"You Shall Not Commit Adultery"
THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT
Exodus 20:14; Matthew 5:27-28
Mililani Community Church
Pastor Rick Bartosik
July 6, 2003

We are an "eat, drink and be merry" society, thinking only of today's pleasures rather than tomorrow's pain. It is very easy to embrace that life style. Even though our conscience tells us otherwise, we are often attracted to the things that offer us immediate satisfaction regardless of the con

sequences. It is hard to say "no" when lust keeps screaming "yes!" Today we are going to look at what our Creator says to us in His Word concerning the subject of His wonderful design for our human sexuality, and the sanctity of marriage.

The first biblical truth that is foundational to understanding the 7th commandment is:

I. YOUR HUMAN SEXUALITY IS DESIGNED BY GOD AND IS THEREFORE GOOD

God is the one who created our sexuality. Our holy and righteous and totally pure God takes great delight in the sexual expressions of love that occur between a husband and a wife. The sexual dimension of our human personality was not an afterthought by God. He intended there to be an attraction between men and women.

God intended human sexuality not just so that married couples might populate the earth but also that they might enjoy the riches of the deepest and most intimate level of personal and pleasurable communication possible.

"Pleasure after all is God's invention, not Satan's" C. S. Lewis

• Song of Solomon (a graphic description in the Bible of uninhibited delight of married lovers).
• Hebrews 13:4 ("the marriage bed is undefiled" - meaning there should be no shame in the expression of our sexuality within marriage. Sex is not bad, it is good! But the verse goes on to say, "but fornicators and adulterers God will judge").
• I Corinthians 7:3-5 (Here God commands husbands and wives to be responsive to each others sexual needs).

Never forget that your human sexuality is a beautiful thing, designed and created by God and graciously given to you by Him for you to enjoy fully! But the truth is that like so many of God's other gifts we as sinful human beings can so easily pervert this gift as well. When we misuse our sexuality, it can shatter marriages and destroy families and scar people emotionally for a lifetime.

God gave this Seventh Commandment then, to PROTECT US and protect our families and ensure that we experience the best that life has to offer.

The primary truth found in the 7th commandment is that:

II. YOUR HUMAN SEXUALITY IS TO BE EXPRESSED ONLY WITHIN THE BOUNDARIES OF MARRIAGE

The Seventh Commandment is God's command that sexual activity be confined EXCLUSIVELY to a marriage relationship.

Any sexual activity outside of the marriage covenant is seen by God as very serious and destructive sin. This commandment includes a strong prohibition against sexual activity between two single people, and also homosexuality (this is made clear in the New Testament. eg. I Thessalonians 4:1-8).

What God is saying in this commandment is that His wonderful gift of sexuality must only be expressed within a relationship where a solemn marriage covenant has been made and there is an exclusive, life-long marriage commitment between a husband and wife before God (Genesis 1-2).

The deepest and most meaningful relationships are always exclusive relationships. God designed the sexual act to be the ultimate expression of an exclusive love commitment made between a husband and a wife.

III. THERE IS A HIGH COST TO COMMITTING ADULTERY

Adultery is a CURSE because it ...

• Defies God - "You shall NOT commit adultery"
• Destroys Families
• Defiles Marriage
• Denies Love
• Degrades People

IV. PRACTICAL STEPS IN KEEPING THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT

1. Don't underestimate the complexity and power of your sexuality (I Thessalonians 4:1-8)

2. Take radical action at the earliest point of temptation (Matthew 5: 27-30)

3. If you are married, cultivate your marriage relationship (see book: His Needs, Her Needs)

4. Develop a strong relationship with Jesus Christ. The best line of defense is to be in vital union with Jesus Christ.

CONCLUSION:

Though the sins of adultery and fornication and sexual lust are all serious sins in the sight of God, God's grace through Jesus Christ can cover all your sin. Not because your sins are not evil, but because His sin sacrifice is so great. The good news is that the worst violator of the Seventh Commandment can receive God's grace. Provided you are willing to humble yourself before God and say, "I have sinned against you God, I have violated your Holy Law. I confess my sin and genuinely grieve over it. And I receive your free gift of forgiveness and right standing before you because of what Jesus has done for me through His death, burial and resurrection."

Temptations call us into battle and show us our desperate need of Christ and cause us to run to Him. In Him alone will we find cleansing and forgiveness and restoration, and the power to walk by the Spirit and not carry out the desires of the sinful nature. "Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil....AMEN."

