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Colin Smith: It was in the beginning that God created them male and female. This was God's idea. The first sexual thought in the universe was in the mind of God. And the first sexual thought in the universe was absolutely pure.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible Weekend with Pastor Colin Smith. And Colin, I think we probably already caught a few people by surprise here saying, "Wait a minute, God had the first sexual thought in the universe?" That's shocking.

Colin Smith: God made them male and female, and what a marvelous thing that he did. You know, I suppose in our culture, a lot of people have thoughts about sexuality that somehow this is a sort of murky area. And the reality is, you know, too often we've made it a murky area.

I find it tragic just to see the extent to which kids in high school and at this dance and that dance and the degree of experimentation that goes on and the degree of wounding that comes out of it and the lost sense of a vision for what it is to seek to live a pure life and to place this wonderful gift where God placed it within the unique, secure, faithful, loving bonds of a marriage.

But where it is there, it is a marvelous, pure, beautiful, and lovely gift. And I think for us to see that and to proclaim that and to call people to see the joy of it and the richness of it is something very important and something straight out of the Bible.

Steve Hiller: Well, and it's encouraging for us to hear that now. And I think for a lot of parents, Colin, they may struggle to say, "Okay, how do I take the Seventh Commandment, communicate that to my kids in an age-appropriate way?" And I think the best example of that that you're ever going to hear is how we begin today's message. So let's get started with your struggle for purity.

Colin Smith: I want you to know right from the outset today that I am very aware of how sensitive and how painful an issue sometimes this is for many people. It's surely an area in which there is pressure on us all.

Jesus described his generation, you remember, as being an adulterous generation. You remember Jesus used that phrase, a wicked and adulterous generation. That's how he described his own times.

An adulterous generation, of course, is a generation that has become confused in attitude and disordered in behavior in the whole area of sex. And there is no doubt whatsoever that we live in an adulterous generation.

It's one of the sadnesses, is it not, that our country—our country, built on such principles to honor the Lord—has become the primary producer for the whole world of pornography. And we live in a setting at the beginning of the 21st century where it is extremely difficult to be pure in your mind and in your heart and in our behavior.

We've called this series, "Unlocking Your 10 Greatest Struggles," and we're using the image, remember, of climbing a cliff face. And when it comes to this struggle, some of us are on the cliff face and we feel like we're going to fall. We're not quite sure how to move forward.

And if you're stuck on the cliff face, the last thing in the world that you need is someone shouting at you. We're not going to do that today. What you do need is someone who can show you where you can put your foot or where you can put your hand so that you're not going to fall off, but you are going to keep, as we were reminded earlier, pressing on.

So I want to speak in a way that will be encouraging on this issue today and to show where the door of hope is to be found. And then I am also conscious, of course, that we have a growing number of children in the congregation, and that is a wonderful thing that we want to encourage every Sunday. So I will try and speak in a way that is clear, but also a way that is discreet.

Now, talking of children, the best message that I have ever heard, bar none, on the Seventh Commandment, I heard downstairs in the fellowship hall on a Sunday morning when I was not in the pulpit. I was free to visit some of the classes.

And it so happened, two years ago, they were doing the Ten Commandments in Sunday school. And I heard the Sunday school teacher tell this story that I noted down and I've adapted it a little bit, but it remains in my mind the clearest depiction of what the Seventh Commandment is all about that I have ever heard.

So I don't often tell children's stories from the pulpit, but is it all right if I tell one today? Okay, you can settle back. This is a story about a little boy called Sam and about his friend who was called Johnny.

Now, one day Sam's mother asked him what he would like to do for his birthday. "Well," said Sam, "I'd like to have a party, then I'd like to have a sleepover, and then the next day I want to go fishing with my dad."

Mom said, "Well, that's great. Who do you want to come to your party?" He said, "I just want one person to come: Johnny. He's my best friend. I want Johnny to come for the party, Johnny to stay for the sleepover. I want Johnny to come on the fishing trip with Dad as well." "Okay," said his mom, "if that's what you want."

So the next day, Sam asked Johnny if he would like to come to the party, which was going to be on Friday. Boys and girls, which day was it going to be on? Friday. We got it. I just want to make sure you're with me now, okay?

