Exodus 20x14 - Seventh Commandment
Thomas S. Myers
THE 7TH COMMANDMENT
Exodus 20:14
14 "You shall not commit adultery. (NIV)
Adultery means to take something that is pure and make it impure. What is it that is so pure, that God does not want marred? It is the married life. Adultery has to do with extramarital sex, sex outside the establish circle of marriage. Why preach on this sin? Because first of all, millions of people have no idea how horrible the sin of adultery is. Second because every great revival began with an honest dealing of sin. Why does God list adultery as a sin? Because He wants to protect you. The Bible says,
1 Corinthians 6:18
18 Flee from sexual immorality. (NIV) God doesn't say that to denigh you. He says it to protect you.
You can laugh at God's command to flee from immorality, but I want to tell you, you don't just laugh when you break God's law, because you are also broken by God's law. Do you remember from your English literature class a poet named Lord Bryon. The he was a great poet of England and was also a playboy. He died of a verneralial dieseae at early age. He wrote, "My days are in the yellow leaf. The flowers and the fruit of life are gone. The worm, the canker, the grief are mine alone." He was talking about Exodus 20:14.
Exodus 20:14
14 "You shall not commit adultery. (NIV)
Some people believe that living a pure separated life is like using a buggy whip today, it's just obsolete. God doesn't think so. The disease of aids is God's reminder that adultery is still a sin and that there are consquenes.
Hebrews 13:4
4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. (NIV)
There are 3 things that I want you to notice about the 7th commandment. First, God's divine perspective of marriage. Second, God's view of the adulterous life.
FIRST -- GOD'S DIVINE PERSPECTIVE OF MARRIAGE.
A. MARRIAGE ORIGINATED WITH GOD.
Matthew 19:4-6
4 "Haven't you read," jesus replied, "that at the beginning the Creator `made them male and female,' 5 and said, `For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? 6 So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." (NIV)
Do you see what Jesus is saying? Jesus is saying that marriage is not something that the government or a church created. Marriage originated with God. Look closely at Matthew 19:4-5
4 "Haven't you read," jesus replied, "that at the beginning the Creator `made them male and female,' 5 and said, `For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'?
God was the one who put man and women together as husband and wife. And do you know what Adam's reaction was? Look at Genesis 2:22-23
Genesis 2:22-23
22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called `woman,' for she was taken out of man." (NIV)
As you read Genesis 2:23 you get the impression that Adam very calmly received his wife said, This woman is part of my bones and a part of my flesh. The Hebrew language gives us a totally different picture. The Hebrew language literally has Adam saying, "Wow! What a babe! She is bone of my bones! She is flesh of my flesh!" Adam was excited about his wife. And he recognized that God was the originator of marriage. There is something else that I see about God's divine perspective of marriage. You will see it in Matthew 19:5
2. MARRIAGE IS A LIFETIME COMMITMENT.
Matthew 19:5
5 and JESUS said, `For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? (NIV)
Notice the words "leave" and "united" in Matthew 19:5. That tells us that marriage is for life. I tell every couple who
comes to me to get married, that marriage is a 50, 60, 70, or even a 80 year committment. No other contract is like it. Marriage is the only contract that you sign where you obligate yourself to fulfill it whether your spouse is rich or poor, sick or healthy, better or worse. That is why Jesus said,
Matthew 19:6
6 So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." (NIV)
A man and a woman are like a violin and a bow. Each is different. And each are incomplete by themselves. But when they are brought together, incredible music is made. That's God's plan.
SECOND -- GOD'S VIEW OF THE ADULTEROUS LIFE.
A. GOD VIEWS ADULTERY AS A SIN AGAINST YOUR OWN BODY.
1 Corinthians 6:18
18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. (NIV)
Adultery is one sin that will damage you physical, emotionally and spiritually. Adultery can damage you physically because of the diseases you can receive or transmit. Adultery is a sin that will damage you emotionally because of the guilt that eventually results. Adultery is a sin that will damage you spiritually because it separates you from being in fellowship with God. Listen to what God says to the Christian who
Proverbs 6:32
32 But a man who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself. (NIV)
The story is told of an eagle perched on a block of ice just above Niagara Falls. The swift current carried the ice and the eagle closer to the edge of the great precipice. The cries of other birds and animals warning the eagle of danger that lay ahead was to no avail. "I have great and powerful wings," he boasted. "I can fly from my perch at any time. I can handle it." Suddenly the edge of the falls was only a few feet away. The torrent of water rushed the block of ice over the great falls. The eagle spread his powerful sings to mount up over the impeding doom only to discover too late that his claws had become frozen to the cake of ice. There are consequence of adultery.
