The Wounds of Adultery
By Your Wounds We Are Healed • Sermon • Submitted
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· 9 viewsIt is easy to point fingers at others saying they are sinners, but we have each sinned in ways we may even be unaware. And when we did so, we were unfaithful to God committing adultery against the very relationship that is the most important to us.
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A psalm of Asaph.
The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to where it sets.
From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth.
Our God comes and will not be silent; a fire devours before him, and around him a tempest rages.
He summons the heavens above, and the earth, that he may judge his people:
“Gather to me this consecrated people, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
And the heavens proclaim his righteousness, for he is a God of justice.,
“Listen, my people, and I will speak; I will testify against you, Israel: I am God, your God.
I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.
I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens,
for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine.
If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?
“Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High,
and call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
But to the wicked person, God says: “What right have you to recite my laws or take my covenant on your lips?
You hate my instruction and cast my words behind you.
When you see a thief, you join with him; you throw in your lot with adulterers.
You use your mouth for evil and harness your tongue to deceit.
You sit and testify against your brother and slander your own mother’s son.
When you did these things and I kept silent, you thought I was exactly like you. But I now arraign you and set my accusations before you.
“Consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:
Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me, and to the blameless I will show my salvation.”
“You shall not commit adultery.
In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful,
and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”
Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home.
The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples.
When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Introduction:
10,000 Sermon Illustrations Demosthenes
Demosthenes
Long ago Demosthenes had written: “We keep prostitutes for pleasure; we keep mistresses for the day to day needs of the body; we keep wives for the begetting of children and for the faithful guardianship of our homes. So long as a man supported his wife and family there was no shame whatsoever in extra-marital affairs.”
Sanctity of Life, C. Swindoll, Word, 1990, p. 62
There are women who complain about how they are treated today, but the truth is it has nothing on the Bible times. Have you ever noticed how raw the Bible and its stories are? Even in today’s scripture from Samuel, I was tempted to erase a portion of it as it spoke of things we do not usually discuss in mixed company (even though the television does).
There was Abraham who gave his wife to be a king’s concubine to save his own skin. There was Judah who inadvertently slept with his daughter-in-law thinking she was a prostitute. And there was King David who slept with the wife of one of his valiant soldiers.
What is even more shocking is the prominent place these men held in scripture. Abraham is the man God made a covenant with to become the father of God’s people. Judah became the lineage through which Jesus would be born as well as David in that same lineage. Of course, in all fairness, Abraham and Judah were prior to the law giving, but David does not have that excuse.
Now, do not get the wrong idea. God did not approve their behavior, in fact, they each suffered the consequences of their sin. But it shows the lack of concern that the men of the bible often had for women.
Today is a different story. When adultery takes place, a women cannot necessarily blame it on the man. In many cases today, (discounting those sadly prisoners of the sex trade) women are just as much to blame.
There are many surveys out on this subject and their results are widely diverse. Some saying men are more likely to and others saying women are more likely to do so. The truth is for every man involved in adultery there is a woman involved so it seems pretty equal to me.
I worked in corporate offices for several years before becoming a pastor. In each case their were people in that office that become involved at some point. In two separate cases, I had to distance myself from married men that seemed to be forming too much of an attachment to me. In both cases, they were men that loved the church but their wives were not as invested in the church. I do not believe either man was purposely seeking out to have an affair with me, but they did not recognize the danger of their desire to be with a woman that shared their passion for the church.
However, there is more than one way to be adulterous. It is not just cheating on a spouse. It is an act of unfaithfulness or violation of any relationship. Today, this is the subject we will be exploring. Interesting enough, it is demonstrated in today’s passion week reading. Look with me at John 18 as we continue with the events that surrounded Jesus crucifixion.
Meanwhile, Simon Peter was still standing there warming himself. So they asked him, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?” He denied it, saying, “I am not.”
One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, “Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?”
Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow.
The Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.
Pray
Who has the best chance of being healed? A cancer victim who recognizes she has cancer and seeks treatment or a cancer victim who denies the cancer and continues as they are?
