Exodus chapter 20, gonna continue. We're on about the seventh commandment. We're getting there. Going through the 10 commandments. We do that about every three years, two or three years. And why is that important? Well, you think, why does the devil, why was his main focus for many years to remove the commandments? Remove the commandments from the schools, remove them from the public forum. because it's through that law of God, those commandments, that God reveals himself. If there's no boundaries, then no one really knows where God stands on all these issues. And that's a big problem with folks today. They don't have a clue where God stands on all these issues, the social issues. They have no idea where God stands. And there's no commandments in the classroom, none in the public forum, not much. Of course, you go around the Capitol in Washington, D.C., all those monuments there, you'll find scripture everywhere. Kind of hard to remove all those historic monuments that have scripture on them everywhere. So I'm gonna be in Exodus chapter 20, beginning in verse one, it said, and God spake all these words, Exodus 20 and verse one, saying, I'm the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them, for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God. revisiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work but the seventh day is the sabbath of the lord thy god and if thou shalt not do any work thou nor thy son or thy daughter thy manservant nor thy maidservant nor thy cattle nor thy a stranger that is within thy gates for in six days the lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. and all the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet and the mountain smoking. And when the people saw it, they were moved and stood afar off. My, my, my, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we love you today. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness and your mercy and your blessings upon your people, Lord. We pray for any that might be here today that has never trusted you for salvation, that you would open that heart and convict that heart of its need for a savior, Father, help me, give me unction to teach this morning and to preach, Lord, and we'll thank you and praise you for all you're going to do. Help us to learn and to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Savior. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, well, we've gone through six commandments, and today we're gonna look at the seventh commandment, thou shalt not commit adultery. Folks say, oh, that one? You know that half the TV programming that you see glorifies unfaithfulness. It glorifies it. And well, that don't bother me, but the Bible talks about those, but don't, there's things that you won't do, but you have pleasure in those that do them. Gotta watch out. On thin ice. On thin ice with some of that. But not only, this is in Exodus 20, 14, thou shalt not commit adultery. Not only does this command expressly forbid something, but it implies something else, and that is that the ordinance of marriage should be observed. You ought to get married. And my years in police work on the street, I'd tell those young folks, I'd say, hey, you ought to get married. Then God will start blessing it. condemn them and so forth. They just said, if you want God's blessing, you should get married. And then they'll show up, want to get married. And I've heard preachers say, well, I won't marry them. They've got to do this, go from A to Z. Hey, I've preached that long enough. They ought to get married. I'm going to marry them if they want to get married. Sometimes very short, very short ceremony. But I've married a lot of those young people that I dealt with. It's honorable. Let every man have his own wife. The Bible says, and that's in 1 Corinthians 7-2, let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband. Marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled. And that's Hebrews 13-4. God instituted a marriage in paradise with Adam and Eve. He brought the woman to the man. What is the count? Fellow said in the beginning, God created heaven and the earth, and God created Adam, then he took a look at Adam and said, well, I can do better than that, and created a woman. That didn't go too well. It's kind of a dead crowd. We'll get you woke up here. But God instituted marriage and paradise, brought the woman to the man, and he gave them to each other in marriage. Jesus Christ honored marriage by attending the wedding there at Cana. Now that wedding, it don't say whose wedding it was. A lot of theologians think it might have been one of Nathanael's family because Nathanael was from Cana. But it really don't say. But the Lord honored that, went to the marriage ceremony. Went to the wedding. The first miracle that the Lord brought was at a marriage when he turned the water into wine. And it's a type, marriage is a type of the mystical union between Christ and the church. Ephesians 5.32, this is a great mystery. That's one of the seven mysteries. The Bible talks about seven mysteries, and this is one of them. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church, that mystery union between Christ and his bride. The Bible says we become bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. That's why you should never doubt your salvation, because you're joined to Christ. You're bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh. Wow. Among other things, the Bible states that this sin, now this is a tough one, this is one David had to deal with, this sin deserves capital punishment under the Levitical law. Leviticus 20.10 says, and the man that hath committed adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress, shall surely be put to death. Wow. Man, if that was instituted today, there'd be a lot of dead folks. Wow. Probably wouldn't be any Congress left. The Hollywood crowd, man, it's tough. Huh. It is abhorred by God according to Ezekiel 23 and Malachi 2, and it merits death by stoning. John 8, 3, and the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery, and when they had set her in the midst, they saying to him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery in the very act. Get my bandage working. The Bible says, Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned, but what sayest thou? That's in the context here with woman. This, they said, tempting him that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground as though he heard them not. And there's a lot of, not argument, but a lot of thought as to what the Lord wrote. Some, I've heard some preachers say, well, he wrote every man's name that was standing there. Others say he wrote the Levitical law, where it says the adulterer and the adulteress, both the man and the woman, are to die. Because he asked where, yeah, where it says, well, anyway, let's go. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said to them, he that is without sin among you, let him cast a stone at her. That's a Pharisee crowd. They were guilty of probably worse than that. And again, he stooped down and wrote on the ground and they which heard it being convicted by their own conscience. Went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last, and Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself and saw none but the woman, he said to her, woman, where are those thine accusers? Has no man condemned thee? She said, no man, Lord. And Jesus said to her, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Wow. Say it's a sin that can be forgiven like any other sin. In this body of flesh, you're gonna have to deal with sin. You learn to deal with it, it'll kick you. It'll kick you in the teeth and knock you down. And the key is to get up and shake yourself off, confess it from the heart, be sincere with God, ask forgiveness, and then move on. move on, for if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, not just some of it. You move on, you get over it, and you move on. Now, the commandments against adultery, they're repeated under grace. Matthew 19, 18, he saith unto him which, Jesus, remember the guy said, what do I do to inherit eternal life? He said, you know the commandment, keep the commandments. And he saith unto him, which Jesus said, thou shalt do no murder. We talked about that. The Lord defining the commandment, thou shalt not kill, is meaning murder. The author of the book defined it right here. Jesus said, thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness. So it's, again, under grace, it still violates God's commandment. And a lot of causes, a lot of causes, unhappy marriages. One survey revealed the following, said out of every 100 girls who get married under the age of 18, 40% are shotgun weddings. 32 out of those 40 will divorce within five years. Children of these unions make up much of the population of America's prisons. No daddy in the home. That's a tough deal right there. Of all the young people who marry between the ages of 18 and 21, they have only a 40% chance of making their marriage last. A 50% chance for those between 21 and 23. For those who are 25 or older, there is a 75% chance. Couples have courted for six months to one year have twice as much chance as those who did for six months or less. Now, obviously, there's exceptions to that generalized statement there. My mama knew my daddy three months, and they got married, and they were married for 51 years before my dad died. So there are exceptions to that general statement there. It said couples who have courted for six months to one year have twice as much chance as those who did for six months or less. And with these figures, you figure in a recent year, 1,600,000 girls were married in the US and one half of those were teenagers. 112 of the teenagers were under 18 and that figure don't look right. Presently, more than 20,000 people in the U.S. who are married in between the ages of 12 and 15. That's an anomaly today. A couple generations ago, I think, wasn't it Loretta Lynn, 14 years old when she got married? Down in the hills, especially in that cold country, those folks want to get out of them hills, they'd run off first man to come along. A lot of times. I think Joyce got me, you know. Yeah. But that's changed. Society really frowns upon a girl that young getting married today. But everywhere you look, it's glamorized and glorified. And talking about marriage is not lasting. I've married quite a few people, and I'd probably say that more that I've married that haven't married have not lasted. It's just kind of a sign of the times. I think what's lacking is the commitment. When Joyce and I got married, I just said, well, that's it. There's no what's behind door number two and door number three. We're in this thing together. And we've been married almost 48 years or almost 49. I don't know. Somewhere in there. She'll remind me the next anniversary. Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania had an article way back when. This is an old article. It said, it was entitled Update, Physically Intimate and Sexual Behavior on Primetime Television. And this is back in the close to 1980s. So imagine how it's changed. They compared the amount of sex on TV during the season with an earlier study done in 1975, found some of their results interesting, and we're going to pass it along. The study found that the frequency of flirtatious or seductive behaviors quadrupled in just that four or five year period. The frequency of sexual innuendo increased five times, and the tendency to imply an act of sexual intercourse increased 10 times. Wow, and that's way back when. That's before the networks really increased the content. 