Johnny said, "Sam, I want you to come to my party. We're going to have a sleepover, then it's going to be fishing. It's just going to be the two of us. It's on Friday and it's going to be awesome." Well, Johnny was really excited because Sam was his best friend, and Johnny really liked going to Sam's house for a sleepover.

"It'll be great," he said to Sam. "You will definitely come," said Sam, "because you're the only person I've invited to the party." "I'll definitely come," said Johnny. "I promise."

Well, a few days later, before the party, another boy in the class whose name was Luke talked to Johnny. "Hey, Johnny," he said, "I'm having a party. It's going to be marvelous. It's going to be at Chuck E. Cheese's."

And Chuck E. Cheese's was Johnny's favorite place. And when he asked who was going to the party, he found that a whole group of his friends were going to be at Luke's party. And he said it's going to be marvelous. "Oh, yeah," he said, "it'll be wonderful. After the party, we're all going to have a sleepover and it's going to be in tents."

"When's the party?" said Johnny. It's going to be on, you guessed it, Friday. Johnny didn't know what to do. He loved Chuck E. Cheese's and all his friends were going to Luke's party, but he promised that he would go to Sam's.

A few minutes later, he saw Sam in the playground. He said, "Sam, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to come to your party." "Why not?" said Sam. "Well, Luke's having a party and I'd really like to go to that one."

Well, Sam didn't say a thing. He didn't know what to say. But later he came home and he cried and he cried and he cried. "Johnny told me he was coming to my party," he said to his mom. "He said he was my best friend. He promised he'd come."

And then after a while, Sam got angry. "I don't care if Johnny doesn't come to my party," he said. "I hate him and he's never going to be my best friend again."

Well, Johnny wasn't very happy when he went home either. He had been invited to two parties and he knew he had to make up his mind. He'd promised to go to Sam's, he wanted to go to Luke's. What was he going to do? So he decided to ask his dad.

"Dad," he said, "I've got a bit of a problem. I promised I'd go to Sam's party, but now I've been invited to go to Luke's party and I want to go to that one too. And Luke's party, he said it's at Chuck E. Cheese's and then they're going to have a sleepover and it's going to be in tents. But the thing is, Dad, I told Sam I'd come to his party. I promised."

"Mmm," said his dad. You know, dads sometimes do that, don't they? "Mmm. So you made a promise and then you got a better offer. This is a big decision," his dad said to Johnny.

And then he said this: "Johnny, what if I got a better offer for a wife? You know," he said, "there are really a lot of very smart women who work in my office and some of them are pretty friendly." "You can't do that," said Johnny. "You made a promise to Mom."

"That's right," said his dad. "And that's why it's really important that we learn to keep our promises even when we're young." So the next morning, Johnny phoned Sam.

"Sam, I'm sorry," he said, "I upset you about talking about Luke's party. I should never have done that. If you still want me to come to your party, I really want to come."

Well, Johnny had a blast at Sam's party and so did Sam. In fact, they had so much fun that Johnny didn't even think about Chuck E. Cheese's or Luke's party or the tents. And the next morning, when they went out fishing, they caught a fish so big that it took both of them to pull it in.

Well, a few days later, Johnny got a note in the mail from Sam and it said, "Dear Johnny, thanks for making my party the best I've ever had." And it was the best party Johnny had ever been to as well. Johnny smiled to himself. He felt good inside. And he was so glad that he'd kept his promise.

Now, that's what the Seventh Commandment is all about. It's about keeping your promise. And at the simplest level that we can understand as children, the importance of keeping a promise even when we're young, that story is also a very profound parable in all of its dimensions for our adult understanding of the Seventh Commandment and all that it says to us.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible Weekend with Pastor Colin Smith. A message called "Your Struggle for Purity," one of the messages in our series called "The 10 Greatest Struggles of Your Life," where we're taking a look at the Ten Commandments and how they address the greatest struggles that we face.

If you ever miss a broadcast in our series, you can listen online at openthebible.org or through the Open the Bible app, which is free at your app store. It's a great way to listen on-demand as it fits your schedule, or again, come to our website and listen there at openthebible.org. Back to the message. Here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Now, Jesus of course made it clear that the Seventh Commandment is about keeping your promise not just in what you do, but also in what you think.