I have said it before and I say it again. God created people in order to have a loving relationship with them. His faithfulness to His people is unprecedented. Unfortunately, we have not been faithful back. God gave Adam and Eve a beautiful gift. A garden to meet all their needs and a place where He could spend time with them walking and talking and building a loving relationship. However, one act of unfaithfulness led to another breaking the relationship and the consequences fell like a cascade of dominoes.
But this was no shock to God. He knew that building a true relationship would be a process and He was already prepared with an answer.
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
God was already prepared to send His Son to redeem us. The Son had already resolved to come for the sake of salvation. And the woman, first to listen to the serpent, would bare the child that would defeat that same serpent.
In the meantime, God demonstrated through the lives of His people the truth. God is the ultimate story teller. It is through the story of people’s lives that He demonstrates our shortcomings, our need, and His answers. One of those stories is found through the life of Hosea the prophet. Hosea was a man of God. In love for his people, he obeyed God in living a difficult life that would demonstrate that their unfaithfulness to God was like committing adultery. Per God’s instructions, Hosea married a prostitute. No matter how many times she left him for another, Hosea remained faithful to her demonstrated God’s faithfulness to His people despite their adulterous ways.
The people of God continued to perform the prescribed sacrifices to God, yet they were not faithful to God. They were busy trying to appease all gods, so not only did they continue in the prescribed sacrifices to the God, but they also worshipped other gods. To which God sent them this message through Hosea the profit.
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
The offerings meant nothing if their hearts were not in it. The sacrifices were to demonstrate their need, it did not fix the problem. It did not make up for the fact that they would leave the sacrifice to continue their adulterous relations with other gods. (And some times this was literal for many required sexual relations with temple priests and priestesses. One of the idols set up in public high places was actually an image of the male genitalia. That is how perverse some of this idol worship was).
Now, nearly 800 years after Hosea’s time, we find these Pharisees have not learned the lesson. They are not worshipping at Ashteroth poles, but they are still not faithful to God by relationship, only through practices.
On this occasion, Jesus is at a banquet. The sequence of events is interesting. Jesus is asked to heal a paralyzed man. Jesus begins by telling the man is sins are forgiven. The Pharisees are outraged by Jesus audacity to believe He has the right to forgive sin. Jesus responds to their reaction.
Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?
Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?
But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.”
To which that man did just that.
What happens next seems almost like a response to the Pharisees challenge. Look at Matthew 9:9.
As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
To understand the significance of this action and its connection to the previous event, you need to understand how the Pharisees felt about tax collectors. If the Pharisees despised the Romans, they despised the tax collector even more. You see, the tax collectors were Jews who worked for the Romans. They collected the taxes required by Rome, which made them traitors in the eyes of the Pharisees. To make matters worse, these tax collectors were not usually honest men. They used their positions to take advantage of their own people by over collecting and keeping the excess for themselves. Rome didn’t care as long as they got their portion.
Since the Pharisees were more about religion than relationship, they were about elevating themselves with no concern for their fellow man. They saw themselves as better and to associate, and even more, to eat with such low individuals was to lower themselves to the level of these men. They did their best to avoid such sinful people at all cost.
Now, here is Jesus and not only is He associating Himself with them, but He is forgiving them of their sins! This is disgusting to them.
Now, Jesus leave them and goes directly to a tax collector named Matthew, or in other places, Levi. He calls for Matthew to follow Him, much as He did Simon, Andrew, James and John, and like them, Matthew obeys. Just as in those other cases, there is no reason to believe that Matthew had no prior association with Jesus. Chances are he has been hanging around an listening and Jesus knows he is ready to respond.
Later, Matthew puts on a large banquet and invites all his friends. Why? Because Matthew wants his friends to hear Jesus to so they may put their faith in Jesus also. Jesus is an amazing fellow to them all. He is not like the uppity Pharisees who treat them like dirt, but Jesus reaches out to them in friendship. Jesus offers them hope, acceptance and love.
I used Matthew’s account in our scripture reading, but this story is told by Mark and Luke also and we find a humble account shared by Matthew. He states that when Jesus calls he follows and later they are at a dinner at Matthew’s house. In Luke’s account, Matthew got up and “left everything” to follow Jesus and later held a “great banquet.”
What we see is a man who wholeheartedly left his life to become a follower, a disciple of Jesus and his life was so impacted he wanted all his friends to have a chance to do the same thing. His was an action of love for his fellowman.
