In Pastor Grant Brown's sermon, 'The Law of God (Part 14)', he delves into the significance of the seventh commandment and its role in upholding the sanctity of marriage. He explains that marriage is a covenant union designed by God to illustrate the gospel of Jesus Christ, with the relationship between the husband and wife paralleling that of Christ and the church. The sermon emphasizes that adultery is not merely physical infidelity but includes any action or thought that deviates from God's design for marriage, starting from within the heart. Pastor Brown underscores the societal consequences of disregarding this commandment, highlighting the pervasive issues of fornication and the impact of sexual immorality, which he claims originates from the heart. The sermon calls for repentance, a return to the biblical understanding of marriage, and the importance of sexual purity, urging both married and single believers to adhere to God's commandments. Practical advice is offered, such as making love often within marriage, protecting the family unit, and for singles, not delaying marriage or having children. It concludes with a call to seek Christ's righteousness, emphasizing that He provides cleansing and redemption from sin, making believers spotless and part of His eternal bride.

Exodus chapter 20 beginning in verse 1. Then God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing loving kindness to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments.

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant, or your cattle, or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.

Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. May God bless the reading and other preaching of this is perfect word.

Amen. You may be seated. What is marriage? What is marriage? Marriage is a one flesh covenant union that God joins together between a biological man and his wife, a biological woman, for the purpose of marital joy, raising godly offspring as the Lord provides, and ultimately to picture the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Marriage is a picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ loved his bride by giving himself up for her as a sacrifice at his cross. And his church, his bride, joyfully obeys her covenant head because Her covenant head is Jesus the groom, and she's his bride. So any departure from God's design in marriage is a departure from what? The gospel.

If you lose marriage, You lose the God-ordained picture of the gospel That's why marriage these one reason a big reason Why marriage is such a big deal? And why the seventh commandment is such a big deal? Because the seventh commandment is holding up the sanctity of marriage. The sanctity of that which ultimately proclaims the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so, saints, if you understand what marriage is, then you will understand what the seventh commandment is.

It guards marriage. It defends marriage. It upholds the sanctity of marriage. And in doing so, it guards the gospel. It defends the gospel.

It proclaims the gospel. And so you realize, if you get the answer to that question, you realize that the seventh commandment forbids any corruption to God's design in marriage. Because when you corrupt any part of God's created order in marriage. When you corrupt any part of it, you work to corrupt his gospel. That's a big deal.

So now you're ready to answer the next question. What is adultery? What is the seventh commandment? If you've been listening, the seventh commandment is about defending and fighting for the institution of marriage, which means it's not merely, hey, just don't cheat on your spouse with someone else. Of course it means that.

Of course the Seventh Commandment means Don't cheat on your spouse. But God would have you understand that this commandment includes anything and everything that twists and marrs God's design for marriage, because anything that twists and marrs His design for marriage ultimately is twisting and marring his gospel and God will not be mocked. He will not have his gospel put to shame. So to put it in the negative, any sexual activity outside of the covenant of marriage is forbidden in the seventh commandment. To put it in the positive, Sexual activity is for the covenant of marriage and the covenant of marriage alone.

That's how God has designed it to be since the beginning. Sexual activity is for The covenant of marriage and the covenant of marriage alone and any sexual activity outside of that covenant in any form is forbidden by the seventh commandment. And just in case you have not been convinced of this in part one last week from what God did in creation, then be convinced by the second person of the Godhead, Jesus the Christ, God the Son. Here's what he says in Matthew chapter 5 beginning in verse 27. Here's what Jesus said, You have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery.

That's the seventh commandment. But I say to you, Jesus said, that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. What's Jesus saying there? He's explaining to you that the seventh commandment is not narrow in its scope. It's not something tiny.

You can easily just walk around. Well, I didn't do this. The seventh commandment is everything and anything that twists and marrs God's design for marriage starting in your very heart. Starting right here. So get this.

It's not just what you do with your body, but what you do with your very heart. So What is in here comes out here. What is in here is where what you do out here comes from. So God very much sees what's in your heart. You sin out here with your body, with your fingertips, because you have sin first in here.

Mark chapter seven, verses 21 through 23, Jesus says this, for from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness, all these evil things proceed from within and then defile the man. Evil thought, fornications, adulteries, sensuality, where do those things come from? Right here in your heart. Sexual immorality originates right here in your heart, always, before that immorality ever gets expressed outwardly by jumping into someone else's bed. So what is adultery?

