Part of the chapter that I wanted to focus on is verse number four where the Bible reads,
marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
And I don't want to preach on the subject of adultery.
Now if you would flip back to Leviticus chapter number 20.
Leviticus is the third book of the Bible.
Leviticus chapter number 20, the book that many people in 2015 loved to hate unfortunately,
although it contains one of the most famous statements in the entire Bible, Leviticus 19
says thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
One of the most famous passages and the one that Jesus said is the second greatest commandment
in the law and it's only found in one place, Leviticus 19.
But of course all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for
doctrine.
The Bible says in Leviticus chapter 20 verse 10, and the man that comitteth adultery with
another man's wife, even he that comitteth adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer
and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
And the reason that I take you to that verse in Leviticus is just to show you
the seriousness of the sin of adultery and that verse right there shows you how
serious this is.
Flip over if you would to Revelation chapter 2.
You say well that's how God felt about it in the Old Testament but look how serious
it is in the New Testament.
Of course God said marriage is honorable and all in the bed undefiled but
whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge.
Here was a situation of adultery in a church in Revelation chapter 2 beginning in verse
20 where the Bible reads, notwithstanding I have a few things against thee because
thou sufferest that woman Jezebel which calleth herself a prophetess to teach and to seduce
my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
And I gave her space to repent of her fornication and she repented not.
Behold I will cast her into a bed and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation
except they repent of their deeds and I will kill her children with death and all the
churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts and I will give
unto every one of you according to your works.
So here we see God talking about the fact that he's going to come down hard upon
those that commit adultery.
He's going to send great punishment into their lives and he's even going to kill people
as a result of it.
He says I'll kill her children with death as a punishment so it's a very serious sin.
Now go to Matthew chapter 5 because I want to make sure and differentiate what we're
talking about here because there's adultery as defined in the Bible, literal adultery,
which would be basically someone who goes in unto his neighbor's wife, someone who
basically commits adultery with his neighbor's wife and we're talking about someone who
actually has a physical relationship with someone other than his wife or a woman who
has a physical relationship with someone other than their husband.
That's what we're talking about here.
Now the Bible also talks about the fact that it's possible for a person to commit
adultery in their heart and there are other ways that you can commit adultery that we're
going to see here in Matthew chapter 5 but I just want to emphasize that tonight's
sermon is going to focus on literal adultery, actually going out and literally committing
full blown adultery is what I want to preach about tonight because some people
sometimes when they're reading the Bible they get so into the secondary meanings,
the metaphorical meanings, the other things that they lose sight of the main teaching
of what God's warning about and all of these teachings are important.
It's important to teach on what we're about to see in Matthew 5 about looking
on a woman with lust.
It's important to look at teachings on divorce and remarriage but also we need a sermon
sometimes just warning us about the danger of actual adultery itself which is a real
danger.
It is a major sin and it is something that happens.
Even Christians have fallen into this sin.
Even King David himself committed this sin.
Now look what the Bible says in Matthew chapter 5 verse 27.
It says,
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.
Now what is Jesus teaching here?
He's clearly teaching here that it's not just a sin to go out and actually commit adultery
but that it's actually a sin to look upon a woman with lust in your heart.
That's the context.
Now a lot of people will try to twist this though and try to use this to negate the
Bible's teachings on adultery.
So for example when the Bible said in Leviticus 20,
Hey, adulterers should be put to death.
The adulterer and the adulterers shall surely be put to death.
Here's what they'll say,
Oh, but wait a minute.
But if you've ever looked on a woman with lust, you know, are you going to be put
to death too?
And they'll try to use it to negate what the Bible is saying here.
Look, get the context of what Jesus is saying here.
Obviously it is a wicked sin to look on a woman and lust after her in your heart.
It would also be a violation of the Ten Commandments where it says,
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife.
But wait a minute.
It is not the same to literally commit adultery as it is to commit adultery in your heart.
These are two different things.
And this whole teaching that all sin is equal is an insane doctrine and is not biblical.
When the Bible says that the adulterer shall be put to death, we're talking about someone
who literally commits adultery, not somebody who has a bad thought.
Okay.
See David went up on the rooftop and he looked upon a woman to lust after her.
That was a big sin.
But if it would have stopped there, he wouldn't have gone through all the punishments that
he went through by actually taking it a step further and actually acting upon it.
And part of the reason why it's such a dangerous doctrine to teach that all sin
is equal is that people think to themselves, oh well if I've already looked with lust
I might as well.
I mean it's all the same anyway, right?
I mean that's a retarded doctrine.
I don't know what else to call it.
It's nonsense.
It's crazy.
I mean think about it.
To say that it's the same to lust after a woman in your heart as to actually go out
and commit adultery, like that's the same thing.
Now look, I'm not condoning of sin, I'm not condoning of looking with lust, but it's
not the same.
Jesus is not saying, hey these things are equal.
Same sin.
No.
What is he saying in the context?
Because this is a passage a lot of people misunderstand and let me show you why they
misunderstand because look at the next verse.
Because it says, 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.
So what people will do is they'll take this passage out of its context, not understand
it, and then they'll say this, hey if you look on a woman to lust after her you're
going to burn in hell.
And they're teaching that you're going to lose your salvation basically.
So even if you're saved, even if you believe in Jesus.
But see, they don't understand what the passage is teaching.
See in Matthew 5, Jesus' goal here is to get people to understand their sinful condition,
that they cannot be saved by their own righteousness, okay.
That's why even just right before that, he says in Matthew 5 verse 22, let me get
there myself.
