11/5/17 - Eph:2-3, The 10 Commandments, Pt. 22, The 7th
Commandment, Pt. 2. Lesson # 17-118
Pastor/Teacher, Jim Rickard
Grace Fellowship Church
Grace Fellowship Church
Before we begin, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ, (If You have - Trusted in Him for Eternal Life), it is important to
prepare yourself to: Take-in God’s Word and/or Participate in a Communion
Service, so take a moment to name, cite, or acknowledge your sins privately,
directly to God the Father. This will assure that you are in fellowship with
God the Father & the Holy Spirit’s convicting ministry will then be able to
teach you as the Holy Spirit is the real teacher.
1 John 1:9
says— “If we confess [simply name, cite, or acknowledge to God the
Father] our sins [known sins], He is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins [known sins] and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness [all unknown & forgotten sins].”
For
those of you who have not yet accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord & Savior,
please see: The Salvation Message @
the end of this document.
2 Pet 3:9, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness,
but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all
to come to repentance.”
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The Doctrine of the Ten
Commandments Related to the Church Age, Part XXII.
Eph 6:2-3; Ex 32:21, 31; Job 31:9, 11; Jer 3:9; Ezek 16:38; Hosea 2:5, 11-12;
3:1
The 7th Commandment, Pt 2.
Ex 20:14; Deut 5:18, “You shall not commit adultery.”
The purpose of the commandment is
to positively promote the purity of the heart, especially in regard to the
marriage relationship. In the 7th Commandment, we have the valuing
of our and our neighbor’s marriage. The commandment specifically addresses
adultery or marital infidelity.
Adultery is defined as voluntary
sexual intercourse between a married or engaged person and a partner other than
their spouse. This is also called infidelity.
Under Divine Institution #2,
Marriage, the 7th Commandment has been given to protect every right
man and right woman, even before they meet, and to protect their relationship
after they marry. It is the only sexual sin stated in the 10 Commandments,
yet is part of the greater list of sexual sins that are likewise forbidden
under the Law of Moses. Therefore, all sex outside of marriage, whether before,
during, or after you are married, or sex with someone or something instead of
your actual legal spouse of the opposite sex, would be a violation of the
Divine covenant. For example: Prostitution was forbidden, Lev 19:29. Priests were commanded not to marry a prostitute, Lev 21:7. If their daughters turned
prostitutes, (presumably temple prostitutes), they were to be executed, Lev 21:9. Other sexual sins, whether
part of pagan worship or not, included: homosexuality, Lev 18:22; 20:13, bestiality, Ex
22:19; Lev 18:23; 20:15-16; Deut 27:21, and transvestism, Deut 22:5, that were all forbidden as
violations of the sanctity of marriage and transgress God’s law. Therefore,
adultery is used in the Decalogue as representative of all sexual immorality
defined throughout the Mosaic Law.
Why are people tempted by adultery?
Because, sexuality makes promises, on which it can never deliver. Why do we
fall prey, men and women alike, to impossible sexual or romantic fantasies?
Because we have deep needs, and we have been duped into believing that sex can
supply those needs, when in fact it is only God who can.
The issue here is the surrender of
one’s own needs and desires into God’s hands. Given the nature and the
complexity of sexual desire, encompassing so much of body, mind, and spirit, it
has great power over us. Therefore, once again, this command calls us to
surrender our needs to our covenant Lord and to find deep satisfaction in His
all-encompassing provisions that mere sex could never provide.
Having surrendered our needs to
God, we should be able to value what our neighbor has for his or her sake, in
this case a desirable spouse. But the “neighbor” to be valued here is not only
the other married couple; it is also our own spouse.
By what right do we break faith
with our “neighbor,” which Mal 2:16,
characterizes as “violence?” What right do we have to break promises explicit
and implicit in the marriage contract because they are not meeting some
supposed need of ours? Those who are in covenant with the God of truth, that
is, the God of faithfulness, show it by the way they keep covenant with their
“neighbors,” especially in their sexuality.
Therefore, the 7th
Commandment required sexual purity in contrasts with the infidelity and
promiscuity sanctioned and practiced by the official cults of the rest of the
ancient near east. Yet, the religion of YHWH represents adultery as a heinous
crime against God, man, and society. Cf. Job
31:9-11, where “lustful crime” is used.
Job 31:9, 11, “If my heart
has been enticed by a woman, or I have lurked at my neighbor's doorway, 11For
that would be a lustful crime; moreover, it would be an iniquity punishable
by judges.”
The Bible declares that any sexual
activity outside exclusive, committed heterosexual marriage is contrary to
God’s plan. As such, the value of faithfulness in personal commitments is
stressed.
Sex is not an “animal function,”
but an expression of deep, personal commitment between one man and one woman.
By choosing adultery in the 10 Commandments to represent all the sexual sins later
listed, God is underscoring that point. Sexual behavior that destroys marriage
is the antithesis of what sexuality was designed for. Furthermore, sexual
behavior that undermines and denies covenant faithfulness, flies squarely in
the face of what sexual behavior was designed to do.
This commandment also argues,
implicitly, against divorce. Divorce except for unfaithfulness, Hosea 2:5, 11-12; Ezek 16:37-38; 23:29,
was hated by God, Mal 2:16, and in
some circumstances expressly forbidden, Deut
22:19, 29. However, out of concern for Israel’s hardness of heart, this was
mitigated, Deut 24:1-4; Mat 5:31; 19:8.
