Between the Thanksgiving holidays and having to
think through Christmas songs for today, I felt a little strange preparing a
sermon on the seventh commandment. At
first, a sermon series on the Ten Commandments does seem a little strange during
the holiday season, but the more one learns about these commandments, the more
it becomes clear that there is no season in which these commands are not
relevant. I can assure you that when
people break the Ten Commandments we
feel it during the holidays like we do at no other time. There is no other time of year that a
strained relationship with one’s family becomes so hard to bear. If a loved one’s life has been taken,
holidays can become the hardest season of the year. And how many holidays has the nasty sin of
adultery destroyed?
Another reason that the seventh commandment is
relevant any given Sunday is because our culture is one that is saturated with
sexual immorality. From the big screen
to the church pew, sexual immorality seems to be culturally acceptable
behavior. In the seventh commandment (Exodus 20:14), which reads, “You shall not commit adultery,” God
commanded His people to honor the sacredness of marriage and to be people of sexual
purity. This commandment charges us to
paddle up stream in such a culture as ours.
If we are to be lights in midst of a crooked and perverse generation
then we must be people who honor the sacredness of marriage and strive to be
people of sexual purity. My prayer today
is that we would look to Jesus for grace to do so. Consider with me today four things that the
seventh commandment requires of us as God’s people.
I.
The Seventh Commandment Calls Us to Honor
Marriage
Just as the sixth commandment protected the sanctity of life, the seventh
commandment protects the sanctity of
marriage. It is true that this
commandment teaches us that sex is sacred, but sex is sacred because marriage
is sacred. There are many forms of
sexual immorality found in Scripture, but adultery is the most horrific because it directly affects the marriage union. It is a violation of the most sacred of all
human relationships.
What is adultery?
Simply put, it is marital infidelity.
It is partaking in any illicit relationship that violates the marriage
covenant. If you are married, it is
having an illicit relationship with someone that you are not married to. If you are not married, it is having any such
relationship with someone who is married.
But there is more we need to say that is
foundational to this commandment. Adultery
distorts God’s design for marriage. God’s design for marriage is for one man and
one woman to be bound to one another in covenant for one lifetime, and sex is
only allowed within that covenant
union (Genesis 2:18-25). Sexual activity with anyone that you are not
married to is not permissible by God’s design.
Adultery also distorts God’s purpose for marriage. God
created marriage a picture of the covenant love between Jesus Christ and His
bride, the church (Ephesians 5:22-33),
and every marriage is supposed to display that. This is why adultery is used
metaphorically in Old Testament to describe the unfaithfulness of God’s people
when they break covenant with Him.
Adultery sends the wrong message the world because Jesus will never be
unfaithful to His bride.
In this light, this commandment also has a positive
spin. We are not just to avoid cheating
on our spouse; we are also to be a husband/wife that pursues purity and is
faithful to our spouse in thought, word, and deed (Matthew 5:27-32). We are,
by God’s grace, to embody the portrait of Christ and the church. We are also to enjoy the gift of sex as well,
because it is to be the glue that helps hold us together and a tool for
battling temptation (1 Corinthians
7:1-5).
II.
The Seventh Commandment Calls Us to Pursue
Sexual Purity
As we’ve seen with the other commandments, God
calls for something deeper in the seventh commandment than just what we read on
the surface. Many of the Ten
Commandments are categorical. In other words, they stand not just for the
specific sin mentioned, but also for whole categories of sin. We saw this last week with the sixth
commandment, which covered everything from murder to hatred in someone’s heart
towards his or her fellow man (Matthew
5:21-26; 1 John 3:15). Likewise,
this commandment is not just about
adultery; it also prohibits sexual
immorality in general. Sexual
immorality is any deviation from God’s design for sex in thought, word, or
action (sex before marriage, adultery, looking at pornography, reading filthy
romance novels (sex is not a spectator sport), masturbation (sex is not a solo
sport either, it is for relationships), prostitution, rape, molestation, sexual
harassment, inappropriate speech, immodest dress, etc.). So if you violate
the marriage covenant or if you deviate
from how God created sex to be enjoyed, then you’ve broken this
commandment.
This is the way Jesus interpreted the seventh
commandment, as a charge to honor marriage and to pursue sexual purity: [27] “You have heard that it was said,
‘You shall not commit adultery.’ [28] But I say to you that everyone who
looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in
his heart. [29] If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw
it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your
whole body be thrown into hell. [30] And if your right hand causes you to
sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your
members than that your whole body go into hell. [31] “It was also said,
‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’
[32] But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the
ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a
divorced woman commits adultery.” (Matthew
5:27-32) Jesus says that when we lust (sexually) after someone else
(obviously, someone besides our wife), we have broken the seventh
commandment. This means that everything
from lusting in one’s heart to committing the act with one’s body is covered in
this commandment. Also, when we remarry
in cases where our divorce was not for Biblical reasons (sexual immorality and
being abandoned by an unbeliever), we are breaking the seventh
commandment.
