Beloved,
As a pastor, I’m used to finding myself in awkward situations, but I still get uncomfortable at times! This morning I had the privilege of speaking to the staff of Choices (our local pregnancy resource center). I had originally planned to speak on Psalm 127, but this week’s sermon preparation led me to give a very different message which ended up being titled “Kinsey or Christ?” Alfred Kinsey is often dubbed the father of the sexual revolution, and my talk this morning was on the subject of sex, somewhat uncomfortable given the fact that the majority of those in the room I had never met before.
The talk was specifically geared toward the work Choices is doing (for there would be no babies to abort or rescue were it not for the inherently reproductive sexual union between a man and a woman), but the broad strokes of the message are incredibly relevant for all people. So I decided to write out a summary of my message to share with you, beginning with the serpentine distortion of sex.
I. Fallen humans separate what God has joined together.
Kinsey, a zoologist who specialized in wasps, became a sexologist later in his scientific career, devoting his life to researching the sexual practices of Americans (in a very biased and unscientific way, mind you). He set out to prove that everything from bestiality to pedophilia were practiced by ordinary Americans. What he didn’t tell people was that he was largely interviewing convicted sex offenders, prostitutes, and the like. By his “research” he sought to normalize these sexual acts (as a means of justifying his own perversions), and he was wildly successful in doing so. In fact, Kinsey was more successful than he could have ever dreamed. For these sexual acts to be normalized, Kinsey had to sever what God joined together…
A. Through divorcing sex from biblical morality.
Kinsey’s philosophy of history, similar to that of Margaret Sanger (founder of Planned Parenthood), was that the introduction of Judeo-Christian morals was “the fall” of the human race. Humans need to be liberated from the sexual restraints put on them by religion. Sound familiar? It is the same lie the serpent touted in the garden: “God is a kill joy who is prohibiting certain acts to keep you from true satisfaction.” For Kinsey, sex needs to be divorced from morality and viewed as a mere biological function that all “animals” practice. Once we are freed from the strictures of biblical morality, we can then be free to pursue after orgasm in any way we see fit with anyone or anything we see fit. In this way, Kinsey severed what God joined together…
B. Through divorcing sex from covenantal loyalty.
Kinsey was married, but he and his wife practiced “an open marriage” wherein they had casual sexual encounters with others. Kinsey engaged in many affairs, both heterosexual and homosexual, with colleagues and students. He argued that all sexual encounters are equally acceptable, regardless of marital status, gender, age, or species. In his view, it was no less appropriate for him to have sex with a five-year-old or a dog than to have sex with his wife. For sex “is acceptable in whatever form it is manifested.” In short, Kinsey separated sex from morality and marriage. This then led him to further sever what God joined together…
C. Through divorcing sex from parental responsibility.
In all his writing about sex, pregnancy is given scarce attention. According to Kinsey, the chief biological end of sex is not children, but orgasm. Children are a side effect (if you happen to be a heterosexual) that is not even worth addressing except in the fine print. Sex is about pleasure and that pleasure can be pursued with anyone or anything, no strings attached.
What has been the result of Kinsey’s ideas? Among other things, sexual chaos leading to lots of babies being conceived by men and women not committed to marriage or family. Hence, the millions of abortions. Now sexual immorality and abortion have always been problems whether we are talking about Ancient Egypt, first century Corinth, or twenty-first century America. But in few societies has the serpent been so successful in divorcing sex from biblical morality, covenantal loyalty, and parental responsibility as he has in our’s. And nothing but the gospel can undo his hellish lies.
II. Christ joins together what fallen humans have separated.
Alfred Kinsey is no match for Jesus Christ. Our Lord has crushed the serpent’s head! He has the power to change how we think about sex by redemptively reuniting what the devil has divorced…
A. Through the sanctification of His Spirit.
Those united to Christ become saints (i.e., holy ones). We are set apart from this fallen world order to be devoted to God in both body and soul. “But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints” (Eph. 5:3). Through the Spirit’s sanctifying work, we submit to God’s law, recognizing that sex is an inherently moral act that is defined and delimited by God (if it’s not, there could be no such thing as “sexual immorality”). As the law is re-written unto our hearts by the Spirit that includes the seventh commandment which plainly teaches that the sexual union is to be enjoyed between one man and one woman within the marriage covenant alone. By reuniting sex to biblical morality, Christ then reunites sex to the covenantal loyalty of marriage…
B. Through the devotion of His cross.
For the very cross by which He purchased the Spirit for us provides the pattern for sex. “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Eph. 5:25). The one-flesh sexual union is an expression of self-giving love within an exclusive covenant bond that reflects the self-giving love of Christ in the covenant of grace. When hearts are mastered by Christ’s devotion for His bride on the cross, they are delivered from the selfish using of people and things for sexual pleasure. The gospel puts sex in its proper place as an act of service and an expression of deep covenantal affection and loyalty. But that is not all Christ does, for when His gospel takes root in human hearts it also reunites sex to parental responsibility…
C. Through the adoption of His Father.
To be united to Christ is to become an adopted son or daughter of God. For “he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ” (Eph. 1:5). You cannot know the love of God the Father without growing to reflect that love. “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children” (Eph. 5:1). The fatherly heart of God in the gospel is the great need if men and women would rise up to their calling, affectionately and sacrificially pouring out their lives for their kids. No one who has the love of God poured into their hearts would dream of murdering their own child or of treating their child as the unfortunate side effect of a pleasurable encounter. God’s adoptive grace leads to a hearty, joyous embrace of parental responsibility.
Do you see how the gospel is what our sexually confused age needs? The gospel is what we, our children, and our grandchildren need. It alone can deliver us from the serpent’s lies. It alone can reunite what we as fallen humans have separated. It alone can put sex in its rightful place which is actually the only place in which sex can be truly fulfilling–the one flesh covenant union of a husband and a wife within marriage.
Oh for the gospel of Christ to more fully overtake us and our sexuality! This alone is the path to flourishing marriages, families, and societies. For the devil and his instruments (including Kinsey) seek to kill and destroy, but Christ came to bring life and life abundant.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Nick
