Trinity Baptist Church

God’s Perfect Ten

The Seventh Commandment

Exodus 20:14

 

I know I don’t have to take much time setting the scene for our study of this commandment.  All around us we find the evidence to support the violation of God’s command when He says, “You shall not commit adultery.”

 

One of Satan’s primary targets has always been the home, and in particular, the relationship between husbands and wives.  The very first attack he launched resulted in conflict between Adam and Eve.

 

That is not by accident. One of God’s favorite illustrations to show the world His love is that of the marriage of a man and woman. In Old Testament terms, it pictured Israel and His union. When they wandered away, He would speak of their unfaithfulness in marriage terms.

 

He even used the experiences of Hosea and Gomer to record an entire book in the Bible about that subject.  And I might say, in more modern terms, Satan has done a masterful job of disrupting the imagery God designed through the beauty of the marriage relationship.

 

There are three things that I want you to notice about this verse today.

 

First I want you to notice

 

 

The word adulterate means to make impure or harm or mar the beauty of something. And the thing that is marred by adultery is the sanctity of marriage.

 

Marriage is under such attack.  On the one hand, it is the homosexual crowd that is chipping away at the foundation and on the other it is liberals who would have us to believe that the tradional, Biblical view of marriage is out-of-date and archaic.

 

I heard about a women who said she met her husband at the travel agency.  He was was the last resort. Well, marriage is not God's last resort. To the contrary, it was God's first institution. In fact, it is interesting to note that marriage came before laws, before government, before civilizations, before the church or even before God gave us a system for worship. Marriage was the first institution in the Garden of Eden.

 

Genesis 2:18

 

You see, man was incomplete without his woman. Ladies, I’ll help your ego a little. That means man was deficient without you. But in fairness, a woman is incomplete without a man also.  And to be honest, the first thing Adam noticed about Eve was that she wasn’t like him!  There were, no doubt, some similarities.  She was mad of flesh and bone just like him, but they were arranged a whole lot differently and he noticed that!

 

Listen, we didn’t think up the idea of boys and girls.  That’s God’s idea and God made us different that he might make us one.

And the truth of the matter is a married man or woman is forced to say, “Without my spouse, I’m only half a person because our spouse brings completion to the union.

 

I love to turn over to the New Testament and discover what Jesus had to say about the Ten Commandments.  Listen to what Jesus said about the sanctity and sacredness of marriage.

 

Matthew 19:4-6

 

Now, there are four things Jesus teaches about marriage in these short verses.  Marriage is

 

 

verse 4, 6

 

Marriage is divinely ordained of God. It is divine in creation

 

 

Verse 5

 

Of all earthly commitments, marriage is to be supreme.  In other words, your commitment to your husband, to your wife should take precedent over every other commitment,, even to that of your kids.  Your commitment to your husband or to your wife is to be stronger than your commitment to your own children. Children are not your supreme commitment.  Listen:  They’re going to up and leave you someday and you’re going to be left at home together.

 

We sleep back to back for fear they will attack in the night!  I love my kids, but my ultimate commitment must be to my wife if I want my kids to have the kind of home they need to have.

 

Some people are more committed to their job than they are their spouse. Let me tell you something friend, that corporation doesn't own you, that job doesn't own you. You need to make your decisions based, not on what is best for your position in the company, but on your position in the home.

 

The marriage relationship supersedes all other earthly relationships  It is higher than your relationship to your children, higher than your relationship to your parents, higher than your relationships to your job.

 

Not only is marriage divine in creation and supreme in commitment, it must be

 

 

Verse 6

 

Nothing is to be allowed to disrupt this union. A marriage is neither to be established nor to be dissolved simply to suit the conveniences or whims of men.  What God hath joined together, let no man separate.

 

God's plan is one woman, for one man till death do them part. Marriage is to be steadfast in continuance.

 

 

 

The fourth thing that Jesus taught about the sacredness of marriage is it is to be

 

 

Verse 6

 

We become one flesh and that's a miracle. If you take two folks as different as Lisa and Terry and blend those personalities together and just make one flesh, that's a miracle. Our marriage is a miracle marriage but Jesus makes it work. It's so strange.

 

It's like two streams of water that meet and merge and flow together and so intermingle that they can never again be separated.