Well adultery, according to the law of God, in the seventh commandment, is anything and everything that twists and marrs God's design for marriage beginning in your heart. So what is included in anything and everything that twists and marrs God's design for marriage? What's included in that? Listen to how the Westminster larger catechism puts it in question 139. I would encourage you to read all 138 questions leading up to this.

But here's 139. Quote, what are the sins forbidden in the seventh commandment? Answer. The sins forbidden in the Seventh Commandment are adultery, fornication, rape, incest, sodomy, and all unnatural lusts, all unclean imaginations, unclean thoughts, purposes and affections, all corrupt or filthy communications or listening thereunto, wanton looks, impudent or light behavior, immodest apparel, prohibiting of lawful and dispensing with unlawful marriages, entangling vows of single life, undue delay of marriage, having more wives or husbands than one at the same time, unjust divorce or desertion, idleness, gluttony, drunkenness, unchaste company, lewd songs, lustful books, immoral pictures, lewd dancing, lustful stage plays, or we could put lustful movies, and all other provocations too or acts of uncleanness either in ourselves or others." Now a brother could spend several sermons on that answer. And I thought about it.

What does the seventh commandment mean? It means that a husband and a wife should not sleep with anybody else besides their husband or their wife. It does mean that. Yes? And neither shall a husband or a wife fantasize of sleeping with anyone else besides their husband or their wife.

Because Jesus said, that's adultery, it starts in the heart. But that's just the beginning of the seventh commandment. Polyamory, No strings attached romance. Hookup culture. All of that is fornication.

And all of that fornication is forbidden in the seventh commandment. Sleeping with someone that is not your spouse, even when you're not married, that's very much forbidden in the seventh commandment. So friends, please listen to me. We live in a day, you live in a day, where we have gotten so far away from the law of God that even in the church at large, fornication is pretty much just tolerated. It's assumed.

I had friends in college, this is ridiculous, I had friends in college professing Christians, members of churches, evangelical churches. They couldn't conceive of marrying someone until they had first found out what they were like in bed. So they'd say idiotic things, foolish things, things like you'd never buy a car until you test drove it, right? Same thing when finding a spouse. You gotta know if they can make the bedroom exciting before you buy that ring.

Evil! What a wicked and corrupt understanding of what lovemaking is in the first place. Of what God designed sexuality to be. That's the talk of fools. Talk of fools.

So do you want to have good lovemaking? Do you want intimacy that is amazing? Then covenant together before God and this man or this woman. Learn together, laugh together, and engage in intimacy together with the very blessing of God who by the way is the author of sex, the author of joy, and the author of pleasure, do it his way. Don't fornicate.

Don't fornicate. So young people, young people, Stop listening to the world. When you reach for sexual intimacy outside of the covenant of marriage, you're reaching for something that God has not given to you yet. Stop it. That's exactly what Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden.

They reached for the fruit when it wasn't theirs yet. It could have been. If only they would have waited. If only you would wait. What glory could be yours.

What joy will be yours. If you resolve, I will not reach for that fruit until God joins me together with my spouse. And oh, I can tell you What a joy that fruit will be when God gives it to you. When He, when God joins you together with your wife, what a blessing that will be. What a marvel that intimacy will be.

So young men, young men, if you ever think that shacking up with a young lady is a good idea before you're married, you're an idiot. How dare you steal someone else's daughter? How dare you take something that is not yours to take? If you're thinking that way, or if you've already began to live that way, stop being a little boy and start being a man and show that you're controlled by something beyond your sexual member. Be a man, Stop living with a woman who's not your wife.

Repent. Don't shack up with a woman until you're married. And women, young ladies, if You are going out with a man who wants to do that with you. If a man wants to live with you and go to bed with you before you're married, flee from such a man. Because that's not a man who is loving you the way that God has called him to love you.

If he's not willing to wait to go to bed with you until marriage, is that really the kind of man that you want to obey the rest of your life, that you want to raise your children with? I'm not saying that God can't redeem. I'm not saying that God can't work through sin. Of course he can But if you're asking what God wants for your life if you won't wait for you now What are you doing? So to paraphrase Alistair Begg Again assume the Scottish accent You can cry for a little while now, ladies, because you had to dump him, or you can cry for the rest of your life because you didn't.

