Let us call upon the name of our covenant God together in congregational prayer. Our Father which art in heaven, we draw near unto thee in the glorious Sabbath evening of this day. And coming near unto thee through Jesus Christ, who himself has entered into thy holy place through the new and living way. not the old veil of the tabernacle or the temple that hung in the room made by hands, but who has entered into thy presence through his own flesh as the veil that he tore by his death upon the cross, so that through his broken body and shed blood, he himself has entered into heaven. and not into that old room, which was the pattern and figure of the true, but into heaven itself, where he now appears in thy presence and sits at thy right hand, crowned with glory and honor, majestic in the heavens. We thank thee that our Lord, by entering into thy holy place in heaven by his flesh himself, has brought us with him For he is our head, and we are the members of his body, so that in him we already stand before thee in perfect righteousness, through his flesh, through his blood, through his sacrifice upon the cross, we approach boldly unto thy throne of grace, and beseech thee that thou wilt be merciful unto us. We pray that thou wilt remember us as a congregation, blessing us with the riches of thy grace. Wilt thou look upon us in all of our smallness and nothingness. We are not the great things of this earth, the mighty things, the things of renown and note, but the small things, indeed the cast off things, whose day of beginnings is a small day of small beginnings. who are despised and cursed, and who ourselves recognize according to thy word that we are even the publicans and the sinners and the harlots of this earth, so that in us there is simply nothing that could draw thy eye, there is nothing that could win thy favor, The fact that thou has been merciful to us and gracious and has opened to us the windows of heaven through Jesus Christ is evidence of thy grace alone, thy sovereign grace, thy sovereign power and grace which has saved us, thy sovereign grace which thou has set upon us from before the foundation of the world, thy sovereign grace which cannot be thwarted. but surely accomplishes all thy purpose in the salvation of thy church. We beseech thee, Father, that thou will give to us this peace and this comfort as we meet before thee this morning being assembled by thy word and spirit. We pray that thou will speak to us the gospel of peace the good news of our Savior who was covered with shame, the good news of Jesus Christ as the faithful bridegroom who has never strayed from purity and faithfulness to his church, but has in all things loved us and given himself for us and remained faithful with eyes only for thy people. We pray, Father, that thou wilt give unto us this comfort as we hear the gospel proclaimed regarding the faithfulness of our Lord. And then give unto us the life of putting away all fornication and uncleanness and adultery and living in purity and temperance and chastity before thee and hating even the uncleanness of our flesh. We pray that thou will look upon us who are oppressed and who are broken down by the assaults of men, whose cruel vindication continues to be unto us a cause of grief and affliction. We pray that the balm of the gospel may be our solace, that we might be bound up with the good medicine and the everlasting life that is Jesus Christ, that we might have this confidence that he is ours and we are his, and there is no one, regardless of how cruel and violent, that can take us out of thy hand. We pray, Father, that thou wilt continue to look upon us in all of our afflictions and sorrows, grant that in our adversity we may be patient, May thy gospel be a stay and anchor for us, and in our prosperity, of which thou hast also given much. May we be thankful, not lifting up our hearts in vanity or pride, but as we receive all things from thee as a congregation here in this place, even the gift of this building, and the gift of all the various gifts in the congregation for the various aspects of our life, that we may confess about all of this, these things are thine. Thy wisdom hath fashioned us, thou hast opened to us the windows of heaven, and given unto us all that we stand in need of. so that thy grace and thy grace alone receives the honor and the glory. We pray, Father, that thou will keep us from every boast, but by the gospel may our boast be in thee and in the cross of Jesus Christ. We pray that thou will bless us as we hear thy word this evening. Will thou open our ears and our hearts that we might hear indeed our Savior speak. Remember thy servant who proclaims thy word, that thou wilt unstop his lips, that thou wilt open his mouth and loose his tongue, that he might utter the things that belong to another world, the world of the heavenly and the things from above, and that we might not hear the earthly wisdom of man, which is nothing but folly and sensual and devilish, but that we might hear the wisdom from above and that our souls may feast on our Lord and be refreshed in Him. We pray that Thou wilt bless also our praying. We thank Thee for this gift of prayer in which we may cross the threshold of heaven And though we remain here upon the earth according to the place that Thou hast given us, nevertheless, we stand in the presence of Thy throne of grace. We pray, Father, that Thou will hear our prayer for Jesus' sake. We thank Thee for the Spirit who makes many intercessions with groanings which cannot