STUDY QUESTIONS ON THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT
" You shall not commit adultery"

OBSERVE

1. In the New Testament, what does Jesus Christ say about the sin of adultery? Where does the root of the sin develop? (Matthew 5:27-30; Matthew 15:19)

2. When the teachers and the Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman who had been caught in adultery, what did Jesus say to her accusers? (John 8:3-7). After the accusers left, what did Jesus say to the woman? (John 8:8-11).

3. How does the Apostle Paul set apart sexual immorality from other sins? (I Corinthians 6:12-20)

4. What are two practical steps that Joseph took to avoid committing adultery with Potiphar's wife? (Gen. 39:10,12)

5. After David committed adultery with Bathsheba, he cried out to God. In Psalm 51, look at the verbs in his prayer. List up to 10 things that David specifically asked of God (Psalm 51).

INTERPRET

God uses the metaphor of adultery to describe "faithless Israel." Why is this imagery an appropriate description? How are Israel's sin and the sin of adultery similar? (Jeremiah 3:1-9).

APPLY

1. Read the following Scriptures. Then list the steps that you can take to guard yourself against sexual immorality (Proverbs 4:23,25; Matt. 5:27-28; I Cor. 15:33).

2. If you have committed adultery, read the passages below and list several truths that God gives you to hold on to (Psalm 51:17; Psalm 103:8-13; I Timothy 1:15-17).

3. Have you been hurt by the sin of adultery or other sinful actions? What promises does God offer to you? Than God for these promises and cling to them (Psalm 3:3-5; Isaiah 26:3; Lamentations 3:19-25).

TEN WAYS TO AVOID ADULTERY
By Thomas Watson

In the late 1600s Thomas Watson wrote giving practical advice for avoiding the temptation to commit adultery. Today, over 300 years later, his suggestions are still practical.

Here are some directions to keep from the infection of adultery:

1. Look to your eyes. The eye tempts the fancy, and the fancy works upon the heart. Eve first saw the tree of knowledge, and then she took. The eye often sets the heart on fire.

2. Look to your lips. Take heed of any unseemly word that may kindle unclean thoughts in you or others: "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth."

3. Look to your heart: "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts." Thinking of sin makes way for the act of sin. Suppress the first risings of sin in your heart.

4. Take heed of lascivious books and pictures that provoke lust. The reading of the Scripture stirs up love to God, and the reading of unclean material stirs up the mind to wickedness.

5. Take heed of idleness. When a person is idle, he is ready to receive any temptation. When David was idle on the top of his house, he espied Bathsheba and took her to him.

6. To avoid adultery every man should have a chaste love for his wife. Solomon prescribed a remedy against adultery: "Rejoice with the wife of thy youth." It is not having a wife, but loving a wife, that makes a man live chastely. Pure love is a gift of God, and it comes from heaven; but, like the vestal fire, it must be cherished that it go not out.

7. Labor to get the fear of God into your hearts: "By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil." How did Joseph keep from temptation? The fear of God pulled him back: "How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"

8. Take delight in the Word of God: "How sweet are thy words unto my taste!" He who has tasted Christ in a promise is ravished with delight. How would he scorn a motion to sin!

9. If you would abstain from adultery, use serious consideration. Consider that God sees you in the act of sin. He is both witness and judge. Few who are entangled in adultery recover from the snare: "None that go unto her return again." ... "The lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb,...But her end is bitter as wormwood." When the senses have feasted on unchaste pleasures, the soul is left to pay the reckoning.

10. Pray against this sin. When lust begins to rise in your heart, go to prayer. Prayer is the best armor to quench the wildfire of lust. If prayer will "cast out devils," why may it not cast out lusts from the devil?

THE TOP TEN NEEDS OF MEN AND WOMEN
IN A MARRIAGE RELATIONSHIP

According to Willard Harley, in His Needs, Her Needs: Building An Affair-proof Marriage, we all bring basic needs to a relationship. All those needs are important. The premise of Harley's book rests upon an understanding that our needs as men and women are different, even if we don't realize the differences. And it's in those unmet needs that we find the greatest temptations to affairs. But when the needs are met, the chances for an affair are greatly diminished.

Needs of Women

1. Affection: "I need you to express your feelings for me in small ways."
2. Conversation: "I need you to talk to me."
3. Honesty and Openness: "I need to know what's going on in your life."
4. Financial Support: "I need you to provide enough for us to live comfortably."
5. Family Commitment: "I need you to be a family person."

Needs of Men

1. Sexual fulfillment: "I need you to have sex with me."
2. Recreational Companionship: "I need to play and have fun together."
3. Attractiveness: "I need you to look good."
4. Domestic Support: "I need you to take care of the home front."
5. Admiration: "I need you to be proud of me."

Copyright © 1999-2006 Rick Bartosik

Ten Commandment Series

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