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Announcements
GriefShare - Grief Recovery support group meeting at ABA on Thursdays beginning August 18.
See flyer in your bulletin for information.
OCC - Nicole Bazzell
August Fellowship Meal - We’re having a hot diggity dog meal for August - hot dogs with all the trimmings, fries, and baked beans and of course desert!
Come join us on August 3 at 6:30, and the Wednesday night studies will happen right after that.
Reading: Deuteronomy 5:18
Pray
We are taking a deep dive into the Ten Commandments, and this morning we come to commandment number 7. Like the other commandments, this one radiates the glory of God and calls us to emulate him in our character and actions.
This commandment forbids us from committing adultery.
It’s been said that for every good thing God has given us, there is a “knock-off” imitation of it that hell uses to pervert the good, the true, and the beautiful.
Hell has a whole stockpile full of perversions of the intimacy of marriage.
But this command centers on one: adultery.
God looks at this one sin with such disgust that he forbids it in his top ten list of ethical requirements.
Think of that - he could have put any number of wicked deeds here.
There is no commandment, for example, expressly forbidding rape; none forbids excessive cruelty to people or animals, and none forbids leaving your dirty socks on the floor balled up.
But marital infidelity is so grotesque in God’s sight he must unequivocally ban it among his people.
I believe the reasons God bans adultery point directly to his character.
Consider first:
What Does This Commandment Reveal about God?
God Is Faithful
Everything that God commands of us serves to shape us into his image.
So when God commands us to be faithful in marriage, it is because he is the faithful God.
I could quote dozens of passages that show God is faithful, but let’s just look at a couple.
One example comes from an instance on the mountain with Moses - Moses asked God to show him God’s glory.
God hides Moses in between the rocks, covers his eyes so he is not destroyed by seeing God’s face, then passes by:
David proclaims God’s faithfulness in Psalm 36:5:
That’s not to mention Psalm 89, which gives several examples of God’s faithfulness, even when the descendants of David were faithless:
God is faithful.
That is vital to this commandment.
If God was not faithful, how could he rightly expect us to be faithful?
But he is faithful, and that alone makes him worthy of our praise.
But God isn’t just content to demonstrate faithfulness to us, he also wants us to follow his ways and display his image in ourselves.
So, second:
God Cares about Covenant Faithfulness
Because God is a faithful God, faithfulness to his covenants is paramount to him.
He wants us to be faithful too.
Proverbs 12:22 says:
God actually delights when we are faithful, because our faithfulness points to his faithfulness.
That’s why lying lips are an abomination to him: he is not content saying, “Well, you know how people are - can’t trust them as far as you can throw them.”
God speaks through Isaiah:
God invites the faithful into his presence, and he establishes him firmly.
Perfect peace in the everlasting rock: that is the inheritance for the faithful.
God is so concerned with covenant faithfulness that he bases his richest blessings on our faithful obedience.
It’s good to look for God’s blessings in the little things, but the things we long for most can only be found when we are faithful to do his perfect will.
One more aspect of God - but this as more to do with his works:
God Ordains Marriage for His Glory
The commandment is generally a call to faithfulness, but specifically it deals with marriage.
There’s a reason for that.
God sees that marital fidelity is vital because God ordains marriage for his glory.
Marriage brings glory to God by enabling us to fulfill the first command God gave Adam and Eve:
Marriage is the God-given means for fulfilling his call to “be fruitful and multiply.”
In order for us to exercise God’s dominion over the earth, we have the marriage covenant.
Our faithfulness in marriage provides a stable foundation for our kids to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord our Savior Jesus Christ, and for us to be the stewards of creation God wants us to be.
Not only that, but marriage also demonstrates God’s character within himself.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct from each other, but have such intimacy and unity that they are One.
Husband and wife are called to live that way:
Marriage mirrors the nature of God, as triune.
When done right, husband and wife demonstrate for the world to see the way God is - our love for one another within marriage helps people come to know God’s love.
Our marriages are God’s means of revealing himself to the world and of exercising his dominion through us.
Faithfulness in marriage glorifies God.
So what do we need to do?
What Does This Commandment Require of Us?
We Must Be Faithful to Our Spouse...
Since God is faithful, we must be faithful.
And other than with God, that faithfulness belongs most to our husband or wife.
Read through the entire book of Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon, whichever your Bible happens to call it) and you’ll see this faithfulness extolled over and over again.
Proverbs 5:18 counsels us:
We are to rejoice in her, men, because of that marriage covenant we’ve made with her.
And ladies, you too are to rejoice in the husband of your youth, for you are just as much a part of that covenant as the man.
One of the reasons that God chastises his people is their lack of faithfulness in marriage.
In Malachi 2:10-12, the prophet quotes God’s anger at idolatrous Israel, worshiping other gods.
He immediately transitions in Malachi 2:13-16:
To be faithless in marriage is to be faithless to the God who has brought husband and wife together!
And what God has joined together, let not man put asunder.
That faithfulness isn’t just in action, either.
We must be faithful to our spouse...
…Including in Our Hearts
Just as anger is the heart problem that leads to murder, Jesus identifies the heart problem of lust that leads to adultery:
This commandment is not just to keep from acting out bad thoughts.
It’s a commandment not to let lust take root in the first place.
Right after these verses, Jesus tells us to cut off or get rid of any body part that causes us to sin; he tells us it’s better to be maimed in heaven than whole in hell.
We must to whatever it takes to be faithful within our hearts and minds and souls and bodies - to faithfully love our spouses with all our being.
But you might ask, “what about those of us who aren’t married?”
Maybe you’ve never been married, or maybe your spouse died some time ago.
Or maybe you’re divorced.
What about you?
Well, we must be faithful to our spouse...
Whether We Are Married or Not
If you’re not married yet and never have been - be faithful to that future wife.
Don’t compromise marital fidelity before you’re even there yet.
If you were married and they have passed on, then still be faithful to God.
You never know what he might have for you - maybe there’s another spouse to come.
Perhaps not.
But what of the divorced?
Jesus actually address divorce in Matthew 5:31-32:
Jesus’ standard is high - divorce is a breaking of the marriage covenant and is detrimental to the glory of God.
There are times were divorce is necessary - especially in instances of abuse and infidelity.
But those exceptions prove the rule - God intends marriage to last.
We must be faithful to our spouse.
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