However, the Pharisees observing what is taking place are once again disgusted! How dare Jesus and his disciples eat with such low-lives. This just did not fit with their notion of what it meant to be righteous. Jesus, upon hearing their complaints responds.
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
If the Pharisees were truly righteous, they did not need Jesus attention. If anything, they should be joining Jesus in His mission. However, in their own self-righteousness they were unwilling to listen to Jesus as they were sure they already had the answers. To which Jesus throws them this challenge. “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’” These men pride themselves on their knowledge of scripture. They instantly know this is Hosea 6:6, but Jesus is insinuating they do not comprehend it. I sometimes wonder if any in their crowd took this to heart? Some were listening? Nicodemus for one was listening enough to have further questions and seek Jesus out. Joseph of Arimathea later offers his tomb for Jesus burial and you get the impression he is a friend of Nicodemus. There were probably others, but many were so wrapped up in their own preconceived notions about the Messiah that even though all the evidence was there, they missed it.
However, those self-professed sinners didn’t. Here was a man who cared about them enough to spend time with them. He listened to them and treated them with respect. And best of all, He shared with them that God cared about them. That God had a plan for their life. They recognized that they had the cancer of sin and were willing to seek the cure.
It is easy to point to self-righteous folks like the Pharisees and accuse them of adultery in regards to their relationship with God, but what about those of us who really do accept Jesus? Do we ever fail God? Peter was a valiant man! He wholeheartedly meant it when he said he would follow Jesus to the end. He proved it to when he courageously drew his sword to defend Jesus at Jesus arrest. But a few hours later, he was shocked to realize that he had been unfaithful not once, but three times in a short span of time. In that critical hour when Jesus needed him most, he failed Jesus. Not only did he deny knowing Jesus, but his best service to Christ in that moment would have been to be somewhere safe praying for Jesus. In fact, this moment was the first time Peter had disappointed. When Jesus tried to share with him what was to happen, he rebuked Jesus causing pain instead of encouraging Him. When Jesus asked him to stay up and pray in the garden, he let Jesus down again by sleeping. And now, he denies any association with him.
But what about us? How are we unfaithful?
When we place our confidence in ourselves instead of God.
When we take credit for the things we have instead of giving credit to God.
When we use our money for our pleasures instead of helping the poor.
When we stay home to watch sports on television instead of going to church.
There are many ways we are unfaithful to God without even knowing it. And we may not be so unlike the Pharisees as we would like to think.
Do we spend time relaxed in our salvation and no time sharing with the lost the good news of Jesus Christ?
Do we compare our righteous acts with the acts of others and find them lacking?
Do we get caught up in trying to live out the law instead of living in relationship with our God?
Today we nail the commandment of no adultery to the cross in recognition that whether we believe it or not, we have probably failed here also.
Nail command to cross.
Jesus addressed this command also showing that it goes a lot deeper than we would like to see.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’
But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
“It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’
But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
“Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’
Unfaithfulness to our spouse, whether through action or thought, is another way too many in the church have been unfaithful to God. But before you point a finger at anyone, look over the previous list of all. There is no sin greater than another sin. All sin separates us from God.
It seems hopeless but for one thing. Jesus…died…on…the…cross! And when He did, He took our sins upon Himself so we could be proclaimed without sin and able to have the relationship with God that He always planned! Thank you, God! Thank you, Jesus!
For by Your wounds, we are healed!
Please bow your heads.
We are healed, but we are not perfect. So, it is important to provide opportunities for us to respond to a message. I do not do it every week, but I choose to do so periodically. I value the altar. It is a place where we show our humbleness before God. If we are able we kneel with heads bowed in prayer. When we are unable, we stand or sit in a front pew. It is not a comfortable thing to do. We often fear we look weak, or wrong. But the truth is that before God we are weak and wrong. Yet God sets our feet to dancing when we are willing to humble ourselves in this way. I want us to take a moment to be quiet before God. Each searching his or her own heart, to what God is saying to you this morning. And if you feel God tugging at you to come forward this morning, I encourage you, no one will judge you. Most of us have done so before, multiple times.
I have a CD that is going to play softly in the background and when I feel we are ready, I will dismiss us with prayer.
Pray