Tonight, beloved, we do consider together the seventh commandment. You shall not commit adultery. We want to consider, to look at in that connection, Matthew 5, a portion of our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, dealing where He deals directly with adultery, deepening the commandment. Matthew 5, verses 27 to 30. As you turn there, I also ask that you would turn to 2 Samuel 11 as we read the first five verses of the episode concerning David and Bathsheba. Matthew 5 and 2 Samuel 11. And as you have those places marked, then I also ask you to turn in the back of the Psalter hymnal to page 54. To page 54, and we will confess together what we believe. Before we read Scripture, confess together what we believe concerning what the Catechism says in Lord's Day 41. Page 54, in the back of the Psalter hymnal. Questions and answers 108 and 109. Question 108, what is God's will for us in the Seventh Commandment? God condemns all unchastity. We should therefore thoroughly detest it and, married or single, live decent and chaste lives. Does God in this commandment forbid only such scandalous sins as adultery? We are temples of the Holy Spirit, body and soul, and God wants both to be kept clean and holy. That is why He forbids everything which incites unchastity, whether it be actions, looks, talk, thoughts, or desires. We'll read together first from 2 Samuel 11, the first five verses. Hear now the Word of God. In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Reba, but David remained in Jerusalem. One evening, David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof, he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, Isn't this Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite? Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him and he slept with her. She had purified herself from her uncleanness. Then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David saying, I am pregnant. Turning over to Matthew 5, 27-30. There our Lord Jesus Christ says, you have heard that it was said, do not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. Well, beloved in Christ the Lord, it's all around us. It's as common as baseball and apple pie. It doesn't even shock us anymore. We see it portrayed over and over by TV and movie characters, but you know, it's not just in the make-believe storyline. That make-believe storyline is patterned much after society. It is as common in real life. And no doubt many of us can point fingers at different famous people that we know of or even people that we know around town or at work or maybe our neighbors or maybe even some in the church. In fact, we can even point our fingers at King David himself, a man after God's own heart, and they've all done it. They've all played around with adultery. How shameful. How scandalous. However, in this text from Matthew 5, our Lord Jesus Christ looks each and every one of us who would be quick to point the finger at someone else, He looks each one of us in the eye as it were and says, You are guilty of unfaithfulness. You are guilty of adultery. You see, beloved, with the seventh commandment, God places a protecting shield over marriage. And that shield also protects sexual conduct both within and outside of marriage. And therefore, for our good and for the glory of God, we are commanded to actively be keeping the marriage bed pure. keeping the marriage bed pure. And to do so, first of all, by keeping from the act of adultery. Jesus says, you have heard that it was said, do not commit adultery. I'm grateful for what Josh Vanee said in adult Sunday school this morning, that we know that our Lord quoted the right manuscript, not the one that said do not, or do commit adultery. He quoted the very one that he himself wrote. You have heard that it was said, do not commit adultery. Now what is adultery? What is a definition of adultery? Well, we can first talk about adultery within marriage. And no doubt the first thing that comes to mind is adultery in its most graphic form. It is unfaithfulness to one's marriage partner or unfaithfulness with another's marriage partner. It is sexual relations with someone other than your spouse. And it's clear that David was guilty of adultery. As the Bible makes very clear to us that Bathsheba's pregnancy was the result of their union, not her union with her husband or anyone else for that matter, but their union. And as well, Scripture reminds us over and over again, whenever it does refer to Bathsheba, you may know that never is she referred to by her first name. She seems most often to be referred to as Uriah's wife. A clear reminder that she had belonged to another man. That David had taken one that did not belong to him, but belonged to another. But sadly, too, we need to qualify what we mean by marriage partners because today there is a push for homosexual marriage acceptance and the Seventh Commandment does not protect that. It only protects marriage as God ordained it, as He instituted it, between a man and a woman. But we can also define adultery outside of marriage. It includes sexual relations between unmarried people, which attacks the purity of the marriage that they may enter into one day. Someone has said sex outside of marriage undermines one's future marriage by depriving it of its mystery and holiness. It can lead to unwanted pregnancy. it may result in a lifestyle which becomes totally devoid of all sexual restraint. It can lead to deep feelings of guilt, especially later in life. And that quote, beloved, then points to the danger of adultery. We can all think of many