The Perfect 10, Part 5

Exodus chapter 20 is where we are. Verse number 14, as we slowly but surely make our way through the Ten Commandments. Exodus chapter 20, verse number 14, you shall not commit adultery. One of the reasons our children have a hard time understanding what love is, what integrity is all about, is because we as parents have failed to model to them integrity and love. And we forget that our children are always observing what we do. They're watching how we interact one with another. And what God did many, many years ago, way back in Genesis chapter 2, was establish an institution called marriage.

and the responsibility of husband and wife to one another to set the tone for how a godly seed would be raised from generation to generation. In fact, let me read it to you just in case you have forgotten about it.

Genesis chapter 2, verse number 18. Then the Lord God said, It is not good for man to be alone. I will make him a helper suitable. For him. Isn't it good to know that God makes a help for you specifically suitable for you? We forget that, don't we? We think that sometimes God made a mistake. That the one He gave us really doesn't suit us too good. But God says it's not good for man to be alone.

I'm going to make him a suitable helper. And then he says, that out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called the living creature, that was its name. The men gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds, and in the sky, and to every beast of the field but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable. for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept.

Then he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place, and the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man and brought her to the man. Now, in other words, God Give you a suitable partner, but God fashions that one and brings that one to you. You say, Well, yeah, he God doesn't necessarily do that. I, that's what He did for Adam, but He doesn't do that for me. Really? Are we going to deny God's sovereignty in the life of every person today? God brought this woman that he fashioned to Adam.

And the man said, and fellas, you should memorize this because this is what you should say to your wife when you come home every day. This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. That is the ultimate catchphrase. And then the Bible says, For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

The man and his wife were both naked and were not ash. In that set of verses is the blueprint for your marriage. In that set of verses, Will answer every problem you face in your marriage. In those set of verses is the ultimate key to making your marriage what God wants it to be. God speaks to us about the priority of marriage. Marriage is a priority. And He says, for this cause, what cause is that? It's not good for man to be alone. That a man shall leave. Leave. That's the priority of marriage.

You know, one of the reasons our children have a hard time understanding commitment is because we truly don't leave. We like to kind of hang on to past relationships. It doesn't mean you forego all your previous relationships, but it speaks about the priority of your marriage. And I've come to realize that. So many times the wife is, or the husband, is not the supreme priority of the partner. Somebody else is. You know, we get married and we want to continue doing the things we've always done before.

We want to keep the same relationships, we want to keep the same schedule, we want to keep going to the same places and just kind of tack our spouse on to what we're doing. And if they can go with us, great. If they can't, too bad. But the priority of marriage is to realize that that individual that we have committed ourselves to, we have left all to commit ourselves to that one. That's leaving. For this cause, a man shall leave his father and his mother. Leave the most intimate relationship that you have and cleave to that other individual.

And so many times, because that wife or that husband is not a priority, people comm ad. But not only does the Bible speak about the priority of marriage in Genesis 2, it speaks about the permanence of marriage. You shall leave and you shall cleave. It's a word that means to be glued to, for better, for worse. For rich or for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death. Those are words that we just kind of glibly speak about when we get married. Until our husband loses his job, or until my spouse gets sick.

Or until bad times occur. And then we're not so sure that the cleaving aspect is for us. That maybe God didn't give us the suitable helper. Maybe he fashioned the wrong one, or maybe he fashioned the right one in the wrong way for us. We begin to question the call of God. Upon our life. But the Bible does say, What God joins together, let no man put asunder. Do you know what that verse means? That verse means that God put you together. That's what it means. I don't care if you were married in Vegas.

I don't care if you were married in the backyard. I don't care if you were married by the just And I don care if you're married in a church. It's all the same. If it's a legal binding aspect, God has put you together because God ordains the government. Romans chapter 13. So God has joined you together. Say, well, you know, our marriage was so dysfunctional. Our families, all families are dysfunctional. Every one of us are. I mean, show me somebody who's got it right. I don know any who got it right.