So men, men up. And instead of going to bed with a woman who isn't your wife, put a ring on her finger, and covenant before God, and your wife, and your people, that you will die for this woman covenant before God this woman and your people that you will give your very life for her that you will be faithful to her that you will love and cherish this woman by the grace of God with everything that you are. And let me tell you young men, if you do that, a man like that, a man who covenants to die for his bride, a man who covenants to love and cherish his bride, a man who lives out those covenant vows by the grace of God. That's the kind of man who has a very happy marriage bed. A very happy marriage bed.

Sexual activity is for the covenant of marriage and the covenant of marriage alone. It's adultery, fornication, rape, incest, sodomy, watching pornography or watching movies with too much skin, listening to lewd jokes or immoral music, sexual fantasies that are immoral, dressing in sexually provocative ways, these things are forbidden in the seventh commandment. So what does it look like? How do you defend and fight for the sanctity of marriage in your life and thus proclaim the Gospel in the ways you obey the seventh commandment. Well, that's the final question.

How can you obey the seventh commandment? Well, here's how you do that. First, for those married, I've got three ways. There's a lot more than three. I narrowed it down to three.

I didn't put these in the slides, so if you're taking notes, Number one, for those married first. Number one, make love often. Make love often. Brothers and sisters, you need to understand something about your marriage bed. When you were single, sexual activity was forbidden by God.

Because it was outside the marriage covenant, yes? But now that you're married, you need to understand something. This pops up in my office way more than it ought to. You need to understand that God isn't, now that you're married, that God isn't merely giving you permission to engage in intimacy with your spouse. Like he's kinda, well, I guess it's okay.

Kinda holdin' his nose while he gives it to you. Here's the fruit. It's not the picture. It's not when you were single, hey, this is forbidden, but now that you're married, I guess it's OK. It's not what God says.

It's not the picture. God isn't peering down from heaven and viewing a husband and a wife united as one flesh in the covenant of marriage as something that perhaps he's reluctantly accepting of. It's not the picture. God loves what you're doing. He loves sexual intimacy between a husband and his wife that he has joined together in the holy bonds of matrimony.

He loves it. He loves it so much that he inspired an entire book of the Bible called the Song of Solomon to show you how much He loves it. How much delight God Almighty, your Creator, takes in a man loving his wife, in a wife loving her husband through sexual intimacy. He loves it, He commands it, He delights in it. So make love often.

Husbands and wives. And then recognize that as you are engaging in something that God has called you to engage in, that He's not simply looking down from heaven nonchalant. He is smiling at you. You get the smile of God in that act. That ought to change everything about the way you look at your marriage, Ben.

It really would. So make love often and get the smile of God every time you do. I want you to remember 1 Corinthians chapter seven verses two through five, listen to this. Paul writes, each man is to have his own wife and each woman is to have her own husband. The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife and likewise also the wife to her husband.

The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. So 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. Brothers and sisters, when you make love often as a husband and wife, as God designed love making to be, not only do you get his smile, but you're also helping one another resist temptation. And to live pure lives.

So don't discount the power of your sexuality, brothers and sisters. And wives, I'm particularly talking to you right now. If you don't know this, and I think you probably do, But if you don't, then know it this morning. One of the primary ways you bless your husband is by inviting him and encouraging him to rejoice in you, the wife of his youth. I'm not making that up.

One of the primary ways you bless your husband is by inviting him and encouraging him to rejoice in you, the wife of his youth. Proverbs chapter 5. God tells men, let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth. As a loving hind and a graceful doe, let her breast satisfy you at all times. Be exhilarated always with her love.

For why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress and embrace the bosom of a foreigner. So ladies, sisters, please hear me. When your husband is discouraged, when your husband is disheartened or dismayed or struggling, one of the most powerful things you can do is to bring him to the marriage bed and make love to him. That will bless your husband's socks right off. Make love often.

And then it should be said that good love making starts in the kitchen. So the way you speak to your wife, blessing your wife, helping wash the dishes, it starts with coming in from work and getting on the floor even though you're exhausted from a hard day's work and playing with your children. It starts with helping change the diapers, taking burdens off of your wife, coming home, leading your family well, worshiping God together, training your children, and washing your wife in the water of the word. Giving your life, men, as a sacrifice for the good of your wife and the good of your children as Jesus Christ has done for you. Good love making starts there.

