Nine Reasons to Kill Sexual Sin

Colossians 3:5 "Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire."

A popular preacher and the current president of the Southern Baptist Convention -- J.D. Greear -- caught a lot of flack (and rightly so) for saying the following:

"We ought to whisper about what the Bible whispers about, and we ought to shout about what it shouts about.  And the Bible appears more to whisper when it comes to sexual sin compared to its shouts about materialism and religious pride (From a sermon on Romans 1:24-32, 1/27,19, The Summit Church)."

This is nonsense.  It makes me embarrassed to be a Southern Baptist.  Does the Bible whisper about sexual sin?  Absolutely not!  For example, in Colossians 3:5-11 we find a vice list -- a list of eleven sins that we must "put to death."  Four out of eleven, more than one third, are sexual sins -- sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desire!  If there is any sin the Bible "shouts" about, it is sexual sin.

Here are nine reasons to kill sexual sin.

1) Sexual sin destroys marriage.  It is so serious that it is the only reason for divorce and remarriage.  Mt 19:9

2) Sexual sin violates your marriage vows.  On your wedding day you took an oath of sexual exclusivity to your spouse.  This promise was made to God, your spouse, and to your family and friends.  Sexual sin is the ultimate act of unfaithfulness and dishonesty.

3) Sexual sin breaks your spouse's heart.  There is nothing worse that you can do to your spouse than to be unfaithful.  Sexual sin is the ultimate act of betrayal.

4) Sexual sin hurts children.  The best place for children to grow up is with their married parents.  Sexual sin often results in divorce or children born out of wedlock.  This is one of the worst things you can do to a child.

5) Sexual sin spreads diseases.  In the 1950s there were only two significant STDs -- syphilis and gonorrhea.  Both of them are treatable with penicillin.  Today there are more than twenty-four significant STDs, and half have no cure.  As of 2014, 110 million Americans have an STD at any given time.

6) Sexual sin leads to personal misery.  1 Corinthians 6:13 “the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” 1 Corinthians 6:18 “Flee sexual immorality! Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body.”  Your body was not meant for sexual sin.  When you do things with your body that it is not meant to do, it leads to suffering and sorrow.  Sexual sin leads to a guilty conscience, a lower self-esteem, and depression.

7) Sexual sin is addictive.  According to neuroscientists, porn is addictive in the same way that many drugs are.  When something is addictive it is very difficult to stop, even when you want to.  And addictions are progressive.  What starts out as a "small and insignificant sin" eventually leads to gross and dangerous immorality.

8) Sexual sin hurts your future marriage.  Research shows that premarital sex is closely connected to sexual unfaithfulness and marital disruption.  Cohabitation does the same thing.  Cohabiting couples have a 50-80% higher likelihood of divorce than non-cohabiting couples.

9) Sexual sin hurts your walk with God.  All sin separates us from God (Ps 15:1-2).  You cannot be intimate with God if you are intimate with sexual sin.  Sexual sin offends God and will lead to His discipline and wrath (Heb 13:4).

Sex is like fire.  Fire is a good thing when it is kept in the fireplace.  But if it gets out of the fireplace it will destroy the house and everyone inside.  Sex is a good thing when it is kept in marriage.  But if it gets out of marriage it becomes a deadly enemy.  Put to death sexual sin!