be uttered. for we know not what to pray for as we ought. We thank thee for our Lord Jesus Christ, who at thy right hand ever liveth to make intercession for us. We thank thee for his cleansing blood, which covers the sins and spots and iniquities of our praying, so that our prayers are heard by thee, not for our sake, but because they come through the rent veil of the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that thou remember us in our singing also in this worship. We thank thee for the Psalms of Zion, those great songs of Jehovah that thou has given unto thy church to sing. We thank thee for the sweet psalmist, our Lord, whose songs they are and who sings them with his church and who has by his grace made his church members of him that we might sing with him by his word and spirit. We pray, Father, that Thy name might be honored and glorified in these songs that Thou hast given. Will Thou remember us also in the giving of our offerings that we might give with cheerful hearts in gratitude for what Thou hast bestowed, for truly, Father, Thou hast given unto us all things. We pray that we may then, with what Thou hast given us, seek first Thy kingdom and its righteousness, knowing that Thou wilt provide all that we need for soul and body. We pray that Thou wilt continue to give unto us in this land the opportunity to worship Thee wilt thou so guide the rulers, the magistrates, the kings, the presidents, the governors, the congressmen, the judges, the police force, and all who are in authority over us, that they might countenance the preaching of the gospel everywhere. We pray that thou wilt grant unto us as thy people that we might live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty, We pray also that thou remember thy people in the positions of authority that thou hast given unto them. Will thou grant unto them a rich measure of thy grace as they function as thy servants, as the powers that be who are ordained of thee in the rule of the land. We pray, Father, that thou wilt so direct all things to the coming of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and working of all things according to thy eternal purpose and good pleasure. We pray, Father, also that thou will remember our school. We thank thee for Pavilion Christian School, which thou hast established and which every time we mention is a cause and source of wonder to us. For thou hast given to us in the school what no man could build. Thou hast established what no human might could could establish and thou hast raised up what no human hands could do. We thank thee for this place where we may rear our covenant seed together, looking upon one another's things in the covenant of grace, living with warm regard one for another and a desire to build one another up and the precious seed that thou hast given. Pray that thou remember our teachers and the school, giving unto them all that they need to stand in the place of us as parents. Remember our administrator. Will thou bless our board. We thank thee for the association and we thank thee for the many, many gifts that thou hast given for the operation of the school day by day. And above all, Father, bless our covenant seed on whose behalf the school is founded. For in this day and age, the devil goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. The world is crafty and cunning and so seductive especially in its targeting of the children in order to entice them to live as the Babylonians do and not as the children of Israel, to put upon their lips the language of Ashdod rather than the language of Judah. We beseech thee, Father, that thou wilt protect and keep our covenant seed and cause them to see their whole place in this world in the light of thy word. that in their station and calling which thou shalt give them, they might serve thee and honor thee in the occupation that they have. We pray that thou will remember our children also who attend Heritage Christian School. Will thou bless them and keep them, continue to watch over them. We thank thee, Father, for children of the covenant. We thank thee that thou dost love the lambs of the flock and that thou dost call our children, even as many as thou dost call, and give unto them good hope and firm faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, wilt thou continue to bless and keep our covenant seed. We pray that thou wilt forgive the sins we have committed as we have stood before thy law this morning and as we stand before a proclamation of a particular commandment tonight We are convicted in our own souls of our iniquity, as is the office of thy law to expose our sin. We pray, Father, that thou wilt indeed expose our sin, that we might not trust in ourselves or find strength and salvation in our flesh or in our arm, but that emptied of ourself our hope might be in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, and declare him to us by thy holy gospel for our comfort. And we beseech thee, Father, that thou wilt give unto us the life of Christ. In gratitude unto thee, having forgiven our sins in the blood of Christ, having covered them all and counted to us the perfect righteousness of Christ, wilt thou give unto us as the sure fruit of that salvation the good works that thou hast before ordained that we should walk in. And we pray, Father, that men may see our good works, which thou dost give, even as we say, yet not I, but thy grace that was with us. And may they glorify thee, our Father, which art in heaven. We pray, Father, that our light as a