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eternity, but we could never understand this great
truth unless God gave us some kind of analogy, a
SUBJECT:
living comparison, from what we understand to what
F.C.F:
we do not understand.
PROPOSITION:
God has created our world with these ready
INTRODUCTION:
A. Why did God make sheep? He made
analogies. Nobody discovered them. Nobody
them, you know. He made them deliberately. They
imagined them out of thin air. Nobody suddenly
were not accidents nor an afterthought. They were
developed a clever way of illustrating a truth: “God
not simply the result of time and chance and
is like a father, and Jesus is like his son.” Rather, the
mutations. God fully intended to create sheep and to
eternal relationship between God the Father and God
place them on earth. Why?
the Son has become the basis for God’s creating us as
God made sheep for various reasons,
families so that we could grasp this great truth. So
obviously. One of God’s creatures can serve many
God designed families primarily so that we could
purposes. Sheep provide wool, and now, though
understand his own Triune nature. And God
synthetic fabrics are probably more to our liking,
designed sheep primarily so that we could understand
many a person found warmth in woolen socks,
our creature-Creator relationship, especially his
mittens, coats, and blankets. I still have a pair of
faithful care and our complete dependence.
woolen mittens, and they are very warm. And, of
C. So why did God primarily design sex?
course, there is meat. We don’t eat a lot of lamb, but
And why did God primarily design marriage? It is at
I do enjoy those Greek, gyros sandwiches with pita
this point that the world illustrates its complete
bread, lamb, and cucumber dressing. Lamb is the
ignorance. The world never attempts to answer the
preferred meat source in many areas even today.
question because the world never bothers to ask the
And in the Old Testament, the lamb was the
question. To the world, it is irrelevant. Sheep are for
most common animal for sacrifice. The blood of an
meat and mittens, no more. Families, parents and
innocent lamb was used to cover the sins of God’s
children, are for the propagation of the race, and the
people until the blood of the true Lamb of God was
social security of someone to care for us in our old
made available to wash sins away forever. But I
age, but certainly no more. And sex is for pleasure,
would suggest that the main reason why God created
for recreation, like bowling or volleyball, only in
sheep was so that we could understand Psalm 23 and
smaller groups. Perhaps it is even for expressing
John 10. By observing the relationship between the
love, though this is secondary, and no longer
faithful shepherd and the foolish sheep, we are able to
essential or even important. And marriage is
grasp the relationship between God and his people.
for…well, an increasing number of people are
And when we think of the astonishing truth that the
struggling with this one, trying to find a reason for
Good Shepherd actually gave his life, laid it down to
marriage, either forgoing marriage altogether, or
save those wayward and inferior sheep, we are able to
cohabiting first in a commitment-less “trial marriage”
enter into some of the wonder of the cross of Christ.
of sorts until one can determine whether the
Why would a shepherd lay down his life for sheep,
perceived benefit of a fragmented and momentary
for mere producers of wool and meat? Sheep are
security outweighs the perceived disadvantage of
expendable; sheep are edible! Why would a shepherd
surrendered freedom and autonomy.
give his life for them? But like a Good Shepherd,
So as with sheep and families, any kind of
Jesus gave his life for us.
higher meaning or purpose for sex or marriage is
B. What I’m saying is that King David did
denied. This is also, often the case among Christians,
not long ago discover a great illustration by which to
and it is a great, tragic, and heartbreaking loss. It is
portray our dependence on God and God’s faithful
as though DaVinci’s Mona Lisa were being used as a
care. Rather, God created this situation from the very
floor mat or a priceless vase from the Ming Dynasty
beginning. Though sheep produce meat and mittens,
as a urinal. Okay, so they are being used for
the real reason God made them was to demonstrate
something, but not exactly to the purpose for which
this great spiritual truth. This is the same reason he
they were created. And hence we come to the
designed us to reproduce with fathers and sons,
seventh commandment: “You shall not commit
parents and children. God has had a Son from all
adultery.”
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WHY GOD GAVE SEX
(Deuteronomy 22:1-8)
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That God would give a specific command,
one of ten, to govern our sexual practice, must mean
that he designed it for a specific purpose. But before
we consider the ultimate design for sex and marriage,
let’s think about some of its other purposes. After
all, sheep are also good for mittens and meat.
I. THE PLEASURE THAT DRAWS US
TOGETHER.
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Which brings us to the second purpose for sex
and marriage.
II. THE WONDER THAT GIVES US
CHILDREN.
