In his sermon, Scott Brown discusses how sexual intimacy in marriage is a proclamation of the power of the gospel. He explains that our culture has tainted the true meaning of sexual intimacy, which was designed by God to testify to something greater. Brown presents ten ways that sexual intimacy demonstrates the power of the gospel, including the exclusivity, intimacy, openness, joy, access, covenant, holiness, unity, and compassion we experience in Christ. He emphasizes that sexual intimacy in marriage is not separate from Christianity but is deeply connected to it as it testifies to the good news of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, Brown urges couples to understand the importance of maintaining physical oneness in their marriages, as it reflects the unity and access we have in Christ.

You know, we're talking about, you know, painting a picture. We're talking about understanding who you are in the picture and to know where you get your lines, that you're not your own, And you really do need to know who you are in the relationship. Now, I want to focus on knowing who you are and what you're doing in sexual intimacy in marriage. And how sexual intimacy really is part of this picture of the proclaiming of the power of the gospel in marriage. Now our sexualized culture has taken the shine off of what God meant, not only for good, but what God meant to proclaim about something that is greater.

And so, you know, many of the pictures of sexual intimacy in our minds were painted, really tainted by a sinful culture that we grew up in, and the sinful hearts that we have. And the pictures that we have of sexual intimacy were mainly shaped by Hollywood and our own sin. Our friends, the internet, our affections, and things like that. But God is always good. He sends out a lifeline to help us to think rightly about things and I know that there isn't anyone that hasn't been harmed with bad fruit from the things that we learn from our culture regarding sexuality.

I'm making that assumption. But what we've been saying is that everything in creation testifies to something and that God is, God has given sexual intimacy to testify to something greater than sexual intimacy And as we learn what that looks like, we find ourselves in a world of being restored, of being rebuilt, and as God is rebuilding the old waste places and I pray that maybe what we're going to talk about here in the next few minutes will perhaps recover some ground that has been trampled on and to restore joy to something that maybe has become more difficult and even hard. You know, the people of God rebuild. That's what we do. We're restorers.

That's why in Isaiah chapter 58 you read, your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations. You will be called a repairer of broken walls, a restorer of the streets to dwell in. This is what God does. You know, He binds up the brokenhearted, He proclaims liberty to the captives, and He comes and He restores. And so He does that, yes, Isaiah 58 at the end of Isaiah 58.

It is Isaiah 58, 12, and 13. You can also go to Isaiah 61 verse 4 for a very, uses a very similar language. Isaiah speaks of restoration so beautifully and the power of the gospel. But God has given us pictures and types to proclaim His glory. And so He's not left us without a witness.

And He has given us things that we see right here in this room to remind us of the gospel. And in the same way that marriage is a picture of the glory of God and a demonstration of the gospel, so sexuality testifies to something. Your marriage is always testifying to something. I'll say it again, your marriage is always testifying to something because marriage is an earthly thing that is meant to testify to something greater. And it's another way of saying your marriage is not your own.

It belongs to God. It's meant to make it a testimony. It's a testimony of Jesus Christ to testify to the good news that there is in Jesus Christ. And while we have earthly marriages, the marriage in heaven is so far, will be so far superior to the ones we have now. Any inkling of joy or satisfaction you ever got from your marriage will be infinitely multiplied in heaven.

God gave you that in order to give you a hunger for what is greater in heaven because it will be greater. And we shouldn't be too disappointed where that the Bible says that there's neither marriage nor giving in marriage. Why is that? Because the kind of marriage that you experience at the marriage supper of the Lamb is so far infinitely superior to anything you experienced in marriage. You'll see how God blessed you on earth, but how He would bless you even more in heaven, because marriage is a picture of heaven and the relationship that's there.

And as you think about that picture, there are always two aspects of the picture. You need to understand the picture and who you are in the picture and you must understand the pictures are meant to be seen in real life. And in the picture there are two characters. There's a husband who represents and testifies of the love of Jesus Christ for the church, and there is a wife who testifies of a glorious and obedient church who respects her husband, and that carries through to the sexual relationship. It's not separate from it.