congregation may shine and be set as a city upon an hill, which cannot be hid and not under an overturned bushel. We pray that thou wilt look upon us in thy mercy, that thou wilt hear our prayer, that thou wilt answer us for Jesus' sake, for it is in his name that we pray, amen. We worship the Lord now in the giving of our offerings. The first offering is for the building fund and the second is for the school fund. You, you, you, you. Psalter number 333, 333. The next section of Psalm 119, we'll sing all four of 333. ♪ These bounts divine I owe ♪ ♪ Thine to offer ev'ry hour ♪ ♪ I now pledge in my heart ♪ ♪ To the spirits of heaven above ♪ I am led to a meager place, but my soul will be divine. Tonight, we consider from Lord's Day 41 of the Heidelberg Catechism, the Seventh Commandment, which Seventh Commandment is, thou shalt not commit adultery. In connection with that, we read three passages beginning with Genesis 1. Genesis 1, verse 26, to the end of the chapter. Genesis 1, verse 26. And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air and to everything that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat, and it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Then we turn to Matthew 5, Matthew 5, verses 27 through 32. Matthew 5, 27 through 32. 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. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee. For it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee. For it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. It hath been said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement. But I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery. And whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, commiteth adultery. And then finally, John 8, verses 1 through 11. John 8, verses 1 through 11. John 8, verse 1. Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives. And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him, and he sat down and taught them. And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned. But what sayest thou? 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. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. 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 unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. This is the word of God, holy and inspired. May he bless it to our hearts this evening. On the basis of those passages and many others, we have the instruction of the Heidelberg Catechism in Lord's Day 41. Lord's Day 41. Question 108. What doth the seventh commandment teach us? That all uncleanness is accursed of God, and that therefore we must with all our hearts detest the same, and live chastely and temperately, whether in holy wedlock or in single life. Doth God forbid in this commandment only adultery and such like gross sins? Since both our body and soul are temples of the Holy Ghost, he commands us to preserve them pure and holy. Therefore, he forbids all unchaste actions, gestures, words, thoughts, desires, and whatever can entice men thereto. Beloved congregation, in our Lord Jesus Christ, the seventh commandment is, thou shalt not commit adultery. And let us establish from the very beginning this evening that everyone is guilty of committing adultery. Everyone in the congregation has committed adultery. Every husband, has committed adultery against his wife. Every wife has committed adultery against her husband. Every single member has committed fornication in single life. Let us establish at the outset that every member is guilty of committing adultery. That is not an easy thing to acknowledge that is certainly not a comfortable thing to acknowledge, especially because the sin of adultery carries with it a special shame. There is a certain shame in the committing of adultery. And therefore, for every husband to have his wife know, I have committed adultery in my heart, and every wife to have her husband know, I have committed adultery, and every single member to have the congregation know, I have committed adultery, is something that could bring shame. We're embarrassed to acknowledge our sin against the seventh commandment. In fact, such is our violation of the seventh commandment And such is our human nature that our impurity and uncleanness, which is forbidden by the seventh commandment, is wild and unrestrained. Our violation of the seventh commandment is not a mere innocent matter. It is not a matter of a harmless something in our lives. Human nature doesn't work that way. There might be something safe about everybody saying tonight, yes, yes, we all violate the Seventh Commandment. Yes, yes, we all commit adultery. But the adultery that human nature is given to is wild and unrestrained. Our intemperance, to use the language of the catechism, is shocking. Our lack of chastity is outrageous. And that too is shameful for the child of God, that his adultery is not merely a matter of some innocent thing, but is a wild and unrestrained adultery. When the seventh commandment speaks to the congregation tonight, It accuses all of us of committing adultery. So it was with Jesus and the woman taken in the act of adultery with all of the men who had come to accuse her. When Jesus said, he that is without sin, let him cast the first stone. Jesus was not saying let the person who's without sin in general or who hasn't broken the other commandments cast the first stone. But Jesus was saying, whosoever here in this place is without this sin of adultery that you caught the woman in the very act of committing, if