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SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE         EXODUS 20:14
 
 
            In 1631, the printers of one edition of the King James Bible were fined 300 pounds by Archbishop Laud—the equivalent of a lifetime’s earnings.
Their crime consisted in leaving one word out of the biblical text.
By omitting the word not, they had turned the seventh commandment on its head.
And so it read: “You shall commit adultery.”
As a result, this 1631 edition became known as “the wicked Bible.”
This morning, we will examine the seventh commandment given by the Lord God to the nation of Israel.
You shall not commit adultery.
Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation, said “Although one kind of impurity is alone referred to, it is sufficiently plain, from the principle laid down, that believers are generally exhorted to chastity.”
God demands that His followers live a life of purity.
The Law, as I have stated, is a reflection of the character of God.
So as Christians we are to live like Jesus.
So “The seventh commandment requires the preservation of our own and our neighbor’s chastity, in heart, speech and behavior” (Westminster Shorter Catechism).
This command is more than just behavior; it involves the heart and speech.
Yet, society is different from the one which omitted the word not from the seventh commandment.
Today, adultery is considered a private activity between consenting adults with little or no public consequences.
This has not always been so.
In 1963 when Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor began an affair during the filming of /Cleopatra/, they were shunned and Taylor was condemned even in Hollywood for stealing Burton from his wife.
In 1987, Gary Hart withdrew from The Democratic primary because of his relationship with Donna Rice.
And in the 1990s, things changed when Clinton was caught with Monica Lewinski.
Now there is a distinction between public life and private life.
So I would say this command is relevant to believers today.
A recently released Barna survey shows that over 40% of the people in America see nothing “morally” wrong with sexual dalliances by married men and women with people of the opposite sex who are not their mates.
The cover story in a recent issue of /Business Week/ boldly proclaimed “unmarried America” and described the alarming trend toward couples living together apart from marriage.
Young adults don’t talk of marriage; they talk of entering a “relationship” or “hooking up.”
They cohabitate with one another, they have sex with one another, and if the relationship doesn’t work, they pick one of the “fifty ways to leave your love” and take a hiatus.
Then, after a few months, they begin another relationship, and so the cycle continues.
The formality of marriage is avoided or postponed for years.
At the 2000 U.S. Census, there were 5.5 million couples living together outside of marriage, and the trend is accelerating.
Tragically for the nation, for every two marriages that take place in America, one marriage ends in divorce—a 50% divorce rate.
From the viewpoint of the Ten Commandments, this coupling and uncoupling is tantamount to the nationwide practice of adultery.
So this commandment is relevant because it speaks to a culture that witnesses affairs every night on television.
It is relevant because we read about politicians, athletes, and celebrities who commit this sin.
It is relevant because there are people in the church who have committed this sin from the pew to the pulpit.
It is relevant because we will see that it is a sin committed in the heart by all.
There are two truths that I want to communicate to you, this morning, about this commandment.
The first truth is what does this commandment mean?
And the second truth is what does this commandment involve?
WHAT DOES THE COMMANDMENT MEAN?
This commandment protects the sanctity of marriage, just like last weeks command protected the sanctity of life.
George Orwell said that restatement of the obvious is sometimes the first duty of a responsible man.
It is therefore worth restating what was once obvious and commonly held: Marriage involves a man and a woman.
Men did not invent marriage.
God instituted marriage with Adam and Eve before they fell into sin.
So, that means that without any distortion due to sin, the clearest picture of marriage came before the Fall.
Genesis 2:18-25 sets forth the divine pattern for marriage.
The Lord God declares, "It is not good for the man to be alone; /I will make him a helper suitable for him./"
"Suitable" means one that corresponds with him; one that rightly fits him.
The Lord then caused the animals to pass before Adam so that he named each one, "but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him."
The intensity builds, as all of the animal kingdom failed to be "suitable" for Adam.
Then the Lord put him into a deep sleep, took one of Adam's ribs, and out of that, "The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man."
Look at the divine pattern: one man and one woman; that is God's design for marriage.
He just as easily could have created another man for Adam.
But a man would not correspond to him.
He needed one to complete and complement him—that belongs only to the woman.
Adam's joyous song follows: "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."
And now Moses draws the conclusion and identifies the pattern for every marriage to follow: "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh."
"Leaving and cleaving," as it has often been called, demonstrates more than just two people living under the same roof.
It means that a new loyalty has developed; a covenant of faithfulness has been entered into.
"And shall... be joined to his wife," refers to the intimacy that takes place in this new loyal relationship of marriage.
They are cemented or glued together.
That is best expressed through the conjugal relationship within marriage.
Leaving and cleaving, and becoming one flesh focus the attention on the uniqueness of the marriage relationship as one that is to be enjoyed to the fullest and always to be kept inviolate, since the man and his wife are "one flesh."
The marriage ordinance of Genesis 2 stands upon faithfulness.
That's why, *"You shall not commit adultery,"* guards the integrity of every marriage.
Jesus Christ went back to this text as the foundation for His teaching on marriage and divorce (cf.
Matthew 19:1-12).
When the Pharisees asked if it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason, Jesus' response begins with the affirmation that marriage must be between one man and one woman.
"Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female?"
That is, He created them as complements to each other.
Then He quotes the leaving and cleaving passage, and further makes this declaration.
"So they are no longer two, but one flesh.
What therefore God has joined together let no man separate."
Adultery tears away at the "one flesh" of covenant loyalty in marriage.
Further, they asked, "Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?"
His response explains that the only thing that can break this relationship is "immorality," the Greek word for any kind of sexual involvement apart from the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman (/porneia/).
Divorce was a Mosaic concession not the divine purpose.
"Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way."
In other words, this was never God's intention when He established marriage between one man and one woman.
"And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality (/porneia/), and marries another woman commits adultery."
Scripture is replete with various passages that deal with the danger and punishment of adultery.
One such passage is found in Proverbs 6:20-35.
In the previous chapter, Solomon says that a man should enjoy his own wife.
A great example of self-control in this area is found in the life of Joseph.
Joseph's brothers, jealous of the favor shown to him by his father and the success that he had in all his endeavors, sold him into slavery.
He ended up as a servant to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh's bodyguard.
Potiphar found Joseph so dependable, that he entrusted everything in his household to him.
But Joseph, being a handsome man, caught the eye of Potiphar's wife.
Day after day she sought to entice him into an adulterous relationship with her.
Day after day he refused.
Joseph stood his ground.
"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.
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?"
He saw restraint as a matter of personal integrity toward his master that he would not dare breach.
He stood firmly on fidelity in marriage, that she was Potiphar's wife and not his own, and that to engage her proposal broke the trust of her marriage and his future marriage.
And he saw this, not as a chance to satisfy his lusts, but as a "great evil" that would be sinning against God.
/Stolen water is sweet,/ she enticed.
/Bread eaten in secret is pleasant./
"It's just the normal kind of desires and satisfactions that you need; go ahead Joseph and satisfy yourself!
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