A. This is a second purpose for God
designing sex and marriage which the Bible largely
assumes and does not frequently command. “Be
fruitful and multiply” was perhaps all the urging that
was necessary. We have already noted the great
desire for children, for offspring and heirs that was
ubiquitous in Old Testament Israel as well as the
great grief of those who were childless.
Now, for many, the question is not, “How
many children?” or “When to bear children?” but
“Why bother with children?” For many, children
have become an unnecessary nuisance. Even when
children are brought to term, we don’t know what to
do with them. Six of every ten boys in Manhattan are
on Ritalin—because they’re…boys, behaving like
boys. But they’re disruptive, in the way, a noisy
inconvenience, and so in many cases we needlessly
medicate them. There has been in recent decades a
definite anti-child mindset in our culture that is
probably part of the fallout of the sexual revolution of
the 1960s. Because God designed sex to produce the
wonder of children, free love often had
consequences. When supposedly free and
uncommitted sex produced children as God designed
it to, this suddenly cramped the style of the free
lovers.
B. So, of course, abortion on demand was
also part of the fallout of the sexual revolution, and
we now put one in three or four of our children up the
chimney. What are we up to, is it 50 million children
by now? That staggering number makes Hitler look
like a piker, and even Stalin with his twenty million
innocents killed pales by comparison. Only
Chairman Mao could top that one. Do we really
think we can treat a third or a fourth of all our
children that way and not suffer some dreadful
consequences? The freefall of our culture is clearly
tied to our thinking we knew better than God when it
came to the seventh commandment, “You shall not
commit adultery.”
A. Of course God designed sex and marriage
to draw people together. This is one of the
assumptions that is largely understood in Scripture
and so does not need to be explicitly stated with
frequency. In fact, it is assumed in our text. God’s
commentary on the seventh commandment here is
addressed to people who are already living in
families, and for whom family and children and
having children to carry on your name were of utmost
importance. Great pity was extended to the woman
who could not bear children, and the widow of a man
who died before bearing children was given to a
brother who would father heirs for his dead brother,
and they would be considered the dead brother’s
children.
All women in Israel had to be in some way
legally attached to a man: father, brother, or
husband, so the family connection was essential.
And a widow in Israel, also in the New Testament
church, was given special care because her primary,
family relationship had been disrupted. Even
servants were not free agents but were counted as
valuable members of a household.
B. And the desire for and pleasure of sex was
clearly intended to draw men and women into these
comforting relationships as husbands and wives. The
New Testament has no requirement that people
marry, and neither our Lord Jesus Christ nor the
Apostle Paul were married, though Peter and the
other apostles clearly were. Paul counseled young
people to forego marriage for the sake of the times if
they could, but clearly permitted and even required
marriage of those who were not given the gift of
celibacy. God made us to be together, to help each
other, and as sex draws us to another, so marriage
binds us to another, and that’s a very good thing.
C. And, obviously, the very physiology of
human sexuality, male and female, argues for the
exclusivity of heterosexual marriage, as well as the
impossibility of homosexuality producing offspring.
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III. THE STABILITY THAT NURTURES
INDIVIDUALS AND SOCIETIES.
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fully in Numbers 15: “37 The LORD said to Moses,
38 “Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to
make tassels on the corners of their garments
throughout their generations, and to put a cord of
blue on the tassel of each corner. 39 And it shall be
a tassel for you to look at and remember all the
commandments of the LORD, to do them, not to
follow after your own heart and your own eyes,
which you are inclined to whore after. 40 So you
shall remember and do all my commandments, and
be holy to your God. 41 I am the LORD your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your
God: I am the LORD your God.”
God gave sex and marriage to provide
stability for individuals, especially children, and also
for society as well. He also gave sex and marriage to
be
A. Please do not forget that God’s law has a
very practical use. We saw this last time, the
interconnectedness of the Law. For example, the
creation of wealth through guarding and promoting
personal property as we find in the eighth
commandment, “You shall not steal,” directly
impacts the sixth commandment, “You shall not
murder.” Taking away a family’s means of
livelihood so that they starve to death is effectively
killing them. But intentionally or negligently raising
children in instability and turmoil, without the benefit
of loving parents upon which to model their
identities, also leads to the diminishing of life and
eventually to what some call “culture death.”
Our text for this evening is a preamble to
God’s commentary on the seventh commandment.