Foreplay starts there. And That leads to number two. I don't have a slide. Number two. Husbands, love and protect your bride and your children.

Husbands, what God has joined together, let no man put asunder. So come what may, you fight with all that you are. You give your life to that end that what God has joined together, no man will put us under. God has made you husbands and fathers as the covenant head over your household. He has charged you to be the prophet, priest, provider, and patriarch in your house under the lordship of Jesus Christ who is himself the ultimate prophet, priest, and king.

Which means, men, that you are very much required to provide for your household beginning with your wife. So physical needs and spiritual needs, Ephesians 5 tells you that you must washer by the washing of the word, you must read your Bibles, you must study your Bibles, you must take what God has said and make it so that it is clear to those in your home, as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. We will obey Jesus Christ. You must fight men for what God has joined you together. Let no man put asunder.

You must fight for that. You must guard your household. And that might mean, if you're going to guard your household, that might mean going and buying a gun. Actually it does mean that. Go and get something to protect your household.

But it's not just physical defense. It's not just physical protection that God requires, though it very much is required. But it's also covenantal defense, covenantal protection. Husbands and fathers, remember what God has said in the second commandment. Do not divorce the seventh commandment from the second.

Don't do that. Please listen to me. When the covenant head of the household, husbands, When you open up the covenant doors of your home to sin, when you won't deal with your sin, when you won't confess your sin, when you will not bring your sin into the light and get right with the Lord, when you will not heed the law of God and the call of God to repent, When you leave the covenant gates of iniquity open in your life, then you are leaving that covenant gate of iniquity open for the rest of your home. You ought not to be surprised that your household, including your wife, is dealing with things that you deal with because you as the covenant head have not shut the gates. And so, your home will be devoured by the same iniquity that is devouring you.

Men and husbands. Men. Husbands. Men and husbands, like they're two different categories. Men, you're the covenant head of your home, so shut the covenantal gates that let in iniquity.

Shut them right now. For the sake of the immortal souls that are under your authority for the sake of your own soul Deal with your sin. It's required in the seventh commandment for the glory of Jesus and the joy of those under you as those in your home. Do you remember what Jesus said, men? If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you, for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you. For it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. Whatever is sin, cut it out. Bring it to the cross. And have it dealt with.

And God Almighty will deal with it. It is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell, and what's worse, for your whole home to go to hell. This is serious men, so I exhort you don't flirt with sexual sin anymore. Confess it. Call it what God calls it.

It's evil And drag your lusts and your pride and your lies, drag it all out into the open before the Lord and before those who need to know it and trust Christ. And then as you're confessing and trusting Christ, you get to live as free men. Live as forgiven and free men in Jesus Christ, who as the song says, breaks the power of cancel sin, and He loves to set the prisoners free. Live as free and forgiven men, who shut the covenantal gates of iniquity according to the second commandment, and open up a different covenantal gate called covenant blessing, All according to the second commandment. The blessing of Exodus 20, verse 6, for your whole home, a blessing to a thousand generations.

What a legacy! To a thousand generations! Beginning with your wife and your children. Number one, make love often. Number two, husbands you're the covenant head so wash your wife with the word, put away sin and lead your home in the covenant of blessing.

Number three, this is for wives. Wives, obey your husbands. Submit to them in the Lord. Obey your husbands. So, sisters in the Lord Ephesians chapter 5 says it plainly wives submit to your husbands it's the same word for obey wives obey your husbands in the Lord ladies unless your husband asks you to sin, obedience to Jesus Christ is obedience to your husband.

For some reason, people get mad when I say that. But not you guys. Because you love what God says. So ladies, if you want to violate the seventh commandment, you can reject your husband's authority. You can be the one who insists on having their own way.

You can be the one who has to have all the control. You can be the one who makes all the calls. And what will you accomplish in all of that violation of the seventh commandment? You will not have the kind of marriage that God wants you to have. You will rob yourself of the joy and the glory that God gives to you, particularly as a woman who submits to her husband.

And you will completely warp the gospel of Jesus Christ in your marriage by making it seem like Jesus is the one who submits to his church and not the other way around. Don't do that sisters. Don't do that. You ladies, you wives, you mothers are the crown jewel of creation. You were made to display the very church of Jesus Christ in your union with your husband.