He says, but I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother or without a cause
shall be in danger of the judgment, and whosoever shall say to his brother Rekha shall
be in danger of the counsel, but whosoever shall say thou fool, watch this, shall be
in danger of hell fire.
What's he saying here?
He's saying that even if you commit a minor sin, you're in danger of hell fire.
So you say, well you know, I've never murdered anybody.
He says, but wait a minute, if you're angry with your brother without a cause,
if you're provoking people by saying hey thou fool, he says, you're in danger of
hell fire.
Well I've never committed adultery, but wait a minute, he says, if you've looked on a woman
with lust, you have committed adultery in your heart, and that's a sin.
And so what Jesus is trying to teach in this passage is that any sin will send us
to hell, okay.
No matter whether it's a big sin or a little sin, it's all going to send us to hell.
Even if we haven't committed murder, even if we haven't committed adultery, we're
still sinful.
That's what he's saying.
That's what he's teaching in this passage.
And this is also summed up when he says, except your righteousness shall exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom
of heaven.
Those are people that they would have looked to and thought of as very righteous,
godly people.
And so he says, look, your righteousness would have to exceed the righteousness of
the scribes and Pharisees in order for you to make it into heaven.
And then in fact, the last verse of the chapter, he says, be ye therefore perfect
even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
So what's he doing?
He's raising the bar and setting the standard real high and saying, look, if your righteousness
is going to get you into heaven, it better be perfect.
You can't even think of bad thought, you know, let alone going out and committing
all this sin.
What is he doing?
He's preparing people in their minds to be able to accept the free gift of salvation
by first understanding that they're a sinner and that they're condemned to hell.
That's what's being taught in this passage.
He's not warning Christians and saying, hey, you know, if you think of bad thought, you're
going to go to hell.
Or hey, if you say the wrong thing, you're going to go to hell.
Look, once you're saved, you have eternal life and Jesus said, I give unto them eternal
life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
The Bible says he that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth
not is condemned already because he had not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God.
The Bible clearly says that verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth
on him that sent me has everlasting life, present tense, and shall not come into condemnation
but is passed from death unto life.
So don't let anybody twist these passages to do one of two things, either to downplay
literal adultery and say that it shouldn't be against the law or to try to say, hey,
if you commit a sin, you're going to go to hell, so you have to live sinlessly
to be saved.
If you have to live sinlessly to be saved, then nobody's going to heaven because the
Bible says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely
by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
So the whole point Jesus is making is by saying, look, even a more minor sin will
send you to hell than you think.
Even all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone,
which is the second death.
You don't have to be a murderer or a literal adulterer to do that.
You just have to commit adultery in your heart.
You just have to hate your brother in your heart.
That's what's being taught here, okay?
So let's just quickly touch on this.
This is not what the sermon's about, but just to quickly touch on adultery in your
heart.
What is committing adultery in your heart?
It's basically looking on a woman to lust after her.
This is also known as coveting your neighbor's wife.
This is when you look and basically desire your neighbor's wife is another way that the
Bible puts this.
You've committed adultery in your mind.
You've committed adultery in your heart.
That is sin.
He also goes on to say in verse 31, it hath been said, whosoever shall put away
his wife, let him give her a riding 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, comitteth adultery.
Mark chapter 10 teaches the same thing.
Go ahead and turn to Mark 10.
While you're turning to Mark 10, I'll read for you from Luke 16, 18.
Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, comitteth adultery.
And whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband, comitteth adultery.
Mark chapter 10 verse 11, and he said unto them, whosoever shall put away his wife,
and marry another, comitteth adultery against her.
And if a woman shall put away her husband and be married to another, she comitteth adultery.
Now you keep reading the same statement over and over again, but I'm really not because
each of these are all slightly different from one another, because one of them talks
about the woman putting away her husband, the other one talks about the husband putting
away his wife, the one talks about him putting her away and marrying someone else,
or him putting her away and somebody marries her.
It's basically giving us like every possible scenario, explaining it like from every angle
saying, look, it's adultery, don't do it.
You know, when you get married, it's till death do us part.
And it's supposed to be a lifelong commitment for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer.
The good, the bad, and the ugly.
You stay with it all the way to the end.
That's what the Bible teaches.
And if you just say, well, you know what, I'm going to get divorced and marry someone
else, that's considered adultery.
That's what the Bible says.
That's the teaching here.
But that's not what the sermon's about tonight.
I just wanted to cover that and touch on that before we get into the real meat of the sermon
tonight, which is about adultery in the sense that we all know of adultery as basically
cheating on your wife, cheating on your husband is what we're talking about when
we talk about adultery.
So go if you would to 2 Samuel, chapter number 11, first of all, because I want to
talk about how to avoid adultery according to the Bible, some tips based on biblical
principles on how we can stay away from this sin.
This is such a horrible sin and it's so harmful unto your spouse if you were to commit
this sin.
It's very grievous, major, major sin.
So we want to avoid this at all costs.
And we don't want to just have this attitude that says, well, I would never
do that.
I could never.
Because the Bible says, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
We don't want to get real close to sin and play around with sin because we basically
think to ourselves, you know what, I'm never going to go all the way and commit adultery
so I can basically fool around with it and so forth.
No, we need to realize that none of us is immune from sin.
Therefore we need to take steps to make sure that this horrible sin does not enter
our lives.
And the Bible has some tips for us to avoid adultery.
The Bible says in 2 Samuel, chapter 11, verse 1, this is the most famous story about
adultery in the Bible.
And it came to pass after the year was expired at the time when kings go forth to battle,
that David sent Joab and his servants with them and all Israel and they destroyed the
children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah, but David tarried still at Jerusalem.
And it came to pass in an evening time that David arose from off his bed and walked
upon the roof of the king's house and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself
and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.
