The Ten Commandments Lesson 7: Faithful & True | Devin LaBay

There was a second grade teacher who was using character words to teach her students just good character traits.

And she was trying to teach them a lesson about being honest.

And so she asked her second grade students a question.

She said, Students, what would you call someone, if you saw them, what would you call someone who was going through the pockets of someone else?

And a little boy in the back just raised his hand and waved it and waved it, and he said, His wife.

Now, ladies, not don't worry, the guys is coming.

There's a rumor about uh a new um device uh for those that are concerned about Alexa listening in on your conversations, and rumor has it that this new device is named Phil and doesn't listen to anything.

You know, when you when you get into marriage, uh you get into all kinds of things that kind of I don't I guess just rub husbands and wives the wrong way.

Uh we could spend an entire afternoon uh talking about those little idiosyncrasies that drive us nuts about our spouse.

Now, for the record, I married the perfect woman.

Uh but uh there there are things that that we and we learn all of this stuff after we say I do, for the most part.

And uh I'm gonna make a plug for for counseling at this point.

Uh I'm available to you for that.

But you know, there there are there are things about being married and about husbands and wives that we just learn over the course of time.

And it helps us to grow, hopefully closer together, not further apart.

We come to the seventh commandment this morning.

You shall not commit adultery.

And it's it's just just pretty plain.

We're in that, you know, you should not murder, you should not commit adultery, and just moving right along.

There's a lot to the seventh commandment that we need to consider this morning.

And we're gonna delve deeper into that.

And I pray that the Spirit gives some insight and helps us all to see this commandment from God in a deeper way, maybe than we have before.

And so uh before we proceed any further uh this morning, I'd like to go to God in prayer and together and to ask the Spirit to give us insight and to bless our message.

Would you please join me?

Our Lord and our God, we thank you for the beauty of this day.

It is such a beautiful day today, and we can look around at your beautiful creation and know uh that you are God, that you have created this world, that it did not happen by chance, it happened by your design and your will.

And Father, we're thankful to be a part of it.

We are thankful as believers to be your children.

We're thankful for the mission that you've given us to bring more children into your family, which is only possible through the blood of Jesus Christ.

And so, Spirit, I pray that this message today will be a message from you about how important the relationship is between husbands and wives and the significance of the seventh commandment.

You shall not commit adultery.

We live in a world where that's becoming more and more difficult.

There are so many challenges around us that that test and tempt us.

And so, Spirit, I pray not only that you will help us to see this message, but also to carry it with us, the things that we're going to talk about today, to strengthen our marriages, uh, to build our relationships uh with husbands and wives, not only because we're committed to each other, but because we truly love one another.

Lord, we we love you so much, and we thank you for all that you've done for us, and we offer this prayer in the name of Jesus, and together the church said, Amen.

You know, over the course of my years in ministry, uh, I've had the distinct honor of joining many fine men and women in the bonds of marriage.

That is one of the joys of true joys of being a minister.

And it it's it really is a magical moment.

I mean, there's a moment in the ceremony, and I've had the the again the privilege of bringing a lot of people together in marriage, a lot of different people.

But there there is a moment in that ceremony that is absolutely magical.

It's a time when when two people who love one another and are in love with one another, they're just starstruck by one another.

It's a time when no one and absolutely nothing else matters in the world but the man or the woman who's staring back at you while the minister says whatever, whatever it is that he says.

It's interesting, I find, that most brides and grooms remember very little about the wedding ceremony itself.

They don't remember a whole lot about what was said other than I do and you may kiss the bride.

The ladies are listening for him to say, I do.

And fellows, you know as good as I do, as well as I do, that we're we're waiting.

We are patiently waiting, for you may kiss your bride.

Church, given the magic of the moment and the love that is so abundant at such a time, it's almost inconceivable that a minister would ever say, You shall not commit adultery.

Maybe more ministers should.

If they did, perhaps we would not have a nearly 45% divorce rate for first-time marriages in this country.

