Taking our Bibles, please, and turning to the book of Exodus, the book of Exodus, the 20th chapter, Exodus chapter 20. We're continuing a series under the title, God's Love Letter Chiseled in Stone, a focus on the Ten Commandments. We've been learning together the Ten Commandments in verse. In fact, I see that there's some more of these published, or printed rather, and they're back in the foyer and you can pick those up after the service by the track rack there in the foyer. But we're gonna say that together one more time this morning. You can do it on PowerPoint or you can do it by following along with the bookmark. But let's say these all together aloud, please. Above all else, above God alone, bow down to neither wood nor stone. God's name refused to take in vain. The Sabbath rest with care maintain. Respect your parents all your days. Hold sacred human life always. Be loyal to your chosen mate. Steal nothing, neither small nor great. Report with truth your neighbor's deed. and rid your mind of selfish greed. Our text this morning is Exodus chapter 20, the 14th verse. Exodus chapter 20, verse 14, five short words of great significance. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Let's ask the Lord's blessing on His word. We know we live in a time where your word is under attack, your will has been cast aside. We live in a culture filled with corruption and confusion. And so, Lord, this morning we come to your word and we pray that you'll help us come humbly, that we'll come sincerely and honestly. We'll find principles in your word that would direct our pathway. So, Lord, I pray that you'd use your word this morning to encourage your people that each person in this room today would hear from your word and from your spirit so as to walk in a way that would please you. Thank you, Lord, for the good land in which you've given us to live as we look forward to celebrating again the anniversary of our freedom. We thank you for the freedom that you've given to us to speak your truth and love, the freedom to assemble and to be able to gather in this way and proclaim the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, the Savior. I pray today, Lord, that you'd allow the gospel to shine through even in the midst of a topic that can be dark and a topic that can sometimes be not only delicate but even hurtful. So Lord, give me grace to communicate in a way that will glorify you, be helpful to every person who's coming to this room. Lord, with tenderness, may we minister to one another in an age that's so broken and so in need of light. So Lord, may your light shine this morning in this place, and may it do good to our hearts, for we seek to hear from you. For it's in Christ's name we pray, amen. When the King James Version of the Bible was published in 1631, it was entitled the Wicked Bible, the Wicked Bible. You say, why would they call it the Wicked Bible? Well, there was a three-letter word that was missing from Exodus chapter 20 and verse 14, and the Wicked Bible read this way, thou shalt commit adultery. Now you know why it was rightfully called the wicked Bible. Any Bible that leaves out a single syllable of the seventh commandment ought rightly to be called a wicked Bible. You see, for a society to be strong, physical union outside of the boundaries of marital covenant must be prohibited. for a society to be strong and its people to be blessed. Physical union outside of the boundaries of the marital covenant needs to be prohibited. Now that may sound old-fashioned, especially in an era where the National Institutes of Health report that television broadcasts routinely broadcast five physical unions outside of marriage to every one physical union within marriage. American television today boasts shows like Sister Wives, My Five Wives, Seeking Sister Wife, all promoting polygamy. We're living in a culture where the phrase open marriage has come to have a definition and a meaning without any further need of discussion. Polyamory is a new word to some, but it's a word speaking of multiple loving encounters, and it's becoming more and more acceptable. Into such a world the seventh commandment speaks. It sounds almost like a relic of a bygone era. Thou shalt not commit adultery. It sounds like a relic because the soul of America is sick. We're saturated with sensuality in ways that our forefathers could never have imagined. Not too many years ago, a website by the title of Ashley Madison became known in the news. Ashley Madison was an online dating service promoting dating relationships for married people. It was begun in 2002, some 60 million customers from some 53 countries signed on. The theme of the website, the slogan of the service, life is short, have an affair. Studies indicate that the number of Americans committed to marriage is declining. Back in 1995, 58% of Americans were married. Today, that number stands at 53% of Americans are married. That represents, by the way, millions and millions of our fellow countrymen. But among those 18 to 44, 59% of those living in America between the ages of 18 to 44 have cohabited with someone that is not a marital partner. In fact, in that same age category, 18 to 44, only 50% of those same adults have ever been married. More have shacked up than have hooked up through marriage. Few people seem to understand that a society and a saint cannot be strong when there is physical union outside of the marital covenant. God says, thou shalt not commit adultery. Now these are the loving words of our gracious God. These loving words were chiseled in stone, not to be harsh, but to be helpful. Not out of a heart to impress the law for wicked purposes, but to impress us with the law for righteous purposes. I want to invite you this morning to look with me quickly at the curse of adultery. Then we'll look at the