And David sent and inquired after the woman and once said, is not this Bathsheba
the daughter of Eliim, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.
Now right away he sees a beautiful woman and lusts after her and he asks people who
is this woman, okay, because he wants to have a relationship with her.
And keep in mind, David's already married and he even has more than one wife, not
even just one.
And he even had concubines, okay, as a king.
And so, which is already wrong, he's already doing wrong in that sense.
But when it's told unto him, this is the wife of Uriah the Hittite, I mean the first
thing that should have come into his mind is hey, this is off limits, this is somebody
else's wife.
In fact, it's a wife of a friend of his and one of his loyal servants.
But what did David do in verse 4?
David sent messengers and took her and she came in unto him and he lay with her
and she was purified from her uncleanness and she returned unto her house.
Go to Jeremiah chapter 5, the first thing that we need to do in order to avoid this
sin of adultery is we need to avoid idleness and laziness.
Now this is something that over and over again the Bible warns about in connection
with adultery.
David, it says, at the time when kings go forth to battle, what does he do?
He stays home doing nothing.
Then he goes to bed at night and he gets up off his bed in the middle of the night.
Why would anyone get off their bed in the middle of the night?
Because they're lazy and can't sleep.
Why?
He's not doing anything.
He's supposed to be out battling and doing his job as a king.
He's sitting around idle, so guess what?
When you're idle and don't do anything, you can't sleep at night.
It's hard to go to sleep when you haven't worked.
And so he's just laying there in his bed bored because he didn't work hard.
The Bible says the sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or whether
he eat much.
When you go out and work hard, you want to get on that pillow and you don't want
to get off it again.
You're tired.
So this guy's idle, he's being lazy, he's not doing the battling and fighting the
fight that he needs to fight, and so he's just sitting around bored and an idle mind
is the devil's workshop.
Look what it says in Jeremiah, chapter 5, verse 7.
How shall I pardon thee for this?
My children have forsaken me and sworn by them that are no gods.
When I had fed them to the full, pay attention to that phrase.
When I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery and assembled themselves
by troops in the harlot's houses.
They were as fed horses in the morning.
Everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife.
Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord, and shall not my soul be avenged
on such a nation as this?
What's he saying?
When they were full, when they're like fed horses in the barn that don't have any
work to do, they don't even have to go out and get their own food, it's all just
being delivered to them, and they're sitting there bored, full of food and idle,
what do they do?
They begin to neigh after their neighbor's wife.
He's comparing them to animals.
You know, animals don't have any loyalty to their spouse.
And the Bible's saying that's what people are like sometimes when they get idle.
They can be like that.
Now, we're not going to turn there for sake of time.
You go to Jeremiah 13, but of course the famous passage in Ezekiel that talks about
Sodom and how they got into fornication and abomination, of course they went into
way worse things, but it mentions that it started out with idleness and fullness
of bread.
Exact same thing here.
See when people are idle and full of bread, then what do they do?
They get bored and they start dabbling into sin instead of staying busy on the right thing.
See if we as Christians would fight the good fight, like David should have been at war,
if we as Christians would fight the good fight, we would not have the same temptation
to go off into sin and everything.
It's when we stop fighting, when we stop serving God and being excited about doing
something with our lives, and we're just kind of sitting around bored that the lust
of the flesh really enters in and causes us to even consider committing sins like this.
Look at Jeremiah chapter 13 verse 23.
Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?
Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil.
Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness.
This is thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me, saith the Lord, because thou
has forgotten me and trusted in falsehood.
Therefore will I discover thy skirts upon thy face, that thy shame may appear.
I've seen thine adulteries, and then watch this, and thine nayings.
Remember the horses, the fed horses, naying after their neighbors.
What does naying mean?
The lewdness of thy whoredom, and thine abominations on the hills, in the fields.
Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem!
Wilt thou not be made clean?
When shall it once be?
Look at Jeremiah 23 verse 14.
Jeremiah talks a lot about adultery as being one of the sins that was the downfall of
the children of Israel at this time.
It says in Jeremiah chapter 23 verse 14, I've seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem
the horrible thing.
They commit adultery and walk in lies.
They strengthen also the hands of the evildoers that none doth return from his wickedness.
They're all of them unto me as Sodom and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.
So here he talks about even preachers, prophets, doing a horrible thing by committing adultery.
Now look, David was a prophet.
David was a man of God.
But when he stopped fighting, adultery was there waiting for him.
That's why we need to make sure that we don't let idleness and laziness enter in.
And as a preacher, we've got to keep fighting and keep on standing strong and preaching
together, not strengthening the hands of the evildoers.
You see, a lot of preachers, they have no fight in them.
And so they're not going to war, the spiritual warfare that we should, and therefore they
basically are sitting around real comfortable and then basically they're looking for something
to do.
They're looking for some excitement.
You know, they're looking for, because we as human beings, especially as men, we like
excitement, don't we?
As men, you know, we're looking for a challenge, we're looking for excitement.
We're looking for some new frontier, some new conquest, right?
I mean, it's in our name and there's nothing wrong with that.
It's who we are as men.
We're not just, I mean, unless you smoke pot or something and you just sit around
and you're apathetic and you don't care.
You know, we as men are ambitious and we have certain driving passions and everything.
But here's the thing.
We need to direct those toward doing something for the Lord and fighting the good fight
rather than just having all this energy and passion inside of us and instead of fighting
the Lord's battles and instead of going to war, basically it just becomes about
some conquest of adultery, which is what David ended up doing with all that energy
that he had.
That's where the sin is.
So the first thing we need to do to avoid adultery is that we need to avoid laziness
and idleness, okay?