I mean, every day is a struggle. Every day is a difficulty. Every day is another problem we have to face. The difference is how you handle the problems. You've got to be willing to handle them in a biblical way. Most of us just don't want to do that. But God speaks about the permanence of marriage because He speaks about the priority of marriage. But God also speaks about the purpose of marriage. Marriage. When you leave, you cleave, you become one. One. In God's economy, and in no other economy, one plus one is one.

You see, when we mess up the priority of marriage, a lot of times our children become the priority, don't they? And the spouse does not become the priority. And that begins a domino effect in the family. Because your children know if mom or dad is number one to the other partner, and they know if they're number one in the family.

And so our children need to know their place. Is it not true that we raise a whole generation of people who do not know their place and do not understand authority? Where do they learn that? They learn that at home, mom and dad. They learned it under your leadership or lack thereof. That's where they get it modeled. That's where they find it out. You say, well, I thought this was a sermon about not committing adultery. It is. I'm leading up to that. Because of the priority of marriage, the permanence of marriage, and the purpose of marriage.

You see, when you become one, then you can become what God wants you to be because the world needs to see God through your marriage, right? They need to be able to understand God through your marriage. And the more you divide yourselves, the more you are not in sync with yourselves as husband and wife, the less the world sees the unifying factor of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and God's relationship to His church. That's important because you see the first avenue of evangelism comes in the home, right?

God's going to reach the world. How's he going to do that? Well, he got a man. It wasn't good for him to be alone, so he gave him a woman. The two come together. They're going to have children, and those children need to know God. How are they going know God? Because mom and dad are going to model it to them and they're going to teach it to them. But you can't teach what you don't model, because that's how you define hypocrisy. And so you've got to model it to them. And Genesis 2 is the key aspect to your marriage.

And yet, we live in a world that's divided. We live in a society that promotes immorality, adultery, fornication. can very rarely ever see a T V show or advertisement or a movie that doesn't deal with some kind of sexual immorality. around it. And it's infiltrated the church, it's infiltrated our marriages, and thus we have all kinds of problems. So I want to talk to you this morning, number one, about the causes of adultery.

What causes there to be adultery in our Homes. Then we'll talk to you about the consequences, and then we'll talk to you about the cure. And we won't get to commandment number eight this morning. Sorry. We'll get it next week though. Commandment number seven, you shall not commit adultery deals with your relationships and sexual purity. When you adulterate something, it becomes impure. It becomes corrupt. What causes that? Let me give yourself a reason.

Number one, this is where it all begins: unclean hearts. Unclean hearts, Mark chapter 7. Jesus said this: that which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts. Fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as dece, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man. Why is it people commit adultery? It's because they have unclean hearts.

Number two, unrestrained thoughts. Unrestrained thoughts. Certainly bring your Bible to Matthew chapter 5 for a moment. Matthew chapter 5. The Bible says this in verse number 27.

You have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. Jesus says, but I say to you. I say to you that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his Heart. It is not the lustful looking that causes man to have an adulterous heart. It's the adulterous heart that causes the man to look lustfully upon a woman. You see, the Ten Commandments were never designed to deal with your actions. They were designed to deal with your attitude. That's why the Ten Commandments cl with comm number 10: Thou shalt not co.

And Jesus says, look, you have got to understand that just because you don't actually commit the act of adultery, your heart is still impure if you want to be with that other woman outside of marriage.

And you've got to restrain your thoughts. Proverbs chapter 5: Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life, Solomon says. We put our jewels in safes. We put our money in a bank. We put alarms in our homes. We get Lojacks for our cars. Why? Because those things are valuable to us. We don't want to lose them. We want to protect them. And Solomon says. Keep your heart, guard your heart, protect your heart. And yet, we don't spend near the energy on our hearts and minds as we do on the temporal values we possess.

And that's one of our problems. Watch over your heart with all diligence. The point is: this: if something's there that you know is wrong, you've got to get rid of it. That's the point. And yet, unfortunately, we don't want to do that. And yet, we've got to be careful because it's one of the reasons that people fall into adulterous relationships. Here's another one. Unlawful divorce and remarriage leads to adultery. Matthew 5, verse number 31. And it was said. Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce.