And so I want to talk about how God has designed sexual intimacy to glorify God. You know God didn't just drop things into creation just so men and women could have fun. You know, He gave the beautiful things in creation to testify to Himself. That's why we have bread, that's why we have light, that's why we have water, that's why we have anything, and that's why we have sexuality. And that God has given sexuality not to be some separate category off, you know, sort of off the page of Christianity.

We often think of that because Hollywood taught us to think that way. We think of it as something just for us that we create in our own image. But God didn't create it that way. It's not a separate independent reality. It's something that is all bound up and caught up in this matter of testifying to the power of the gospel.

So I'm going to give you ten ways that the sexual relationship demonstrates the power of the gospel. Ten ways. I'm going to give you a heading. I'm going to mention one or two scriptures, but I've got a lot of them to support each point. We don't really have time to develop them all.

And that you'll find that there's some overlap in some of them, but I want to use as much biblical language as I can to try to drive home the point. I pray that you'll see your sexual relationship differently than you ever saw it before as a result of this time. So the first way that the sexual relationship demonstrates and testifies to the power of the Gospel is the exclusivity there is in Christ. The sexual relationship testifies to the exclusivity that there is in Christ. 1st Corinthians 6, 15 and 16, Hebrews 10, 18 and 19.

Well, the sexual intimacy distinguishes your relationship with your spouse apart from every other relationship. And it's a picture of two becoming one, and those two cannot become one with anyone else in the world. It's a picture of exclusivity, And that's why in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 the Apostle Paul says, Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not.

Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For the two, he says, shall become one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him, therefore flee sexual immorality. So sexual intimacy is a picture of exclusivity with Christ. When you turn to Christ, you turn away from your idols.

You turn away from all of your other gods, and you repent of your dead works, and you seek Him and Him alone. And He is the only one you can do things with. You cannot do things with the devil any longer. You have turned away from darkness to light. So sexual intimacy, it pictures that exclusivity that now you only have one spouse.

There is only one that you can do this thing with. Now, you know, sexual intimacy, immorality, adultery is different than a lot of other things. Like, for example, the Bible gives us many laws, but all of them are not applied in the exact same way. And this one is an example. You know, for example, the command, you shall not murder, explains that whenever there's a murder, it's wrong.

It doesn't matter who you murder. It's always wrong. The same with thou shalt not steal. It's always wrong to steal. It doesn't matter who you steal.

If you steal from your father or your mother or your wife, stealing is stealing all the time and it's always wrong. But this matter of sexuality is a little bit different. You know, premarital, like sex before marriage is a sin one day before you're married, but the next day it's a God-glorifying thing that you do. So it's different. Sexuality is a little bit different compared to other things, at least sins of sexuality.

You know, the apostle Paul said that, you know, it's a sin against the body. It's more serious. And so, you know, sex is a matter of faithfulness when you're married, but it's a matter of fornication when you're not. So it's a very different kind of a category, but it speaks of the exclusivity that there is in Christ, and there is only one person that you can do this thing with in the world. So when you come together, you're really proclaiming the exclusivity that there is in Christ.

Number two, it testifies to the intimacy that we have in Christ. Matthew 7, 21 through 23, John 17. This matter of intimacy is so obvious in the sexual relationship. The word in the Bible for sexual intimacy in the Old Testament is the word for knowing. You know, Adam and Eve knew one another.

It's a word that implies intimacy. They knew things that no one else could know about one another. And it speaks of the knowledge of a person. And, you know, when you withdraw from your husband or your wife, you're saying, I want to be separate. I don't want to know you.

The gospel is about knowing and pulling away from one another is about not wanting to know, not wanting to be in that intimate kind of a relationship. And the matter of knowing, it really is a gospel matter. You remember in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 7, the Lord Jesus Christ is talking about people who are religious but they're not part of Him. And He says, He says, Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, done many wonders in Your name, and then I will declare to them, I never knew you.