Listen to how far Paul expected believers to go in
pursuing sexual purity: [5:1] Therefore be imitators of God, as
beloved children. [2] And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave
himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. [3] But
sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among
you, as is proper among saints. [4] Let there be no filthiness nor foolish
talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be
thanksgiving. [5] For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually
immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no
inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. [6] Let no one deceive you
with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the
sons of disobedience. [7] Therefore do not become partners with them;
[8] for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light [9] (for the fruit of light is found in all that
is good and right and true), [10] and try to discern what is pleasing to
the Lord. [11] Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but
instead expose them. [12] For it is shameful even to speak of the things
that they do in secret. (Ephesians
5:1-12 ESV)
Jesus also tells us in this passage in Matthew to
take drastic measures to battle
sexual immorality. At a minimum, this
means you are going to have to set boundaries in this area. It’s no secret that the entertainment
industry exploits sexuality. One author
stated that the average American views sexual material more than ten thousand
times a year, and by a ratio of ten to one, couples on television engage in sex
outside of marriage.[1] Smart phones and high speed Internet have
only magnified the situation. Today
people who wouldn’t dream of walking into an adult store or going to see an
X-rated film are viewing pornography at the click of a button.
If you’re going to pursue sexual purity in this
culture, you’re going to have to make a covenant with your eyes like Job did (Job 31:1). It’s not legalism; it’s wisdom to do so. Consider
the warning about adultery in Proverbs
6:27-28: [27] Can a man carry
fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? [28] Or can one walk
on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? Sexual immorality is not something to play
with or to fight with; it’s something you run for your life from like Joseph
did (Genesis 39:12). Jesus wasn’t
exaggerating earlier: heaven and hell are at stake!!! As John Owen said, you need to “be killing sin or it will be killing you.”[2]
III.
The Seventh Commandment Calls Us to Love
Our Neighbor
Perhaps you’ve never thought about sexual
immorality this way before, but when you commit this sin, you are always
sinning against someone else. Paul made
this point in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8: [3] For this is the will of God, your
sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; [4] that each one
of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, [5] not in
the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; [6] that no one transgress and wrong his
brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things,
as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. [7] For God has not
called us for impurity, but in holiness. [8] Therefore whoever disregards
this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.” When David committed adultery, his sin
was ultimately against God, but is was not only against God. It was a sin against his family. It was a sin against Bathsheba. It was a sin against Uriah.
If you don’t think sexual sin affects others, just
ask the victims of the broken families that have been left in its wake. Ask the children whose mom or dad ran off
with someone else. Ask the woman whose
husband is addicted to pornography, who oscillates between anger and
insecurity. Ask the young person who
can’t seem to scrub hard enough in the shower to rub the filth they feel off of
them.
I think love for our neighbor should guide how we
think through grey areas as well. How
should we dress? We should dress in ways
that will preserve our neighbor’s purity of thought and heart. Proper modesty is not legalism, it’s they way
a brother or sister seeks to love their neighbor and not be a stumbling block
to them. How far is too far? That’s the wrong question. The right question is, how can I love my
neighbor by preserving their maximum joy?
Love wants their brother or sister in Christ to be right with God
because that is where maximum joy is found.
IV.
The Seventh Commandment Calls Us to Hope in
the Gospel of Jesus Christ
Finally, the commandment, like the others, sends
us condemned to the foot of Christ’s cross.
Hebrews 13:4, says, “Let marriage be held in honor among all,
and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral
and adulterous.” If we have unpacked
the seventh commandment accurately today, then that last phrase should terrify
us. We are all sexually immoral and
adulterous people. As Voddie Bauchman
said, to be sexually pure, we have to be stronger
than Samson, wiser than Solomon, and godlier than David, and we are
neither.
The good news of the gospel is that God has sent
us a stand in who was stronger, wiser, and godlier. Jesus was the purest human being who every
walked upon the earth, and He died to wash the sexually immoral clean and make
their hearts pure. Here too, Christ met
the demands of the law, and now the only hope for fallen people like us is to turn
to Christ in faith and repentance in order to have our adulterous hearts
changed by the gospel.
[9] Or do you not know that the unrighteous
will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually
immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
[10] nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. [11] And such were some of you. 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. (1
Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV) If
you will turn to Jesus today, you too can be washed, sanctified, and justified before God.
1 comment:
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