Family with that kind of a number, it's certain that every one of us at least knows someone who has gone through a divorce.

And of that number, statistically, nearly half of them stem from adultery.

Church, biblical marriage has been challenged for years by a number of different opponents.

From living together before marriage to civil unions between two men and two women, to the trend of having friends with benefits.

Family marriage, the way that God intended it, has been and continues to be challenged.

So when you consider all of the marriage issues and all of the social issues that we face today and the fallout from the deviation that has taken place from biblical marriage, church, it's plain to see that the seventh commandment is relevant.

It's relevant to the times in which we live.

So as we take a closer look at the seventh commandment this morning, family, I want to focus specifically on three areas.

The prohibition against adultery, the affirmation for biblical marriage, and the applications for today.

First and foremost, church, we can clearly see that the seventh commandment is a prohibition against adultery.

Now, by definition, adultery is a morally inappropriate physical relationship between a married person and someone other than their spouse.

And for those of us who are married, we remember the vow.

We heard something that sounded similar to this.

Before God and these witnesses, do you take this man or this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife or husband, forsaking all others?

Will you be faithful to her or to him for as long as you both shall live?

And the answer is, I do.

Church, it's not just a promise we make to our husband or to our wife.

Family, it's a covenant.

It's a covenant that we make with them and with God.

When we choose to forsake our spouse for any other, in violation of the vow we made to them and to God, we pay a very high price for it.

Family, what value can we place on his or her trust in our relationship?

Guys, what value can you possibly place on being her knight in shining armor?

Ladies, what value can you possibly place on the pedestal that he has put you upon in his life?

Because once we compromise that as husbands or as wives, family, it'll never be the same.

Church, when we choose to enter into an adulterous relationship, regardless of how disorderly our life may seem, regardless of the escape that we feel like we deserve, what we find is that it's contradictory to God's order.

From the beginning of God's word in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, we learn that God's plan was for a man and a woman to be joined as one.

Again, from the very beginning, from Exodus to or Genesis to Revelation, family, what we find is that marriage was designed to be for one man and one woman for one lifetime.

The bond between a husband and wife is intended to be the greatest bond on this earth outside of our personal bond with our Lord.

The physical relationship between a man and a woman is designed by God to bring the husband and the wife together as one.

And when we commit adultery, God's design is violated.

But not only does adultery violate God's order and God's design for marriage, it results in immeasurable heartache.

Talk with anyone that's ever been the victim in an adulterous relationship, and you'll immediately sense the weight and the depth of their heartache.

But not only the heartache that they feel, but the heartache that spills over.

It spills over to their family and their friends, it spills over into the church, but family, it especially spills over and affects the lives of their children.

Church adultery is very self-centered.

But the results of the fallout from it affects everyone around them.

Church, something we must never forget is that adultery begins in the mind and in the heart.

Matthew chapter 5, verse 28, Jesus points this out very clearly.

Matthew 5:28

He says, But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Now, family, just like murder begins through a thought, like we examined last week, and then manifests itself physically in taking the life of another, adultery also begins in the mind and later manifests itself physically with someone other than our spouse.

And the first look is the first mental step away from our spouse.

The second look leads us further away.

Then one thing leads to another.

Begin having a conversation.

And then it takes the next step.

And eventually it manifests itself physically with another person who isn't our spouse.

Church, the end result is a physical act that began in our mind.

And it's devastating to everyone that we love.

And this is why keeping the seventh commandment is so vitally important.

But not only is the seventh commandment a prohibition against adultery, family, it's also an affirmation for marriage.

Family, this is the positive side of the seventh commandment.

And with all the commandments, there is a negative side, and there is a positive side.

For instance, the sixth commandment is the commandment not to murder, but the sixth commandment is also the commandment for valuing and preserving life.

Likewise, the commandment to not commit adultery, church, is also a command to honor and to celebrate marriage.