cause of adultery, if you will. And finally, we'll conclude by saying what God says about the cure that He offers for adultery. Let's begin by considering the curse of adultery. When I was a child, my father being a pastor, from time to time, knocks would come on the door. We were living in a parsonage, and believe it or not, the sign in front of the church building gave the address of the parsonage just a couple blocks up the street. We lived on a state route in Ohio, and so from time to time people would knock on the door asking for a sandwich or a bowl of soup as they continued their journey. My mother was always kind to do that, to give a testimony of Christ as well. I recall one evening being awakened in the evening by a sound that came on the door, and with childish ears and curiosity I heard cries of a little girl who'd entered into the hallway of our home. She was a girl with whom I went to school and she was crying because from what I came to understand that night, her father and mother were having a fight in their home because her father had been involved in an adulterous affair. That was my first introduction to the violation of the Seventh Commandment. But my real introduction to the violation of the Seventh Commandment came when I was a youth pastor. And as a youth pastor, I got a call late in the evening, could I come over to a house? The pastor was out of town, and so I filled in. not having any understanding of what I was about to enter into, I entered into a living room and the lady of the house, the wife was sitting on the floor of the living room. She was crying uncontrollably. She had just discovered that her husband had been involved in an immoral affair. And I discovered that evening something that convinced me of the curse of adultery. I believe the word curse is probably the only appropriate word that can be used when we speak about the sin of adultery. Adultery is such a powerful force that it invariably invites the curse of our omnipotent God. And it's a pervasive problem, not just in our culture, it's been a pervasive problem from the time that men and women sinned in the garden. Today's Christian Woman Magazine cited an article in the Journal of Psychology in Christianity, noting that 65% of American men and 55% of American women will be guilty of involving themselves in an extramarital affair. Sadder Still, Christianity Today magazine, did a survey of some 300 evangelical pastors. 23% of them acknowledged that they had been wrong in their affections towards someone outside of their marital union. Now we need to be clear this morning. Adultery is a very destructive curse. The Bible says that adultery will destroy your health. Adultery will destroy your health. Proverbs, the book of wisdom in the Old Testament, chapter five and verse three says, the lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb, her mouth is smoother than oil, but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. And so it continues in verse eight, remove thy way far from her, come not nigh to the door of her house, lest thou give thine honor unto others and thy years unto the cruel, lest strangers be filled with thy wealth and thy labors be in the house of a stranger and thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed." Yes, adultery puts your physical health at risk. 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 18 says, flee fornication. Every sin that a man sins is without the body. But whosoever committeth adultery or fornication, sins against his own body. Did you know that data from the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control, that data tells us that today sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise? So much so that they say that syphilis today in America is at an all-time record high, not seen since 1948 when Truman was president. And it's especially sad to discover the increase of STDs such as chlamydia and gonorrhea and herpes and syphilis among the aged population, the senior population in America. Adultery puts your physical health at risk and it puts your mental health at risk. It leads to a life of fear, the fear of being caught. It leads to a life of guilt, enormous guilt that can't be carried alone. It leads to a life of shame. It's always an emotionally traumatic experience. The loss of purity comes at a great price. The loss of purity will affect your health. There's the so-called new sexual freedom that's been talked about really since the 1960s. That new sexual freedom brings awful emotional turmoil. David knew this. David in his confession psalm, the 32nd psalm, his penitential psalm, as he cries out from a broken heart over the sin of adultery with Bathsheba, he says, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. He's speaking about the emotional toll that his affair had taken on his physical wellbeing Is moral failure tormenting your body and your mind? Do you live in fear of getting caught? Is your conscience clamoring for peace, the type of peace that we sang about this morning? Adultery is a curse. It's a curse. It destroys our physical and our mental health. Adultery, according to the Bible, destroys our wealth. Again, reading from the book of Proverbs chapter 6 and verse 27, for by means of a whorish woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread. The adulteress will hunt for a precious life. There was a formal study done just a few years back by Ohio State University, 9,000 people were studied. The consideration of the study, how does immorality affect one's wealth? It was noted that divorce reduces a person's personal wealth by three quarters compared to a single person. So those who have been through divorce, typically, in fact, 75% of the time, have less wealth than those who are single. And people who get divorced see their wealth begin to