Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Seventh Commandment:  Adultery*

Pastor Oesterwind

December 28, 2008

 

Exodus 20:14 “You shall not commit adultery.”

*Introduction*:  Allan Petersen, in /The Myth of the Greener Grass/, tells the story of a group of a dozen married women having lunch together.

One woman asked, ‘How many of you have been faithful to your husbands throughout your marriage?’

Only one woman out of the twelve raised her hand.

At home that evening, one of the women who didn't raise her hand told her husband about the lunch, the question, her reaction.

‘But,’ she quickly added, ‘I have been faithful.’

‘Then why didn't you raise your hand?’

‘I was ashamed.’

/Mark Buchanan, "We're All Syncretists Now," Books & Culture (Jan.~/Feb.

2000), p.9/

Just when you thought the greeting card racks had all the bases covered, someone found a remaining untapped market: mistresses.

/The Secret Lover Collection/ is ‘committed to providing a greeting card collection with empathy and understanding, without judgment, to lovers involved in a secret relationship.’

The woman behind the collection, Cathy Gallagher, says she launched it to help the unfaithful ‘express their emotions’—and to cash in, since ‘there's a huge, untapped market.’

How do you market greeting cards for the unfaithful?

Very subtly.

‘There won't be a big banner that says /Infidelity/,’ she says.

Cards will be displayed under labels like, /Love Expressions/, and /Intimacy/.

Card messages include slogans for those committing adultery at work.

They say things like, ‘I used to look forward to the weekends, but since we met they seem like an eternity.’

And (for those special holiday occasions) ‘As we each celebrate with our families, I will be thinking of you.’

/Alex Johnson, "When You Care Enough to Risk Everything," msnbc.com

(8-17-05); submitted by Larry Trotter, Wake Forest, North Carolina/

This is a form of morality turned upside down.

One long-ago Bible translation accidently left the word ‘not’ out of the 7th commandment; thereby, commanding adultery.

It was deemed the ‘Wicked Bible’ for the mistake.

But it seems that our culture encourages shame for not being involved with adulterous relationships.

It even provides warm, fuzzy sentiments on flowery, glittery cards for those that do.

*Transition*:  As with all of the commands that we’ve examined, the 7th is no exception.

We are no longer under this Mosaic directive.

At the same time, there is a universal, moral application of the command that is filled out in the progress of God’s revelation.

Thus we will seek to discreetly establish several principles regarding adultery in our study this evening…

 

1.

Intimacy in marriage is a gift from God.  “God blessed [Adam and Eve], and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion…” (Genesis 1.28).

2.     Intimacy in marriage is designed by God for three purposes:

a.

So that the human population would multiply (Gen 1.22, 28)

b.

So that the bonds of intimacy would reflect the intensity of Christ’s closeness with the church (Ephesians 5.22-33)

c.

So that married couples would know the great joy and pleasure that such intimacy affords (Song of Solomon; Prov 5.15-19)

3.     Intimacy is destroyed when adultery takes place.

This is why both the adulterer and the adulteress were put to death under OT Law (see Lev 20.10).

4.

If adultery destroys intimacy in marriage, then everything that causes adultery is forbidden by God as well.

So, the command against adultery is in fact a prohibition against all sexual immorality.

a.     Singles should be more concerned with protecting their purity than they are with how far they can go on a date.

b.

Obviously, prostitution is included under the banner of this command.

c.      Homosexual activity is immoral as well.

God created male and female for physical intimacy.

Homosexual behavior is a logical absurdity and an abomination.

There cannot be two husbands or two wives.

d.     Sexual violence is immoral.

Rape, pedophilia, incest, and sexual abuse within marriage are all forms of such violence.

i.

By the way, the Scripture states that “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge” (Heb 13.4).

While the bed in marriage is undefiled, this does not mean anything goes.

Violence and denigration are not tolerable because two people happen to be married.

ii.

The Scripture states that the husband should “render to his wife the affection due her, likewise also the wife her husband” (1 Cor 7.3).

Verse 5 in the same passage admonishes couples to “not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that [they] may give [themselves] to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt [them] because of [their] lack of self-control.”

5.     Intimacy outside the marriage bond very often leads to adultery.

How is this expressed today?

a.     Flirting or getting close to another person’s spouse; we should keep our distance (hugging, touching, invasion of one’s space - I’m always wary of someone who bucks against this in the name of ‘harmless show of affection’)

b.     Married people seeking emotional support from someone other than their spouse (usually happening at work, churches, or even chat rooms); Aside - a healthy pastoral relationship with ladies in the church demands that the pastor hand over all counseling situations with ladies in the church to other godly women who can help; i.e., the pastor’s wife; husbands need to nourish their wives emotionally, spiritually, and physically

6.     Intimacy in marriage becomes the glue that bonds two people together.

Adultery joins together those who should not be joined together.

When you try to pull apart the situation, it tears everyone up.

7.     Intimacy in marriage and spiritual fidelity to God are closely paralleled in Scripture.

This is the great mystery of Ephesians 5.31-32.

Spiritual adultery is akin to believers have affections for other gods. 

1 Corinthians 6:13b-20

*13b*Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.*14*And

God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.

*15*Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot?

Certainly not! *16*Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her?

For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.”

*17*But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

*18*Flee sexual immorality.

Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.

*19*Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? *20*For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

*/Our Bodies Belong to God the Father (13-14)/*

·        Our bodies are designed by God for His use and glory.

Our bodies are not our possessions but God’s.

·        Do you realize that the body you are in right now will be resurrected one day?

It will become a glorious body and endure throughout eternity.

It will contain an absolutely pure and undefiled spirit.

*/Our Bodies are Members of Christ (15-18)/*

·        We are members of Christ’s body; He is the Head.

·        Immorality makes the members of Christ members of a harlot.

Paul is saying that this is using part of Christ’s body in an act of sexual immorality.

He can’t imagine such a thing; therefore, he states, “Certainly Not!”  Don’t let that ever be!

·        Sexual sin breaks spiritual relationships with God and man.

·        How does one sin against his own body when involved in sexual immorality?

Sexual sin is unique because it rises from within the body bent on personal gratification.

It drives people like nothing else.

When people take part in this sin, it affects them like no other sin.

Intimacy outside marriage corrupts people at a very deep level.