Listen to the words of the Hebrew writer.

Chapter 13, verse 4.

He writes, marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer.

Family, the command to honor marriage is carried throughout the scriptures.

From Exodus to Hebrews, as we've looked at this morning, from the Old Testament to the New Testament.

But there's a few things that we need to notice about marriage.

First, marriage really is a beautiful gift from God.

Again, from the very beginning, God established the idea that a man and a woman were to be joined together to become one.

The two shall become one flesh, God said.

Marriage truly is a gift from God.

Because there is an intimacy in marriage.

There is a wholeness and a completeness in marriage that is not present in any other relationship.

Statistically, marriage in America lasts about 21 years.

And so to me, there's nothing more priceless than to see a husband and a wife who have shared their lives together and have worked to build a lasting relationship.

Church, make no mistake about it.

Marriage is work.

And anything worth having is worth working for.

Church, I'm talking about couples that have been married 30, 40, 50, 60 years or more.

And they're able to communicate without words.

You ever notice that?

Able to communicate without words and selflessly care for one another without complaint or very little.

Family, that kind of a relationship comes through the covenant of biblical marriage.

So I'd like for you to humor me for just a moment.

If you have been married for 30 years, would you please stand?

If you've been married for forty years, please stand.

If you haven't, have a seed.

Forty years.

Okay.

Remain standing if you've been married for 50 years.

All right.

Remain standing if you've been married for sixty years.

I gotta take my glasses off for this one.

I'll applaud that.

Thank y'all.

Thank you for setting an example for the rest of us to follow.

And I'll just go ahead and ask you is it being easy?

Yes and no?

It's work.

But man, is it worth it?

It's worth it in the legacy of the children and the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren that you have together.

It's worth it in the relationship that you have together.

It's worth working for because God designed it to be that way.

Thank you.

Church marriage is a beautiful gift from God.

But it's also a lifelong expectation of God.

One man, one woman for one life together.

Church, that must be our expectation when we enter into marriage because that's God's expectation of our marriage.

Today, many couples enter into marriage with a mindset.

And the mindset is this you know, we we we want our marriage to work, but if it doesn't, then we still want to be friends.

Let me ask you a question.

How many divorced people do you know?

Okay.

Now ask yourself a question.

How many of those people are still friends?

Very few.

Very few.

Church, anyone who enters into marriage with divorce as an option, regardless of the circumstances, they're setting themselves up to fail.

Because this undermines their marriage from the very beginning.

Other than what the scriptures provide.

Marriage is a beautiful gift from God.

It's a lifelong expectation of God.

But it also requires a lifetime of work from husbands and wives.

One can't pull the load for both.

Men, if you're looking for wisdom in your life, then look no further than the book of Proverbs.

There's 30 to 31 days in every month.

There's 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs.

And believe me, a chapter a day is not hard to fit into your schedule.

And it'll do you and your marriage a world of good.

In chapter 5, verses 15 to 21, we find some very specific admonitions against adultery and for marriage.

Solomon writes to his son, drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well.

Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?

This is figurative language, of course.

He says, Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.

May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.

A loving doe, a graceful deer.

May her breast satisfy you always.

May you be ever captivated by her love.

Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress?

Why embrace the bosom of another man's wife?

For a man's ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all his paths.

Church of Solomon were a marriage counselor, his advice would be crystal clear.

If you want your marriage to succeed, then put all of your energy, invest all of your drive, your romance, your desire into the wife of your youth.

Why?

Because you'll find, if you do, you will find that you will have a much more satisfying relationship with your spouse than you could ever dream possible with anyone else.

And if it's not there, don't give up.

Keep on trying.

Do everything you can on your side of the marriage balance with all love and all sincerity, and hopefully your spouse will respond on their side of the marriage balance and bring balance to your marriage.

It's worth working for.

It has to be different than the world does.

And that means protecting our mind.

Church, everywhere we turn, there is a constant flow of temptation.

