#3. Exercising Moral Purity Series

THE PASTOR’S POINTS

Bible Teaching Ministry of

CEDAR LODGE BAPTIST CHURCH

Thomasville, NC

a fellowship of faith, family and friendships

----------------------------------------------

May 23, 2004

----------------------------------------------

A Mom shared about how …one night our family was doing a devotional that included the story of the Ten Commandments. My husband asked, How many commandments did God give to Moses?

Seth, our 5-year-old son, quickly replied, Too many![1]

That is not the case with the seventh commandment.

14“You shall not commit adultery.

Exodus 20:14 (NASB)

The society in which we live needs a revival of moral purity!

And we need to be clear about teaching moral purity to the generation for which we are responsible. We must raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. That means straight shooting when it comes to identifying and dealing with moral impurity

Returning from Sunday School one day, where the Ten Commandments had been the topic, [a] young son asked his father, Daddy, what does it mean when it says, Thou shalt not commit agriculture? There was hardly a beat between the question and [the father’s] smooth reply: Son, that just means that you’re not supposed to plow the other man’s field, an answer satisfactory to both of them. [2]

Two weeks ago we dealt with the first Kingdom Family pillar, respecting God’s authority; that is the cornerstone of all the other pillars. This evening we are going to pick up pillar #2 – respect for human life.

This morning’s topic is about exercising moral purity in our lives. As with the previous pillars of building a Kingdom Family, there is an “I will” – meaning that this concept of honoring God with obedience to His authority over our lives includes vows that affect the way we will live our lives.

It may be out of “logical” sequence to do this – kind of like putting the commitment cart before the discussion horse…but I ask you to stand with me and take the vow of moral purity…

Pillar #3. Exercising Moral Purity

God has established the family as His first institution on earth. It is worthy of my most noble aspirations and commitments, including my commitment to moral purity, marital fidelity, and Christ-like love for each family member. Because marriage is a picture of Christ’s faithfulness to his bride, the church, and because the family is a picture of the father’s faithfulness to his children, I will honor the Lord by being faithful and pure.

Moral impurity falls into a number of categories…thought life, physical life and spiritual life. Mostly we see it worked out in the physical life. In the physical realm there are two words which cover the spectrum of moral impurity – fornication and adultery.

• Adultery happens when two people have sex…and at least one of those persons is married to someone else.

• Fornication is sex between two people who are not married.

An increasing number of the population does not see this as wrong. In reality, it doesn’t make a difference what the polls or popular culture thinks is wrong or right; God is God – He said it’s wrong!

Adultery and fornication are possible in our physical life, and also in our thought life. Jesus told us [3] that if the heart’s desire is to commit the act – if you “look with lust” – the desire is just as condemning as the act itself.

There is also the matter of “spiritual adultery”. This is when a person treats anything as more important than his relationship to God. More than once Christian believers are called “the bride of Christ”. Brides who run after someone other than their husbands are committing adultery. If you’re part of the church, a spiritual bride, it’s spiritual adultery!

• When God tells you to behave and you do what you want – spiritual adultery!

• When God tells you to tithe and you spend it anyway – spiritual adultery!

• When God tells you to do something, like have a decent attitude and not hate your brother, and you go on and show out anyway – spiritual adultery!

Two of the most revealing and instructive examples of these sins in the Bible are from the Old Testament:

1. King David was married and he forced Bathsheba, another man’s wife, into adultery. This sin led to all kinds of other sin, lying, murder, and the ruin of David’s leadership – as well as sexual sins, including rape and incest on the part of his children. Adultery never leads to something holy or positive. King David…adulterer!

2. Sampson was the fornicator. He didn’t realize the price until he awoke in Delilah’s lap one day. He felt his head and…whoops! All that hair and all that strength God had given him were gone! Sampson wound up more than a prisoner of love; he became a prisoner of the Philistines, and it cost him everything!