I never knew you. Depart from me. Now he's talking about people who are religious but they don't really know him. They haven't entered into a real, heartfelt intimacy with him. That's what he's talking about.

The heart of the Christian life is knowing. It's a heartfelt kind of knowing, and so if you're withdrawing from your spouse sexually, you need to understand what you're testifying to. You're testifying to a condition where you don't really need to know your spouse intimately in that sense, and when you pull back you're creating a trajectory, and when you pull back the separation just increases. Separation begets separation begets separation, and it's totally contrary to the knowing and the intimacy of the gospel. The gospel brings you together with God in intimacy and in union and so does the sexual union as well.

You know Isaiah 29 speaks of this whole matter of drawing near or not drawing near. He says, therefore this people draws near with me with their mouths and they honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And If you don't want to know one another in this kind of intimacy, then you're preaching a gospel without intimacy. But the gospel is all about intimacy and God gave the sexual relationship to declare the intimacy that there is with Christ. So you're not just being intimate with each other.

You're testifying to something greater as well. And I would just encourage you to think about that, about how you would testify to the intimacy and the love and the knowing that there is in Christ. The third, the openness we have in Christ. Genesis 2 25, Genesis 16 13. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh and they were both naked the man and his wife and they were not ashamed." So there's this there's this matter of shame and closedness and openness, right?

And when sin enters into the relationship of Adam and Eve, they are ashamed and they're closing one another off and they make fig leaves as a result of their shame. They're trying to create a way to create a separation because of their shame and they wanted to be covered and they wanted that distance and you know the Bible makes it really plain that you know we don't display our bodies to the world. We obey the instructions of God regarding modesty and clothing and but in marriage all that changes. You have complete openness with one another, with your bodies. It proclaims the openness that you have.

You are naked and not ashamed. Number four, And before we go to number four, I just want to say one more thing about that. Because of sin, Adam and Eve hid themselves, But with the gospel there's no more hiding. We are open. We are completely laid bare, and it testifies to the complete access that we have in Christ.

The complete access. Yes? I'm so sorry, but when you read the Scriptures, would you send just a tiny bit slower? The Scriptures? When you give references.

I'll send them to you. I'll send you the bullet points and all the Scriptures. Thank you. Okay, I'll just send to all of you. Number four, it's a foreshadowing of the joy we have in Christ.

Hebrews 12 to Matthew 25, 23. Marriage is a foretelling of joy in Christ, and there is a wedding supper of the Lamb, a joyful feast that's ahead with Christ, and the wedding ceremony is a foretelling of that joy that we will have in Christ and that we have in Christ now. And the joy that you experience in marriage now is just a foretaste of joy to come, and this is why, you know, in the parable of the talents, the one who is careful with what God gave him, what are the words that he hears? Enter into the joy of your master. And the joys in marriage here are nothing compared to what is coming, But sexual intimacy is a foretelling of joy that is to come.

And number five, the access we have to Christ. 1 Corinthians 7, 1 through 5. Sexual intimacy is a picture of access to Christ. You know, the husband and the wife in 1st Corinthians 7 are commanded not to withhold sexual intimacy from one another and what the Apostle Paul says is that the husband doesn't have authority over his own body and the wife doesn't have authority over her body. But he has authority over hers and she has authority over his.

There's this reciprocal kind of authority. Isn't that interesting? Even in the scheme of the husband being the head of the wife, she does have some kind of authority, right? She can say something. She can speak to the matters of his body.

And she actually, in the sexual relationship, has some authority over his body, and he has authority over her body as well and it's a demonstration of constant access and in salvation a believer receives access to God, direct access, and we no longer, you know, well we come boldly. We don't come ashamed. We come boldly because we have access to Christ, and in 1st Corinthians 7, the Apostle Paul says, don't deny access to one another. And you know, often couples use their sexuality as a form of power to deny one another of things and they might lie to one another, they might use excuses about why they should not become intimate. The Apostle Paul says that the only reasons that you should deny access is if you agree together for the sake of prayer and fasting.

