Semper Fidelis: Always Faithful Series

Series: Big 10

“SEMPER FIDELIS: ALWAYS FAITHFUL”

EXODUS 20:14

OPEN

We’re still in our series through the 10 Commandments called Big 10. Today we’re going to look at the seventh commandment and see what it means to always be faithful in our marriages.

How much would you pay for a Bible? You can pick up Bibles for an extremely low cost – sometimes even free. But you can also pay a lot of money for a Bible – depending on the cover, paper, ink, and translation. But would you pay close to $1000,000 for a Bible?

There is a Bible that has been dubbed the “Wicked Bible.” It’s also known as the “Sinners’ Bible” and the “Adulterous Bible.” It contains what is probably the most infamous misprint of any book ever published.

In 1631 AD, King Charles I ordered 1,000 Bibles from the royal printers, Robert Barker and Martin Lucas. They were to be reprints of the 1611 KJV. It was an almost flawless edition except for one major mistake. There was a huge typographical error. In the 7th commandment, they left out the word “not.” So, the 7th commandment in this edition reads, “Thou shalt commit adultery.”

King Charles I and the Archbishop of Canterbury were so angered that the printers were fined £300 sterling, which in that day was a lifetime’s worth of income for a successful tradesman. The modern equivalent of £300 sterling is £43,586 sterling which translates into 72,760.29 American dollars. That fine and the stigma attached to the mistake drove the printers out of business.

All 1,000 copies were ordered burned and very few remain today. Two museums have copies and another copy was put on sale on the internet in 2010 for $89,500.

The “Wicked Bible” got it wrong! Ex. 20:14 reads – You shall not commit adultery. Yet, we live in an age and culture where adultery and sexual immorality have become culturally correct.

Just like there are birthday cards and anniversary cards and Mother's Day cards and Father's Day cards, there are now “Secret Lover Cards.” The Secret Lover Collection is designed specifically and especially for those who are having adulterous, extramarital affairs.

One card called “My Lover” reads like this:

Just when I thought I would never find my true love - you came along…

My soul has been searching for you since I came into this world.

All my life I've had this emptiness inside

Like a part of me was missing and I was incomplete…

And now I can't imagine my life without you…

Even if I have to share you.

Our culture says to us and to God: “What we do behind closed doors is our private life and it is nobody's business. It’s not even God’s business.” Whether it is an adulterer or fornicator or a homosexual, they see the biblical idea that sex should be limited only to a man and a woman who are married to each other seems not only to be woefully out of date, but absolutely intolerant.

When you turn on your television, you will see a medium of expression that refers to sex outside of marriage thirteen times more frequently than it mentions intimacy between a husband and wife. In other words, whenever sex or sexual intercourse or allusions to sex are mentioned on television, eighty-eight percent of the time it will be outside the context of marriage. In the real world, not TV land, half of all adults under the age of thirty will live with someone before they get married and sixty-percent of those recently married, acknowledged they lived with their new spouse before they got married.

I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s – the time of the so-called sexual revolution. A revolution, as you know, is when someone revolts against an authority that is over them. The sexual revolution was a revolt, both against God and the seventh commandment.

Unlike the American Revolution, which freed us, this revolution has enslaved us. The sexual revolution has ruined more reputations, wrecked more homes, killed more marriages, broken more hearts, destroyed more careers, given more guilt, brought more unhappiness and cost more money than any other revolution in our history.

God says that adultery is wrong. Adultery is being unfaithful to your vows and commitments – be it to God or another person. God created marriage and made it a covenant relationship. A covenant is when two parties are bound together through obligations, stipulations, privileges, and responsibilities.

The covenant of marriage is the second most important relationship we have besides our covenant relationship with God. How do we ensure that we will fulfill the obligations, stipulations and privileges of this covenant relationship while still enjoying its privileges? Let’s look together at six important concepts and let God speak to us in this matter.