In his sermon titled 'A Biblical View of Celibacy,' David Green explores the Apostle Paul's teachings in 1 Corinthians Chapter 7 regarding celibacy and marriage. He emphasizes that while celibacy is considered good, it should not be mandated as a rule, especially within a marriage. The sermon discusses the importance of not building doctrines around single verses, and highlights the need for consensual understanding between spouses. Green references various biblical texts to illustrate the broader context of marriage and celibacy, noting that marriage is God's provision for sexual fulfillment. He warns against the imposition of celibacy as a religious command, as seen in some religious practices, and encourages understanding the liberty within scripture regarding marital status.

Corinthians chapter 7, take for a text verses 1 through 7. Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me, It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, let every woman have her own husband. Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence, and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband, and likewise also the husband, hath not power of his own body but the wife.

Ye fraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and come together again that Satan tempt you not for your incontinence. But I speak this by permission and not of commandment, for I would that all men were even as I myself, but every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner and another after that. Let's again go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for another day. We thank you for Mother Lord's Day.

Lord, even as we've gathered here to worship, Lord, may it be in spirit and in truth, help us to lay aside the cares of this world. Lord, that you even truly, truly set our hearts, our minds, our desires on you. Lord, even now as I preach this message, you give me unction from on high, Let it be a blessing to your people. Even in this sermon that the name of our Savior behind lifted up. I pray that the sinners would be saved and your people be strengthened.

Forgive us of our sins and our shortcomings. We're in Jesus and then we pray. Amen. So as we've gone through this book, this letter that Paul wrote to the Church of Corinth. We've noticed some things.

We've noticed that obviously this was a divided church. There's no question about it, as he spent quite a bit of time on the front of the letter dealing with their divisions. They were divided over preachers, and they were divided. Some said they were of Paul, some said they were of Apollos, some Cephas. We've seen that they were a carnal church.

We've seen that they were a church that had in their midst one who was a fornicator. They had not taken care of that. They had not excluded that individual. As we get to this portion of the letter, we find that some in the church had written to Paul with questions. With questions.

He begins it by saying, now concerning the things that you wrote to me, obviously it's doubtful that the whole church wrote to him collectively. They were a divided church. There may have been a group that had flown high, the banner of Paul, And they said, we're interested to know what Paul thinks about this. But there may have been a group within that church that were interested to know what Paul thought about a subject so that they might try to trip him up. And So maybe they were writing to him and asking him questions.

Whatever the case is, we know that there were some in the church who were writing questions to him. So beginning in this section and going forward, we're going to see some of those questions get answered. And while it's a terrible thing that the Church of Corinth was a divided church, it is a great thing that this letter of 1 Corinthians was preserved as inspired Word of God because some of these questions, indeed some of these problems, do come up from time to time in other churches. And so what we're going to read about, obviously, beginning here in this portion is about celibacy and marriage, but also We're going to read about liberty and eating things sacrificed to idols. We're going to read about the head covering.

We're going to read about things of that nature as we go forward into this portion of the Epistle. This portion of the Epistle. So today we're going to look at celibacy in the Bible as it's addressed here by Paul. That's a word that we don't hear much in a Baptist church, celibacy. But in other religions you might hear about it from time to time.

It's by definition the practice of remaining unmarried and abstaining from sexual relations. It's a practice that is required of, for instance, Catholic priests and other religious orders, it symbolizes dedication to God. We're gonna look at this. We're gonna look at what Paul has to say about it here as he writes in this passage, which is Holy Scriptures. Know we're going to consider why the Catholics are wrong.

And so, so let's go ahead and get into the into the text. It says here, it is good for a man not to touch a woman. There are men, churches, cults, who take verses and they build practices and doctrines around single verses and try to make something out of context. This would be a good example of a passage not to build doctrine or practice around of a single verse. When Paul says it is good for a man not to touch a woman, he doesn't mean that it's expedient.

He doesn't mean that you should make a hard and fast rule. The Bible is clear. We've been going through Genesis on Wednesday night. The Bible's clear, God created the woman for the man. She is intended to be touched.

Now, not to just push her buttons and get her aggravated, but she is to be touched. And in fact, this word touch was a Jewish euphemism for sexual intercourse. Euphemism or sexual intercourse. Notice Genesis chapter 20. Genesis chapter 20.

Verse 6. God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart, but I also withheld thee from sinning against me, therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. This is when Abraham deceived Abimelech, and Abimelech almost did something terrible to Sarah. And God said, I prevented you from touching her. The Book of Ruth, Chapter 2, Verse 9, Let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, go thou after them.

Have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee? So again, it's not that they weren't allowed to shake her hand or pat her on the back. This was a specific euphemism. Proverbs chapter 6. Proverbs chapter 6 and verse 29, So he that goeth into his neighbor's wife, whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.

