You Adulterous People Series

INTRO.- People commit adultery in various ways. Our world is notorious for committing adultery. It seems to happens in Hollywood often.

ILL.- Remember actress Sandra Bullock in the award winning movie, “The Blind Side”? And do you remember to whom she was married? She was married from 2005 to 2010 to TV personality and CEO of West Coast Choppers, Jesse James.

Sandra Bullock was awarded the Golden Globe Award for best actress for her part as Leigh Anne Tuohy. While accepting her award, she said of her husband, “I love you. You are so hot.”

Yes, he was hot all right. He was hot enough that while they were married he had several women on the side. And there went another Hollywood marriage down the drains. Sandra Bullock divorced him a hurry. She was and is a spurned woman and probably won’t marry again very soon. How sad, because she gives the appearance of a nice woman who would be very committed to her mate and she was to Jesse James.

But there is another type of adultery that takes place even more often than marital adultery. It’s spiritual adultery. It’s when Christians are supposed to be married to Christ spiritually, but they often cheat on Him by worshiping idols. Whoa! This is something that we don’t like to own up to, but it happens to most of us.

ILL.- Bob Stacy wrote: ADULTERERS? Not a pretty word -- Not a word most of us would want applied to us. And yet it is a word that James applies to Christians who are "friends of the world." The church is the "bride of Christ," and as such she is to be loyal and true to Him, pure and holy in His sight.

Could James have made it any plainer? Do you prove your faithfulness to God by your daily life, or do you prove your "friendship with this world"? I fear that many Christians spend more time with their "mistress," the world, than they do with Christ. They spend more money on their "mistress," the world, than they do on Christ. They are more at home with their "mistress" than they are with Christ. And what could be sadder than that?

PROP.- What does spiritual adultery mean? Several things according to this text.

1- Spiritual adultery means friendship with the world

2- Spiritual adultery means opposition to God

3- Spiritual adultery means giving in to the devil

I. SPIRITUAL ADULTERY MEANS FRIENDSHIP WITH THE WORLD

4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God?

ILL.- A little boy asks his mother if he could go out and play with Timmie. “You know you don’t like Timmie,” his mother said.

“All right,” replied the youngster, “then can I go out and fight with him?”

What’s wrong with being friends or having friends? Well, it depends on who your friends are. Jesus was a friend to publicans and sinners. Why did He do that? Because God wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. And because Jesus came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

Jesus could associate with sinners in order to give them life but he didn’t allow them to influence Him. He could go to weddings and not get drunk. He could be alone with a woman who had five husbands and was living with another man and not be inclined to lust after her.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with associating with people who are not Christians as long as we don’t allow them to drag us down. The idea is for us to present a witness to them, however, some Christians may find themselves being influenced by those around them and do things they wouldn’t normally do at other times.

I Corinthians 15:33 “Do not be misled: Bad company corrupts good character.”

ILL.- When I was living and preaching in the small town of Iberia, MO, one of my good friends was a fishing buddy. Even though he smoked and drank beer that never affected me in a negative way nor did he ever offer me a beer or a cigarette. We were just fishing friends. He’d called the house at times and say, “Let’s go fishing!”

If I could get away I’d grab my fishing rods and tackle box and head around the corner where he managed a service station. He’d have his Ranger bass boat hooked up and ready to go. We had a good time together, fishing together.

Also, there were times when the beer crowd assembled at his service station. It was generally around 5 p.m. each day. Guys would come in, stand around and talk and drink beer. And there were times when I go to the station at the same time. And that never bothered me at all. I may have bothered them but they didn’t bother me. They may not have talked the way they normally would. And I didn’t drink beer!