What the Old Testament Says About Sex | Decoding the Torah Season 3

Is sexual sin worse than other sins? We're going to dive deep into the Torah today, examining God's commandment not to commit adultery from the book of Exodus, chapter 20, verse number 14. God cares deeply about our sexual lives. In fact, the Lord said here that committing adultery separates us from Him in a way that's different than the way other sins can separate us from Him. You see, a sexual union between a man and a wife that is free from impurity preserves the family, and families are the building block of society. This is why sexual sin and adultery is so important in the eyes of God. The most important union in the world in terms of physical beings is the union between a husband and his wife. God places immense value upon holy matrimony, and the prohibition against adultery protects the family, because once again, societies are built on strong families. Children grow up to be mature, whole human beings when they're raised in environments that provide that which the loving father and the loving mother can impart to their child, to their son, or to their daughter. And adultery destroys this building block. It destroys the family, and it often leads to divorce, which once again breaks down the building block of society, which is the family. This mitzvah not to commit adultery, and for those of you that might not have been with me in previous episodes, the Hebrew word mitzvah, it means commandment or law. So when we speak of the 613 laws of the Torah, we sometimes refer to them as mitzvot, which is Hebrew for a singular mitzvah. Again, it just means commandment. Sometimes we speak of God's laws in the Torah as precepts, sometimes as commandments, sometimes as laws. But the laws that govern our sexual purity are very important to our Creator. You see, you and I have been created in His image, and we are different from the rest of the animal kingdom, although there is an animal composition or an animal element to our nature as human beings.

We're different from the rest of the animal kingdom because as human beings created in God's image, we're not to be governed by our base or natural instincts. And this ability that we have as human beings created in God's image to rule over our natural instincts or base instincts, our sexual urges, it's what elevates us as being unique sons and daughters of God in the earth. Again, animals that are different from humankind, they just go out and fulfill their urges. There's no morality to their urges. But as human beings, we have been given the authority to govern our sexual urges. In fact, some Hasidic Jews wear a belt called a gardel around their waist. And this gardel around the waist is to remind Hasidic Orthodox Jews that the upper body, that the heart and the mind is to rule over the lower body. And so there's a separation between the upper body and the lower body. And once again, the gardel, which is a Yiddish word for belt, symbolizes that we're to walk in our higher authority in our mind and in our heart rather than being ruled by our base or lower instincts. All other forms of sex, all forms of sex outside the relations, the intimate relations between a husband and wife in holy matrimony are strongly forbidden and are detestable to our Creator. In fact, Israel was commanded not to tolerate a promiscuous man or a promiscuous woman. Why? Because once again, God knew how severe the consequences were for those that were trafficking in sexual immorality, that were giving their bodies over to sexual immorality. Because once again, it would destroy His creation, the beauty of man and woman. The beauty of the family and the preservation of the holy matrimonious relationship. Adultery breaks that down and when the family's broken down, children grow up and they don't know which way is left, which way is right. They lack trust issues. They lack the ability oftentimes to perceive pure relationships the way they should be perceived. And we see so much of this in society today where so many are entering into marriages and their concept of sexuality has been so tainted by the world that many of us when

we entered into marriage had to have our minds renewed because we came from homes where there was divorce, or we came from homes where there was immorality, or we were exposed to pornography. And all these different things bent our mind and bent our ability to perceive what holy sexuality looks like. The Lord said to keep the marriage bed undefiled. And so we're living in an age where the spiritual atmosphere is so muddy that if we don't have clear boundaries and truly understand what it is our Creator has called us to, we're going to walk through life crippled spiritually, with the limp spiritually. We're going to enter into our marriage relationship and all of a sudden be trying to create in our own marriage beds some type of defiled sexuality that we were exposed to when we were young. And so God is calling us as His agents in the earth, as His sons and daughters in the earth to live in sexual purity and to set an example of sexual purity and to teach it. Thou shall not commit adultery. The word adultery comes from the Latin word adulterate, which is very enlightening because what it means is to contaminate, to pollute, or make impure. What does this tell us? That adultery contaminates, pollutes, and makes impure the beauty of what true sexuality is to look like. In fact, the Apostle Paul taught that sexual sin, which of course includes adultery, is worse than other sin. Why? Paul said that sexual sin is a sin that we commit within our own body, but every other type of sin he taught is a sin outside my body. In other words, if we steal something, it's a sin that we do, but what we are connecting to is something outside ourselves. But when a person commits sexual sin, they're committing a sin that's within themselves, and they become one with the person that they're involved in sexual immorality with, and there are tremendous spiritual consequences for this. And people think they can just casually walk through life engaging in sexual unions for