Get out there, work hard, do something with your life and stay busy with other things.
Don't just sit around bored because an idle mind is the devil's workshop.
But secondly, go to Proverbs chapter 6.
In order to avoid adultery, we need to avoid evil women or, you know, we could
talk to the women and say you need to avoid evil men.
There are evil people out there who are ready to commit adultery with you because
it takes two people to commit adultery, right?
Well guess what?
There are evil people who are out there who want to commit adultery with you and
you need to stay away from these people and avoid these people like the plague if
you're going to avoid adultery itself.
Now the proof is found right here in Proverbs 6 verse 26.
Look what the Bible says.
For by means of a whorish woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread, watch this,
and the adulterous will hunt for the precious life.
Do you see that?
The adulterous, I mean there are women out there who are hunting for a man to commit
adultery with.
They want to take a married man and commit adultery with him.
That's what the Bible says.
I mean, now you might look at that and say, well, how can this be?
How can such a creature exist?
But it's out there.
And the Bible talks about adulterers and the Bible talks about adulteresses.
I mean people who by nature, they are evil people.
This is a game to them.
This is a sport to them.
This is something that they are out looking for and hunting for.
Not something that's just going to accidentally happen.
There are actually people who are seeking out this type of relationship.
It's wicked.
And the Bible warns us about it.
But look at verse 23.
Let's get the full warning.
For the commandment is a lamp and the law is light and reproofs of instruction are the
way of life.
To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman,
lust not after her beauty in thine heart.
Goes back to what we were talking about earlier.
Don't even go down that road, he's saying.
Don't even think about it.
Neither let her take thee with her eyelids, for by means of a whorish woman a man is
brought to a piece of bread and the adulterous will hunt for the precious life.
Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?
Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned?
So he that goeth in to his neighbor's wife, who so toucheth her, shall not be innocent.
Man do not despise a thief if he steal to satisfy his soul when he's hungry.
But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold.
He shall give all the substance of his house.
But who so commiteth adultery with the woman lacketh understanding.
He that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.
A wound and dishonor shall he get and his reproach shall not be wiped away.
For jealousy is the rage of a man, therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
What's the Bible saying?
He's saying, look, if you commit adultery with somebody's wife, they're gonna be so
mad that they might even kill you.
He's saying jealousy is the rage of a man and he's not gonna spare in the day of vengeance.
There are many people who've been killed because they committed adultery with somebody's
wife.
And basically somebody even just took it into their own hands to just take care of it.
Which you say, well that's not right, well but it still happens though.
Is that what you're gonna tell the guy that you committed adultery with his wife?
Hey, this isn't legal.
You still might be killed.
In fact, a friend of mine in the alarm business back many years ago, he caught his
wife with another man and he came this close to killing the guy.
He grabbed the guy and threw the guy through a window and the guy didn't have any clothes
on and so the guy was seriously injured, all cut up and went to the intensive care
unit and everything like that because he just threw the guy through the window.
And the guy barely survived, which otherwise my friend could have been in serious trouble
for manslaughter or second-degree murder or whatever.
But anyway, it definitely is rage that you're gonna face there when you don't respect people's
wife.
The Bible says in verse 35, he will not regard any ransom.
You can't pay this guy off to placate him.
Neither will he rest content though thou give as many gifts.
So there are wicked people out there that you need to just stay away from.
Now go to 1 Corinthians chapter 7.
Now I've come across people where I got the feeling that they were this type of person
and these are the type of people that we should avoid.
The Bible says, you know, go not the way to her house and basically the adulterous
is hunting for the precious life.
God gave us that warning for a reason to tell us to avoid this type of person.
And you know, I've gotten around women where I've noticed them basically acting flirtatious
with men other than their husband.
And you see that going on and you just have to think to yourself, I need to stay away
from this, this is a bad person.
And even if it's to the point where, you know, you don't really necessarily want
to say anything, but you know, just put it in your mind and say, you know what,
she's acting inappropriately toward that guy or she's acting inappropriately toward
me or whatever, I just need to stay away from her.
You know, and I've seen people like that in church.
I'm not saying at this church, but I've been in other churches where I saw women that
were like that and I would make a point to literally walk a different way and just
kind of not even come into contact with that person because you don't want to be
ensnared.
And the Bible also warns, it says, to keep thee from the evil woman from the flattery
of the tongue of a strange woman.
So basically what this woman's going to do when she's hunting the precious life is
going to give a lot of compliments and make you feel real good and macho about yourself
and it's basically just her way to manipulate you into committing adultery with her.
And obviously there are men who know how to push the right button psychologically
too.
And they go hunting for women to commit adultery with and tell that woman things
that her husband wouldn't tell her and whatever and get her to commit adultery.
Which leads me to my next point and this is the most important point.
If this is the only thing you get tonight, this is the most important point.
Because what are we talking about tonight?
The sin of adultery, major sin in the Bible.
But how do we avoid it?
How do we stay away from it?
Number one is we avoid idleness and laziness.
Those are sins that could lead us toward adultery.
Number two, we stay away from and avoid evil women and evil men, the people that
are prone to this kind of behavior.
But thirdly and most importantly, if you want to avoid adultery, you must have a right
relationship with your spouse.
This is the number one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and nine, you know,
top nine ways to not commit adultery is have the right relationship with your spouse.
In fact, I would say that virtually all adultery is pretty much a result of not having
the right relationship with your spouse.
Now that's not to obviously give people an excuse for adultery if they have a bad marriage.
There's no excuse for adultery.
But the best way to avoid adultery is to have the right relationship with your spouse.
Because if you have the right relationship with your spouse, why would you be looking
elsewhere?
