Sex, Singleness, & Marriage

Mark Estepp - 2/13/2022

Genesis 1:27-28

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth . . .

God created people. Then God created sex.  

Sex is God’s idea and invention.

Sex existed before sin.

Sex has been affected by sin.  

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. 

13 You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 

14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.

15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 

16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 

19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

When it comes to sexual sin, flee from it, don’t flirt with it.  

1 Corinthians 7:1-7

Now for the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” 

2 But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. 

3 The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. 

4 The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. 

5 Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 

Marriage is not a solution to your problem. It is a mutual submission between a husband and a wife.  

6 I say this as a concession, not as a command. 7 I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.

Singleness is not a problem. It is a season for progress.  

Being single is good and difficult, and being married is good and difficult.  

Your season is a gift.