You were made to display the very Church of Jesus Christ that ought to make you go woo. The very Church for whom Christ Jesus died for. You display who we are sisters. You display how we as a church obey Jesus in your submission to your husbands as to the Lord. First Corinthians chapter 11 calls that double glory.

Double glory. Obey the seventh commandment. Sisters, embrace the double glory of being a woman who obeys her husband in obedience to Jesus Christ. So let me just sum it up. Number one, make love often.

Keep sexual activity in the marriage covenant. Number two, husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church. Number three, wives obey your husbands as unto the Lord as the church submits to Christ. There's more. In a general sense, that's how married couples can obey the seventh commandment.

And there is something for every single one of you married people in those three right now to go home and do. Right now. What about those of you who aren't married? Here's three for you. Number one, don't put off marriage and don't put off kids.

Now if you were at the graduation ceremony, young men, a couple of months ago, you've already heard part of this, so I'll make it brief. But it very much bears repeating. Proverbs 18 22, he who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. God calls finding a wife a good thing. So if there's any hitch in you to call what God calls good not good, stop that.

Stop that. Call it what God calls it. He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. So you heard my earlier quotation from the Westminster Larger Catechism. And one of the things that it listed in that quotation, I said a lot, so you might not have heard it all, but One of the things that it listed in that quotation, I said a lot, so you might not have heard it all, but one of the things that it put in that list of that which was forbidden in the Seventh Commandment is putting off marriage.

Undue delay of marriage. That is forbidden in the seventh commandment. Why? Because you're putting off the God-ordained illustration and the God-ordained proclamation of Christ's gospel in your marriage. When you put off marriage, you put off the God ordained gospel proclamation that your marriage is supposed to be.

That's not good. God doesn't call that good. No, you're in danger of violating the seventh commandment when you do that, and you're very much in danger of violating all the rest of the things that are forbidden in the seventh commandment because you have no self control here's what's going to happen when you put off marriage young men here's what's going to happen addiction to pornography clearly forbidden in the seventh commandment. Greater selfishness, that's gonna happen. You live without your wife, you get really selfish.

Addiction to pornography, greater selfishness, and a reinforcement of lousy, lazy, bad habits. Men and women both, by the way. That's a violation of the Seventh Commandment. So men, if you burn with passion, God says to you, go find a wife. And listen to me.

Now, you need to listen to me. If you just shut off right there and say, I'm done. You're not done with the sermon yet. I still got a lot of time left. Do not take what I'm saying and be foolish about it.

You listen to the counsel of your parents, you go to your father, if you do not have a Christian father, still go to your father. If you don't have a father, go to your pastors, go to your spiritual fathers, help me find a wife. Ask them, help me find a wife, help me find a good thing, help me become the kind of man that can marry the kind of Woman that I want to marry Humble yourselves men Stop being selfish stop being proud and start acting like men Start putting habits in your life that line up with the kind of habits that make a godly husband. Read your Bibles tomorrow morning. Ask the Lord for a spouse.

Listen to your father. Listen to your shepherds. And in all of that, don't put off marriage. And when you get married, don't put off children, because like I said last week, and God makes it pretty clear in Genesis chapter 2. He makes it pretty clear what he desires men and women to do to be fruitful and multiply as he provides.

As he provides. The Great Commission doesn't start in Africa. Starts in your home. So that's number one. Don't put off marriage.

Don't put off children. Number two, flee from sexual immorality. Of course this applies to married couples too. Flee from sexual immorality. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be. 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. But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with him flee immorality every other sin that a man commits is outside the body but the immoral man sins against his own body For do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body." What's Paul saying there in 1 Corinthians chapter 6?

Here's what he's saying, Christian. He's saying to you that by virtue of your union with Jesus Christ, you are one with Him by faith. And so if you engage in immorality with a prostitute, since you're united to Jesus, you've now involved Jesus in your sin. That's the logic of the passage. May it never be to drag the Lord of glory who's united to you by faith into union with the prostitute.

You've been bought with a price. So instead of doing that, flee sexual immorality, Fight and glorify God in your body. Young people, you need to remember the warning of Proverbs chapter 5. Listen to this. My son, give attention to my wisdom.

Incline your ear to my understanding. The lips of an adulteress drip honey, and smoother than oil is her speech. But in the end, She is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death. Her steps take hold of Sheol.