That's the only time. You shouldn't be doing it for any other reason. You shouldn't be denying each other for any other reason. Now, I would just qualify that, you know, there are matters of pain and things like that that I think husbands and wives have to grapple with together on how they're going to deal with that. And so I think there's some tender, difficult matters that have to be dealt with.

But generally, husbands and wives should only stay apart sexually under these two conditions. Read 1 Corinthians chapter 7, verses 3 through 5. And this is the word of the Lord. This is not some man talking about it. It's about the Word of God and both husbands and wives behavior and attitudes are implicated in that.

With the Lord you can go to Him at all times. You have access to the throne of grace. We can enter into His presence and at any time the bride can go into the husband and the husband can go into the wife and they are testifying to this to this access and you know God God does not withdraw he says come to me and couples need to learn how to be like the Lord you know in that sense the Apostle Paul speaks of the fact that there are consequences of distance and sexuality that it actually opens the door to Satan and one of the reasons God has given sexual intimacy is to shut the door to Satan in matters of sexual temptation And both husbands and wives need to recognize that. And when there is distance and when there's denial of the relationship, there's almost always sin. And when one spouse does not desire, then it needs to be diagnosed.

And the big question is, is it because of sin? Most of the time the distance can be rooted to sin. So, You know, I've done, I've known enough couples to know that probably some of you need have some stuff to talk about, about that, and to try to diagnose why there's distance, Why is there denial of one another? Because it really is contrary to the gospel and it's contrary to this direct command of Scripture in 1st Corinthians 7 That really only gives a very narrow range of reasoning for why a couple should not come together. Number six.

It's a picture of the covenant that we have in Christ. Malachi 2.14 speaks of marriage as a covenant. Romans 11.7. Malachi makes it clear that the wife is a companion by covenant and, You know, there are pictures of how you enter, you know, into a covenant, initiating the covenant and then continuing in a covenant. And when a husband and a wife come together, they're testifying that they are in a covenant, but when a wife refuses her husband or a husband refuses her wife, in some ways she's testifying that there's no covenant anymore.

We're not in covenant. And the devil whispers in the ear of her husband and says, she's withdrawing. You know, you don't need to act like you're married because she doesn't think you're in a covenant. She's not fulfilling her covenant responsibilities before you. And you know, we have this in the Christian faith.

There are two signs that we see in the church. One is the sign of baptism, and that's the sign of entry into the covenant. It's the entry point. It's the sign that you have entered into the covenant. That's why we're baptized.

But the Lord's Supper is different. The Lord's Supper is a sign that you're continuing in the covenant, that you continue to break bread with your brothers and sisters and with the Lord. So you have the initiation of the covenant and you have the continuation of the covenant in those two signs, those two ordinances that are designed for the church and the marriage relationship is like that as well. You enter into a covenant of marriage when you get married But the sign that you're continuing in the covenant is that you continue to come together. That's the sign that you're still in, right?

And you haven't opted out. And, you know, we should recognize the seriousness of opting out. What does that mean? That you're actually refusing a sign that you're still in, in that sense. But sexual intimacy is a sign of continuing, saying I'm still married to you.

You know, this is why when a, you know, when a wife catches her husband looking at pornography, she's going to think, are we really married, are we really married, are you interested in somebody else, you know, even that picture and but the sign is that you're continuing in is this sign of sexuality. Number seven. It can be a warning of separation from Christ. A warning of A warning of separation. Separation from Christ happens because of sin, and separation in the sexual relationship happens not all the time but most of the time because of sin.

And again, I want to continue to give this exclusion for particular matters of pain and different other things that do happen that need to be considered, but most of the time it has to do with sin. Next, the holiness we have in Christ. Sexual intimacy is a demonstration that we are separated for one another. And, you know, one of the meanings of the word holiness is separation, that you've set yourself apart. So the sexual intimacy proposition is a declaration that you have set yourself apart for this one person and no one else.