pleasure thinking that they could just have a one-night stand and then put it behind them without realizing that there's something that happens in the realm of the spirit when we connect ourselves sexually to another human being, and it doesn't just go away when the physical act is over, but there's long-lasting implications of how it affects us. And the spirits that are on the person that an individual has a sexual union with outside their marriage, the spirits that are on that individual that somebody connects them to sexually, those spirits that are on their...it wouldn't be a partner, it would be just someone that they've used for sexual pleasure, the spirits that are on that person that they've united with now can affect the person that thought they were engaging in harmless fun. This is very serious. This is why Paul wrote in the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 6, beginning in verse 18, these words. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body. You see, sexual sin deeply grieves God's heart, because you and I are God's treasure. We've become the temple of the Holy Spirit. And God wants this temple, you and I, to be purified vessels, cleansed vessels, pure vessels. That is Yeshua. the money changed from the temple. God wants to drive everything out of the lives of his people, out of the temple of their bodies that defiles him. And sexual sin, once again, it is the worst type of sin because we sin against the Creator that's within us and we sin against ourselves. Now, many that are watching right now, you've not committed adultery, or at least since you've been a believer. Some of you have. And there's forgiveness for that when we repent. And what does repent mean? Repent means we don't continue to live that way. When there's true repentance that takes place by the grace of God, your sins are washed away. You become a new creation. You're righteous in your Creator. But for someone that continues to sin willfully after receiving a knowledge of the truth, the Scripture says there's no longer any mercy for that person, only a fearful expectation of judgment. So it's a person that goes on to sin willfully,

the Scripture teaches, after receiving knowledge of the truth. They crucify again the Son of God. So when I say there's forgiveness, there's true mercy and forgiveness, but not for people that continue to live the same way. So if you've committed adultery in the past and you've truly repented and are walking in sexual purity now and have committed yourself with all your strength to walk in sexual purity, you are forgiven and that's behind you. But if you have committed adultery in the past and you're still committing adultery, I want you to know unless you repent, you will perish. And Yeshua extended this command against adultery to be something that's relevant for us as God's people, not just in our actions, but Yeshua extended this command against committing adultery to that which takes place in our heart and in our mind. Everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. The Bible says, cast down every thought that exalts itself above the knowledge of God. And thoughts of lust, that certainly is a thought that's exalting itself above the knowledge of God. It's a thought of lust because we're just trying to gratify this base natural animal instinct in a way that is outside God's boundaries of holiness. And many that are watching right now, you may not be committing the action of adultery in your actual body, but you're living as adulters because you're continually lusting. And some of you perhaps are even willfully choosing to watch pornography. I want you to know, my friends, if anyone right now that's listening to me is involved in choosing to watch pornography, you are opening yourself up to demons. That is a fact. If you are willfully choosing to participate in watching pornography, you have opened yourself up to demons, to be tormented, for demons to gain a place and a space in your life. You're separated from the peace of God. You're in torment. But the Bible says, you can overcome all things through Christ Jesus. And if you're watching pornography, it's a part of your lifestyle right now. I just want to encourage you, get on your knees this instant and ask Jesus to forgive you and cleanse you and deliver you. And you need to mean business in your heart to walk away from that thing, even if it means you have to repent. You have to resist with all your heart, strength, soul, and mind, which pornography is such a strong demon, the demons that are associated with this, that it will take all your heart, strength, soul, and mind, but you can do it. He that's born of God overcomes the world. This is very serious. Many of you are watching right now, and you don't watch pornography, but you're continually choosing to lust. When you're walking down the street, when you're at