You wouldn't.
The reason that people are looking elsewhere is because they have a bad relationship with
their spouse.
Look at David himself.
Bad relationship with his wives.
And that's a whole other sermon in and of itself that I've preached other times.
But here's a guy who did not have a right relationship with his wife, you know, part
of the reason, because he didn't have one wife.
That's one of the big problems right there.
But look at what the Bible teaches in 1 Corinthians 7 verse 1, because I'm not making this
stuff up.
I'm showing these stuff from the Bible.
It says in verse 1, now concerning the things wherever you wrote unto me, it is good
for a man not to touch a woman, nevertheless to avoid fornication, let every man have
his own wife and let every woman have her own husband.
He says look, to avoid fornication, be married.
Because you know, expecting people to be celibate is too much to ask of most people.
So he says to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, let every wife have
her own husband.
And it says, let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence and likewise also
the wife unto the husband.
The wife hath not power of her own body but the husband.
And likewise also, the husband hath not power of his own body but the wife.
It says defraud ye not one the other except it be with consent for a time that you may
give yourselves to fasting and prayer and come together again.
Watch this phrase, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.
What's he saying?
If you don't have the right relationship with your spouse, Satan will tempt you.
And to avoid adultery, you need to have that relationship with your spouse.
That's what the Bible says.
Now what's he saying in verse 3 and 4?
He says, let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence and likewise also the
wife unto the husband.
The wife hath not power of her own body but the husband.
And likewise also, the husband hath not power of his own body but the wife.
What he's saying is that when you get married, you're no longer your own person anymore.
Where it's just, well, I'm my own person, my body, my choice.
Is that what the Bible says?
No, the Bible says the husband hath not power of his own body but the wife.
The woman hath not power of her own body but the husband.
Basically as a man, when I'm married, my body belongs to my wife and her body belongs
to me.
That's what the Bible says and he's saying, look, don't defraud the other by withholding
from them what is rightfully theirs.
And so when you get married, part of even the vows that we say in our American style
wedding in 2015, what do we say?
To have and to hold from this day forth.
Part of what you're bargaining for when you get married is a physical relationship.
Now there are so many weird teachings out there today.
We live in such a weird time, don't we?
You'd think that this stuff is just common sense.
You grow up and you're a man and a woman grows up and you start thinking about these
things as you get older and, you know, the girls start looking good to you and everything
like that and you end up getting married and you both, you know, enjoy that physical
relationship that's just reserved for within marriage and so forth.
But people now have all these weird, creepy ideas about everything.
And part of it is because there are so many wicked people in our world and there are
so many people who are being molested today or being exposed to really weird stuff at
a real young age or being exposed to pornography at a real young age or just being exposed
to all the sin and filth of our world and kids are watching this stuff on TV even
as a little child way before they're old enough to even process it or understand
it.
So what you have is a generation growing up today that is perverted in their mind or that
just has weird ideas about, instead of just normal, you know, you grow up and hey, you
know, all these girls look beautiful, you know, I think I'm going to pick the one I
want and marry her and be physical with her.
It sounds great.
Let's do it.
And looking forward to getting married.
Now you have these weird people that, people contacting me and saying, well, you know,
what if I just want to get married but I just don't want to have that physical relationship
with anyone?
I just have an aversion toward that physical relationship but I just want to get married
to have like a life companion.
It's like, what?
Where does this even come from?
Weird idea.
Look, if you're a man and you're supposed to be attracted toward women and if you're
a woman, you're supposed to be attracted toward men and here's the thing.
If you're not, then don't get married.
If you're this rare bird that just, you're a man and you just don't have any interest
in that, then you know, save us all and don't get married.
And you say, well, I want that companion.
It's called having a friend, okay?
Hello people.
It's called friends.
When you have buddies that you hang out with and do stuff with but there's no physical
component, that's called a friend, okay?
That's not a wife.
That's not a husband.
So here's the thing.
If you're like, well, I don't want to have a physical relationship, then don't get married
because if you get married, guess what you're signing up for?
A big long physical relationship that's going to last for decades, okay, and that's going
to happen all the time.
That's going to frequently be taking place and if you don't want that, then what are
you doing getting married?
Well, but I just shut up and quit being an idiot and understand what the Bible says
about marriage that the woman hath not power over her own body but the man and
that the husband has not power over his body but the woman, you know, and today we live
in such a warped society.
Here's what I'll say.
Oh, I was raped by my husband.
What?
He's your husband.
He owns you and look, it goes the other way too because guess what?
Your wife owns you, guys.
You can't tell your wife, no, I don't want that physical.
I mean, look, you think I'm going to be crying about my wife, rape me?
I mean, what kind of stupidity is this?
But this is the society that we're living in today.
Oh, I got molested by my spouse.
Like, what?
You're married!
But this is the kind of garbage today that we have in the world that we're living
in and so what does the Bible teach?
The Bible teaches, hey, look, if you're married, you signed up for that.
You know what?
You just consented to decades of you know what?
You know, I don't ask my wife's permission every time I touch my wife.
Like, honey, may I touch you?
It's like, no, we're married.
We already got that permission slip signed a long time ago.
It's called a marriage certificate.
It's in a frame on the wall.
It's like, she doesn't have to ask my permission.
It's like, get your hands off me.
I didn't give you permission to touch me.
What are you doing?
You pervert, you know?
I mean, but look, and you know, I feel stupid even preaching about this, but you have to
because it's Bible and we're living in this crazy twilight zone of 2015 America.
We actually have to tell people this stuff.
It should be common sense.
It should be just common sense.
