Sermon manuscript:
St. Paul in our epistle reading says that we should set the
deeds of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Deeds of darkness,
unfortunately, are woven into the warp and woof of us fallen, sinful creatures.
That is to say, we like to sneak around.
Sneaking around is for when you don’t want to be found out.
You don’t want prying eyes to see what you are doing, so you hide.
What do you not want people to see? You might not want
people to see what you are eating. Maybe Mom or Dad wouldn’t want you to eat
that. The only way you’re going to get to is if you sneak it. Maybe if people
knew what or the amount that you were eating they would judge and condemn you.
Same thing is true with what you drink. Maybe you are too
young to drink. If you drank, you’d be condemned. Or people would judge you for
the amount that you drank.
The desire to scratch the itch of lust can result in several
hidden activities. We want to see what someone looks like under all those
clothes. Adultery is committed in secret. Pornography and self-abuse is
committed in secret. The easy access we have to pornography with our phones and
computers is unprecedented. There has never been in this history of the world
the ability to pour into our minds and souls such unheard of things. They call
it streaming, and, indeed, it is like a river.
There are signs that this river is changing the mental landscape
of our people. Romance and courtship are dying because desires are being
satisfied with pornography. Young people aren’t seeking each other out. They
aren’t seeking each other out for marriage—which is what God wants us to do.
But not only that, they aren’t even seeking each other out for fornication like
in the good old days. What is wanted is satisfied with a few swipes and clicks.
But, to be more accurate, I should instead say, “What we
think we want” is satisfied. There is a certain kind of thrill that comes from
doing things in secret. That which is drunk in secret is exciting. That which
is eaten in secret tastes good. But there is a heavy price to pay. The
conscience is defiled. We are disgusted by what we have done. Plus even the
thrill itself has something missing from it.
Allow me to speak some more about how we are to be with our
sexual desires. I probably haven’t given as much guidance on this issue has I
should as a pastor. It’s such a terrible problem, and there is hardly any good
advice out there. I’d like to share something with you that a wise man once
shared with me. He said that romance is like playing a game. Like all games,
romance has rules. So how is this game of romance supposed to be played?
First of all, boys and girls are supposed to remain chaste
until they marry their wife or husband. Being chaste means that you don’t
gratify your sexual desires either by yourself or with anybody else who is not
your lawfully wedded wife or husband. An honorable marriage is the goal, so to
speak, of this game. And this game, by the way, is then going to result in
children and a new family—not an insignificant point, but we will not go any
more into that today. A virgin boy and a virgin girl coming together in the
marital union is beautiful, high, and practically holy. It is very near the
apple of God’s eye, the great procreator.
Towards this end of coming together is a great game of
romance that, may God grant it, continues on within the marriage, but I’d like
to speak about beforehand. The wonderful thing about this game is that so long
as the rule of remaining chaste until being married is followed, our natural
desires are going to put us our way. It’s similar to how our natural desire for
food makes us ready dinner. The game of the romance of boys and girls, men and
women, is so wonderful that it has been written about and sung about for
thousands of years.
In every game there are triumphs and set-backs, and so it is
with romance as well. Not all courtship will result in marriage. That’s painful.
Experiencing love is exhilarating. There will be highs, and there will be lows.
That is what makes the whole enterprise so interesting and captivating.
But you can avoid these highs and lows can all be avoided by
cheating. This is something that we can all remember from childhood. If you
cheat at a board game, say, you greatly increase your chances of winning. You might
even just win automatically with the cheating. But there is quite a difference
in the feeling that you have after winning a game fair and square and winning
after knowing that you have cheated.
This is what I remember so well from that man who talked to
me about romance being like a game. We all know that there is a world of
difference between man and wife romancing each other—maybe not always
successfully, highs, lows, fights and making up again—there’s a world of
difference between that and pornography. Or hooking up. Or moving in with each
other. The rules of the game are not being followed. Sure, there’s something of
a win, but we all know that’s cheating. There is shame. To one extent or
another it is therefore in the dark.
Ultimately, operating in the darkness is always bad for us,
even if it appears to hold out possibilities of pleasure. Eating in the dark
creates food addictions. Drinking in the dark creates alcohol addictions.
Pornography creates pornography addictions. All of these things have good and
natural—God-given—desires behind them. What happens to us is that we get deceived.
Temptation deceives. Through temptations God’s enemies deceive us and mislead
us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice.