2 Timothy 3.13 said, but evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse. In another area, the report stated that there was substantial increase in frequency for two categories. Prostitution, allusion to prostitution increased more than fourfold. and those which were featured that showed aggressive sexual contacts increased threefold in just two years. My, my, my. Matthew 19, 9. And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery. And whosoever marrieth her, which is put away, death committed, alter. Okay, here's kind of when we get down to the nitty gritty. A lot of the old time Christians say the only reason for divorce, now I'm talking to, the church in general, 50% of church members today are divorced. And what I want to deal with, if someone has a relationship with someone else, the vow is broken. Here it says, except it be for fornication. So the Lord set the rules here, if someone is unfaithful, that breaks the vow and it frees you to marry again. You ask God for the sin that led to the divorce, there's gonna be a sin somewhere in that, and you move on. That's what you do. There's no first and second class Christians. We have a tendency, many of the pharisaical crowd in the church has a tendency to think that, well, we got first class Christians and we got second class Christians. It don't work that way. You're either Christian or you're not a Christian. You're either forgiven or you're not forgiven. So you ask God forgiveness. Now, when I counsel people, People that have been split up and they're wanting to marry someone else, I'll go to this verse and read it to them. I said, until that partner has a relationship with someone else, I don't see where you're free to marry. But the moment they do, you're free to marry. Does that make sense? Sometimes you have to wait them out. But if it's young people, you don't have to wait too long normally. You gotta wait them out. And it's getting kinda quiet in here, in this biblical stuff. God says preach the whole counsel of God, not just the warm and fuzzy stuff. So, I tell folks to wait them out. That vow is broken. I'll tell you an interesting story, and I kinda picked up on this Remember David and Bathsheba. David committed adultery with Bathsheba. Also had her husband killed. Premeditated murder. And God forgave David. But what I found interesting, God took the child of that relationship from David. But you know, the moment that Bathsheba's husband was dead, From that point on, David was blessed. Solomon, their next son Solomon was blessed. And the only thing I can figure is because that, the legal, God is so specific on his law that once her husband died, that vow was broken. No longer under the vow. Does that make sense? Why would he honor Solomon? Why would he bless Solomon? He took the first child, but once your eyes did, Just something to think about. And he did, he blessed Solomon. A lot of things come with sexual promiscuity, all the venereal disease, STDs, leaps and bounds, bad effects on children, children affected by it. I found over the years that a lot of kids blame themselves when mom and dad split up. Oh, it's my fault. Oh, what did I do? It must have been me. It must have been something that I did. So they got to deal with that. Normally takes some counseling in there to get them beyond that guilt. Nine million children in that situation in broken homes in America, and these are old statistics. Sociologists agree that the problems in a home like that are approximately four times out of a one-time marriage. God warns us about it. But man, you sit in front of the TV and you see all that stuff thrown up in your face. All those, the devil and all his devices to tempt you and to lure you and to challenge you. Proverbs 5.20, and why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman and embrace the bosom of a stranger? For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all his going. His own iniquity shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holding with the cords of his sins. He shall die without instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray. Proverbs 6, 32, but whoso commiteth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding. He that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. Verse 33, a wound and dishonor shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away. Proverbs 7, 22, he goeth after her straightway as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a foal to the correction of the stocks, till a dart strike through his liver as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. Hearken unto me now, therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths, for she hath cast down many wounded, yea, many strong men have been slain by her." Well, the physical things involved here, the works of the flesh are manifest according to Galatians 5.15, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness. Matthew 5, 27, Lord said, you have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Boy, that's when it gets kind of quiet. Notice the danger in this. Let no man say when he is tempted, James 1.13, let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil. Neither tempteth he any man, but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. It's that old flesh. It isn't the new creature that's tempting you. It isn't the Holy Spirit of God that's tempting you. It's yielding back to the old flesh. Paul said, I know within me that is within my flesh dwelleth no good thing. He said, one day God will change our vile bodies. Just can't go there. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust. And lust, and enticed it said, the lust entices you. Then, when lust hath conceived, bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. It's not God that tempts you with evil. It's that old devil that's in your flesh. That old nature, look out. The Bible says the last days are filled with those who are full eyes or full of adultery. First Peter 2.14, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls and heart, they have exercised with covetous practices, cursed children. My, my, an action had to be preceded by a thought which had to be preceded by a look And as evil as David's sin was, Solomon's had his problems. All his women, and he ended up turning to the gods of all those women he was messing with. 1 Kings 11, 3, and he had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods. And his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, and was the heart of David his father, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, a false god. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil on the side of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father. Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Boab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense. and sacrificed them to their gods. And the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice. And he commanded him concerning this thing that he should not go after other gods, but he kept not that which the Lord commanded. Did it anyway. A lot of folks just do it anyway. They know God's against it. They know it's a sin. Wherefore the Lord said unto Solomon, for as much as this is done of thee and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee and will give it to thy servant. Wow. Now the entire book of Hosea is about Israel's adulterous ways as she was unfaithful to God. Israel is referred to as God's wife. God the Father's wife, he referred to Israel. And we are the bride of Christ. We should be faithful to Christ. Need to watch your company. What do you do? Well, don't make provision for the flesh. Don't give occasion to the flesh. Proverbs 5, 8 said, remove thy way far from her and come not nigh the door of her house, lest thou give thine honor unto others in thy years unto the cruel, lest strangers be filled with thy wealth. Anybody ever have to pay child support for several years so your ex can party down with your wealth? Shouldn't have said that, should I? Mm. Lest thou give thine honor to others, and thy years be cruel, lest strangers be filled with thy wealth, and thy labors be in the house of a stranger. Be careful with your eyes. As a little boy, there's a song, Little Eyes, be careful what you see. Eyes are never satisfied. Can't get enough. Mm. I made a covenant, Job 31.1, I made a covenant with mine eyes, why then should I think upon a maid? That's in the Bible, yeah, that's in the Bible. Job 31.1, be careful with your conversation. 1 Corinthians 15.33, be not deceived, evil communications corrupt good manners. Look after your heart, watch your heart. Proverbs 4.23, keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Matthew 15.19, for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. Pay attention to how you dress. You dress provocatively, you're gonna have a lot of attention. And you become a stumbling block to someone who's weak. You know what the Bible says modest apparel? I don't try to specifically define that. Can't tell you exactly what it is. I can tell you what it isn't. I recognize it when it isn't. And we see it with the young people today. Mamas do not cover up that skin on those girls, those young girls. And that they don't understand, they don't get it, that it turns on, it's like a faucet turning on chemistry. And a boy to show all that skin. Now, if people come into church dressed that way, and you've got somebody with a weakness for that, then you become a stumbling block. And a lot of times, it's not so much about you, what you're wearing, it's what you've caused someone else, you've been a stumbling block to someone else. I won't stay there, but. For out of the heart, it's a heart thing. Pay attention to your dress, Proverbs 7, 10. And behold, there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot and subtle of heart. Well, how can you tell? Duh. When I was working the inner city of Miami, you'd see these gals walking the street. And the street walkers, man, that's the ones who have struck out everywhere else. I mean, when they're out on the street, they're kind of at the bottom of the barrel. And you could spot them a mile away. A lot of the easy ways you'd spot a girl who was out there turning tricks is she would have long sleeves on. And it'd be 85 degrees at night in Miami sometimes, and the girl would have long, what's that about? She was covering up track marks. Roll up the sleeves, you'll see the track marks from the heroin. And the track marks indicated that she was supporting a habit out on the street. Don't know why I threw that in. Just did. Avoid those things that entices you. If you got a weakness, stay away from those things. Don't make provision for it. Don't give occasion to it. Avoid idleness. Ezekiel 16, 49. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom. Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. You ask God for a love for your wife or a husband. You ask God to tend to that fire. What's the old country song? There's nothing cold as ashes after the fire's gone. You ask God to keep that fire going in your marriage. Ephesians 5.25 says, Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. That's a nurturing, a husband, that's a nurturing relationship. That's a sacrificial relationship. Christ was a servant to his bride. Hmm. Labored against the fear of God. Think about that. You should have the fear of God. Be afraid that God might hit you with a bowl of lightning. Hmm. Proverbs 16, six, by mercy and truth, iniquity is purged, and by the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. Delight yourself in the word of God. Psalms 119, 101, I have refrained my feet from every evil way that I might keep thy word. 102, verse one, I have not departed from thy judgments, for thou hast taught me. Psalms 103, how sweet are thy words and my taste. That's 119, 103. Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Lastly, you pray against this sin. It's corrupted so many homes, still corrupting. One thing I learned is Satan is not omnipresent. He can't be everywhere all the time. So he works collectively through the TV, the advertising, the medium, so that's why so much sex is used in advertising. And the TV programming, Satan, that's his little hook to get your eyes looking at stuff that God don't want you spending time with. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we love you. Thank you for your mercy and grace. Thank you for the truth, Lord. I pray that we would preach and teach the whole council of God. even those things that are somewhat uncomfortable, Lord. We love you. Be with the worship service. Hold me up by the power of your might. Give us hope in hearts. If there's any here that is lost today, Father, I pray that you'd convict that heart and that they would get saved before they leave the building today. All this we ask in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. All right, take a break.