Just know, hey, when you get married, you're consenting to a lifetime of physical marriage
because that's what marriage is.
Hello.
People are crazy though today.
But he says here, look, if you defraud each other because look, there's nothing new
under the sun.
God knows that even though it should be common sense, hey, when we get married,
we're getting married so that we can be physical with each other, otherwise we would
just be friends, then, you know, there are still going to be people out there
who withhold this relationship from their spouse.
And it's not just women who do it, it's even men that would do it.
In fact, Islam even teaches this.
Islam teaches this is a way to punish your wife, refuse to have this relationship with
her.
It's right there in the Quran.
Look it up.
The Quran says, hey, if your wife won't obey you, then withhold this relationship
from her.
That's not biblical.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
The Bible teaches that the man has not power of his own body but the wife and vice
versa.
So what the Bible's teaching here is that if we have a right physical relationship with
our spouse, then basically we're not opening ourselves up to temptation, okay?
Here's why.
Because the Bible says the full soul loathes a honeycomb but to the hungry soul, every
bitter thing is sweet.
Every bitter thing is sweet to the hungry soul.
So let me ask you this.
Do you want your wife being a hungry wife in that area?
No, because then it's open to temptation.
You don't want your husband to be hungry in this area because then it's an opening
to temptation again.
So if you're smart, you'll understand, hey, wait a minute, if we're going to keep
ourselves purer and exclusive to each other and keep away from adultery, we need to
make sure that we regularly partake of this relationship within marriage so that we are
satisfied within marriage and that one or both parties don't start going and looking
elsewhere for satisfaction because they're not getting what they need out of that relationship.
But it goes beyond just a physical relationship.
You know, I don't want you to misunderstand me and think that that's all that marriage
is about.
It goes beyond that because we as human beings, we don't just have a physical need
in this area.
Human beings also have a need for love and closeness and bonding with their spouse
on an emotional, spiritual, mental type level and not just a carnal level.
I mean, think about it.
When you got married, you weren't just marrying a concubine.
I mean, you're actually getting married because you actually love that.
I hope so, you know, that you actually love that person, right?
And you wanted to have that closeness and relationship and communion.
We need to provide that for our spouse in order to avoid adultery.
We need to provide that friendship, that companionship, and that relationship because
when people go out and commit adultery, that's sometimes what they're looking for.
Now listen, there are two types of adultery that I've seen and that you see in the Bible.
Number one, there's adultery with a stranger, okay?
And we see that in the Bible.
That's David and Bathsheba, right?
I mean, was he buddies with Bathsheba?
No.
Stranger to him.
Who is this woman?
The one that they bring her to me.
Or the one where it says that they assemble at the harlot's houses.
What's that talking about?
Stranger.
But then there's also adultery with someone that you know, okay?
And in all of the cases of adultery that I've seen in my life, it was always with
someone that they knew very well.
And if you look at adultery, in most cases, when I've known men who committed adultery,
usually the woman that they committed adultery with was not as good looking as their own
wife.
They often would commit adultery with a much lesser appearing woman.
And you're like, what in the world?
What are you doing?
But here's why.
Because they're not just looking for a physical, carnal relationship.
They're actually looking for someone who appreciates them or praises them or you
gives their ego a boost or that they like being around and have companionship with.
This is dangerous when people go down this road.
Now go to Romans chapter 13 because the next thing that I want to say about avoiding
adultery, first of all, we talked about, hey, you need to make sure that you're not
idle and lazy.
Number two, we need to make sure we avoid loose women or men who are this type that
would be an adulterer or women that are adulteresses.
We need to stay away from these evil people.
Thirdly, and most importantly, we need to have a right relationship with our spouse
because if we have a right relationship with our spouse, we're not going to need
to go look somewhere else.
Not that anyone would need to or that it would ever be condoned, but the Bible says
that Satan would tempt in that situation.
But fourthly, this, we need to not even start down the road toward adultery and even put
ourselves in situations that could lead to adultery.
Now look what the Bible says in Romans 13-12, the night is far spent, the day is
at hand, let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the
armor of light.
Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering
and wantonness, not in strife and envy, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and
make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof.
Now listen, the Bible says in Job 24 verse 15, the eye also of the adulterer waiteth
for the twilight saying, no eye shall see me and disguiseth his face.
So what's the Bible talking about?
Those who walk in darkness and those who are making provision for the flesh to fulfill
the lust of, they're putting themselves in a situation where sin can happen versus
people who walk honestly in the daylight and they are just not making provision for
the flesh.
What am I saying?
I'm saying this, you'll never convince me that anybody is just living a godly Christian
life, having a great relationship with their spouse and then just whoops, I committed
adultery.
You'll never convince me of that because committing adultery is such a major sin and
it's such a big leap and it doesn't happen by accident.
And the reason that I'm preaching this sermon is because I believe that if you actually
follow these steps, you're not going to commit adultery and your spouse is not going
to commit adultery because I believe it's preventable.
I don't think it's something that people just slip and do, whoops, I accidentally committed
adultery, you know.
That's not real because the vast majority of people who I've known that committed
adultery, it was with people that they knew and it was people that they had a relationship
with and people that they had known for a long time.
So it's not just something that just boom, it happened and you say well with David
it just happened, boom, no because David had already been living a life of take another
wife, take another concubine, stay home from the war, sit around and do nothing,
walk around on the roof at night checking out babes.
So no, it didn't just go from David's doing everything right in his life and then
boom he's committing adultery.
No, he made all these mistakes leading up to it, taking on multiple wives, taking
on concubines, being lazy, being idle, x, y, and z, it's not something that happened
by accident, okay.