It's all around us, intended to continually push the limits, desensitize our minds, and compromise our Christian morals.

And over the course of time, Church, what happens is steady exposure to immorality weakens us mentally.

It weakens us spiritually until we act upon it physically.

And that's when we sin.

James writes in chapter 1, verses 14 and 15.

But each one is tempted when he's carried away and enticed by his own lust.

Then when lust is conceived, it gives birth to sin.

James lays the process out right there.

It's pretty simple.

Family, the average 18-year-old has witnessed over 80,000 instances of immoral physical contact between unmarried people on television.

Over the course of time, reactions to that have gone from, well, that's wrong, to, well, that's a shame, to, well, that's their decision.

To no reaction at all.

Over the course of time, we've become desensitized.

We've just come to accept it.

As believers, we must protect our minds.

And it doesn't matter how old you are.

And we must educate our children's minds to God's definition of biblical marriage.

Also, we need to avoid compromising situations.

Men and women work more closely together in today's world than they ever have before.

And guess what?

Instances of adultery are way up because of it.

Adultery is taking place in the workplace.

You probably know someone who's in a relationship that they probably shouldn't be in right now.

Church, we need to be mindful about the work environment and never be lax about compromising situations that we can find ourselves in, whether intentionally or not.

The seventh commandment applies to the workplace with the spirit of you shall not commit adultery, but just as much, if not more.

Family, it applies with the spirit of I will honor and protect my marriage.

Church, the seventh commandment is of vital importance to us as married Christians, but it's also of significant importance to God Himself.

Many times throughout Scripture, when God rebukes his people for forsaking him and following after other gods, how does God reference that?

What does God say about that?

God calls it adultery.

If you've never read the book of Hosea in the Old Testament, that's what that book is all about.

Family, when we as Christians place anything or anyone above the Lord, we break the first commandment.

You shall have no other gods before me.

And when we commit adultery against the Lord, that is exactly what we do.

Do we realize that as Christians, we are spiritually married to Jesus?

Do we realize that when we come to Him in repentance and baptism, that we're entering into a spiritual marriage with Jesus Christ?

Because what we find, church, is that if we do realize that, we also realize that we can be unfaithful to the Lord.

We can spiritually commit adultery against Jesus.

We don't think about it that way.

But that is the way that God looks at it.

And maybe this morning you've been dealing with something spiritually that has compromised your relationship with Jesus.

That's not a good place to be.

It doesn't feel good to be there, to know that we're not right with Jesus, but we want to be right with Jesus.

We want to reconcile with Jesus.

You know, I made the statement earlier.

When we compromise our vows, that it's never the same.

Here's what I've found in a long time of marital counseling.

Relationships that are broken.

When two people are willing to work together to make it right, the relationship isn't the same.

In fact, many times, most of the time, that marriage is better.

It's stronger.

Because they've been to hell and back, and they're stronger for it.

Family, it's no different in our relationship with the Lord.

Once we cross over that boundary of being unfaithful to Jesus and we know that we're not right with the Lord, when we accept the fact that He truly loves us and He wants us to come back to Him and we take those steps to come back to the Lord and we're truly repentant, what we find is that we're more committed than we've ever been before.

And that's exactly the way that He wants it to be.

And so if you need to respond to Jesus, there's a number of different ways that you can do that.

You can walk the aisle.

The shepherds and myself will be here to welcome you, to love you, to hug you, to pray with you.

You can respond by finding someone that you truly trust afterwards and having a conversation with them.

They'll do that for you.

But don't carry the burden any longer than you got to.

Jesus doesn't want you to feel that way.

He wants you to come back to him.

If you're visiting with us, we're glad you're here.

Stick around, have some fellowship with us, coffee and refreshments, and join us in Bible study.

And please come back when you can.

If you're looking for a church home, we would love to have you here at Central.

Whatever your need this morning, please respond as the Spirit calls you together while we stand and sing.