 

Is there anyone here of Cherokee heritage? The Cherokees had a marriage tradition that included the bride and groom joining hands and walking across a stream of water after the ceremony to symbolize that their lives, like the water in that stream, intermingled never again to be separated.

 

Jesus said, “The two shall become one flesh.” That's God's plan.

 

And regardless of what the psychologists and sociologists of our day have to say about it, there is a sacredness about married life.

 

Next, think about

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is against that backdrop of what God designed and instituted that we can see the sinfulness of adultery.

 

I know it’s not a popular message in today’s society, but it must be said that adultery is a sin.

 

It is at its very root, a sin against one's own self.

 

Paul said in First Corinthians 6:18 that when a man commits the sin of immorality he sins against his own body. There are few sins if any that will do more damage to you physically, emotionally and spiritually than the sin of immorality. You can laugh at God's laws if you want, but in reality, you don't break God's laws, they break you.

 

Lord Byron was the great witty, handsome, wealthy, talented poet of England from year’s gone by.  But he was also the playboy of his day. He died relatively young, diseased and lonesome.

 

Listen to what he wrote near the end of his life. “My days are in the yellow leaf.  The flowers and the fruits of life are gone.  The worm, the canker, the grief are mine alone.”

 

He was simply illustrating the truth that the person who commits adultery sins against his own flesh.

 

Not only do we sin against ourselves when we commit immorality, we sin against the home.

 

 

 

 

Adultery and immorality are far-reaching sins. The lives of multiplied thousands of children every year in America are blasted and torn apart and wrecked and ruined by some selfish father, by some selfish mother who seems not to care for the family, who seems not to care for the children. All they wish to do is to satisfy their lust.

 

When God designed the home, He built some walls around it. God made the home because God knew that man has certain spiritual and social and physical and psychological needs and every child has a right to be reared in a home where daddy loves mommy and is faithful to her and where mama loves daddy and is faithful to him.

 

Adultery is devastating the lives of innocent children.

 

It is a sin, not only against self and against the home, but thirdly it's a sin against the church.

 

You sin against your brothers and sisters in Christ when you commit adultery. You may say, “It’s none of your business”, but if you're a Christian it's plenty of my business. We are members of the same body and what affects you affects me.  And what affects me, affects you.  We are members one another.  No one lives unto himself, no one dies unto himself.

 

I want to tell you this church is no stronger than you are strong. The church is no purer than you are pure. The church is but the sum total of its members.  We are the temple of God and the Bible says if any man defile the temple of God, him shall  God destroy.

 

 

How can we take the members of Christ and join them up with a harlot?  God forbid that we should sin against the church.

 

Churches in America are crippled and weak and anemic when they ought to be powerful and the reason why, in part, is sexual immorality has weakened us.

 

Far too many pastors and preachers have been caught with their pants down, and just like Samson, we go forth to shake ourselves, and the world laughs because there's no power.

 

And while we’re passing by, it needs to be said that immorality and adultery is a sin against the nation.

 

I believe immorality is a sin of treason.  A nation is no stronger than its people and what an embarrassment it was to have a president involved in open adultery a few years ago and see how the nation ignored it and pretended it didn’t matter.

 

Proverbs 14:34 says, Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people.”

 

A Harvard University professor from a few years ago named Pitrim Sorokin, who makes no claim to being a Christian, wrote a book in 1956 called The American Sex Revolution and I want you to hear what he had to say. “Unless there's a change in America we are doomed for the ash heap. No civilization, no empire, no nation has survived obsession with sex and impurity.  This disease is eating the heart out of America.”

 

See why I say it is a sin against the nation? It is what contributed to the downfall of Greece, the down fall of Rome, the downfall of Egypt, and the downfall of Babylon.

 

Edward Gibbon, in his great work, “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, identified five reasons that Rome fell and number one on his list was immorality and the breakdown of the home. Why is this?  What’s the connection between sexual sin and economic and military and political collapse?

 

People who treat morality lightly always treat other persons lightly too. It shows a basic lack of respect and integrity for the other man.  It shows no regard for the other man's person, the other man's home, the other man's family, whatever it is. It is the down fall of any nation.

 

It is a sin against self, it is a sin against the family, it is a sin against the church, it is a sin against the nation, but God thundered from Sinai, “You shall not commit adultery”, because it is a sin against God.

