Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20120401.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Numbers: Lessons From Spiritual Casualties And Conquerors
Part XXXIV: Heeding God's Will On Sexual Morality
(Numbers 25:1-18)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    The "Sexual Revolution" with its "significant loss of . . . the values of a morality rooted in the Christian tradition and the rise of . . . attitudes . . . accepting of greater sexual freedom . . . " (Answers.com) occurred mainly in the 1960s and 1970s, but it fuels big issues today:

    (1) A May 17, 2011 New York Times article, "Church Report Cites Social Tumult in Priest Scandals," told of a study by Catholic bishops on the Church's sex abuse crisis that concluded it was caused by ill prepared and monitored priests under stress who were affected by the "social and sexual turmoil of the 1960s and 1970s." (nytimes.com)

    (2) Then, when the Obama administration last month declared its health care law would require employers and Church groups to pay for contraceptives and abortions, eliciting a negative reaction from the right, the political left charged the right with waging a "war on women'"! The Wall Street Journal on March 24-25, 2012 then ran a focus on, "Has the Sexual Revolution Been Good for Women?", p. C1, with one article giving a "No" answer and the other a "Yes" response.

    The "Yes" article by Ann Patchett held: "If you are galled by the idea of paying for the birth control of people . . . who might be using it to have wanton sex . . . make a list of all the other troubling ways your tax dollars are spent . . . Let us . . . empower . . . young women . . . until they feel fully ready to have sex . . . When everyone is . . . ready, let's supply them with birth control . . ."

    (3) The Sexual Revolution has a big effect today on the game of golf: Jen Floyd Engel's March 30, 2012 article, "Tiger's mistresses sending sad message" (foxsports.com), told how 3 women who had affairs with Tiger, one of golf's most gifted players, are set to release a tell-all film the day after he will start to play in the Masters tournament. He can't seem to shake his past adulterous affairs that occurred due to the relaxed morals of the Sexual Revolution!

    (4) The Sexual Revolution affected evangelicals, too! It led to a rise in divorce among them and claims that 1 Timothy 3:2's call for an elder to be the husband of "one wife" means "one-wife-at-a-time" to allow for divorce and remarriage, and claims that Matthew 19:9 and 1 Corinthians 7:15 allow for divorce! The debate on this rages today!

    So we ask, "Since the decades-old sexual revolution' still fuels controversial issues in our culture, what does God think of human sexuality, and why?!"

    Need: "As the 1960s-1970s sexual revolution' still deeply affects us in various ways, what does God think of human sexuality, and why?"