drop long before the divorce is finalized. Friend, if it's your goal to be poor and dependent, then involve yourself in adultery. Adultery will destroy your wealth. Adultery will destroy your reputation. Proverbs chapter six, verses 29 to 33. The word of God says, he that goeth into his neighbor's wife, whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent. Men do not despise a thief, he steals to satisfy his soul when he's hungry. If he be found, he'll restore sevenfold. He shall give all of the substance of his house. But whoso committed adultery with a woman lacks understanding. He that doeth it destroys his own soul. A wound and dishonor shall he get and his reproach shall not be wiped away. Years after the indiscretion, the shame continues. Years after the sin has occurred, trust seems to be a far off goal. Years after the sin has been committed, the stain of sin somehow, indolible seems to yet linger. I stood at the hospital bed of a man that I loved dearly. He was an 83-year-old man who'd come to be my friend. This dear man had had a heart event that he knew, according to the doctor's report, that his days were short. As I stood at his bedside, having been his pastor for many years, he looked at me and he said, Pastor Phelps, this is going to be really hard on my wife. I said, how's that? He said, over 50 years ago, I had an affair. She's never been able to forgive me for it. Please pray for her. Adultery will destroy your health. It'll destroy your wealth. It'll destroy your reputation. It'll destroy your judgment. The book of Hosea says in chapter 4 and verse 12, my people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them, for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they've gone whoring after another God. There are a plethora of psychological disorders that come alongside moral failure. The act of immorality and the act of adultery sets up some kind of cognitive dissidence. It's hard to weave one's way through. Sure, some will try to justify their activities, but there's a cacophony within the conscience that says you can't justify it. There's a touch that the Spirit of God makes upon the heart, and Hosea chapter four and verse 12 says, whoredoms have caused them to err. It'll destroy your judgment. It'll destroy your family. The Word of God tells us of a family terribly destroyed by the act of adultery. In 2 Samuel, we read of King David's family. We remember the story, how the King David looked off of the balcony when he was a man well-esteemed in his community, and he saw a woman, and he took her, the wife of another, to himself, and he brought a plague into his home. The baby that she would bear would die. The man to whom she was married would be set up in a battle by King David so that he would be killed. And then the atrocities that came into David's home because of his adulterous affair. He brought the infection in himself. Amnon, his son, would take advantage of his half-sister. Absalom, his other son, would be so upset about Amnon's sin that Absalom would murder his brother Amnon. Then Absalom, so distressed by the sin that David had brought into the family through immorality, Absalom would want the kingdom himself and would actually enter into physical union with David's concubines to bring further shame into the family. If you want to put your family at risk, then be involved in the act of immorality and go after the act of adultery. They risk it all when they risk adultery. Adultery, after all, will destroy your life. Proverbs chapter 7 says in verse 18, words of the seductress, come, let us take our fill of love until the morning. Let us solace ourselves with loves. For the good man is not at home. He's gone on a long journey. He's taken a bag of money with him. He'll come home at the day appointed. And with her fair and much speech, she caused him to yield. With the flattering of her lips, she forced him, he goeth after her. As an ox goes straightway to the slaughter, as a soul to the correction of the stocks, till a dart striped through his liver, as a bird hasteth to the snare, he knows not that it's for his life. It'd be impossible for us to calculate the number of lives that have been impacted by adultery. It would be impossible for us to ever begin to calculate the pain that's entered into hearts because moral boundaries have been broken. There are always terrible consequences, always. Galatians 6 says, be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever you sow, you'll also reap. Adultery will destroy your soul. The word of God says in 1 Corinthians 6 and verse nine, The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, or revilers, or extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. Would you risk your eternity for a one-night stand Would you risk your soul to satisfy your sensual desires, knowing that one day those sensual desires will die and be placed in the grave? Is God tugging at your heart today to get honest? Are you feeding on the sensual and finding yourself trapped in sin? God's love letter is chiseled in stone. Thou shalt not commit adultery. This is his message of love to the ages, because he wants us to avoid the awful curse of adultery. Have you considered the horrible price that adultery costs? It's appropriate for us to ask, what would cause anyone to fall prey to such a terrible enemy? And when we ask that question, we ask the Word of God for counsel, and we look at the causes of adultery that are revealed in God's Word. Now, sociologists study the causes of immorality and the causes of adultery. Some sociologists will note this truth, that if one is promiscuous in their youth, it will often follow that they were more tendency to be promiscuous in their maturity. Those who have been abused in their youth sadly find themselves often more vulnerable to promiscuity