Remember his words in Matthew chapter 5, where he explains the Seventh Commandment? He said, "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery,' but I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

So the words of Jesus make it clear that this issue of purity goes even to our thoughts. And since it involves our thoughts as well as our actions, there can be no doubt surely that this speaks to one of the ten greatest struggles of our lives.

Now, in the time that we have, I want to do two things very simply. The first is to give a biblical framework for understanding our sexuality. And I want to do that in three simple statements that are very, very important. It is important for us to grasp a biblical framework for this important issue. And then secondly, I want us to identify two issues in which we need practical help in moving forward to overcome in the struggle.

So first of all then, the biblical framework in three statements. Here's the first: God has given us the good gift of our sexuality. God has given us the good gift of our sexuality. And I want to emphasize that phrase, the good gift.

It was in the beginning that God created them male and female. This was God's idea. This is wonderful. Think of what that means. The first sexual thought in the universe was in the mind of God. And the first sexual thought in the universe was absolutely pure.

In the creative genius of God, he conceives this marvelous way in which he will create not just humanity, but male and female. He creates the woman from the man. He then brings the woman to the man in the first marriage. And in that first marriage, there is not just a union, there is a reunion, a completion for both that goes back to the very nature of their creation.

It's a wonderful thing and a beautiful thing for us to grasp. Now, I say this because this is very important, especially for those who may have been brought up with a negative view of these things. We read this morning earlier from the book of Hebrews that says that the marriage bed is to be kept pure.

And the reason, of course, that it is to be kept pure is that it is pure. And some need the help from the Scriptures of really seeing that God has made this wonderful and beautiful and pure gift within the bonds of marriage.

The Bible has a very wonderful phrase to describe the partnership of a man and a woman in marriage. You remember from Genesis chapter 2 and verse 24, it's quoted by the Lord Jesus also in the New Testament. "A man," God says, "will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." The beautiful phrase: "they will become one flesh."

Now, becoming one flesh obviously involves the union of two bodies in marriage. But it involves much more than the union of two bodies. It is the joining together of two minds and two hearts and two wills, two souls, two spirits. It is the joining together in a beautiful union, two lives in partnership together.

To try and give an illustration of this, those who know a little bit of theology will be familiar with the words justification and sanctification. In fact, I think most of us here should know these words because we use them often. They're Bible words: justification and sanctification.

You say, "Where on earth are you going with this?" I promise you hang on, you never knew theology was going to be so interesting. But these two words, justification and sanctification.

Justification, remember, is a decisive event in which you are forever bonded to Christ. Sanctification is an ongoing process by which you grow in your relationship with him. Now, when we come to this phrase "one flesh," it's a little bit like both of these.

When the Bible talks about the man and the woman becoming one flesh within the bond of marriage, it is both a decisive event in which you are bound forever to the one to whom you have given your pledge, but it is also a lifelong process of growing together increasingly in body and mind and soul and spirit.

And God has blended these things together. Just like justification and sanctification should never be separated in the Christian life, so these dimensions of what it means to be one flesh should never be separated in marriage.

And you see, a lot of marriages run into difficulty, it seems, because some husbands are very interested in being one in body, but not always as interested as they ought to be about being one in mind and soul and spirit. Am I saying that right?

And some wives are very interested in being one in mind and spirit and soul, but don't have a lot of interest in being one in body. Now, God has brought these two things together, and what God has joined together should never be separated.

The Church of England has a beautiful phrase that's used in the marriage service in its liturgy. After the vows have been made by a couple, the pastor will say these words over the couple. He will say, as a prayer to God, "Strengthen the union of their hearts by the union of their bodies." That's beautiful. "Strengthen the union of their hearts by the union of their bodies." These two things together, part of what it means to be one flesh. And what God has joined together, let no man or woman separate.

That's the first thing: God has given us the good gift of sexuality. And some of us need to be refreshed from the Scriptures about the goodness of it. Second: we all live with the pressure of a fallen sexuality.

The entrance of sin into the world has affected every area of our lives. The effects vary, but all of us live with the effects of a fallen sexuality. That means that we're tempted to take God's good gift and to use it wrongly. To use it not as a means of expressing love within marriage, but as a means of finding release or of fulfillment.

The proper place of sexual union, the Bible makes clear, is within a loving and a lifelong marriage, a partnership of one man and one woman. But if we take God's wonderful gift outside of marriage with another person, or if we seek to use it on our own, then we abuse God's gift because we lose sight of its purpose.