Her shall not be innocent." Doesn't mean that you're not allowed to shake her hand or high-five her. No. There's a law against fornication, adultery. Sex is a beautiful thing when it's between a husband and a wife, but not between anybody else. And so, what Paul is saying is that it's good to be single and celibate, however, We can't take that verse and build a doctrine around it, because it's not the only good, and it's not better than marriage.

God gave us marriage all the way back in the Garden of Eden. In fact, if you go back to Genesis chapter 2, we're not quite there on Wednesday, but we will be. I think that's the next lesson that we'll be in. But in Genesis chapter 2, In the Garden of Eden, in the creation, all the way up until this point, everything was good. But notice, notice that on day six, Genesis 2 and verse 18, the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone.

I will make him and help meet for him. So God actually pronounced something not good for the first time in all of the six days of creation, but he made it good when he made Eve, you see. And so by the setting of the sun on the sixth day, he was able to say God saw everything that he had made, and it was good. You see. So when Paul says it is good For a man not to touch a woman, he goes on.

That's not in the ending of the text. He says in verse 2, nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband. There is a danger of sexual sin. There is that danger when you're married, but there's a special danger when single. The human body was designed by God to be attracted to the opposite sex.

They fit well together by design. Marriage is God's only provision. Hear me now. Marriage between a man and a woman is God's only design, only provision for sexual fulfillment. Marriage is not only that.

Marriage is not only for sex. But it is that. We're not like a bunch of animals. In fact, if you go to Ephesians chapter 5, you read this whole section, beginning of verse 22, Wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be their own husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spod or wrinkle or any such thing that he should be holy without blemish. So I've meant to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.

For this cause shall the man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ in the church. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself and the wife see that she reverents her husband. And as though we see this beautiful picture of Christ in the church that is given in the marriage. That means your marriage, my marriage.

It's to be a picture of Christ in the church. Paul's addressing something else to the church of Corinth, this question about celibacy. So in verse 3 he says, let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence, likewise also the wife unto the husband. In other words, the husband is to render unto the wife, the husband is to fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. Celebacy is right and proper for a single individual, a single man or woman, But it's not acceptable for a married couple.

Now, we'll get to this a little bit later more so, but celibacy between married couples was apparently more common when a believer had an unbelieving spouse. We'll get to that a little bit later in the text. Just know this be very very careful who you marry. But he goes on and he says, the wife has not power of her own body. She has no authority of her own body, but the husband in likewise also the husband has not power, has no authority of his own body, but the wife.

By the marriage covenant, when you come together in the wedding vows and in the marriage, the two become one. Each partner is given the right over the spouse's body for the satisfaction of the other. This is taught in the scriptures, not only in this text, but in other texts as well, going all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2 and verse 24, when God performed the marriage there between Adam and Eve.

He said, Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. They shall be one flesh. And so, And so within the marriage there is not two but one. And that is what Paul is talking about here in the text. Celepathy does not exist, or should not exist, within a marriage.

And so in verse 5 he says, defraud ye not one another. Let's go back there to the text in 1 Corinthians chapter 7. Verse 5, he says, Defrost ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time. They may give yourselves to fasting and prayer and come together again. The Satan tempts you not.

Because of your lack of self-control. Now, again, some take this and say, well you can't come apart unless it's for a time of prayer and fasting. Well, that's not what he's saying here either. He's saying it has to be consensual to come apart, But there are biblical reasons besides prayer and fasting. There is common sense as well as biblical principle.

When you look, comparing Scripture with Scripture, when you compare Scripture with Scripture, under Old Testament law, don't think of the God of the Old Testament as being A terrible God who just made rules to give His people trouble. There were rules that made life better. One of those rules had to do with leprosy, spread of leprosy and that sort of thing. And so there were rules for leprosy. In Leviticus chapter 13, for instance.

Leviticus chapter 13 verses 45 and 46. And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip. He shall cry, unclean, unclean. All the days wherein the plague shall be in him, he shall be defiled. He is unclean.

He shall dwell alone without the camp shall be his habitation." So there may be times of great sickness that comes upon a man and he's not able to lay with his wife like he normally could. Times of COVID or even leprosy, I guess, or some great flu or something like that, maybe a time like that. Under Old Testament law, there were actually rules that were given for times when the woman was going through her menstrual cycle. So Leviticus chapter 18 and verse 19. Leviticus 18 and verse 19, also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness." Put apart for her uncleanness.

That put apart for her uncleanness, that is talking about her menstrual impurity. Chapter 20, verse 18. And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness, in other words, if a man lies with a minstrous woman and covers her nakedness, he hath discovered her fountain, and She hath uncovered the fountain of her blood, and both of them shall be cut off from among their people." And so, while we're not under the law to obey it like what they were, we see some principles that are given in God's Word, that there are times when it doesn't make good sense. Well, let me put it this way, there are times of good sense not to engage with your spouse. Solomon was a man who understood a good marriage, at least it would seem he understood.