anyone here is without this sin, let him cast the first stone. and there was not a man who could take up a stone to cast it at the woman. Being accused by their own conscience of this violation of the seventh commandment, every one of them departed until the woman was left alone with the Lord Jesus Christ. That same reality is the case in the congregation this evening. Let him that is without sin, this sin, cast the first stone and all of us, beginning with the oldest to the youngest, would have to leave the assembly. That means that we do not hear the seventh commandment tonight with this thought, I sure hope all those divorced and remarried people are listening. Or I sure hope all those people watching pornography are listening. Or I sure hope all those wild and unrestrained sinners in the world, with all of their bending of the laws of God and of nature, so to speak, are listening. But as the seventh commandment is proclaimed, that commandment comes to you, that commandment comes to me. Thou, thou sitting where you are, thou hearing this word, thou shall not commit adultery. And this commandment exposes us as having committed it. Let us have it established at the outset tonight that everyone is guilty of sin against the seventh commandment. And let us have it established at the outset tonight that there is one. who never, never committed adultery. The Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord shall never, never commit adultery. It is impossible for Him to commit adultery. And that is the gospel of salvation to the church. That is our hope. That is the covering of our shame for our committing this sin of adultery. All of our shame. He was covered with. All of our iniquity was laid upon Him. And the Lord Jesus Christ lives in perfect faithfulness to His church. Absolutely perfect purity. He has eyes only for you. He never cuts His eyes to another and thinks about taking another and leaving you behind. He loves His church and is absolutely faithful to His church as the great bridegroom. Even though we as the bride in our life upon this earth are guilty of adultery, are guilty of the spiritual adultery, of departure from Him, and of coolness towards Him, and of cutting our eyes to every other idol in God we can imagine, the Lord Jesus Christ is faithful to His church. Absolutely faithful. And in that faithfulness of Jesus Christ is the hope, the peace, the comfort of the church. In that faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ is the church's desire to go forth and commit no adultery. And so we hear the seventh commandment tonight in the light of that glorious gospel under the theme Seventh. No adultery. In the first place, consider the sin. In the second place, consider the shame. And in the third place, consider the faithfulness. Seventh, no adultery. The sin, the shame, and the faithfulness. In order to understand the seventh commandment, thou shalt not commit adultery, it is necessary that we understand the background to that commandment, which background is man's creation. When God created man in the beginning, God created human beings as male and female. Adam was male, Eve was female. That creation of human beings as male and female not only was a distinction between human beings, so that some humans are male and some are female, and it was a distinction, so that the answer to those who are confusing male and female today is simply to go back to the beginning and show God made man male and female. But God's creation of human beings as male and female was not merely a distinction, but that creation of them as male and female included a desire. It included powerful urge that the male would have for the female and that the female would have for the male. When God created man, male and female, He immediately said to them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. God had made the male with his physical makeup and and his psychical or soul makeup for the woman. And he had made the woman with her physical makeup and with her soul's makeup for the man. God had made the man male that he might be joined to the one who was the female and by that might replenish the earth. Body was made to join to body and soul was made to join to soul in the maleness and femaleness of God's creation of man. That means that God is the one who himself made human beings with an appetite for the other. And appetite is the right word. Appetite refers to that powerful urge that one has for those things that one needs. One has an appetite for food. He must eat food. He must have it. So also God created man with an appetite. The male for the female and the female for the male. The body craves. The body desires. The body almost instinctually seeks after what it needs. It's an irresistible craving and appetite of the body. And God built this appetite for the other into the very makeup, into the very created nature of man. God worked that appetite into the physical body of a man and of a woman. Man has glands and hormones. He has physical chemicals that can be quantified and measured that are part of this appetite. It's in his very flesh. And God worked that appetite into man's soul. Not only his body, but his soul. so that his will desires the male, desires the female, and the female desires the male. And with his mind, he delights in the thought of the male with the female and the female with the male." God has worked into human beings, into their very makeup, body and soul, physical and psychological, this appetite and this desire. That