IV. THE CLASSROOM THAT TEACHES THE
But it seemingly says nothing about sexuality or even
FAITH.
family. Rather, it talks about not double cropping,
not yoking different kinds of animals together, not
A. It is largely through the family that the
making clothing out of blended fabrics, and about
faith is transmitted from one generation to the next.
wearing tassels on the corners of your garment. “9
We saw this back when we considered Deuteronomy
“You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of
6. Just before the new generation of Israel was to go
seed, lest the whole yield be forfeited, the crop that
into the Promised Land, God gave them once again
you have sown and the yield of the vineyard. 10 You
his Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5 as a part
shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. 11
of his renewing the covenant with this next
You shall not wear cloth of wool and linen mixed
generation. But how could they continue to pass this
together. 12 “You shall make yourself tassels on the
truth on? It was to occur through the family. God
four corners of the garment with which you cover
gave sex and marriage so that as generations passed,
yourself.”
the faith would not disappear along with them but
B. What does any of that have to do with
would be passed on. (Deuteronomy 6:6-9) “6 And
sexuality or family or not committing adultery?
these words that I command you today shall be on
Much. The common factor in all of these seemingly
your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your
unrelated commands is that of exclusivity and
children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your
faithfulness. Israel was called the Lord’s vineyard in
house, and when you walk by the way, and when you
the Old Testament. They were to be for him only and
lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them
so their vineyards had to be kept clean and pure as a
as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets
reminder. And Paul takes up the negative image of
between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the
trying to plough with an ox and a donkey yoked
doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
together when he commanded in 1 Corinthians 6:
B. So one of the purposes God gave sex and
“Do not be unequally yoked together with
marriage was to provide these living classrooms
unbelievers.” Again, Israel was to be faithful and
where developing, growing children could hear
holy to the Lord, and this was a practical reminder.
God’s Word continually and see it modeled by their
We can see the same truth illustrated by the
godly parents. If a generation faltered, then the next
prohibition of wearing clothing of blended fabric,
would be jeopardized. And God calls each new
wool and linen woven together. And the tassels also
generation to rise up and embrace the faith for their
were to serve as a sign, a visible picture of their
own.
belonging to the Lord. This was explained more
Many in my generation stumbled here.
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Someone pointed out to me recently that the
generation before mine, which is often called “the
greatest generation” because they won the Second
World War, this generation raised my generation.
What’s remarkable is that while they could go and
lay down their lives in Europe and the Pacific theater
to say “No” to Hitler and Hirohito, they came home
and couldn’t say “No” to their own children. They
spoiled us. My generation, at least those who came
right before me, embraced the sexual revolution
instead of the faith, and many of you younger people
have inherited a mess. We have sown the wind and
in many ways you are reaping the whirlwind. And
you need to step up and claim the faith for your own.
But up to this point, we are still in the realm
of meat and mittens. The real reason why God gave
sex and marriage was to be
V. THE LIVING PARABLE OF GOD’S GREAT
LOVE.
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institution of marriage from Genesis 2: “31
‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother
and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become
one flesh.’ 32 This mystery is profound, and I am
saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” A
“mystery” is a great truth that has been kept hidden
but now has been revealed. And the great truth is
that marriage was originally given, created, and
designed for this lofty purpose: to serve as a living
parable of God’s great love in Christ.
CONCLUSION
We will continue to unpack this great truth in
the weeks to come. But let me simply close by
stating the obvious. God created sex for marriage;
and he created marriage to demonstrate the most
wonderful joy of all. So let’s reserve sex only for
marriage. And let’s make marriage the wonderful
demonstration of love is should be.

A. This is the real reason. This is the
ultimate end of sex and marriage. Pleasure,
companionship, children, a stable society, and even
an evangelized new generation are still only subpurposes, meat and mittens. The real reason God
gave marriage was to be a living illustration of God’s
great love for his people, the astonishing hope of
knowing Christ and becoming his beloved bride as
his church.
B. This is so crystal clear from Paul’s letter to
the Ephesians. In chapter five, he explains that wives
are to submit to their husbands as the church does to
Christ, and that husbands are to love their wives as
Christ loves the church. But, again, this was not just
a brilliant illustration that Paul accidentally plucked
out of the air. No, he says, this was God’s design
from the very beginning. “28 In the same way
husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.
He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one
ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes
it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are
members of his body.” Now don’t miss it. This was
God’s original purpose for creating us male and
female, for creating sex, and for creating marriage. It
was so that here at the end of the age, we would have
some analogy, some common way of understanding
his amazing mercy in claiming the church as the very
bride of Christ. He goes on to quote the original
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