 

David said in Psalm 51:4, “Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight.”

 

Now obviously David sinned against Bathsheba. Surely he sinned against Uriah the Hittite. Surely he sinned against Israel, surely he sinned against the kingdom but primarily David sinned against the Lord.

 

Adultery treats God with contempt. It is not this preacher or church that declared “You shall not commit adultery”.  God said that.  That’s His law.

 

 

And adultery thumbs its nose at God and says, “I don’t care what you say.  I’ll do what I want to do and I’ll have what I want to have and nobody is going to tell me what to do, I don’t care what Your Word says!”

 

It's a sin against the Lord, and because of that, God must deal with it.

 

Take your pencil and jot these scriptures down.

 

Hebrews 13:4 – “Marriage is honorable in all and the bed undeviled, but adulterers and whoremongers God will judge.”

 

God said that.

 

How about this one?  Job 31:1-4

 

“I have made a covenant with my eyes;

Why then should I look upon a young woman?

2 For what is the allotment of God from above,

And the inheritance of the Almighty from on high?

3 Is it not destruction for the wicked,

And disaster for the workers of iniquity?

4 Does He not see my ways,

And count all my steps?

 

Later in verse 10 and 11:

 

“If my heart has been enticed by a woman,

Or if I have lurked at my neighbor’s door,

10 Then let my wife grind for another,

And let others bow down over her.

11 For that would be wickedness;

Yes, it would be iniquity deserving of judgment.

 

Proverbs 6:27-29

 

Can a man take fire to his bosom,

And his clothes not be burned?

28 Can one walk on hot coals,

And his feet not be seared?

29 So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;

Whoever touches her shall not be innocent.

 

A few verses later in verse 32:

 

Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding; He who does so destroys his own soul.

 

First Corinthians 6:9-10

 

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals,[a] nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

 

You may try to convince yourself it is a private sin and it’s no big deal, but God says, “Don’t kid yourself.”  God's Word is not changed. The Ten Commandments have not been annulled. God said, “You shall not commit adultery.”

 

Now, the last thing I want you to see is

 

 

How are we going to live in this adulterous and sinful generation? How are we going to keep ourselves pure?

How are we going to live when we are bombarded on every side with opportunities to pollute our lives?

 

Let me give you some words that will help.

 

The first one is

 

 

The ultimate decision is to give your heart and life to the Lord.  There's no way you can live in this world victoriously without the Lord in your life. Make the decision to trust the Lord and then make every other decision in light of that decision.

 

The second word is the word

 

 

It’s not enough to just decide for Him.  You must depend on him. He's the one who gives you strength. The way that you live victoriously is Christ living in you, for greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.

 

All of us have heard the story of the little girl who got saved and someone said what are you going to do when Satan comes and knocks at your hearts door? She said I'm just going to say Jesus, would you please go answer the door for me?

 

That's great advice!

 

Then write down the word

 

 

Learn to love the Lord and let the Lord help you to love your wife, to love your husband.  You see, really, we're to love our mates with God's kind of love.  Real love comes from God.  Only God knows how to teach us to love others.

 

I’ve heard people say they are leaving their spouse because they just don’t love them anymore.  The solution to that is easy.  Learn to love them.  That’s no reason to end a marriage. Ephesians 5 commands husbands to love their wives.  That's not a request or suggestion, that is a command.

 

Wives submit to your husbands.  That’s not a suggestion.  That’s God’s command to wives.  And if we want to live as God designed, we must learn to do it God’s way.

 

Now come all the way awake and listen up:  Behind every command of God is the power to carry it out. Suppose God were to say to me, “Terry, go outside and jump over this building and if you don't jump over it you're a sinner”

 

Now when God tells me to do He must either be unfair and unjust or He must supernaturally empower me to do it because God will never tell me to do something and hold me responsible for doing it if I can’t.

 

Now when God says to husbands that we are to love our wives as Christ loved the church, that means, by the grace of God and through the strength of God, it can be done.

 

Wives can submit to their husbands because God told them to do it.  It’s just that simple.

It’s a matter of making the decision to Honor God, devoting ourselves to doing it, then living that decision out in our devotion to one another.

