Our focus on the Sunday before Christmas is going to be the son of God has come into the world to take away or to destroy the works of the devil.

Last week we looked at one of those works, namely,

Satan takes away the word often when it is preached.

And today we look at another one of those tactics of the devil, namely he uses sexual desire.

Let's pray before we begin.

Father, my prayer this morning to you in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, is that last

week's message will come true, that Satan will be frustrated, that the word will find a resting place in well-plowed hearts

moistened by the Holy Spirit, ready to bear fruit 30, 60, 100 fold.

There are many things in this message

that Lord could be misapplied,

and therefore Jesus Christ. Amen. There are four lessons in this text that I would like to lay out and

unfold some briefly more others more extended. One, celibacy is a gift from God to be celebrated. Number two, celibacy is not

for everybody. Number three, marriage is a dam against the flood of fornication and adultery in the world.

And number four, Satan uses sexual desire. So let's take those one at a time and see what this text has to say

about them.

Selebacy is a gift to be celebrated. You could call First Corinthians 7, Paul's manifesto for the single life or for the unmarried life.

When he says in verse 1, it is well for a man not to touch a woman, he means the same thing that he does in verse 8, where he says,

to the unmarried and the widow, I say, that it is well for them to remain single as I do. In other words, it is good not to

touch a woman means it is good to be single. Paul was so completely committed to the life of

celibacy that he wanted everybody to have it. But the reason he was committed to celibacy is very different from the reason many people today opt for celibacy, even breaking marriages to have celibacy. Paul wanted celibacy because he would be freed to be the

slave of Jesus more than if he were married. Today people want

celibacy often because they simply want to be free for self-realization, not to be anybody's slave.

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