appetite that God has created in human beings is not in itself evil. That appetite is good. That appetite that God worked into the very body and soul of man is a good gift of God to man. God said so at the end of that sixth day after He had created man, male and female, After he had said to the male and female, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, God said he saw all that he had made and behold, it was very good. Adam and Eve in that appetite for one another in paradise were not sinning. That was not uncleanness. That was not unchastity in them. That was not intemperance. Their desire for one another was good and it was holy, given to them by Jehovah God Himself. One can see the goodness of that desire also in books and scripture like the Song of Solomon. In the Song of Solomon, that appetite of the bride for her groom and the groom for his bride is on display. There is a delight of the one in the other. The male desiring the female and the female desiring the male. God created this appetite in man as a good thing because that appetite points to the real marriage the spiritual union of Jesus Christ and His church. Jesus Christ is represented by the male. He's the husband. And the church is represented by the female. She's the bride. And by working and building that appetite into the very fabric and nature of man himself, God has taught us what is the intimacy of the Lord Jesus Christ with His church. It is an astounding thing. This is the truth of that creation of man as male and female, as represented in the reality Christ and His church. Christ desires you. He desires you. You could say it's worked into His very nature. It's worked into who He is. The Lord Jesus Christ has an appetite for His church. The Lord Jesus Christ cannot live apart from His church. He desires her. He delights in her. He's pleased to dwell with her. This brings Him joy. This is His joy, that He has a bride who lives with Him. And that's the life of the church. The church desires Christ. by the operation of His Spirit within her, so that she longs for Him, desires to be with Him, seeks Him, loves Him. That's the life of Christ and His church. That's the beauty of this appetite that God created in man at the beginning when He made them male and female. That appetite in itself is not sin. The problem with man is that man has fallen. When Adam and Eve disobeyed the commandment of God and ate of the tree that God had forbidden them to eat, they fell and their nature became totally depraved. So that now, that good gift that God had worked into man's nature, man holds down as utterly corrupt He entirely turns that desire into perverseness and what the catechism calls uncleanness. What doth the seventh commandment teach us? That all uncleanness is a curse of God and that therefore we must with all our hearts detest the same. Man does not live chastely whether in married life or in single life. Man does not live temperately, but man in his heart is filled with a lust now, a perversion. He renders that good gift of God for the other, wholly polluted. Now man desires to join his body to a body another body that God has not given him, whether the man acts out on that in his actions and actually leaves his wife to take up with another woman or leaves her husband to take up with another man, or whether a single member lives in fornication with others who are not the spouse of that young person or of that single person, or whether a man simply in his thoughts and in the desires that are inside him, lusts after and longs after that which God hath not given him, that man lives in adultery. He commits adultery. This was the word of our Lord with regard to this commandment. Ye have heard that it hath been said unto you of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery. And the Pharisees, in their pride, interpreted the seventh commandment to mean, as long as I don't leave my marriage bed for another, then I have not committed adultery. Jesus says, that's not the meaning of that commandment. I say unto you, if a man looks at another woman and lusts after her in his heart, and by implication does so in such a way that no one ever knows. No one saw the look. No one sees what's going on in his heart. No one sees the thoughts and the lusts and the corruption that abides there. No one ever sees it. Nevertheless, I say unto you, that man has committed adultery with her by that look, by that false desire. The seventh commandment teaches us, therefore, that all uncleanness is accursed of God, and that when He forbids adultery and such like gross sins, He forbids all unchaste actions, gestures, words, thoughts, desires, and whatever can entice man thereto. And man truly pursues his lust. Man's heart is not tame in his adultery, in his desire, in what his eyes land on and want for himself. Man involves himself in his heart, if not in his very actions, in all manner of adultery, And as the catechism summarizes it, such like gross sins. The sins of man with man, woman with woman. The sin of divorce and remarriage, which Jesus also forbids. Man's adultery is a wild and untamed sin of his heart. And man does not outgrow that adultery. Man cannot hope that with some progress in his natural course of life, he will come to a point where he finally says, you know what? I really don't ever lust anymore. A minister once told me and the other students in seminary, as he was exhorting us to flee youthful lusts, youthful seminarians that we were, he said, I'm old enough now that this isn't