 

That’s a good place to write down the word

 

 

There ought to be some development in your relationship.  I am convinced most people have no clue what love really is.  This generation has talked more about love and understands it less than any generation. They call the marriage act, making love, that's not making love, that's expressing love.

 

Love is not something that just happens or you stumble up on it.  “Oh, there it is, we found it, we'll just keep it and cherish forever.”  No. Love is not static like that.  It’s not some inanimate object that we just sit back and admire.  It's more like a garden that must be cultivated and cared for and nurtured and weeded so it continues to bloom and produce.

 

Listen if you don't love your wife far more now than when you married her, the chances are, you love her a whole lot less. The honey moon should never end.  It just ought to continue to develop and unfold. You know, we fail to let our marriages develop.

 

The mentality of some is “Why chase a street car after you've already caught it?”, like the old boy who said, “I told her I loved her once, and if I ever change my mind, I’ll let her know.”

 

Ladies, do you remember how you use to dress up when you were trying to get him? You know, while he was chasing you until you caught him.

Do you remember how you use to you know, put the perfume behind your ear and so forth? You remember that. Now, he comes home from work and meets you at the door and you wear those old faded housecoat and you've got hardware in your hair and makeup on your face, a different colored slipper on each foot, looking like something the cat drug in?

 

You wouldn’t answer the door like that for any other person, but somehow, it’s ok to look like that for your husband. And then you tell your friends, “Well, I just believe my husband is looking at other women.”

 

Maybe he just wants to be reminded of what a woman looks like!

 

Some of you guys used to bathe more than once or twice a week!  Remember how you use to open the door and be a gentleman?  Now she’s lucky if she’s out of the car before you make it into the restaurant. But she’s flirting with other guys.  Maybe she’s looking for the respect and love you used to show her.

 

Listen:  Love needs to continue to grow, it needs to be cultivated.

 

Develop the Love that you have, work on it, decision, decide for Christ, dependence, depend on Christ, devotion, love through Christ, development, let your heart, your life, your marriage develop.

 

Next,

 

- Discipline

 

Guard your company, you watch your reading matter, take care of yourself physically and emotionally and spiritually. If not, you’re going to get blindsided by the devil.  Learn to devlop discipline in your life.

 

Twenty seven times in the New Testament, we're told to run or to flee. The Bible says flee fornication. This is not a sin we're to fight. It's a sin we're to flee from. If you deliberately place yourself into temptation you've already sinned. He who would not fall down ought not to walk in slippery places. There needs to be a certain discipline in your life. You guard your company.

 

The Bible says a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Watch what you set before your eyes, don't think impure thoughts. Jesus said whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.

 

There are more ways to break this commandment than the physical act of adultery.  And  in today’s environment, the sky is the limit on ways to do it.  Discipline your life and you do it not in the strength of the flesh but in the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

The last word

 

 

After you've done all of these other things, just make up your mind by the grace of God I will be pure. Be like old Joshua who said I don't know what the rest of you are going to do but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.

 

Be like the psalmist who said my heart is fixed Oh God. Have you made that kind of decision? I mean, have you been firm? Have you been resolute? You can make a few decisions that will keep you a few big decisions that will keep you from having to make so many small decisions. I don't know about you but my mind is made up. I don't have to keep rethinking whether or not I'm going to commit this sin. My mind is made up. I don't say that boastful in the strength of my flesh, but we need some old fashioned determination where people say my heart is fixed.

 

Maybe your home has been broken by adultery and your heart is bitter but I want to tell you friend, that God can heal a broken home and /God can heal a broken heart if you give him all of the pieces.

 

Perhaps there's been a time of moral impurity in your life.  Maybe it wasn't actually outward overt impurity, maybe it was just the lust of your heart or maybe it was overt impurity but I've got good news for you.

 

The Bible says if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

 

We have some people who want to put the sin of immorality in a certain category and act like someone who has committed that sin is never again clean.  What God has called clean let no man call unclean and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son cleanses from all sin. Isn't that good news?

I tell you isn't the gospel wonderful? Isn't it great to be a Christian?

 

 

Now, some of you of course have never committed this sin but you've not given your heart to Jesus and you've left yourself susceptible because you need Christ in your heart to enable you to live victoriously.

 

Let us bow in prayer.