Read the Song of Solomon. And before you go and spiritualize it, to be about Christ in the church, just take it literally. Take the book literally as a man to his wife, and a wife enjoying her man, and what you'll see is a great love story there, a love song. Sometimes we miss that in Baptist churches because we do. We take that and say it's all about Christ in the church.

I can assure you, when Solomon was writing the Song of Solomon, he was not thinking about a church. Solomon was a man just like any of us, And the farthest thing from his mind was the church. He didn't even know about the church. But as much as he loved his wives, and particularly that wife, he also knew there were times to abstain. He gave advice to his son.

And in Proverbs 21, and I'm trying not to get into trouble with this message, but I am trying to deliver the mail, as they say. In Proverbs chapter 21 and verse 9, he wrote, It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop than with a Bromley woman in a White House. Solomon understood that while it's good to have a wife, and he took it a little further than any of us would, and he had many wives. He also understood that there's a time for a season of distance that's to be chosen over terrible disrespect. And that is, that helps for a healthy relationship.

And so, what I'm saying is, we can't take one text in the Scripture. Somebody comes and says, hey I'm just getting married, what's one text that you would recommend? There's not one text. There are multitudes of texts. Read the Bible.

Start at the beginning and read it through. Read it through. And beware of holding on to one verse, one passage, and making this the hard and fast rule. I'm thankful for the text before us in 1 Corinthians chapter 7. But I also understand that we have to rightly divide all of it, all of Scripture.

I'm thankful that we have all 66 books. And so in this text, Paul is giving them advice, answering their question about celibacy, answering questions about marriage. And while the world has made sex into something dirty, something that is terrible, and all of that, something that's taboo to talk about in a church, understand something that it's actually a beautiful thing, designed by God, in marriage. And that's where it should stay. And This is what is the teaching throughout all of Scripture.

Anytime it goes outside of Scripture, outside of marriage, outside of the bounds of the way that God designed it, that's where people get into trouble. That's where it becomes dirty. That's where we should not go with it. So Paul, as he addresses this, with the saints at Corinth, he says, but I speak this by permission and not of commandment. In verse 6.

It says, I speak this by permission and not of commandment. In other words, Paul was very aware of the God ordained advantages of both singleness and marriage. And as he wrote to the church at Corinth, he was not giving them a full discourse on the subject. He was not commanding marriage because of the temptation of singleness. He was not connecting spirituality to marital status, although marriage is God's good gift.

I believe that in this passage, we need to understand what Paul understood, even as he wrote under the inspiration of the Spirit, that there's not a hard and fast rule for any individual. Should I stay single? Should I get married? There is a rule, However, if you're single, you should abstain from sex. If you're married, you should have sex only with your spouse.

And that is the hard and fast rule. That is the biblical rule. He says in verse 7, For I would that all men were even as I myself, but every man hath proper gift of God, one after this manner and after that." Paul was single when he wrote this. If a man can do it, a man can remain single. If he has that gift to be able to be single then then there's freedom and there's a blessing there.

Let him remain single. Paul knew. And he'll write about that a little bit later. In fact, In fact, if In fact, if you're going down, rather than wait for me to get there, if you go down in the same chapter in verse 27. Art thou bound unto a wife?

Seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? Seek not a wife. But and if thou marry thou hast not sinned if a virgin marry she hath not sinned nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh but I spare you I'll give you some advice to consider. Of course there's other things to consider as well as we go down through here.

But As he writes about singleness, as he writes about celibacy, as he writes about these things, understand it is not a commandment. And as a matter of fact, Paul wrote to Timothy and warned him that there would be some who would take celibacy and make it into a commandment in 1 Timothy chapter 4. 1 Timothy chapter 4, beginning of verse 1. Going down to Verse 3. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, then in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.

Spien lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God has created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving." So, he says that in the latter times, when's the latter times? Well, I believe the latter times is that time period after the ascension of Christ, going all the way until the end. Are we in those times? Yeah, absolutely.

What's one of The biggest groups that's departed from the faith, given heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, that indeed has forbid to marry. The Roman Catholic Church, so called. They do that to the priests and the nuns. Is this a biblical command? No, it's not.

There are others that do the same thing, but Paul warned about this. He said, the Spirit speaketh expressly. The Holy Spirit said, these times were coming. Paul himself was careful when he wrote to the church of Corinth, saying, I'm not making a commandment out of this. But some men ran with it.

The idea was that they would have a better group of preachers or whatever, but if you force a man who's not gifted, who doesn't have control over his body, that sort of thing. Guess what happens? Fornication, adultery, all that sort of thing. And that's what's happened within the Roman Catholics and others. Paul wrote as an apostle, great authority.

He could have issued a commandment here, but he didn't. He was writing under the inspiration of the Spirit. He could have issued a commandment, but he didn't. And so let's not take this any further than what the scripture does. Understand there is liberty.

Whether you're single or married, there's liberty but within the bounds of Scripture. And so understand it and rejoice of how God has laid that out within His Word. May God add the blessing to the preaching of his word.