in their maturity. Even so, those who have experienced the trauma of divorce need to put up special boundaries. We're not saying that God can't protect, but these are the things that sociologists look at. We don't look there, though we can learn from those things. We look rather at the Bible. What does the Bible have to say? Well, the Bible speaks to us with regard to some causes of adultery that you need to be aware of. So let's look into God's word. First, the Bible speaks about this cause, that adultery comes when there's a visual failure, when there's a visual failure. Psychology Today, way back in May of 2012, noted, along with many other articles, that men are visual predators. Men are visual predators. Job understood this. He understood it well. In Job 31 and verse one, Job said, I've made a covenant with mine eyes. Why then should I look upon a maid? Have you made a covenant with your eyes? The Old Testament tells us the story of really an Old Testament superhero. Samson was a superhero, he didn't wear a cape. Well, he wore his hair as his cape, I guess. Samson was such a superhero, he could pick up the gates of an ancient city, the city of Gath, and carry those gates up onto the hillside and put them down there. And yet, Samson didn't have control over his own eye gate. The book of Judges tells us in chapter 14 in verse one that Samson went down to Timnath and he saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. And he came up and told his father and his mother and he said, I've seen, I've seen a woman of Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines, now therefore get her for me. Samson was physically strong, but he had no guard over his eyes. He followed his lustful eyes right into the home of Delilah. Years ago, someone preached a sermon under the title, The Cost of a Haircut in the Devil's Barbershop. That's a good title. Samson. Samson's life stands as a warning to everyone who's afflicted with sensual eye disease. By the end of his life, The book of Judges tells us in chapter 16 that Samson's eyes are gouged out. Listen carefully. There's a difference between pornography and adultery. And while the themes run parallel even in this message, we need to understand that the seventh commandment is dealing specifically with the topic of adultery. Adultery is the violation of a marital covenant with a real accomplice. Pornography is the pollution of the mind through immoral fantasy. Adultery sins against the body and brings home the risk of disease. Pornography sins against the mind and brings home the risk of shame. Both are wrong. Proverbs 4 says in verse 23, keep thy heart with all diligence. But let me say here, men, you need to be careful. Men, you need to be careful. Luther very wisely said, you can't keep birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair. You need to be careful. You're surrounded by visual temptations, regardless of your age. The book of James tells us in chapter one in verse 14, every man is tempted when he's drawn away by his own lust and enticed. And the word picture that James uses there is a phenomenal picture of a fisher who takes a lure and cast it into the sea and causes that fish to follow after the lure until he bites to his own destruction. Every man is drawn away by his own lust and enticed. Satan knows the bait. and he likes to put it in front of you, and he likes to put it in front of you often. And ladies, you need to be thoughtful. You need to be thoughtful. It's interesting that 1 Timothy chapter two and verse nine speaks to the women, not to the men. And in 1 Timothy chapter two and verse nine, the word of God says, let the women adorn themselves with respectable apparel, with modesty. and self-control. Ladies, let your husband be satisfied with your beauty and don't offer that beauty to anyone else. It's imperative that men and women work together at reducing the risk of visual temptation. We're not asking the psychologist this morning, we're asking God's word and God's word affirms It's necessary for a man to make a covenant with his eyes and not give himself to a maid. Adultery comes through visual failure. Adultery comes through mental failure. Our Lord said in Matthew 5 and verse 28, whosoever looks to a woman to lust after her has committed adultery already in his heart. The Lord who created us can trace a pathology for us. There is a look that leads to lust. A glance can't be helped, but a gaze. That's a different story. Whosoever looketh to lust hath committed adultery already in his heart. Now common sense ought to convince us that men are attracted by visual stimulation. And common sense also ought to teach us that women are attracted by fantasies of the mind. There's a reason that 84% of the romance novels sold in America today are sold to women. They're attracted to fantasies of the mind. Do you know how many people, when polled, what percentage of people watching, I should ask, the Hallmark Channel are women versus men? Be careful here. I don't want you nudging anybody. I want you to go home and have a happy dinner after this service, all right? 75% of the viewers of the Hallmark Channel are women. The other 25% are men who can't wait to change the channel. Why is that true? Because women are attracted to fantasies of the mind. If the material of your muse moves your heart to embrace fantasies, and moves your attention away from realities, it's sin. I'm not saying you can never watch anything on, wanna be careful, on the Hallmark Channel, or ever read a romance novel. But I am saying, wisdom says be careful. You see, adultery comes when there's a mental failure, and of course, adultery comes when there's a marital failure. But I wanna explore that just a little bit. Adultery comes when there's a marital failure. Now that point may seem obvious, but it's a very important truth for us to consider. Listen, I'm gonna read 1 Corinthians 7, verse two, and I want you to hear it. 1 Corinthians 7, verse two says, to avoid fornication, every man is to have his own wife, and every woman is to have her own husband. To avoid fornication, Every man is to have his own wife and every woman is to have her own husband. When marital partners abandon physical intimacy, they're living dangerously. In fact, 1 Corinthians 7 and verse 5 says it's fraud, it's marital fraud. 