If marriage is so important that it
must be protected against adulteration, even the sort of adulteration that
might occur in brief interludes, it certainly is important enough to protect
against dissolution altogether. From the time of Adam and Eve in the Garden of
Eden onward, a sacred sanction has been attached to marriage expressed in Gen 2:24. In Mat 19:5, our Lord Jesus Christ reaffirmed the sanctity of the
marriage relationship and limited the grounds for divorce to adultery alone,
with the clear implication that only the innocent member of the wedded couple
was free to terminate the relationship without guilt. The wording of 1 Cor 7:11 seems quite explicit that
while separation is allowed, the innocent wife is not to marry any other man,
but be reconciled, if possible, to her husband, cf. Mat 5:32. If, however, the errant spouse is guilty of adultery, the
release of obligation is made possible Mat
19:8-9.
In addition, adultery has a
vertical relation in that it is the ultimate metaphor of infidelity to YHWH.
When the Israelites followed and worshipped other gods, called idolatry, it was
considered adultery towards God, cf. Isa
57:3; Jer 3:9; 5:7; 7:9-10f; 23:14;
Ezek 16:38; 23:37, 45; Hosea 7:4.
Jer 3:9, “And it came
about because of the lightness of her harlotry, that she polluted the land and
committed adultery with stones and trees.”
As we noted idolatry under the 2nd
Commandment, it was interesting to see how many of the pagan false god worship
rites and rituals under the fertility or phallic cults involved all of the
sexual sins noted in the Mosaic Law. Therefore, one’s participation in false
god worship included adultery on both the vertical and horizontal level, that
is, adultery against God, and adultery against one’s spouse.
As noted above, adultery, even in
the form of idolatry, was called “the great sin” in, Gen 20:9; 39:9; cf. Ex
32:21, 30-31; 2 Kings 17:21.
Ex 32:21, “Then Moses
said to Aaron, ‘What did this people do to you, that you have brought such
great sin upon them?’”
Ex 32:31, “Then Moses
returned to the LORD, and said, ‘Alas, this people has committed a great sin,
and they have made a god of gold for themselves’.”
With the punishment for adultery
between a man and woman being death, you can imagine that idolatry by the
Israelites would call for their death or destruction too, Ezek 16:37-38.
Ezek 16:38, “Thus I will
judge you like women who commit adultery or shed blood are judged; and I will
bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy.”
Because, idolatry was a continual
problem for Israel and Judah before the exile, YHWH commanded the prophet Hosea
to marry an adulterous woman as an object lesson to the people of Israel, who
were committing adultery against YHWH by worshiping other gods, Hosea 3:1.
Hosea 3:1, “Then the
LORD said to me, ‘Go again, love a woman who is loved by her
husband, yet an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the sons of Israel, though
they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes’.”
Dried raisins or cakes were used in
idolatry, cf. Jer 7:18; 44:19. The
cakes denote the sweetness and lusciousness, yet still the dryness, of any
gratification apart from God, which is preferred to Him. In addition, this
tells us of the lustfulness and dryness of relationships in adultery, over
opposed to the gratifying relationship God has designed for us with our right
man and right woman.
Therefore, whether horizontally in
the 7th Commandment or vertically in the 2nd Commandment,
we are not to commit adultery.
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A
PERSONAL NOTE FOR YOU
John 6:47 says: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who
believes in Me [Jesus Christ] has everlasting life.”
Notice again what John
6:47 says, “he who believes in Me [Jesus Christ] has everlasting life.” It doesn’t say, “will have;” it says,
“has.” Therefore, the very moment you believe Jesus Christ’s promise of
everlasting life, you have it, and it can never be lost or taken away from you [John 10:28-29]. Furthermore, the gift
of everlasting life [also called eternal life in Scripture] is available to
every human being; there are absolutely no exceptions.
John 3:14-18
says: “And as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in
Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son
into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be
saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is
condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God.”
Eph 2:8-9, “For
by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift
of God: 9 Not of
works, lest any man should boast.”
If
you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I am here to tell
you that Jesus loves you. He loves you so much that He gave His life for you.
God the Father also loves you. He loves you so much that He gave His only Son
for you by sending Him to the Cross. At the Cross Jesus died in your place.
Taking upon Himself all of your sins and all of my sins. He was judged for our
sins and paid the price for our sins. Therefore, our sins will never be held
against us.
Right
where you are, you now have the opportunity to make the greatest decision in
your life. To accept the free gift of salvation and eternal life by truly
believing that Jesus Christ died for your sins and was raised on the third day
as the proof of the promise of eternal life. So right now, you can pause and
reflect on what Christ has done for you and say to the Father:
"Yes
Father, I believe that Your Son, Jesus Christ,
died on the cross for the forgiveness of my sins."
If you have done that, I Welcome You to the Eternal
Family of God !!!
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Grace Fellowship Church
Pastor/Teacher: James H. Rickard
23 Messenger Street, Unit 3
Plainville, MA 02762
Copyright © 2001 - 2017.
Property of: James H Rickard Bible Ministries
All Rights Reserved.
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