  1. After God kept Balaam from cursing Israel, Balaam's greed for money led him to advise Balak to lure Israel to sin so God would punish Israel, Numbers 31:15-16; Z. P. E. B. , vol. One, p. 454.
  2. Balaam's plan called for Balak to befriend Israel to expose her men to sensual Moabite cult prostitutes who would then lure them to commit immorality and worship Baal Peor, Num. 25:1-2; Rev. 2:14.
  3. The plan worked: God became angry and called for the execution deaths of the men of Israel who had sinned, Numbers 25:3-5.
  4. When Phinehas, son of the high priest, heeded God to punish the brazen immorality of an influential couple, God promised to bless him in ways that display God's view of human sex, Num. 25:6-15:
    1. God's promise to Phinehas for his execution of an influential couple shows He hates human sex outside of Biblical marriage (as follows):
      1. Aaron's grandson Phinehas saw a man of Israel brazenly lead a Midianite cult prostitute in league with Moab (Num. 22:4) into his tent to commit immorality with her in the full view of Moses and the people who wept over the loss of other sinful men, Num. 25:6.
      2. To obey God, Phinehas countered this brazen sin by taking a spear and following the couple into the tent where he ran the spear through them both as they were in the act of sin, Num. 25:7-8 NIV.
      3. In the end, twenty-four thousand in Israel were slain, Num. 25:9.
      4. For Phinehas' bold punishment of the couple's haughty sin (Num. 25:10-11), God promised him and his seed a covenant of peace, a lasting priesthood in Israel, Numbers 25:12-13. All of the men in Aaron's line until then had been the priests (Ex. 29:9), but after this event, the priestly line would proceed through Phinehas as God's reward for his upright deed, Bib. Know. Com., O. T., p. 246.
      5. This covenant was made in relation to Phinehas' punishment of key sinners, Num. 25:14-15: the slain man was a leader in the tribe of Simeon, and the woman was the daughter of a leader in Midian.
    2. However, God's promise to Phinehas also shows His sanction of and full blessing upon physical sex within Biblical marriage (as follows):
      1. God's promise shows He sanctions and blesses sex in marriage:
        1. Phinehas' descendants along with him were to receive the covenant of peace of a perpetual priesthood, Numbers 25:13.
        2. Yet, for these men to have descendants in a "perpetual" (olam, B. D. B., A Heb.-Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 761-763; Robert B. Girdlestone, Synonyms of the O. T., 1973, p. 316) priesthood (Numbers 25:13), each man would need to father sons via sexual activity with their respective wives.
        3. This signals that God views sex as undefiled in Biblical marriage (Hebrews 13:4), and Leviticus 18:1-30 clarifies that Biblical marriage is only the union of one man and one woman.
        4. Indeed, human sex in marriage is so blessed of God that, before man sinned, the Holy God of the Bible created a woman for the first man, and brought her to him for marriage, and both the man and the woman were naked, Genesis 2:20-25.
      2. God's promise to Phinehas shows He sanctions the marriages of Biblical priests: much sex abuse by ministers in religion-mandated celibate states of "priesthoods" is unnecessary and can be solved by marriage due to God's sanction of marital sex for Phinehas' perpetual priesthood, Num. 25:13 with 1 Cor. 9:5 and Matt. 8:14!
      3. God's promise to Phinehas leads us to recall He opposes divorce:
        1. God had told the priests like Phinehas in Leviticus 21:1, 7 not to marry prostitutes or divorcees, Ibid., B. K. C., O. T., p. 203.
        2. Then, in Malachi 2:16 NIV, God said, "I hate divorce," so we must view "evangelical debatable" passages Matthew 19:9 and 1 Corinthians 7:15 as not condoning Christian divorce! [See explanations of such verses in other lessons on our web site.]
        3. [Yet, if a believer has already been divorced or divorced and remarried, Scripture calls him to stay in his latest marital state, or, as a divorced party, to be reconciled to his first spouse IF there has been no other marriage since the divorce, 1 Cor. 7:24, 10-11; Deut. 24:1-4 NIV, ESV (The KJV errs at Deut. 24:1-4!)].
  5. Finally, for the Midianites' lead role in seducing Israel's men to sin, God called Israel to oppose them as enemies, Numbers 25:16-18.
Application: May we (1) trust in Christ for salvation from sin, John 1:11-12. (2) Then, may we (a) rely on the indwelling Holy Spirit for the power (Galatians 5:16-23) to heed God's will like Phinehas and be intolerant of unbiblical sex and gain God's blessing on sex in proper marriage. (b) If we have an imperfect sexual and marital past, may we heed Scripture in God's power on how to live now!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 (1) In our sermon introduction, we alluded to The Wall Street Journal (March 24-25, 2012) focus on the question, "Has the Sexual Revolution Been Good for Women?", and we cited Ann Patchett's article there that suggests the Sexual Revolution was good. However, in view of God's view on human sexuality, we must report on Mary Eberstadt's article in that segment that gives a "No" answer!

A research fellow at the Hoover Institution and a consulting editor to Policy Review, Mary wrote: "(I)f the sexual revolution has really made women as happy as feminists say . . . (w)hy do web-sites run by women and for women . . . ooze such despair about relations between the sexes? . . . What of the fact . . . that 26 % of American women are on some kind of mental-health medication for anxiety and depression and related problems? Or how about what is known in sociology as the paradox of declining female happiness'? Using 35 years of data from the General Social Survey, two Wharton School economists, Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, made the case in 2009 that women's happiness appeared to be declining over time despite their advances in the work force and education." Failure to heed God's standard on sex in the Sexual Revolution actually harms women long-term!

(2) The medical profession bears statistics in support of this view: Sheetal Malhotra, M. B. B. S., M. S., in the Fall 2008 issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, volume 13, number 3, p. 88, reported: "The Sexual Revolution in the United States" has led to "(a)pproximately 19 million new sexually transmitted infections each year," and is "associated with altered self-esteem, depression, and impaired ability to form healthy long-term relationships."

He added: "The only certain way to avoid these consequences of the Sexual Revolution is sexual abstinence outside a mutually monogamous lifelong relationship with an uninfected partner." God's stance on sex is the sure way to escape the Sexual Revolution's harm!



May we trust in Christ to become indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Then, may we rely on Him for the power to stay chaste until marriage, and stay faithful to our spouse in marriage. Then we will enjoy the blessings of sexuality that God designed for human beings and not face a loss of blessing or God's discipline!