God’s Call to Purity and Faithfulness

Minister:
Date: AM
Text: I Corinthians 7; Lord's Day 41
Psalters: 276, 67, 78, 125
  1. What God has done.
    1. God created man pure so that he was naked and not ashamed (Gen. 2:25).
      1. Man’s experience of the fall into sin was their being ashamed (Gen. 3:7) and wanting a covering (this was without grace).
      2. Satan constantly works to destroy the foundation of good order in the marriage and family with selfishness.
    2. In Christ, God provides for every one of His people to have the real marriage with Christ (Gen. 3:21; Eph. 5:25b-27,32).
      1. God is faithful and maintains the loving relationship by constantly giving and forgiving.
      2. As a result marriage (after sin) is honorable and the bed undefiled (Heb. 13:4) picturing the real marriage (Eph. 5:32).
      3. God’s command (never out-dated) makes every human responsible to reflect God’s holiness and purity.
  2. God condemns adultery, all unfaithfulness and every uncleanness.
    1. Adultery is unfaithfulness on the part of a husband or wife, or it is sexual impurity before marriage.
      1. God condemns all selfishness:  whether in desiring to satisfy lusts or in refusing to pay the debt.
      2. The command boldly brings out sinful thoughts and desires from their hiding places and proclaims them as evil.
    2. Adultery/fornication violates covenant, severely damaging relationships.
    3. God condemns every marriage where there is not a striving for a love relationship patterned after Christ and the church.
  3. Gratitude for God’s faithfulness to us constrains and restrains.
    1. Look up and see yourself in the real marriage with Jesus, which is only mercy and always undeserved.
    2. God always has more grace than we have sins, both to forgive and to enable us to be pure.
    3. Everyone who is married to Jesus is called to reflect Jesus in grateful purity and faithfulness.