But I say to you, that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the cause of unchastity, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Adultery. Wow. Now, I don't have time to go into all the ins and outs of divorce and rem this morning. Jesus' point is simply this: the Pharisees were divorcing people for any cause. I mean, if the woman just looked at him the wrong way or burned his food, give her a bill of divorcement, marry somebody else. And they would do that.

They would say, well, we're not committing adultery. We're just, you know, giving our wife a bill of divorcement and then moving on to the next woman. And Jesus says there is a biblical ground for divorce, and that biblical grounds is unrepentant immorality.

And so if you divorce your wife for any other cause. other than unrepentant unchastity, unrepentant immorality, then what you do is by marrying someone else, you become an adulterer and you adulterate the marriage because you make that person become an adulterer. Why? Because it wasn a legal divorce. It wasn't a biblical divorce. And so unlawful divorces and remarriages lead to people committing adultery all over the place. And I wish I had more time to go into all those things, but we do have tapes.

On those, you can get them in Matthew chapter 5 that we did a number of years ago. Also, Mark chapter 10 that talks about divorce and remarriage. Also, this is an important one: unful sexual needs. Leads to adultery. See, well, Pastor, should you be talking about that on Sunday morning in church? Let me tell you something.

If it's in the Bible, you better be talking about it. And a lot of times this leads to adultery. 1 Corinthians chapter 7. Listen to what it says. Verse 1. Now, concerning the things about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch a woman, but because of immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband fulfil his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

Stop depriving one another. ex by agreement for a time that you may devote yourselves to prayer and come together again, lest Satan tempt you because of your lack of self-command. Control. Paul, in the context of 1 Corinthians 7, says, Listen, in the context of your marriage, your body's not your own, it's your spouse's. And don't deprive one another of that intimacy unless you both agree and only for a short while. And the only reason you do so is to pray and to fast and to seek the Lord. Will of the Lord, but only for a short time.

Why? Because Satan knows exactly how to tempt you. You lose control, so you got to be careful. So, unmet sexual needs can lead to adultery. There's another reason. And I'm only giving you sex. There are many more. But ungratefulness to God leads to adultery. Did you know that? Ungratefulness to God. Remember over in Romans chapter 1? The Bible says, verse 21, For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

And verse 24 says, So therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served The creature rather than creator who is blessed forever, amen. Verse 26, for this reason, God gave them over to degrading passions. Verse number 28, and just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to depraved minds to do those things which are not proper.

You see, God gave them over to the lustful passions of their lives. Why? Because they refused to give thanks to God. It speaks about the downgrade of the unbeliever and how God abandons those people who refuse to acknowledge him as as creator, but the principle applies across the board to all of us. Ungratefulness to God, not giving thanks to God for what he's done. You know, one of the greatest things you can ever do for your husband or for your wife is when you see them say, you know what, honey, I am so.

Grateful to my God that He gave you specifically and purposefully for me and me alone. I am so thankful to God for this. And I want to let you know that because of what God has done, I'm going to praise His glorious name. And I want to let you know how much I love you because God gave you to me. That goes a long way with your husband or with your wife. Say, well, I can't go home and say that today because you just told me I had to go home and say it to my wife, and she's sitting right next to me.

Let me tell you something: it's important to give thanks to God for what He's done. Well, what are the consequences of adultery? I'm not going to give them all to you this morning because I want to really focus on the cure. But let me give you just a couple of things.

I wish I had time to read all the verses. But we do have a tape on this, by the way, we did a number of years ago. You can get that. Number one is emotional distress.

You can read about it in Psalm 32. Where David filled his couch with tears because he was emotionally distraught over holding his sin in about his affair with Bathsheba. You commit adultery. You will face emotional distress. You also face mental defeat. You can read about that in Proverbs chapter 5, verses 20 to 23. Satan loves to work on you mentally. And when you ever defy the words of our God, your mental capacities will begin to shrink. And you'll feel. Defeated. You can also look and realize in 2 Samuel chapter 12, verses 13 and 14, two aspects.

