The 10 Commandments:

The commands reflect God’s character. God gave us His commands to show us who He is.

The commands reveal our condition. When we’ve been changed by the love grace and mercy of Christ Jesus we will desire to obey them. If we don’t desire to obey the commands of God, then we have a heart or sin issue that needs to be addressed. In that way the commands show us who we are.

God’s commands are relational as well. They are about our relationship with God and our relationships with others. That’s why loving God and loving others are the two greatest commands. If we love God, we will show it by obeying His commands. If we love others, we will show it by treating them in a way that aligns with the commands of God.

Exodus 20:1–17 (NASB)

1 Then God spoke all these words, saying, 2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. 7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain. 8 “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. 11 “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. 12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. 13 “You shall not murder. 14 “You shall not commit adultery. 15 “You shall not steal. 16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

The Seventh Commandment: “Do Not Commit Adultery”

14 “You shall not commit adultery…

Matthew 5:27–32 (NASB)

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 lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 “If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell. 31 “It was said, ‘Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce’; 32 but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

How serious is this command to God?

Jesus said it would be better to tear your eye out than to allow this kind of sin in your life and be thrown into hell because of it.

It was also a capital crime in the Jewish Civil Law.

Leviticus 20:10 (NASB)

10 ‘If there is a man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, one who commits adultery with his friend’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

Hebrews 13:4 (NASB)

4 Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

1 Corinthians 6:18 (NASB)

18 Flee immorality…

And this command is more than condemning unfaithfulness in marriage. It is also about unfaithfulness in our relationship with God.

One more caveat before we get into the meat of the message. I think it would be wise to say something about divorce. Jesus addressed it here in Matthew 5 when talking about adultery and we should talk a bit about it too.

According to Jesus, divorce does not circumvent the prohibition against adultery. If a married man or woman sees another man or woman, desires them sexually, then divorces their spouse and then goes and married this new person, he/she is still committing adultery. Marriage is for a lifetime and divorce doesn’t change that. That said, there are two exceptions spelled out in Scripture for a biblical divorce. Those are adultery and abandonment. In those two cases, it is not adultery for the faithful spouse to remarry nor is us adultery for the abandoned spouse to remarry. But to be clear, the Bible does not prescribe divorce in such cases. I believe God’s desire is reconciliation. But God’s word does permit remarriage in those two circumstances. (v. 32 & 1 Corinthians 7:1-14)

Ok. With that out of the way, what can we do to remain faithful? What is the best adultery prevention? That’s where our memory verse comes in. If we take Psalm 37:3 and then apply what it says to this subject and these texts, we get some pretty cool practical application.

Psalm 37:3 (NASB)

3 Trust in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.

You need to cultivate faithfulness when it comes to…

Your Emotions

Matthew 5:27–32 (NASB)

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 lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

Jesus gets to the heart of the issue. This issue is the heart!

Heart & Mind

Proverbs 23:7 (KJV)

7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…

Matthew 15:19 (NASB)

19 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications…

James 1:14 (NASB)

14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.

Proverbs 4:23 (NASB)

23 Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.

Colossians 3:2 (NASB)

2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

You need to cultivate faithfulness when it comes to…

Your Eyes.

Matthew 5:27–32 (NASB)

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 lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart…

Learn from King David’s sin:

2 Samuel 11:2–4 (NASB)

2 Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king’s house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. 3 So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him, he lay with her; and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house.

Make a commitment to the Lord like Job did:

Job 31:1 (NASB)

1 “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?

You need to cultivate faithfulness in…

Your Environment

3 …Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.

Proverbs 5:1–8 (NASB)

1 My son, give attention to my wisdom, Incline your ear to my understanding; 2 That you may observe discretion And your lips may reserve knowledge. 3 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey And smoother than oil is her speech; 4 But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword. 5 Her feet go down to death, Her steps take hold of Sheol. 6 She does not ponder the path of life; Her ways are unstable, she does not know it. 7 Now then, my sons, listen to me And do not depart from the words of my mouth. 8 Keep your way far from her And do not go near the door of her house,

Proverbs 7:24–27 (NASB)

24 Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, And pay attention to the words of my mouth. 25 Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways, Do not stray into her paths. 26 For many are the victims she has cast down, And numerous are all her slain. 27 Her house is the way to Sheol, Descending to the chambers of death.

Proverbs 4:14–15 (NASB)

14 Do not enter the path of the wicked And do not proceed in the way of evil men. 15 Avoid it, do not pass by it; Turn away from it and pass on.

Chinese proverb: “He who ought not fall down, ought not walk in slippery places.”

Your environment is impacted by who you is in it:

1 Corinthians 15:33 (NASB)

33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”

1 Corinthians 5:9–11 (NASB)

9 I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; 10 I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. 11 But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one.

Proverbs 13:20 (NASB)

20 He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will suffer harm.

Summary: Be Like Joseph:

Genesis 39:7–13 (NASB)

7 It came about after these events that his master’s wife looked with desire at Joseph, and she said, “Lie with me.” 8 But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, and he has put all that he owns in my charge. 9 “There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?” 10 As she spoke to Joseph day after day, he did not listen to her to lie beside her or be with her. 11 Now it happened one day that he went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the household was there inside. 12 She caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me!” And he left his garment in her hand and fled, and went outside. 13 When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled outside…

In closing:

The seventh commandment is about loving your neighbor, your closest neighbor on this earth, your spouse. But the seventh commandment is also used by God as an example of our relationship with Him.

James 4:4 (NASB)

4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Hosea 1:1–2 (NASB)

1 The word of the Lord which came to Hosea the son of Beeri, during the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. 2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord.”

God goes on to say in Hosea that because of their spiritual adultery, He will no longer have compassion on they because they are no longer going to be treated as His people.

And yet, we see God’s mercy and grace over and over again throughout the book.

Hosea’s wife leaves him and commits adultery by going back to her life of harlotry but God tells him to go and get her and bring her back because that’s what God does with His people.

Hosea obeys and takes his wife back. But before long she goes back to her old adulterous ways.

A second time God tells Hosea to take her back again even though she has been unfaithful to him because that’s what God does with His people.

So Hosea forgives her and takes her back again.

God concludes the book of Hosea this way…

Hosea 14:1–2, 4 (NASB)

1 Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, For you have stumbled because of your iniquity. 2 Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to Him, “Take away all iniquity And receive us graciously, That we may present the fruit of our lips…

4 I will heal their apostasy [unfaithfulness], I will love them freely…

God will do the same for you if you repent and return to Him because everything we’ve talked about today regarding marriage, faithfulness and adultery, also applies to our relationship with God.

Let’s pray and call on Him. We all need our unfaithfulness healed.

If you’ve never come to Jesus for salvation, you can today. We don’t do alter calls often, but we are going to do one today. I will be up here and Pastor Derek will be up here. If you are ready to go all in with Jesus, after I pray, we are going to sing, and you just come on up here and we will walk you through the process. If you need prayer, you can come up here too and we will prayer for you.

You respond as God leads.

Let’s pray!

Memory Verse of the Week:

Psalm 37:3 (NASB)

3 Trust in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.