I came across a brilliant analogy to illustrate this point that I will certainly never forget. I hope it will be the same for you also. And perhaps I can best summarize the illustration in this way: Sex on your own is the spiritual equivalent of glue sniffing.

Now, think about that. The purpose of glue is to bind two things together. And when glue is used for that purpose, it is a wonderful, wonderful thing. But if a person goes off on their own and uses glue to get a kick or to get high, they are perverting its purpose and doing damage to themselves. That's not what it's for. And if you use it like that, you do damage to yourself.

Now, that is why the whole issue of pornography in our society is so serious. We have come to see in our society sex as a means of release rather than an expression of love.

And because increasingly we are pumped with this kind of an approach, it debilitates often within marriage. And it causes so often us to think in terms before and outside of marriage that ruin our very capacity to be good at expressing the heart of love.

When we see sex as an outlet for tension rather than as the glue to bond together, God's gift gets abused. And that can happen both inside and outside marriage, of course.

Ronald Wallace, a very insightful writer, makes this comment that I found very, very helpful. He says, "Instead of serving true love, sex used in this way becomes harnessed to self-centeredness. It thus tends to destroy the possibility of the very relationship it was designed to further."

When you abuse it, it tends to destroy the very possibility of the relationship that it was designed to further. Pornography is adultery in the mind, and perhaps the biggest issue with it is that it reduces your capacity to love. So this is our tension: God has given us the gift of sexuality, but we all live with the pressure of a fallen sexuality.

Steve Hiller: What a vivid picture in today's message: the spiritual equivalent to glue sniffing. Our message is entitled "Your Struggle for Purity," and it's one of the ten greatest struggles that we face.

We're going to continue this teaching next time and not only look at your struggle for purity, but also how forgiveness can be found and how healing can begin. If you ever miss a program, come and listen online at openthebible.org.

Well, Open the Bible is a listener-supported ministry. We're able to do what we do, bringing you Pastor Colin's teaching each day, because of your generous financial support. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to send you three copies of our very first graphic novel. It's inspired by Pastor Colin's book, *Heaven, How I Got Here: The Story of the Thief on the Cross*. Plus, we'll send you one copy of the original book. Colin, how does this graphic novel speak to young people today?

Colin Smith: Well, if you're a young person, and especially if you have grown up in church, you probably find yourself asking the question, "Am I living a good enough life? Am I living a life that's really going to be pleasing to God?" And you maybe have in your mind the idea that pleasing God's going to be a very, very hard thing to do.

And here's the marvelous good news: You know, entrance into heaven and peace with God don't depend on you living a good enough Christian life. It's the gift of God's marvelous grace.

And that is made wonderfully clear in the story of the thief on the cross. And this graphic novel tells that story in a way that's clear, simple, and compelling. And it communicates the greatest good news ever: that God's marvelous grace comes to us in Jesus Christ.

He's the one who gives us peace with God. He's the one who opens the door of heaven. There is hope for every person in Jesus Christ, and especially for the person who's saying, "I haven't lived a good enough life. I feel very, very far from God." That's the message.

And I hope that it's going to be very encouraging to every young person, to everyone who's a visual learner, and to everyone who needs to understand God's marvelous grace.

Steve Hiller: Well, you can give your gift of support to Open the Bible by calling 1-877-OPEN-365. Or go online to openthebible.org. Again, our phone number is 1-877-673-6365, and our website is openthebible.org. For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll join us next time. Open the Bible Weekend is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

Colin Smith: At Open the Bible, we're grateful for like-minded organizations committed to sharing the gospel around the world. And to that end, I'd like to commend the work of Global Fingerprints.

You know, in the book of James, God calls us to help orphans in their distress. That's a clear command, but it's not always clear how we should obey it. And this is where Global Fingerprints comes in. Through Global Fingerprints, you can sponsor a vulnerable child to help meet their physical needs and ensure they hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I want to commend Global Fingerprints to you. They're focused on equipping the local church to care for children, and where there is no church, they help to plant one. If you'd like to help a vulnerable child, you can find more information on Global Fingerprints at our website, openthebible.org/gf. That's openthebible.org/gf.

Steve Hiller: Open the Bible Weekend is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.