my sin, that I don't have to flee youthful lusts. And you can imagine young men, who understand well what youthful lusts are all about, having this hope dangled out to them as their faces burn in shame about their own youthful lust, maybe I'll outgrow it. Maybe there will come a day when I outgrow lust. What awful hope to dangle in front of Anyone. In front of a congregation or seminarians or anyone. As if our progress in fighting sin is going to be simply a product of natural growth. And that we're going to get better at this just because we get too old for this. That's not hope. And it turns out that the man who said so was lying anyway. Not because of any scandal that he personally was involved in. But it turns out he was lying anyway. Because the Word of God says this is a sin that all commit. You can see examples of that in the Old Testament. For example, David as an old man who get no heat, was treated by those taking care of him by their finding a young woman to share his bed. Because their thinking was, even this old king, no matter how broken down he may be, we know that there's still some flame of lust that we can inflame. and by that hopefully cure him of his apparently deadly ailment. Or take the incident of Jesus and the woman taken in adultery. Here come her accusers, all standing around with her in the midst of them, all Speaking in the most pious of tones to Jesus, Oh, Master, you won't believe what we found. We found this woman in the very act of adultery. With the implication, men like us, we would never be guilty of this sin. Can you believe what she did? And now, the law of Moses said she must be stoned. What do you say? their intention was to entrap Jesus. If Jesus said stone her, he'd be in trouble with the Romans because the Romans forbid anyone to execute a criminal except by Roman authority. But if Jesus said don't stone her, now Jesus has contradicted Moses. No matter what Jesus answered, he will be impaled on the horn One horn of the dilemma. And Jesus, hearing their trap, sits down, stoops down, and with his finger writes in the dirt. Not as is implied in the translation, as though he heard them not, because later, having heard them perfectly, he does it again. Writes in the dirt. But because that's where the names of the unrighteous get written. In the dust. so that they blow away and those names are forgotten and they are not established and do not enter into the kingdom. The names of God's people are written on His hand, on His palm. The names of God's people are engraved on His heart. The breastplate of the high priest with the names of the children of Israel engraved. Jesus there by stooping down and writing in the dust, which they undoubtedly did not understand, was a testimony she is not condemned. but you are condemned. And then Jesus said, let him that is without this sin, that's the implication, let him that is without this sin cast the first stone. And all of their consciences accused them. And beginning with the oldest of the whole group, going down to the youngest, they all left. The hope of the child of God is not simply that he might outgrow the lusts that comprise adultery. And that old man of the child of God never, never improves. The old man does not get better. It's not just that we hope he maybe gets weak enough someday that he doesn't lust anymore, but that old man never improves. There is no solution to this problem of adultery and uncleanness in the improvement of the old man. As if there is something that you can do in order to make the old man better or even to curb the old man's lusts. When Jesus speaks in Matthew 5 of plucking out one's right eye Jesus is not saying there by a kind of hyperbole, by a kind of overstatement, if you find in your life that there are certain things in your life that are stumbling you into adultery, then you ought to get rid of those things. Now that may be good, sound, wise, biblical advice that I will set no evil thing before my eyes. But that's not what Jesus is saying here when He says, if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out. Rather, Jesus is saying this sin of adultery runs so deep into you that if you think to cure yourself of adultery by plucking out your eye, then you will soon find that adultery is also in your hand. So that if your right hand now offends you, your eye being plucked out, you have to cut off your right hand. And he could have gone on. Thy left eye next will be the adulterer, and then thy left hand, and thy whole body. Jesus' point in this is if you seek the solution to adultery, By trying harder and plucking out your eye and cutting off your hand, you will never stop carving off the members of your body. The problem is not merely that you need to get rid of something from your flesh or your members in order not to commit adultery. The problem is that your flesh is corrupt. You have that old man of sin And he is totally depraved and will not be improved. The Lord teaches also that the sin of adultery is all-encompassing, that the prohibition against adultery is all-encompassing. What is forbidden is not merely the outward act and not only all the corruption of divorce and remarriage and all the perversions that men invent today. But this sin of adultery is also in the words, this sin is in the thoughts, this sin is in the heart. Thou shalt not commit adultery exposes the people of God as those who have committed adultery. All uncleanness is forbidden, and we have engaged in all uncleanness. This sin of adultery is connected