1 Corinthians 7 and verse 5 says defraud you not one another except for consent. That Satan tempt you not. Marriage is the only God-given outlet for physical desire. God wants husbands and wives to enjoy physical union. And when there is no physical union, marital failure, that marital failure may lead to adultery. Adultery comes when there's visual failure. Adultery comes when there's mental failure. Adultery comes when there's marital failure. Adultery comes when there's spiritual failure. Galatians chapter 5 says in verse 19, that the works of the flesh are manifest. They are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness. Galatians chapter 6 and verse 8. warns every believer with these words, he that soweth to the flesh, love the flesh, reap corruption, but he that soweth to the spirit, shall love the spirit, reap life everlasting. Ephesians chapter five and verse three says, but fornication and uncleanness and covetousness, let it not be named once among you as becometh saints. Before the Christian enters into an adulterous relationship, the Christian has already committed spiritual adultery. Let me explain that. Why do people enter into adulterous relationships? Because they're not content with the good gifts that God gives to them. So they seek their contentment from the world and from the flesh. You'll either have spiritual satisfaction or you'll seek after sensual satisfaction. These two cannot dwell together. If you do not find your satisfaction in the Spirit, the things of God, you'll seek after your satisfaction in the flesh. And so James 4 warns you, adulterers and adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Now we've looked at the curse of adultery. We've looked at some causes biblically of adultery. And I think we're wise to look at the cure for adultery that's found in God's Word. We've alluded to some of that. The Word of God presents to us some preventative medicine and some remedial medicine. The preventative medicine, what do we do to avoid the awful plague of adultery that's round about us, accepted, that's spreading? that's virulent? Well, the preventive medicine would be this, to avoid the atrocity of adultery in your own life. First, agree with God. The seventh commandment is there for my good. It's God's love letter that's been given to me chiseled in stone. He says this to me because he wants to protect me from the awful curse of adultery. Joseph agreed with God. Remember Joseph's story, how that Joseph was one of 12 brothers and how his brothers hated him. Joseph didn't help the matter out very much when he came to his brothers and said, I had a dream. He had a dream speech far before Martin Luther King Jr. ever had a dream speech. Martin Luther King Jr.' 's dream speech was well received, not so much with Joseph. I had this dream, he said, and I saw all the sheaves bowing down before me, and I saw that I was like the sun and all the other planets were bowing in my direction. Then he looked at his brother. Can you figure out the application of that? Oh yeah, they had a bead on him. So the day came that his brothers took him by force and threw him in a pit. They're gonna leave him to die, And then by God's providence, some traders came by and instead they sold him into slavery. He found himself down in Egypt, a slave, working for Potiphar. Because he was a good man, he ascended in responsibility until that fateful day. You remember the day when Mrs. Potiphar set her eyes on him? When she set her eyes on him, he was in trouble. Come, she said, lie with me. Come lie with me. What was Joseph's perspective? Joseph's perspective was such a wonderful perspective that all of us need to know it. In Genesis chapter 39 and verse nine, Joseph said, how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? He was a single man. He had no marital vow that was holding him back. He had a conscience of what was right and what was wrong. The sin of adultery is fundamentally a sin against God. How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? You see, the adulterer says, God, I'm not content with your provision for my life. The adulterer says, God, I reject your image. I prefer to be as the beast of the field. Made in God's image, God calls us to moral purity, to the sanctity of marriage, to be a blessing to us. God put moral boundaries on us. He didn't put such moral boundaries on the rest of the animals. And he makes a difference in accountability between us and the rest. That's why David confessed when he was found in his adultery, oh God, against thee, and they only have I sinned, only, What about Uriah? What about Bathsheba? What about your family? Oh, David understood. It's against the very image of God that I've committed this great offense. You need to agree with God. God made you for physical union within the boundaries of a holy relationship that he calls marriage, nothing else. You need to allow the Spirit of God to strengthen you. Galatians chapter five and verse 16 says, walk in the spirit and you'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Listen, I appreciate the benefit that comes from accountability groups. I often loan out books of help to people on different themes when they're struggling. I appreciate the blessing that comes by having those who pray for us. But folks, there's no greater blessing than walking in the power of the Spirit of God to protect us from the adversary that's stalking us often. Walk in the Spirit. Draw close to the Lord through his word. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word. Hide his word in your heart that you won't sin against him. And then the Word of God says, if you would know the cure to adultery, accept marital bliss. Hebrews 13 verse 4 says, marriage is honorable in all, and the bed is undefiled. But whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. God's simple will is one man with one woman for one lifetime. Jesus said in Matthew 19, have you not read? He which made them at the beginning made them male and female. And he said, for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they too will be one flesh. 1 Thessalonians 5 says it so clearly in chapter 5 and verse 4. This is the will of God for you, even your sanctification, that you would abstain from fornication. Adultery is fundamentally a statement of discontent. It's selfish. It's a secret, selfish sin that seeks to fulfill sensual lusts. shakes its fist at the sovereign purpose of God who so loved us as to give us the pleasure of marital union, adultery and sexual immorality are selfish sins. God created us in His image with a gift to the lonely that He has given. Have a wife, have a husband, To the gift of the loneliness given, be involved in a local church, in a church family, where you can know the blessing of walking in the Spirit collectively. Those who find themselves seeking after pleasure and following after the patterns of Satan find only pain. So there's some remedial medicine. Come with me into 1 Corinthians 6. We've looked at a lot of passages. I'm not asking you to turn to any until now. But in 1 Corinthians 6, We find God's remedial medicine for the awful sin of adultery. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Follow along please as I read beginning in verse 9. The Word of God says, that the righteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. Now watch it. And such were some of you, but you're washed. Hallelujah. You're sanctified. Praise the Lord. You are justified, glory to God, in the name of the Lord Jesus, by the Spirit of God. Do you see the kind of people that made up the church at Corinth? Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, abusers of themselves of mankind, the thieves and covetous and drunkards and revilers. But God washed them. He sanctified them. He justified them by the power that's found in Jesus' name. Friend, the power of Jesus has the power to cleanse us from all of our sins. Aren't you glad? 1 John 4 and verse 14, the Word of God simply says, the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. When Jesus visited the home of Simon the Pharisee, the Gospel of Luke tells us in chapter seven, a woman that was well known for her wanton ways came near to Jesus She began to weep and as she wept, her tears fell down on his feet. She knelt down and she took her hair and with her hair, she began to wipe the feet of Jesus. Simon the Pharisee and the others who were at the table were appalled. Jesus would let this wicked woman touch him. She's a sinner, they said. And Jesus responded to her and he looked at her and he said, thy sins are forgiven. She looked to him for forgiveness. We looked to him. He died upon the cross to take the sins of the world. He was buried and rose again to triumphantly tell us this wonderful truth that we can be saved from our sin through him, no matter what the depth of our sin may be. Jesus found himself needfully going through Samaria. I'm glad he went there. The Bible tells us that as Jesus went through Samaria in John chapter four, he met a woman at the well. And that woman that he spoke with, he looked her in the eye and he said, you've had five husbands. And the man you're living with right now, he's not your husband. She was so taken with the forgiveness that he offered her, that well of water that would spring up in her heart that she ran back to her city and she said, you gotta come meet this guy. He told me everything I ever did. What? Yet all those things that she'd wanted to hide before were now hidden under His promise of forgiveness. And they could be hidden for you under His promise that His blood can forgive you of all your sins. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all of our sins. A story is told of a couple who were married for about 15 years and things were getting a little rocky at home. The wife had an idea, she said, you know what we ought to do? We ought to have a box, and we're gonna take a month, and every time you're upset with me, you put a slip of paper in the box about what's bothering you, and every time I'm upset with you, I'll put a slip of paper in my box, and then at the end of the month, we'll exchange boxes. Maybe that's better than just arguing about it every day. Don't try this at home. At the end of the month, they took the boxes, And the wife gave her box to her husband, he pulled out the first slip, you left your socks on the floor. He pulled out the second slip, you left the wet towel on the floor. Other such complaints, the wife opened her box, she saw the first slip that he put in the first day, it said, I love you. I love you. Every slip she picked out, I love you. Folks, having looked carefully at the personal painful truth of God's Word about the topic of adultery. I think it's well for us to end this message with this glorious thought. God says, I love you. And he showed it by sending Jesus to forgive us of our sin. Friend, he loves you. You can have his forgiveness if you cry out. For if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all of our unrighteousness. Will you stand with me, please, as we pray? Our heads are bowed and our eyes closed, no one looking around.