The worst, but oh-so-common, deception is that we have no
other choice but to live in the dark. This is the worst deception, because,
like all good lies, it has truth to it. If you only want to eat the way you want to eat, then you might have to
do that in the dark. If you only want to drink the way you want to drink, then you might have to do that in the dark. If
you want to gratify your lusts the way you want to gratify your lusts, then you
might have to do that in the dark.
Let me add some plausible sounding arguments to that last
one, because that is especially powerful in our day. You have no choice but to
break the rules and live in the dark because everybody knows that the church is
prudish. But that’s not true. Didn’t I tell you that there is nothing more
beautiful or wonderful than a virgin boy and a virgin girl coming together? There
is even a book of the Bible that talks about that called the Song of Songs. Such
a union is even how God makes children. Or it’s said that the requirement of
getting married is too difficult, and, therefore, impractical. Or that marriage
can be hard, and so you need to try it out first by living together to make
sure that you are compatible.
That’s like saying you only ever want to play a game so long
as you will always win. That’s not how marriage is. Marriage always is a leap
of faith. Promising to have someone for better or worse, for richer or poorer,
in sickness and in health is no joke. But you as Christians are not setting out
on this adventure all alone. God is there to see you through—even when it doesn’t
seem like it. It’s not at all uncommon for newly married couples to go through
some severe challenges. I personally know of more than a couple who found that
the darkness was deepest just before the dawn. And what’s the alternative to
this adventure? The alternative is to not go on the adventure at all, waiting
to see how God will make things turn out. The alternative is to break the rules
and live in the dark.
Realize that that is always the deceiver’s goal. The devil
wants you to believe that you have no other choice except to live in the dark. Darkness,
sadness, a bad conscience—supposedly that just life. The darkness is not
strange. The darkness is where you belong. It’s the only place you’ll ever be
happy. God’s rules will always make you unhappy, so never think of them. You
shouldn’t even attempt to play the game, because you’ll only always lose. The
sooner you accept how hopeless Christianity is, the more at peace you will be.
Embrace your own thoughts, your own desires, and coast into the ever-increasing
darkness. Such is the sad, sad song whereby poor souls get serenaded until they
drift off into the sleep of unbelief.
This season of the Church Year, Advent, speaks differently.
In Advent we speak of Jesus’s coming. In Jesus is hope and light. During our
Wednesday Advent services we sing: “Jesus Christ is the light of the world. The
light no darkness can overcome. Stay with us Lord, for it is evening. And the
day is almost over. Let your light scatter the darkness. And illumine your
church.”
Make use of these Wednesday services. They are purposely
offered to help you, not to hurt you, not to bore you. If you feel as though
you have been deceived, and are being deceived about the darkness, what better
way to alleviate that than by praying to Jesus, the light of the world, the
light no darkness can overcome?
Paul tells us in our reading that we should understand the
times. Understand the situation. Believe me, this darkened world is full of
voices that want to keep you in the dark. Even if you want to leave, they will
try to pull you back. Paul says, “The hour has come for you to wake up from
sleep, because our salvation, that is, Christ’s second coming, is nearer now
than when you first believe in Jesus. The night is almost over, and the day is
drawing near. So let us put away the deeds of darkness and put on the weapons
of light. Let us walk without shame, as one would walk in the daytime, not in
stuffing ourselves and drinking ourselves into a stupor, not in sexual sin and
with partying, not in ambition and jealousy. Instead, clothe yourselves with
the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not give any thought to how you can satisfy the
desires of your sinful flesh.”
The light is coming. He already has come. Jesus has shown
that the deceiver is a liar when he says you have no other choice but to live
in darkness, hiding your shame, hoping that what you have done in darkness will
never come to light. It is also a blatant lie that you can have no fun unless
you are living in darkness. Fine. I suppose there must be something fun about
cheating, otherwise nobody would do it, but everybody knows that it is far
better to win when you have been playing by the rules.
Jesus has redeemed you, purchased you, from the deceiver,
from the devil. His is not the only game in town. His is not the only way a
person can live. The darkness of hell is by no means inevitable for anyone, no
matter how many deeds he or she has done in darkness. Jesus became darkness for
us, so that we should be made light in him.
So maybe you have been sneaking around. Understand that you
cannot keep doing that without consequences. If you continue to love the
darkness you won’t be fit for the light. You won’t like the light. And the
darkness is lame and boring. The adventure of a life that is lived in God is
better than the cheap thrills that are had by cheating.
So let us put off the deeds of darkness and put on the armor
of light. When you get hungry, thirsty, or lusty, may you look to the source and
satisfier of those things—look to God—instead of sneaking around in the dark. He
will give you better, healthier, more life giving things. Jesus Christ is the
light of the world, the light no darkness can overcome.
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