Dealing with a ‘sex-crazed culture’

Are you flirting with adultery or having sexual relations outside of marriage?

Are you dabbling in pornography? Are you experimenting with homosexuality? If so, then flee, urged David Platt, pastor of The Church at Brook Hills, Birmingham, in his latest sermon series out of 1 Corinthians 6. Flee from sexual immorality and “turn to Christ,” he said. “No other sin a person commits has more built-in pitfalls, problems and impending destructiveness than sexual sin.

“According to the sure judgment of God, unrepentant sexual sin leads to hell. … Every time you have these lists of sins that lead to hell, sexual immorality is mentioned, most often at top of the list. … This is not saying that if you’ve ever committed sexual immorality of any sort, you are going to hell … those whose lives are characterized by sexual immorality, those who refuse to repent of sexual immorality will experience eternal condemnation from God.”

Platt preached more than an hour in the first of two parts on The Cross and Christian Sexuality on June 23. Part two was scheduled for June 30.

“We have all … rebelled against God’s good design for us in every way including sexually,” Platt explained. “But God loves you and me, and God sent His Son to … live among us to show us what purity looks like and then go to the cross … to pay the price for your sexual immorality.

“We all have a bent toward sexual deviation … in some way,” he said. “We have got to be really careful not to be guilty of selective moral outrage.”

Platt’s words garnered national attention because of the timing with the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the federal ban on gay “marriage” (see story, page 1). “So much sexual sin is justified, rationalized today by Christians who say, ‘Well, this is just who I am.’”

But, he said, “sex is only celebrated … in the Bible in the context of … husband and wife. Period.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: David Platt, pastor of The Church at Brook Hills, Birmingham, preached on The Cross and Christian Sexuality in a June 23 sermon developed out of 1 Corinthians 6:12–20. The excerpts above are from that sermon. To hear the full sermon, visit http://ht.ly/moLzu.