television, YouTube, you're continually choosing to look at a woman or a man to lust after them. You have to become aware of your intention, that you literally sometimes you're looking at somebody because you're lusting. You're making a decision to look at them because you're lusting. And once again, we need to be aware of this, what is happening in our life so that immediately we can lift our heart up to the Lord, recognizing what it is, and then break it off us. One of the ways to ascend in the spirit, to become more spiritually sensitive, to live in greater victory, is to break off the spirit of lust. Remember, Gia said, if we're lusting, we've already committed adultery in our heart. And many of us have been Raised in environments where lusting and fornication was something that was actually celebrated. I remember when I was growing up, there was that song, I'm a girl watcher, I'm a girl watcher, watching girls go by, my, my, my. Some of you remember that song. So we thought this was just fun. We thought this was parties. We thought this was part of just being human. We laughed at it, we delighted it, we ran after it. And now because we live that way, we have to break it off because there's a stronghold that's been created in our mind because we didn't used to live in a pure way. People that grew up in pure homes had godly morals, godly parents. Their minds are trained in a way that it's easier for them to resist lusting and to resist adultery. But those that have been raised in environments where sensuality just permeated your home, it takes a lot more work.

But the good news is, is that your problem is God's opportunity. And the more you overcome, the greater your reward will be. So don't look at the fact that you might have a struggle in this area, make you feel that you're disqualified. Because it doesn't disqualify you, it actually gives you an opportunity to overcome more. And it exerts, it demands more commitment from your part to overcome. And the result of that is that God will be glorified in an even greater way in your life as you overcome and when you overcome, and your reward will be greater because you've had to overcome more. This is why Jesus, Yeshua said seven times in Revelation 2 and 3, He that overcomes will inherit these things. So you might have a mountain in front of you today, my friend, that you need to overcome, but by God, you must do it. You need to do it. You have to do it. You're called to do it. There is no other way. And as you set yourself to overcome, you're going to find yourself rising in the spirit. As you cut off those lustful thoughts, when you're walking down the street, when you're walking in a mall,

wherever you're at, and all of a sudden you notice, oh, I'm looking at that person that's coming down in front of me because they look attractive. And so you're looking at them to lust after them. Immediately you recognize what you're doing. You recognize the spirit of lust behind your action. Immediately you tear it down. You look away. Orthodox Jews, when they're walking down the street, they'll look straight in front of them. They'll have their eyes right at the ground. They won't look to the left. They won't look to the right. Why? To keep themselves from lusting. And that's what we need to train our mind to do. Whether you're actually looking down at the ground or just not looking to the left and not looking to the right to avoid lust, that's what we have to do. We have to look straight ahead. The Bible says a wise man's eyes are in his own head. We're not lusting over here. We're not looking over there. We're keeping our eyes in our own head so we can think straight and see straight and keep our heart pure in the Lord. So I want to encourage you today.

This is a serious thing. This commandment is as relevant today as ever, if not more so. God said, thou shall not commit adultery. Father, right now, we just ask you for power. We ask you for forgiveness. We ask you for cleansing. Father, we ask you for forgiveness today. Anyone that's listening right now that wants to lift up your heart, just pray with me. Father God, we ask you to forgive us today for allowing our eyes to wander, for allowing our mind to wander, Father God. We confess that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit and that you hate adultery and that he that lusts after a woman in his heart has already committed adultery. So Father, we confess today that you are our Lord, that we want to glorify you on earth, that Father, we will walk in your ways, that we will resist everything, Father, that's offensive to you. And in so doing, Father, we thank you that you will protect our homes and protect our families and protect our children. Father, we offer ourselves up to you today as holy and righteous vessels, prepared for the master, prepared for our maker. We love you, Father God, and we give you our lives and we commit our bodies to you

to walk as sanctified vessels of your Holy Spirit. In the book of Numbers, chapter six, the Lord gave instructions to Moses and Aaron to speak this blessing over his people. And the Lord said, when you speak these words over my people, I will place my name on them and bless them. Receive the impartation of the Lord's blessings. Receive the impartation of the Lord's blessings. Ya'er ya'weh panayv eylecha vi'chuneycha Yissa ya'weh panayv eylecha ve'asem l'cha Shalom The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up by His countenance. And the Lord give you, beloved one, His peace. God bless you and shalom.