No Adultery Series

God’s Top Ten

Thou shall not commit adultery

Central Christian Church

St. Petersburg, Fl

October 2002

Exo 20:14 "You shall not commit adultery.

I was told that Moses came down from the mountain with the two tablets and as the people gathered around him he said, “I have some good news and some bad news.” “The good news is I got Him to limit the commandments to 10, the bad news is He would not throw out the one about adultery.”

It was about nine o’clock at night. A man dashed into the doctor’s office in a highly nervous condition and explained to the doctor that he had been in a very bad state all day. The doctor, in his best professional manner, asked if anything had happened to shock or upset his nerves. "Well," the man answered, "there is this letter I received this morning." He showed the doctor a letter, which stated in part, "If you don’t stop running around with my wife, I’m going to blow your head off." The doctor answered, "Well, that’s a comparatively simple matter. Why don’t you just stop running around with the man’s wife "But, Doctor, the fool forgot to sign his name!"

Sex is a beautiful gift from God, designed by the creator to be shared by one man with one woman as husband and wife.

Marriage is a covenatal relationship put together by God and adultery always occurs in our minds way before it happens in the bed.

The devil and his world will tell you sex is normal and natural between men and women and boys and girls, it is the way God designed us. Well, the world will tell you boys with boys and girls with girls. As long as both parties consent nobody is hurt by sex outside of marriage.

The culture we live in today scoffs at the concept of sexual fidelity in marriage and here is part of the reason why, consider the following:

From a study made of 104 leading television writers and executives conducted by the Center for Media and Public Affairs, the study found that Hollywood’s views run far from the mainstream of public opinion. Though 85 percent of Americans believe adultery is wrong, only 49 percent of TV writers and executives do. Everyone else is less likely than Hollywood to say a woman has a right to an abortion (59 to 97 percent). While only 4 percent of Americans have no religious affiliation, 45 percent of the TV writers and executives have none. -- Reported in Newsweek, 7/20/92, "To Verify," Leadership.

It is no wonder that our society is inundated with messages about sex that is contrary to God’s 7th commandment “You shall not commit adultery.” Our divorce rate and the number of married couples in counseling over extra marital affairs have never been higher. It is time we stop listening to Hollywood and start listening to God’s Holy Will!

The U.S. makes 150 pornographic movies per week. The music our children listen to is full of sexual innuendo. All of it is just a lie from the devil.

Sex outside of marriage can become a fatal attraction.

I read the story about a middle-aged businessman whose work took him away from home and out of town on numerous occasions. He went to places he should not have gone and fell into temptation by being attracted to another woman. Before long he fell into a strictly sexual affair with a young woman.

Through therapy he came to the point where he needed to confess his unfaithfulness to his wife. He asked the therapist to go with him as he shared the wretched story of his sin.

The therapist gave this account of the incident. As the meaning of the husband’s words dawned on the wife, she turned pale as death, and staggered against the wall. The tears on her face were as though she had been stabbed in the heart, her anxiety and pain were extreme.

Through this pain the couple found their way to a church, because they believed God had something to say about their sexuality. What they found were pastors, ministers and people who showed them the meaning of the cross for the forgiveness of sins. Praise God for churches that are full of people who understand sin without being self-righteous and judgmental. Through it all the wife was able to forgive the husband and through the cross he was able to forgive himself. A marriage was made whole, wounds were healed and salvation was received.

Adultery in the OT had to do as much with unfaithfulness in commitment as it did with having sex with someone other than your spouse. The Bible often looks at idolatry and adultery in the same light. Loving self more than we love God. Both are reprehensible to God and must be confessed and repented.