She does not ponder the path of life. Her ways are unstable. She does not know it. Now then, my sons, listen to me and do not depart from the words of my mouth. Keep your way far from her.

Do not go near the door of her house or you will give your vigor to others and your years to the cruel one. And strangers will be filled with your strength. Strangers will be filled with your glory. And your hard earned goods will go to the house of an alien. And you will groan at your end when your flesh and your body are consumed.

And you will say, oh, how I hated instruction. And my heart spurned reproof. I have not listened to the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to my instructors." Young people, the seductress will call out to you. Old people, the seductress will call out to you And that seductress will call out to you from that computer screen, from that smartphone, from that iPad or movie or book or magazine or anything else. Come!

No one has to know. Come to my bed. I'm going to give you everything you want and it won't cost you anything but a few minutes. And like an ox led to the slaughter, if you go, that seductress will kill you. She'll kill your marriage.

She'll take away your joy. She will rob you of peace and happiness. Friends, you need to recognize that porn in all of its various forms is a broken cistern. It's like drinking salt water. And it just leaves you wanting more and more and more.

It never satisfies, poisons and kills that's what it does it's fake it's false Toby Sumter who's gonna be here in a couple weeks Lord willing pastor Toby Sumter puts it this way quote pornography is a false catechism It is not teaching you how to love a real woman or a real man. It is not teaching you what real, godly sex is actually like. No, it's a graven image, and therefore it is a false picture of sexuality. Like all idolatry, it is ultimately a form of self-worship. That's what porn is.

It's not real love, self-worship. Real love though, means learning how another person is different from you. Learning to meet their needs. Learning to see what is best for them. Real love requires patience, kindness, gentleness, self-sacrifice.

Which is the exact opposite of what happens when you click on a screen and on demand worship yourself through pornography." End quote. So brothers and sisters, Get accountability software on your iPhone, on your phones. Get hidden sin in your life out into the open. Get real about your sin. Confess your sin.

Stop letting it fester. You have a Savior. Listen, you have a Savior who is full of faithfulness, who is full of righteousness, and he is able to cleanse you from all that is unrighteous and filthy in you. He's able. So run to him.

And don't listen to the voice of Lady Folly. Her doorway leads to death. Her pathway leads to death. But there is the way of the righteous. He is the way.

He is the truth. He is the life. He is the door. That if you step through Him, He will break it. He will bring you to glory.

He will cleanse you. And do you know how I know? Because there's an empty tomb. Sin didn't have the final word. Death didn't have the final word.

The lady folly, the seductress, doesn't have the final word because Jesus has put her under his feet. That's number two. Flee sexual immorality. One more, and this one is largely for the ladies, though it does apply to young men for sure. But I'm just gonna be talking to you ladies and men.

You oughta be able to catch the drift. Number three, women, Dress modestly. Dress modestly. Modesty in your apparel is required in the seventh commandment. So ladies, I'll make it real simple.

I think God makes it really simple. Stop dressing in ways that make it difficult for your brothers in Jesus Christ. Let what you wear glorify your King, Jesus. So your sexuality, ladies, your body was given to you according to 1 Corinthians 7 so that you would give it to your husband. So stop giving it away to everybody else.

Now, I don't mean to sound mean. I am just trying to love you by telling the truth. But most of what passes for acceptable clothing today for women is what whores wear. So I mean even in weddings, beloved, I mean we've got the picture of Jesus Christ in His church, His bride. We've got wedding dresses that look more like lingerie than anything else.

And we're there at that wedding to picture the purity of Jesus Christ and how He has purified His bride. We're at that wedding to honor the God of the Seventh Commandment, to uphold the sanctity of marriage. And as the bride comes down with her bridesmaids, just blatant violations of the seventh commandment, that we're there to celebrate. That's ridiculous. It's ridiculous.

Is it wrong to look nice? Is it wrong to wear clothing that is beautiful and accentuates your God-given beauty as a woman? Absolutely not. Don't say I'm not. Don't say what I'm not saying.

Revelation chapter 21 verse 2. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, the church, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. So it is very much right, ladies, for you to adore in your beauty. You should do it. It is not wrong to dress beautifully.