very closely with shame. Shame is not only connected to adultery. All sin brings shame. but adultery is especially connected to shame. What is shame? Shame is being exposed before the eyes of God and before the eyes of man in our sin. Shame could be compared to guilt or it could be distinguished from guilt. Guilt is a legal term Guilt refers to what you deserve because of your sin. The man who has sinned deserves to be punished for his sin. He deserves the penalty that that sin incurs. The wages of sin is death. Guilt refers to what the man deserves because of his sin. Shame refers to the man being exposed in that sin so that whether all men know about that sin or not, Jehovah God certainly does. For His eyes see as no man sees. His eyes penetrate to our inmost being. And when Jehovah God looks upon us as we are by nature, then exposed before His sight is all our sin. In Scripture, adultery is often described using the outstanding symbol of shame in the Bible. The outstanding symbol of shame is nakedness. You know that from Genesis 3 or 2, first of all, when before the fall God brought Eve to Adam, and they were both naked and were not ashamed." There was nothing to be exposed. There was no iniquity. There was no sin to be ashamed of, to be embarrassed of, to have exposed, so that their nakedness and their lack of shame in their nakedness was the symbol that they are righteous, they have knowledge, they have holiness. They're sinless. And after they sinned, Then their eyes were opened, and what? They knew that they were naked. Now there's something to be exposed. Now their sin is made manifest. And now they flee from the presence of God. That too indicates the gravity of shame. The awfulness of shame. God had told Adam and Eve, I'll kill you. You shall surely die. He had told them what their guilt would be, what they would deserve for their sin, but when they sinned and it comes time to run, they don't run from death. They run from the shame. Their eyes were opened and they knew that they were naked. Nakedness in the Bible then is the outstanding symbol of shame. Being exposed with no covering before the eyes of God and men. And men feel the weight of that shame today. One who falls into a sin and is exposed in that sin would say, just get the punishment over. But I can't bear facing all of them. I can't bear even praying to God, I'm so ashamed of what I have done. Now in Scripture, the sin against the seventh commandment is often described using that outstanding symbol for shame. Adultery is often described as uncovering one's nakedness. And that's a kind of euphemism for body joining to body. But in using that description, uncovering one's nakedness, to describe the act of adultery, The Bible connects this sin of adultery with shame. The sin of adultery is a shameful sin. It is a sin that the catechism calls uncleanness. That's its word for it. Uncleanness. The opposite of adultery would be purity and cleanness. The horror of shame is that when someone sins, it's as if he wallows in filth, makes himself disgusting, and then is caught and exposed and seen for what he is in his filthiness. The sin of adultery is uncleanness so that there is a tremendous weight of shame, crushing shame, that attends the sin. And that shame attends many when that sin is committed by one so that even one who is sinned against in adultery feels the shame and wonders what stories will go wagging from tongue to tongue about this sin that was committed against the one. Adultery is described in scripture using the language of the outstanding symbol of shame. And now the question, why harp on that? Why make such a big deal of the shame of adultery? Why make such a big deal of the fact that it's uncleanness? And the reason is because you sinners and me sinner who have violated the seventh commandment, who have committed adultery, who stand condemned By nature, by this commandment, you and me, sinner, have hope with regard to our shame. And our hope with regard to our shame is that God took all of that shame and He laid it on another. Psalm 89, verse 45. Thou hast shortened the days of His youth." Obviously referring there to Jesus Christ's death on the cross. Thou hast shortened the days of His youth. Thou hast covered Him with shame. Do you see the glory of that Gospel? That the merciful God of His church not only took your guilt that is, all of your deserving the punishment of sin, and laid that guilt upon Christ, and cursed Him for that guilt of your sin and mine. But God has taken your shame, He has taken your blush, He has taken your embarrassment over this sin, and He has covered Christ with it. There Christ hung on the cross, His garment stripped from Him, hanging exposed to the eyes of all men and to the eyes of Jehovah God Himself. And though Jesus Christ Himself had no reason to be ashamed for what He had ever done, for He was perfectly pure, God covered Him with your shame so that that shame is taken away That shame is removed. And when you stand before your fellow church member, or you stand before the bar of God's justice, or you stand before God in the final judgment, there's no blush that belongs to your cheeks. There's no shame that belongs to you. For Jesus was covered with it, and He took it all away. What mercy of our God! What great depths of love that He shows to His people in Jesus Christ. Thou hast covered Him with shame. All your adultery, all your uncleanness, all your lack of chastity, all your intemperance was laid upon Christ. And He bore it away. He