

Men and women are literally made for each other. 26

The picture of a husband and a wife in fellowship with God points to the kind of relationship the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are always having with each other. 27

The marriage of a man and a woman gets its design and purpose from the community of love that is the Trinity that pours out love and blessing on humanity. 28

Al Mohler, Desire and Deceit “Marriage is to display God’s glory, reveal God’s good gifts to His creatures, and protect human beings from the inevitable disaster that follows when sexual passions are divorced from their rightful place.” Al Mohler, Desire and Deceit 29

God’s restrictions on our sexual relationships are good because when honored they preserve our personal intimacy with God and protect the present or future integrity of our own marriage. 30

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