One is relational dissension as well as personal disgrace. Relational dissension. God told David: the sword will never depart from your house. Because of your affair with Bathsheba and your murder of Uri the Hittite. You want dissension in your home? Commit adultery. It'll happen. But also, God said to David, What you did in private, your sons and daughters will do in public, and you will be personally disgraced. There's also physical disease and physical death. If you read about it in the book of Leviticus, the book of Deuteronomy, say, well, that's Old Testament stuff.

Well, the principle is still in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 6. There's also, and probably the worst, is spiritual disaster. Spiritual disaster. The Bible says, your body is not for immorality.

1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse number 13. But for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. Now, God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? May it never be. Or do you not know that the one who joins him to a harlot is one body with her? For he says the two will become one flesh. But the one who joins him to the Lord is one Spirit with Him.

Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against His own body. Or do you not know? that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom ye have from God, and that you are not your own, for you have been brought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body. Body. You want to bring spiritual disaster upon your own life and upon your home? Adultery will do that to you. Your body is for the Lord, it's not for your purposes. Now, I'd be remiss in my responsibility if I did not give you some kind of cure.

This morning for adultery. There is a cure, by the way. Maybe you're in an adulterous relationship even today as we speak. Maybe you're contemplating one. Maybe you have been in one. Let me tell you something: God has.

A solution. It begins with the conversion of the soul. A conversion of the soul. That same chapter, 1 Corinthians 6, verse number 9. Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, be the fornicators. Idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, homosexuals, thieves, or covetous, drunk, revilers, swindlers shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of God.

But you were washed. You know, sometimes people who are in the church involve themselves in adulterous affairs do so because They truly were never born again to begin with. And there needs to be a conversion of the soul. And maybe you're here today and you've never been washed from your sins. Jesus Christ wants to do that for you. You. You can't do it yourself. The leper can't change his spots, but God can revolutionize your life. But after that, there needs to be a confession of sin. Right? Psalm 51.

David said to his Lord God, Cleanse me and purify me. Create in me a clean heart, O God. 1 John 1:9, if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. See, we forget that confession entails forsaking. Confession isn't saying to God, I've sinned. Confession is saying to God, I've sinned. I never want to do it again. Again. That's confession. That's repentance. You see? We go to God and we say, I was wrong. Please forgive me. I confess my sins to you.

But all the while doing that, conjuring up a plan to do it again. That's not confession. Confession says, I never want to do it again, Lord. Keep me from it. Conversion of the soul, confession of sin, a commitment to your spouse. A commitment to your spouse. Does commitment mean anything anymore? I am committed to you and you alone. I have left, I've cleft, and I'm here for you forever. And making a commitment to your spouse. Is at the same time making a commitment to God because God gave you that spouse.

On top of that, we need to learn to control ourselves. We need to learn to control ourselves. The Bible says over in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, these words: For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you know how to possess his own vessel.

In sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God, and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter, because the Lord is the avenger in all these things. Just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you, we need to learn to control ourselves. Not like the world does. They don't control themselves, they can't control them. The believer can because God's Spirit lies within him and enables him and gives him the grace to empower him to do so.

And we got to realize that. We also need to have confidence in our spiritual resources. Confidence in our spiritual resources. The Word of God. God's Word is a cleansing agent. How should a young man keep his way pure? By doing, by taking heed to the Word of God. Not only the Word of God, but the Spirit of God. Walk in the Spirit so you don't fulfill the lust of the flesh. In prayer, Christ says, pray, lest ye enter into temptation.

You know folks, this is so important. Is it not true that our relationships and our marriages need to be completely different than the world's? Our commitment, our life, our love needs to be so in touch and tune with God that the world can see a difference in our relationships. God didn't say, don't commit adultery, because he doesn't want you to have fun. No. Hebrews 13:4. The marriage bed is honorable, and the marriage bed is undefiled. But fornicators and adulterers, God will judge. You see, He gave the sixth commandment to protect your life, He gave the seventh commandment to protect the love of your enemy.

Your life. Are you in the process of protecting that one that you say you love and adore? I trust that you are. Let's pray together.