So it's a demonstration of holiness And what God has done when He put His love upon us is that He separated us from the world. And we belong to Him and we belong to Him alone. And what God does with His church is He makes His bride, His separate institution in the world. And He makes a holy people, a people that are totally different. They're not like the world at all and He progressively makes them unlike the world.

You know, Your church should continually be becoming more and more unlike the world. Not like the world, unlike the world. That's the right trajectory of a church of Jesus Christ. And the sexual act declares the holiness, the separation that we have in Christ. Number 10, the unity we have in Christ.

Number 9, sorry, the unity we have in Christ. Wasn't 9 holiness? 8 was holiness. Oh, there you go. Good, Thank you very much.

I see it. Yeah. Good. Eight was holiness. Okay.

Nine is unity. You know, in Genesis 2 23, you have those famous words, For this reason a man should leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." And of course, the most obvious manifestation of the two becoming one flesh is the physical union. And we're going to talk about this unity in Christ, this oneness in Christ later on at the end of the day, but so I don't want to belabor it, but you know it's most explicitly declared in Genesis chapter 2 that the sexual union is a picture of unity with Christ and unity with one another. Number 10, the compassion we experience in Christ. Ephesians 5 25, Mark 10 25.

The sexual union declares the compassion that we have in Jesus Christ. We love Him because He first loved us. He gave His life for us. He gave and He did not take. And this is the matter of the sexual union.

It's the compassion, the giving that is the center of the matter. And this is why pornography is so destructive. This is why Hollywood is so destructive because it's really all about you. And in Christianity, Christ gave. In Christianity, you give.

In pornography, you take. You know, pornography is about personal satisfaction. Christ's love is centered on giving, not taking. And there has to be a major transition that men and women go through when they get married, to transition off of this self-centered view of sexuality and, you know, how long does it take to get yourself off that freight train? Probably the rest of your life.

But, you know, men and women need to make this transition, the transition from seeing sexuality as for serving yourself, for getting what you want to get when you want to get it. But the Lord Jesus Christ came to serve and sexuality is a picture of that and I believe that's part of the rationale behind what the Apostle Paul says when he says that the wife has authority over body and the husband has authority over her body because it has to do with giving. There's a way that we give to one another and it reflects the compassion that you experience in Christ. Okay, let me just give you a couple of, you know, points of application. First of all, if you've lost physical oneness, it's symptomatic.

It's symptomatic of some kind of distance that has been caused by some kind of sinful thinking or unwise thinking. And the question is, can you identify the source of the distance? Can you remove the distance and close the divide? And if you're depriving one another physically, then it's probably a sign that you're depriving one another in other ways because the sexual relationship is just a symptom of other things as well. And so you should ask yourself those questions.

Losing physical oneness is a portrayal of distance with Christ and in that sense the sexual relationship can preach a false gospel and picture a disfigured understanding of the kingdom of God because sexuality is a physical picture of a spiritual reality. Again, everything on earth is a picture of something greater, even the sexual relationship. Don't divide the sexual relationship off into some category that's not like bread and water and windows and doors. The sexual relationship is a picture of something greater and It's important that we as Christian married people are declaring a sign that we are married by not depriving one another. Okay, so these ten things, it testifies to the exclusivity there is in Christ, the intimacy that we have in Christ, the oneness we have in Christ, the foretelling of joy in Christ, the access we have in Christ, the covenant we have with Christ, a warning of separation from Christ, the holiness we have in Christ, the unity we have with Christ, and the compassion that we have that we experience in Jesus Christ.

And so The sexual union is given to demonstrate how profound their unity there is in Jesus Christ and this is why the Lord Jesus Christ quoted Genesis 2 by saying, for this reason, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. What's the reason? Christ. Christ and the Church. Even the physical union is a demonstration of Jesus Christ and His Church.

So there you go. That's a little bit different than the Hollywood version of sexual intimacy. And so there you have it.