You see there's a road that leads you down a path to adultery and if you're smart
you won't even start going down that road and you'll stay far away from it because
it doesn't happen by accident.
You'll flee from it.
Remember when Joseph was tempted to commit adultery where Potiphar's wife, she was
that adulterous that's hunting for the precious life, right, and she kept saying
to him lie with me, lie with me to Joseph.
And then finally she waits till everybody's out of the house, none of the servants are
in the house, it's just her and Joseph.
She grabs hold of him and says lie with me and what does he do?
He runs away to the point where she literally rips his coat right off him because he runs
away.
And what does the Bible say?
Flee fornication.
And so that's how we have to be.
We have to not even get close to it and we need to run screaming in the other direction
like Joseph did.
So what is this path that leads us to adultery?
What is this making provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof?
Now I'm going to focus on the adultery with someone that you know because that seems
to be the most common type of adultery that happens.
Well you need to be careful not to form close friendships with people of the opposite
gender that you're not married to when you're married.
Now look, you single guys, you need to make some close relationships with the opposite
gender.
Okay, I'm not talking about the singles here.
I'm talking about when you're married or when they're married.
You don't need to be buddy-buddy with people that you're not married to because
you're on the path to adultery.
Now look, there's nothing wrong with interacting with people that you're not married to.
You know, it's not like well I'm married so I'm never going to interact with a
woman again, I'm never going to talk to a woman at church again or I'm never going
to have any, you know, kind of dealings with any women.
Now obviously we're going to talk to people and deal with people but we need to make
sure not to build these close relationships with people of the opposite gender or cross
certain lines, okay?
So here are some good rules of thumb when you're crossing the line, okay?
These are some major crossing the line red flags, okay?
Number one, because remember we're talking about walking honestly as in the day, not
walking in darkness.
You know, when you're basically talking to someone other than your spouse and you're
basically deleting the history of that email or deleting the history of that phone call,
even if it's totally innocent at this point, even if nothing's happening at this
point and it's in the real embryonic stages of talking to that person, you know, when
you're deleting phone calls or deleting emails and basically hiding the fact that you spend
time with that person from your spouse, something's wrong with that picture.
You know, when you're basically, because here's the thing, if your relationship is
legit in the sense of, oh yeah, it's just, it's a business contact that I have to go
talk to.
Like for example, I've had a job where I was, you know, talking to different women
in different offices and you know, you go talk to this person, talk to that person.
In the course of business, that's the world we live in, right?
But I didn't have to sit there and delete those emails and delete those phone calls
of like, well, you know, I don't want my wife to see how much I'm talking to this.
You know what?
That right there, when you start hiding stuff, it's like they say about gambling.
You know, when you know that you have a problem, well, you know, when you start
gambling, you have a problem the first time you do it.
But anyway, you know, they say, hey, you're having a serious gambling problem when you're
doing what?
And they start lying about it to people and saying that you went somewhere else when
you really went to the casino, okay?
So when you're sitting there and hiding it by saying, oh wow, you know, I don't
want my wife to see or I don't want my husband to see that I'm talking to this
person that much or maybe talking about stuff that's real unrelated with business
or just going over a line.
When you're hiding stuff, that right there is a red flag because now what you're doing
is you're like sharing a secret with someone else and you're building a wall between
you and your spouse where you're hiding stuff from her, hiding stuff from him.
That's a red flag that you've gone over the line right there and you need to get
away from that person and stop having that friend or, you know, whatever association.
When you're sneaking around, when you're deleting emails, texts, calls and stuff
to try to hide that, okay?
Here's another way over the line.
When you're talking to someone that's not your spouse of the opposite gender and you
actually say something negative about your spouse to that person, even if it's just
minor, that's a huge red flag.
When you're basically, you know, talking to another woman and you say, oh well, you
know, my wife doesn't really like it when I do X, Y and Z or whatever, you know,
just saying something negative, complaining about your wife and look, this is stuff that
people do.
Don't just sit there and think that I'm just coming up with all these crazy scenarios
and just making up fairy tales.
No, this is how it starts, friend.
I could tell you about churches I've been in where people commit adultery.
I could tell you the stories about it and it starts with these type of just getting
a little too close with people and then next thing you know, you start letting your
guard down.
Next thing you know, I'm whining about my wife to her and she understands because she
would never be like that, you know, or you know, John down at the office, you know,
when I talk to him, he understands me.
You know, my husband, I can't talk to him, you know, and you know, she starts complaining
to John about her husband and what a barbarian he is at home and John's at the office
with his lavender tie and he's real understanding and you know, he's telling her everything's
okay.
Well, you know, these are just signs that you're crossing the line.
Now here's another sign that you're crossing the line.
There's nothing wrong with being friendly to people, being nice to people and look,
this could happen at work, this could happen at church, this could happen at any association
where you're around people, okay?
There's nothing wrong with being friendly, happy to see someone, nice to someone but
here's the thing, if you show up at church or you show up at work or you show up at
some other social function and you're like real disappointed that that person's
not there, like you're not, you're not looking forward to going to work, you're
looking forward to seeing her or you're looking forward to seeing him, you know,
there's something seriously wrong in your mind.
When you're not going to church to go to church, you're not going to work to go
to work, you're not going to this social function to go to the social function,
you're going to see him, you're going to see her in your mind.
And it's a slippery slope, you've got to stay away from it, you know, you got
to just realize that look, once you're married, you're supposed to keep yourself
only unto them so long as you both shall live.
And you say, well, it's nothing physical, but you know what, it doesn't start physical
most of the time, it starts emotional.
It starts in your heart.
See this is what Jesus said in Mark 7, verse 20, it says,
For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries.
Where do adulteries proceed from?
