Clean Hands, Pure Hearts Series

A little boy ran into the living room where his father and mother were reading. “Dad, where did I come from?” Mom cleared her throat, and excused herself from the room. The dad braced himself, searching his mind for the answer he‘d long been preparing for this question that they knew they would one day be answering. And he began, with something that started out with something like, “Son, when a man and a woman love each other very much…” From there, as his son sat kind of anxiously waiting he went through a long, careful explanation of how children are born. Finally, he was done. So the dad said, “Do you have any questions, son?” He said, “That’s great, Dad; but Billy down the street says he comes from Melbourne and I just wanted to know where I came from.”

We’ve come a long way from the days of “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” Do you remember that show, still in black and white in the early 60’s? It had Dick Van Dyke and his wife Laura, who was played by Mary Tyler Moore. And in every episode that showed it, they were sleeping in separate, twin beds. That’s because our culture at the time wouldn’t even tolerate TV suggesting that a married couple slept in bed together. Around the same time there was “The I Love Lucy Show.” There, the bedroom scene rule was that either Desi Arnez or Lucille Ball had to have at least one foot on the floor at all times. Times have changed, a little. Today, red-faced parents are turning off the TV to keep their kids from watching twin beds with several people in them.

I wish it wasn’t necessary to speak about it so much, but in a series of messages about our basic ethics, it’s impossible not to speak about the importance of sexual purity among God’s people today.

Phil Callaway, The Total Christian Guy - “The only sex education my dad ever received came from an aunt who told him sex is a filthy, rotten and disgusting thing. Save it for the one you marry.”

Quote - I like the insightful point made by Benedict J. Groeschel, The Courage to Be Chaste - Perhaps one of the most persistent and obviously invalid assumptions of our civilization is that sexual behavior brings happiness. The media trumpet the message, "Sex brings happiness." If this were true, we would indeed live in an earthly paradise, and the world would be "Happy Valley." …If sex brought happiness, the world would shine like the sun, at least half the time…If there is a single key to contentment, it cannot be sexual experience.

It’s not important to speak about sexual purity just because the world is surrounding us with perversions of it. It’s also necessary because the church is too taken in by the lie. Statistically, there’s not a lot of difference between people inside the church and outside the church when it comes to sexual purity, even though God’s word is pretty clear about it.

So, let me make a few observations about sexual purity…

1. It Will Make or Break Our Testimony

All through history, right up to now, the reputation of the Church has taken shots because of impurity inside the camp. All I have to do is say the name Jimmy Swaggart, and right away many of you remember the way preachers in general and the whole church was laughed at. That’s because the world isn’t going to take us seriously if they get the impression that we don’t do what we say.

Philippians 2:14-15

Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.

Yes, we’re supposed to shine like stars – not with arrogance because we’re superior to the rest, but with humility and a life that shows that Christ-followers are people who are sincerely trying to be pure like God’s children should be. The amount of positive impact our lives can have on other people is directly proportional to the level of personal purity we’re careful to maintain.

1 Peter 3:1-2

Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.

Real purity is a positive testimony all by itself!

2. It Shapes Relationships

With God

All through the books of Numbers and Leviticus there’s a lot of washing going on! The priests and the temple are constantly being purified -- cleansed of any impurities because God is pure. When Israel approached God, it was to be as people who cared about purity.