Adultery

Introduction

Exodus 20:14 ““You shall not commit adultery.”

If you are a mom or a dad and you have little one’s with you and you got a little nervous, I want to assure you that I have spent this week preparing this message in a way that is safe for little ears.

That being said, “sex” is not a bad word.

When it comes to adultery, sex, and purity, the world is loud. The church cannot be silent. We cannot be silent.

We often lament the way our culture has changed, and we tend to shout at our TV’s and lament better days, when people did this or they didn’t do that. I believe that we have to address cultural sins with bravery and candor and grace.

CIT: Jesus commands purity from his followers.

Explanation and Application

How does God view sexual sin?

Adultery primarily means unfaithfulness to one’s wedding vows - however, it does have other implications.

At some level, almost all sexual sin is adultery.

Whether you are with your current spouse or not, you are sinning against the Lord and against your future spouse when you do not walk in purity.

DEFINITIVE STATEMENT: Sex is to be only between one man and one woman in the context of marriage. Everything else is sin.

In Leviticus 18, God covers a host of other sexual sins.

Proverbs 6:32 He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself.

Adultery is unwise and foolish.

Adultery is one of the quickest ways to destroy oneself.

Many people ruin their lives, their families, and their ministries for a fleeting pleasure.

2. Jesus teachings about adultery.

a. Matthew 5:27-30 ““You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 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. 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.”

i. Physical purity is only one part of the equation. God desires for our minds and hearts to also be pure.

ii. When we look lustfully upon anyone or think lustfully about another, we sin against them, our spouse, and God.

iii. Jesus directly condones adultery.

b. Mark 7:21-23 “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.””

i. I often hear people say that Jesus does not address homosexuality or the plethora of issues that we see in our culture today.

ii. The Greek word for “sexual immorality” in this verse is “porneia” is a catch all for every time of sexual immorality. He was saying, “All of it.”

c. Because we are culture that does not value purity, when people act against God’s decree, they have a lot of shame. How should the church respond to shame?

Jesus gives us a beautiful example.

John 8:1-11 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” “And neither do I. Go and sin no more”

b. I once heard a pastor discuss his experience at a Purity Conference. True Love Waits. The Speaker got on stage and engaged in all kinds of fear-mongering, hatefulness, and distasteful language. His big illustration for the day was about a rose.

i. He gave the rose to someone in the room, and he said, “Pass it around the room.” When the entire room had passed the rose around, he held it, broken, missing pedals, and barely on the stem and said, “Now, who would want this rose.”

ii. The pastor said, “It was all that I could do not to stand up and say, “JESUS.”

iii. What truth! Even though you may have messed up your life and you feed dirty, broken, or sinful, Jesus loves you, and He wants you.

How does our world see sex?

Carl Truman // “Every age has its darkness and its dangers. The task of the Christian is not to whine about the moment in which he/she lives but to understand its problems and respond appropriately to them.”

I hear so many Christians simply say, “This nation is going to hell in a hand basket. Look at what all of these people are doing”

But for the grace of Jesus, so are all of us. And by the grace of God, those who live a life of sin can experience God’s grace - if only we will take the message of the gospel to them.

Jesus created us for such a time as this.

The world does not display; the world teaches.

Don’t take purity seriously.

A little sin isn’t a big deal.

Sex is the most important thing about you.

God does not care what you do with your body.

Students, I want you to listen to me. The world wants to tell you that whatever you want to do is fine. The Bible does not say that whatever you want is fine.

God is the authority for our lives.

We either follow the world, or we follow Him.

How do we live in sexual purity?

We believe IN OUR HEARTS that Jesus came to save sinners.

The Bible shows us over and over and over and over that Jesus can be found with who? The prostitutes.

Jesus moves towards sinners. He loves them, and his deepest desire is to forgive sin and heal them.

We STOP doing whatever we are doing that is sinful.

Pornography: It ruins marriages, and it causes us to look at people who are made in God’s image as objects. It is deeply sinful.

Adultery: Stop.

Sexual activity outside of marriage

We uphold God’s standards to a world that thinks very differently.

Homosexuality is a sin.

Cohabitation is sin.

Parents, teaching your children about God’s desire for us to live a pure life before Him.

If you do not teach them, then someone will teach them.

Protect your children. You need to take a look at your children’s browser history at least once a week. If your child’s browser history is deleted, you can get an app that relays all of the places that they have been.

The average age of pornographic exposure - a generation ago. ELEVEN. Today - 8.

Invitation

Jesus said, “As a doctor comes for the sick, so I come for you.” Jesus takes our sin, and he throws it as far as the east is from the west.

All who call upon his name will be saved.

The baggage of your past can be placed at the foot of the cross today. You have been carrying it for too long.

Jesus also says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

Maybe you are a believer, but your sin may be distracting you from the king.

Give it to Him today.