From within, out of the heart of men, it starts up here.
When you start thinking to yourself, you know, my wife is this, that, and the other,
oh, but she, on the other hand, is nothing like my wife, I like her better.
When you start making negative comparisons about your wife with other women, or you
start making negative comparisons about your husband with other men, look, this is where
adultery begins, in the mind, in the heart.
When you are, you know, getting real close with other people that you're not married
to, you're really looking forward to seeing them, even though you have a legitimate reason
to get together with them, you know, whatever business or whatever, you're deleting call
history and emails to try to hide how much time you're paying, you start criticizing
your spouse to that person, you know, these are dangerous things to play around with,
and you know, you need to hear this every once in a while, just so that you don't
let your guard down, and just basically indulge in these type of relationships and
think it's fun to fool around with this.
You know, as long as, well, you know, I'm never going to go all the way and commit
adultery or anything, you know, don't even go down that road.
Don't even make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lesser, okay?
But here's another thing, do not, here's another thing that's over the line, don't
get together with someone of the opposite gender alone.
Now remember Joseph and Potiphar's wife, that's where she's ready to strike, because
they're alone.
This is why, if you have to interact with someone that is of the other gender that
you're not married to, and again, we're talking about married people here especially,
you know, you need to be in a public place, public place.
You know, if you have to get together and talk to somebody about business, or you're
talking to somebody about church, about this and that, always make sure that somebody
else is there with you.
For example, women will constantly say to me, oh, Pastor Anderson, may I speak with
you about, okay, oh, well I need to talk to you in private.
And here's what I always say, this is as private as I get.
We can step a few feet away from the crowd.
That's as private as I get.
Why?
Because I'm not going to take some woman that I'm not married to into my office and
just be alone in my office for some counseling session, you know, for 20, 30, 45 minutes,
where she tells me all about how her husband is this and her husband, I mean, think about
it.
She's going to criticize her husband to me in the privacy of my office, and this is where
pastors get into adultery, and this is where other types of professions get into adultery.
We need to make sure that we are not alone with the opposite gender, but to be in a
public place.
If you need to talk to someone, talk to them in a restaurant, talk to them in church,
talk to them outside.
Don't go into a room with them, oh yeah, come over to my house, and it's just you
and them.
Or hey, go over to their house, or whatever, I mean, think about this.
You're making provision for the flesh, for the lust of, not only that, but your reputation
could be harmed, because even if you are spiritually strong and you're not going
to commit any of these types of sins, what about the accusations that could be hurled
against you when you go and lock yourself in that room for an hour to just talk and
do some counseling, well, what are people going to say though?
And even that person themselves could lie about you and say, yeah, you know, this is what
he tried, or whatever.
Think about Joseph.
So these are things that you need to be real careful about.
Now listen, how can you commit adultery, just stop and think about it, how can you
or your spouse commit adultery when you're in love with each other, you're working
on the relationship, you have a vibrant physical relationship and romantic relationship
and emotional relationship and you're not building close relationships with anyone
else outside the marriage and you're never alone with a woman that's not your wife
in a situation where you could even commit adultery, then how are you going to commit
adultery?
It's never going to happen, is it?
Because you're not even making provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust of, you're
not even putting yourself in that scenario where adultery could happen.
And so instead of just saying, well, I hope my spouse doesn't commit adultery, well,
why don't you have a good relationship with your spouse?
And why don't you make sure that you keep yourself above reproach and keep yourself
away from these temptations and things and not even play with fire?
You know the Bible says, can you take hot coals into your bosom and not be burned?
No.
So don't play with fire and keep yourself pure because, listen, I'm not just speaking
theoretically here because I've seen people do this stuff and this is where it starts.
So you need to start thinking about, you know, what can I do to make sure that my
marriage lasts and that it doesn't end in divorce and that it doesn't end even worse,
you know, in adultery happening.
Basically you need to put work and effort into your marriage.
And you might think to yourself, well, you know, my marriage just isn't really that
important to me and I just don't really have a need, you know, for this real deep relationship
with my spouse.
But here's the thing, your spouse might not feel the same way.
So you need to make sure not only that you're getting what you need from the relationship
but you need to make sure that your wife is getting what she needs or that your
husband is getting what he needs so that everybody is getting satisfied in the relationship
and that people are not then looking elsewhere, looking in the wrong places and going into sin.
You know, we need to make sure that our wife is happy in all ways, in all areas,
you know, want to make sure that she's physically happy, want to make sure that
she's emotionally happy and women need to make sure that their husband is happy.
And they can sit there and get all pride, well, that's his problem, I don't care
what he thinks he needs.
It's like, well, no, if you're smart, you'll keep your husband happy.
If you're smart, you'll keep your wife happy.
Because people go looking elsewhere for a reason.
Because they're not getting what they need at home.
I mean, man is a monogamous creature.
God made us to be monogamous.
God made us to be married for life, two people for life.
That's how God created us.
But then why are so many people wanting something else?
It's because we failed to follow God's design.
And honestly, if you have the right relationship with your spouse, you can be happy in that
relationship and not need anything else.
Okay, you can actually just be satisfied within marriage and that's what God wants
for our lives.
Let's pray and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for these warnings and just pray that we'd heed
these warnings, Lord.
Please help people not to play games with this and get real buddy-buddy with somebody
else's wife or real buddy-buddy with anybody that they're not married to, Lord.
I just pray that you would just help us to instead focus our efforts toward building
a relationship with our own wife, building a relationship with our own husband, Lord,
help us to work on what you've given us and not covet some other relationship, some
other unicorn that we think is because the grass is always greener on the other
side of the fence, Lord.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.