Well, hi, and welcome to another edition of From the Pastor's Pen. My name is Pastor Carl Miller at Heritage Presbyterian Church in New Braunfels, Texas, and welcome to the next edition of my vlog entitled Preserving Purity, Protecting Marriages. Our focus text today comes from 1 Corinthians 7, verse 2. And there we read, Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. In the second half of 1 Corinthians 6, the Apostle Paul teaches us a theology of the body. Scripture teaches us that God has given our bodies great, high value and a grand purpose as our bodies are for the Lord and explicitly not for sexual immorality. Paul taught us that we belong to Christ and are members of him. We aren't our own. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. God has divine ownership over us, and we are to use them, therefore, in service to him and for his glory. Therefore, we must be on guard, prepared, and ready to flee when immoral temptations and opportunities come to our hearts or before our faces. An important question is, are you willing and ready to run from the temptation? Are you willing and ready to take the way of escape that God provides you every time and flee to Jesus? 1 Corinthians 10, 13. As Paul begins to respond to the Corinthians questions about marriage in 1 Corinthians 7, We find continuity in Paul's instruction of the theology of the body and how God's gift of marriage is a great protection and remedy against fornication and sexual immorality. Though it's true God gives clear instruction to all men and women, young and old, single and married, regarding the preservation of purity, it's helpful to see the great protection and remedy that the gift of marriage is. As God commands a man to have his own wife and a woman to have her own husband, positively, he sets the bounds and makeup of covenant marriage. And in doing so, God also makes a clear statement against sexually deviant relationships, against polygamy, homosexual relationships, and transgender relationships. See that in Paul's words in verse 7 above, both man and wife, woman and husband are singular here. God doesn't say, let each man have his own wives. Neither does he speak of husband and husband, wife and wife, or permit someone of one gender identifying as the other gender to engage in a husband and wife relationship. How radical. This remains today, doesn't it? The ordinary biblical Christian life is more and more a radical and offensive life. As we engage in biblical marriage, as we raise Christian families, as we obey Christ and go to church, centering our week around the Lord's Day, even seeing the gift of sex as reserved for a husband and his wife and teach others to do the same, We encourage and strengthen many, and we offend many others. We're viewed as fools and worse by them. We're ridiculed and persecuted by them. Sadly, this is true even by some within the broader church. And yet, we continue and must continue to stand in and with Christ and his truth. As Paul commanded wives in Ephesus to submit to their own husbands as to the Lord, Ephesians chapter 5. Husbands and wives must know and understand that they are covenant bound to carry out their mutual duties to their own spouse only and not to any other. For the preservation and protection of the purity in the marriage, husbands and wives must do this in order to deflect the darts, prevent the wedges, and resist the lures Satan will try to bring against them. This is especially true if they consent to abstain from sex for a time of prayer and fasting, since Satan desires to tempt because of their lack of self-control. 1 Corinthians 7, verse 5. The Westminster Larger Catechism 138 summarizes these duties well. What are the duties required in the Seventh Commandment? Answer, the duties required in the Seventh Commandment are chastity in body, mind, affections, words, and behavior, and the preservation of it in ourselves and others, watchfulness over the eyes and all the senses, temperance, keeping of chaste company, modesty and apparel, marriage by those that have not the gift of continency, conjugal love and cohabitation, diligent labor in our callings, shunning all occasions of uncleanness and resisting temptations thereunto. And so, beloved, Be faithful to preserve and protect biblical purity in your own minds and bodies, and for those of you who are married, do so in your marriages at all costs. See marriage as the divine ordinance, gift, and witness that it is, and be daily committed to protect and not damage its bonds from within. Don't let your mind wander or your body walk in uncleanness. But further, daily set your guard in such a way that any from the outside can't damage those sacred bonds, though they may try." Mark 10, verse 9. Well, I hope that this devotion is an encouragement to you today, that it blesses you. And I hope that you will join me again next time for another edition of From the Pastor's Pen. God bless you, and I'll see you then.