B. GOD VIEWS ADULTERY IS A SIN AGAINST THE HOME.
Think of the children who's lives have been recked, blasted and ruined because of a parent that's involved in adultery. Every child had the right to be in a home where their dad loves mom and where mom loves dad. God put guard rails around the home to protect children from being hurt emotionally.
C. GOD VIEWS ADULTERY IS A SIN AGAINST HIM.
Look at Psalm 51:4 and notice what David said after he committed adultery.
Psalm 51:4
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. (NIV)
Surely David sinned against Bathsheba and her husband. But primarily he sinned against God. David placed his will above God's will. The person who commits adultery shakes their fist in the face of God and says, "I will do as I choose." It is not the Baptist church that says, "You shall not commit adultery." It is God!
D. GOD VIEWS ADULTERY AS A SIN THAT MUST BE AVENGED.
Listen to what God says about the one who commits adultery.
Proverbs 6:27-29
27 Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? 28 Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? 29 So is he who sleeps with another man's wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished. (NIV)
1 Corinthians 6:9
9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
will inherit the kingdom of God. (NIV)
God hasn't changed His mind about adultery. From the Old Testament to the New Testament adultery is a sin that God will judge.
Several years ago, there was a massive volcanic explosion of Mount St. Helens. Sheriff Bill Closner said, "People were in the danger areas around the mountain because they refused to obey roadblocks. The bottom line is that nobody would listen." As a result, there were needless deaths and injuries. Even though danger was physically imminent, people still refused to obey the regulations. Sin or disobedience always has consequences. If people refused to listen in the midst of dangerous circumstances like the Mount St. Helens eruption, we should not be so shocked at the depravity and stubbornness of men in spiritual matters.
HOW TO DEAL WITH ADULTERY
1. Begin to recognize your own weaknesses. Jesus put it this way:
Matthew 26:41
41 "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." (NIV)
Guard your company and your reading. Be like Job who said,
Job 31:1
"I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl. (NIV)
Jesus said that when you look at pornography your breaking the sixth commandment.
Matthew 5:28
28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (NIV)
Someone says, "I'm just admiring." Jesus calls its adultery. The Bible says in
1 Corinthians 6:18
"Flee from sexual immorality."
Adultery is not a sin to fight, it is a sin to flee.
2. Begin to realize you need to be devoted to your spouse. Sometimes a man will say, "I don't love my wife anymore." Do you know what I tell him? I say, "Learn to love her." You see love is like a flower. It must be cultivated cared for and nutured. Some men here need to start courting their wife and take her out on dates. Open the car door for her. Someone has said, "Today the only time a man opens the car door for his wife is for one of two reasons. He will open the door when the car is new or the wife is new."
3. Be determinated. Be like Joshua who said,
Joshua 24:15
15 choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." (NIV)
Be like David who said in,
Psalm 57:7
My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast. (NIV) Have you made that decision? You need to make that decision. Because a big decision can keep you from making so many small decisions that can entrap you.
6. Begin to return back to God. Perhaps there's been a time of moral impurity in your life. The Bible says in,
1 John 1:9
" If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (NIV)"
Right now someone is thinking, "That's right pastor, preach it against those adulterous." Look at James 4:4
James 4:4
4 You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. (NIV)
God says that when we act like the world, we commit adultery. For example, sometimes people will get angry with their government and withhold their taxes. Do you know one way Christians become friends with the world? They get up set with their church withhold their tithe. That's acting like the world. God calls it adultery. Folks that's what gangsters do. In this country there is another name for it: blackmail. Does that bother you? It should, because in Malachi 3:8 God also calls you a thief. God says that's friendship with the word, and God calls it adultery.