Evening Service for 4/27/2003
Adultery Exodus 20:14
Introduction:
Newsweek magazine did a series of articles on adultery in 1997. Not surprisingly, a majority condemned adultery as immoral. A handful of letter writers, however, suggested that the ethics of adultery were not so clear cut. One “church-going” woman reported that her five year affair with a married man was saving her marriage. “I am not sure which is the lesser of two evils,” she wrote, “adultery or divorce.”
WBTU:
A. Legally- Voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and a partner other than the lawful spouse.
B. The Bible gives a more broad interpretation of adultery. Voluntary sexual intercourse between two people who are not married to each other.
C. The Bible indicates that sex is to be enjoyed between two people who are married to each other.
D. Marriage was set forth in creation in Genesis ch. 2. No sutiable helper for Adam was found so God make a woman.
E. Genesis 2:20-24.
F. It was this idea of one man, one woman living their lives together as husband and wife.
G. Deviation from God’s plan:
1. Lamech’s two wives Genesis 4:23- Followed by many Old Testament characters.
2. Homosexual acts in Sodom Genesis 19
3. Incest with Lot’s daughters Genesis 19
4. Forcible rape with Shechem against Dinah Genesis 34
5. Incest with father’s wife in the case of Reuben and Bilhah Genesis 35
6. Judah slept with a prostitute that turned out to be his daughter in law, Tamar and Tamar became pregnant through Judah. Genesis 38
7. The Old Testament is full of examples. Let not go over all of them.
H. This is why God gives commands to the Israelites against such practices. Levicitus 20 gives specific sexual practices that are wrong. Gives the penalties for such practices. Most of them carried the death penalty.
I. The issue here is purity. Purity of the body and purity of the mind. The mind controls the body.
J. No such thing as purity, everything is OK. The sacredness of sex is one of the primary areas that suffers as a result.
K. Examples in our culture.
1. Magic Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain, Rock Hudson.
2. Aids
3. Shows like Married by America, it is expected that couples will have sex before their wedding night. You are abnormal if you have not had sex before your wedding night. Got to see if you are physically compatable.
4. 90 % of sex on TV is between people who are not married to each other.
5. Recreational sex is great. Casual sex. Safe sex.
6. Someone has said, “It is always sex o’clock in America.
L. However, God’s design is a man and a woman come together for life to love, procreate, enjoy one another, etc.
M. Satan has deceived our society that sex has lost its specialness, it sacredness. It is just a thing that you do, like a dog that is in heat.
N. Newsweek in 1997 carried an article about a couple who boarded a subway train in London and proceeded to perform sex acts on each other. The other passengers kept on reading their newspapers or looking the other way. When the couple finished, they lit up a cigarette. This was too much for the passengers who complained to the conductor, “This is a non-smoking train.” When people are more offended by public smoking that public sex, something is wrong with society.
Thesis: There are many truths that support God’s seventh principle for living. Point out 3 of them tonight.
For instances:
1. At the heart of the issue is marriage.
A. God wants sex kept sacred, because marriage is sacred to God.
B. In a woman’s magazine, an article “Reasons to commit adultery.”
1. Adultery is exciting. If your life is dull…
2. Adultery makes you a well rounded person. A wide range of experiences. Improve technique, etc.
3. Adultery is fun.
C. In order to have a decent society, we agree that “You shall not kill,” You shall not steal,” etc.
D. But when we start talking about sexual values, the culture says, “Wait a second. That’s not public concern. That is a private issue.”
E. At the building block of a family is a marriage. The cement that keeps a marriage couple together is their differences. God made us different physically and socially for a reason. We need each other. However, when we go outside the marriage to explore those differences, it breaks down the family. IF we are concerned about the family, we must be concerned about marriage.
F. Stable marriages support a stable, healthy society. Unstable marriages give rise to a unstable, unhealthy society. Many of the problems we see today are caused by a breakdown in the marriage union.
G. Why does God forbid adultery? Not because he is denying us a chance to have some fun, but because he wants us to have happy families and happy lives, safe societies and safe families. Without good marriages none of this is possible.
H. The permance of marriage.
1. More than procreation. We are different. Praise God!
2. Together, one mate, for life.
3. Marriages work because two people realize that it is for a lifetime. They invest in each other.
4. Studies have proved time and time again in every area that those who have good marriages have better lives.
5. (Mal 2:14 NIV) You ask, "Why?" It is because the LORD is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.
6. When God is Lord of our lives, He is also Lord of our marriage. When things get difficult, do we just say Bye Bye Lord.
7. Commit to each other from this day forward.
8. Get up before God and friends and family and say that you will be committed to each other. How good is your word?
I. Intimacy of marriage.
1. Sex involves sharing more than just one flesh. Sharing of life. Sex shares your body plus so much more.
2. One flesh, however, it also implies oneness in other areas. Things are going well in a marriage when the couple feels as one in many areas.
3. This is why sex is not encouraged before marriage. Hard to break up with someone whom you are attached physically but have no other attachments. Any two of opposite sexes can have this one but the others are more difficult.
2. What is adultery?
A. Physical adultery. This breaks faith with marriage partner. (Heb 13:4 NIV) Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. Good verse, often use it when talking with those who do not agree.
B. Mental adultery. (Mat 5:27 NIV) "You have heard that it was said, ’Do not commit adultery.’(Mat 5:28 NIV) But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
C. Legal adultery. No fault divorce.
1. Some things are legal by man but are not by God.
2. People are always trying to find loopholes. What about this and what about that. Again you gave your word before God and before others. For the good of your spiritual life and family life, we need to try to be reconciled.
3. People of character want to be right by God, not just right by man.
D. Adultery is a problem of the heart.
E. (Mal 2:15 NIV) Has not the LORD made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.(Mal 2:16 NIV) "I hate divorce," says the LORD God of Israel, "and I hate a man’s covering himself with violence as well as with his garment," says the LORD Almighty. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith.
F. However, sometimes it is better for people to be separated for the good of the family and the good of their relationship with the Lord.
3. Strategies to avoid this sin.
A. Look to your eyes. Eve when she saw the fruit. The eye often sets the heart on fire.
B. Look to your lips. Do not engage in course talk. Words that kindle unclean thoughts. Do not flirt with those who are attractive to you.
C. Look to your heart. (Mat 15:19 NIV) For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. Nip it in the bud before it gets worse.
D. Avoid books, TV shows, movies, and web sites the provoke lust. Avoid innocent situations with members of the opposite sex alone.
E. Watch out for idleness. An idle mind is the devil’s workshop. David with Bathsheba.
F. Enrich your marriage. From the time you get married, your marriage is dying. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. Take a weekend away, just the two of you.
G. Have the fear of God. How did Joseph avoid temptation with Potiphar’s wife? “How then can I do this wickedness, and sin against God?”
H. Take delight in the Word of God. If we taste of Christ, we will abhor sin.
I. Think about the consequences. How it will hurt family, spouse, others! God does forgive but man doesn’t.
J. Pray against this sin. When there is a problem in this area, go to prayer. Either we will keep on praying and stop sinning, or we will keep on sinning and quit praying. Pray even when it hurts.
Conclusion:
A. Purity is a choice. (1 Cor 6:9 NIV) 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(1 Cor 6:10 NIV) nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.(1 Cor 6:11 NIV) And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
B. Paul did not make a list of unpardonable sins. Vs. 11
C. Paul said you can be pure in Jesus Christ
D. Give yourself to Jesus now.