bore it away. Now when you stand before God, what is there to see? There's something to see. What is there to see as you stand before God? And the Scriptures continually refer to that as the white robes of Christ's righteousness. What does God see when He looks at you? Christ. Christ. That's the glory of the salvation of God for His people from the sin of the seventh, against the seventh commandment. And it gets even deeper and fuller than the covering of Christ with shame and the taking away of our shame. The deepness and the fullness of God's salvation of us in Christ is this, that the Lord Jesus Christ was perfectly, perfectly faithful. He never once committed the sin of adultery. Faithfulness. Not your faithfulness. That's not the depth and the deepness of this doctrine. Christ's faithfulness. Christ's perfect faithfulness to His Bride. For Christ too is married. Christ is a Bridegroom who has been given a precious Bride. That Bride is His church. And of that church, He is the Head. The Lord Jesus Christ in that marriage to His church, which is really a marriage from all eternity, for He was the elect, and we were chosen as His church in Him, so that from the very beginning He's been our head, which headship implies being our bridegroom. And through all the years of His life on this earth, and now forever and ever in heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ is married to His church. And He has eyes for no one else, for no one else. The Lord Jesus Christ does not cut His eyes in adultery to another, so that we as the bride are sitting at home as if we're always wondering, what's He doing? What's He doing? Is He faithful to me? Has He left me for another? The church of Jesus Christ doesn't have that fear because the Lord Jesus Christ is perfectly, perfectly faithful to His bride. He lives in all cleanness with her. The Lord Jesus Christ has that desire as it were rooted in His very nature, in who He is for His bride. He loves her. And as her mediator is entirely devoted to her and committed to her, And he comes to that bride, who always is committing adultery herself upon this earth, and remains faithful to her, even through all her adultery, taking her to himself, forgiving her sins, cleansing her, washing her with water by the Word, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, sanctifying her to hate her sin more and more. The Lord Jesus Christ is perfectly faithful to His bride. And that faithfulness of Christ, He did for you. It's not only a blessing to you, it is. It's a great blessing. It's your salvation that He's faithful to you. But that faithfulness of Christ is also substitutionary obedience. So that Christ stood under the seventh commandment as the law of God to him, thou shalt not commit adultery. And Jesus said, I won't and I don't. I'm faithful to my bride and never straying from her in the slightest. And that obedience of Christ to his bride counts as the obedience of the church. to the Seventh Commandment. That's the good news of the Gospel. That's the glorious reality of the faithfulness of Christ. And the effect of that Gospel upon the church of Jesus Christ is to hate her adultery. To hate her sin. It sends her forth not this way to try to work and obey unto her salvation so that she can Get something from God and finally get rid of some of her shame. But this gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ works this way in the church. That the church beholding Christ says how lovely He is, how pure He is. I want to be pure too. I want to do those things too. Be faithful to Him too. As the fruit, as the gratitude of the salvation that Christ has given. Putting away my adultery. my pornography, my lust, my uncleanness, my impurity, my unchastity, my intemperance, putting all that away in love for Jesus Christ and what He has given. Behold your God, His mercy to you. Behold your Savior who took your shame and your guilt and who has obeyed perfectly in your place. See His faithfulness. And now, Church of Jesus Christ, thou shalt not commit adultery. Amen. Our Father which art in heaven, we thank thee for thy word to us this evening. We thank thee for our Savior and his perfect substitution and his atonement and his obedience so that he has taken away our guilt and shame so that He has taken away the cause of all our death, which is our sin, and so that He has fulfilled for us all righteousness and has kept Thy law in our place. And give to us now the life of gratitude. Cause us to bear fruit in this week and indeed all our life of the gratitude of purity and cleanliness and And love for our Savior without here our prayer and answer us in mercy for Jesus sake, Amen. Salter number 35 number 35. We sing of. Christ's perfect walk. with God and the blessing that he has and we have with him. The six stanzas, all six of 35. ♪ The world shall see thy noble face ♪ ♪ The Robert White of Golden Glee ♪ ♪ To stride on her mount and bring her home ♪ The Lord will call to my head to go. My heart will make my darkness fly. The Lord will lift me, I'll be safe. ♪ His word is smiling through the evening ♪ ♪ We'll find the Lord where children stay ♪ ♪ Who is God and to whom He's made ♪ ♪ He's like the Holy One God Almighty ♪ The Lord who hides my sense of right, and preaches salvation in my shield, ♪ We pray ♪ ♪ Godspeed, love for another's love ♪ ♪ Eternally true ♪ The sea is great and gloriously O'er and before the land, And as its glory fills the earth, The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. Amen.