No, you ought to. But it is very wrong to dress in such a way that brings dishonor upon the name of Jesus, that takes the parts of your body that are for your husband and your husband alone and lets the rest of the world see them. I don't know how it became so acceptable. All right, so women, Stop wearing yoga pants in public. Stop wearing shirts that reveal your breasts.

They were given to you to be the delight of your husband and your husband alone and to feed your children. Stop wearing skirts or dresses or short shorts that are at the smallest bend of your waist. Everyone can see your rear end. Your rear end is for your husband and your husband alone. So young ladies, Submit to your fathers.

Submit to your fathers. Ask your fathers if your clothing honors him as your father and ultimately honors the Lord Jesus. Ask him. As the honorable Reverend Richard Baxter put it, Your clothing reveals your heart and you tell the world by your modest attire that you desire it. That you desire the world.

And that's what we've been telling our girls even at a young age. What you wear out here reveals what's in here. And it also reveals who you belong to. Who do you belong to? Do you belong to the world then dress in such a way as to get the world's attention and gain the world and lose your soul.

Or, do you belong to Jesus Christ? Do you? Jesus dresses his children in robes of righteousness by faith. He dresses them in garments of salvation. And that changes that reality.

Belonging to Jesus and being dressed and wrapped in his robes of righteousness changes everything about the way those children of God dress themselves. Have you failed in keeping the seventh command? Do you find yourself this morning given over to sexual sin? Have you not dressed as you ought to have? Have there been patterns of your life that are now in gross rebellion against the Almighty?

Have you committed adultery in your heart? Have you given your body away to the seductress? Have you lived a life of immodesty and immorality? Friend, at the end of this sermon, I need you to hear me very, very clearly. There is more righteousness in Jesus Christ than there is sin in you.

It is very true that the righteous, that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. It is very true that the sexual immoral will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the good news, beloved, is that such were some of you. Amen. Jesus Christ breaks the power of canceled sin.

He sets prisoners free. He washes them with His blood. He sanctifies them in His name. He justifies them in His resurrection. And then He wraps them in garments of salvation, the very garments of His righteousness in 1 Corinthians 6 and Isaiah 61.

Oh friend, if you have fallen into sin, whatever sin it might be, sexual or some other form of it, I need you to hear this. Come and trust Jesus. Repent of your sexual sin and come to the very one who has given his life for you to make you his bride forever. His promise to you is to give you a new heart. His promise to you is that He will cleanse you and make you spotless, make you blameless in His sight, for He Himself has borne your blame.

He himself has borne your guilt on His cross 2000 years ago. Why did He do that? Because He's your groom. And that's what we see every single wedding here at Crossroad Church. Every single wedding, we see the picture of Jesus the groom and His bride the church.

And as you look at the groom, what is that groom wearing? What color? Black. He's wearing a black suit. He's wearing The color of your sin.

Is that a mistake? Is that just something we do? No! He's wearing the black suit because Jesus has borne your blackness, your sin, your guilt, your shame. He's borne your rottenness in His body on His tree.

And what is the color that the bride wears? And she walks down to be presented to that groom. White. Unblemished. White.

For her sins are forgiven. There is not a spot in her. She has been made righteous. The very righteousness of the groomed Jesus, imputed to her account by grace through faith. And she bears no shame.

She bears no guilt. She bears no sin. How? Why? For her groom has borne it for her, for you.

And that good news is true for you, Christian. It is true for anyone in this room, young and old, who repent and trust the Bridegroom, Jesus the Christ. Such were some of you, But you were washed. You were made spotless by the blood and righteousness of King Jesus the Grue. And that good news, starting in here, being regenerated, made born again, that good news will come out here.

It will come out in the way you dress. It will come out in the way you talk, not in court's jesting, but purity of speech. It will come out in the way that you take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ, so help you God. And it will come out in the way you love your spouse and honor your marriage bed and proclaim a gospel of good news to the poor, of liberty to the captives, of a wedding, of a marriage that is eternal and forever with an almighty groom and a bride made spotless together forever. Amen.

Amen. Amen, let's pray. Father, thank you for this good news that we see clearly in the seventh commandment. We ask, Lord, that we would look to Jesus, and then as Lord, we look to the one in whom there is more righteousness than sin in us. He would then take us by the hand and bring us back to the seventh commandment, back to his law that we delight in.

We might keep it because oh how we love our group. Thank you for making us your bride. And thank you for this your word to your church in name of your son Jesus we pray amen