Our culture is morbidly sexualized. We live today in what one social commentator called “the public undressing of America.” There’s an interesting movie that came out not too long ago called The Time Machine and in one scene the scientist who invents the machine suddenly starts racing into the future. The special effects were very interesting as they showed vegetation and rivers quickly growing and dying and cutting into hills, etc. But there’s one clip where they show a shopping window mannequin of a woman wearing a dress and as the years and decades whiz by, the dress on the mannequin gets shorter and shorter very quickly. What is behind the sexual revolution and all of the deviant immorality and promiscuity and infidelity and pornography that is rampant today? Lies. The world around you lies constantly about sexuality. Sadly, many people believe those lies. The first lie is that sex is a right everyone has. It is not. Sex is a privilege for married people alone. Marriage is the only context in which sex is to be enjoyed. Like all of God’s commandments, obedience in this area is the path to joy, peace, an intact conscience, and fruitfulness in the service of God. Disobedience in this area leads to a ruined conscience, joyless worship of God on the Sabbath Day, and a heavy heart that carries ending shame and guilt. The world around you really doesn’t “struggle” much with guilt over sexual sin and depravity because it seems like the world system of evil has done everything it can to turn the consciences of people off. The TV shows I watched growing up got worse and worse in these areas. I watched the Brady Bunch when I was a kid and it was considered really pushing the line and nigh unto scandalous that they showed mom and dad sitting up in the same bed together with their pajamas on. The entertainment industry has seared the consciences of several generations of Americans and today there is even an industry of pornography which has annual revenues more than the NFL, NBA, and MLB combined. The world around you that is wallowing in unbelief on its way to hell doesn’t care a whole lot about sexual immorality. To see the war with sexual immorality and the titanic struggle against it, you have to be in the Christian Church. The world doesn’t fight and doesn’t struggle to be pure. It has no interest in being pure. Its conscience is dead. But Christians know they ought to be chaste. Sexuality is a precious gift from God. Satan’s mockery of it in the world and the world’s indulgence in that mockery of it has turned a precious gift into a scourge that has ruined countless lives, countless marriages, countless fruitful ministries, and countless churches. Sexual sin has made sex a difficult subject to preach on and talk about. So many people including, sadly, Christians today associate sex almost universally with guilt and feelings of shame. For many young people today who will one soon probably be married, sex has only been a force for destruction and emotional hardship. Then, suddenly, they are in a Christian marriage and now this gift of God which has brought so much heartache, sadness, darkness, and emotional difficulty to their lives is supposed to be something they rejoice in, enjoy, look forward to, and communicate with their spouse about. Sin is so destructive and so irrational and so foolish. Yet the struggle persists. But it is only in the Christian church that you will find the fight, the struggle, the war with this sin. The world is at peace with it. In here, it is a battle to be sexually pure and if you are married to really enjoy this gift from God as He intended it to be enjoyed. Join me today to see God's holy wisdom on this precious gift and its rightful and joyful place in monogamous, committed marriage between one man and one woman for life.