dangers of adultery, including the ones just listed. But a few for us to consider would be these, first of all. The danger of sin against God's created order. God gave marriage in the garden before sin. in the time of man's innocence. And therefore, marriage is to be exclusive, as God gave it, between one man and one woman. There was no animal to satisfy Adam. God made Eve of man's body. He tailor-made the woman for the man. And therefore, Adam's reaction is proper. He says, to paraphrase, wow! Wow! When he saw Eve, He agreed that God did very good. He applauded God's handiwork. And that's because God created man with a desire for sexual intimacy. It's not the result of sin as some would have us believe. But God created man with a desire for sexual intimacy and it was pure. It was from proper motives. There was no lust or no selfishness involved. And God said that marriage between one man and one woman that they were to become one flesh. And sexual intimacy is the highest expression of the unity between the husband and the wife. It is a part of that exclusiveness for marriage and the exclusiveness of marriage. And as far as marriage goes, we know that marriage is intended to be the pillar of society and it forms the basis for family life. And from the New Testament, we learn that marriage is to represent the relationship between Christ and His bride, the church. It is to be a union of faithfulness and commitment between husband and wife. But adultery and fornication attacks that created order. It adds a third party, a third person, into that which is to be between two. It replaces faithfulness with unfaithfulness. It is sin against that which God commanded and God gave. It is so serious that even in Numbers 5, that's the episode of a husband suspecting that his wife committed adultery and Moses is prescribing what is to be done there and he takes the water with the dust of the temple floor mixed in. And you remember that episode. And one of the points there is that even the suspicion of adultery is a very, very serious matter. And all of this then introduces is the danger, a second danger, destroying sexual purity as God gave it and intended it. Again, it was natural, pure, no sinful shame, no embarrassment involved. But God has given this command, like many of His Ten Commandments, given it in a negative formulation because with this commandment then, He warns against what is now natural for sinners. You see, adultery destroys that which God reserved for marriage. There are things permitted within the marriage relationship which are good and right and beautiful, but outside of the marriage relationship are terrible and gross sin. Again, God created mankind with a desire for their spouse. Sexually, it was beautiful. But sin caused man to selfishly turn his head away from his spouse. Even a future spouse. You see, young people, you must consider how your life today will affect your future spouse whom you may not even know yet. Because if you are going to have a true marriage as God intended it, it must be open and honest. No secrets. Nothing hiding in the closet. And therefore, you must consider how your life today, especially in this area, will affect the spouse that God will give you one day. In Leviticus chapter 18, we find a list that Moses gives us. And it is a list in which we see that God condemns all sexual relations outside of marriage and with anyone other than your husband and wife. It's a very comprehensive list and it includes close relatives and mother and sister and granddaughter and daughter-in-law and a man with a man. We say, disgusting. It's all condemned by God. The danger of adultery, sin against God's created order, destroying sexual purity as God gave and intended it, and also it attacks the protecting shield over our neighbor and his wife. It attacks the image of God with which they were created. So that my neighbor, the one of whom I may be having these desires, is seen as a thing, as a tool of self-gratification. as nothing more than an object. It destroys what God has joined together and said no man shall tear apart. It also leads one further from God. So many, even those who claim to be Christians, justify themselves. They make excuses. Well, doesn't God want me to be happy? And yet another danger is that adultery leads to other sin. Think of David again. If we would have gone further, we know the story well. It led to stealing. He stole Uriah's wife. It led to lying. It led to David murdering. It's so dangerous, beloved. But sadly, we must also remember that society downplays adultery. It doesn't even call it by that name. It doesn't think of it in that way. Society attacks marriage. I heard one celebrity some years ago being interviewed in and she said, I think she'd been married a number of times, that said, well, marriage is a good thing, I think, but it's just not for me. It's fine for others. It's just not for me. You see, to society, it's a matter of convenience. It is unnecessary. The commitment is enough, but it's not until death do us part, it's until my desires do us part. Society justifies their passions. If it feels so right, how can it be wrong? We need to remember, beloved, that it will always feel right in the heat of the moment. When it comes to lust, the world sees a big difference between a rape reported in the newspaper and a pass made at the water cooler at the office. As long as the two are agreed, that's all you need. The physical act of adultery is disobedience against God's created order. It attacks and destroys the visible, physical marriage relationship of others. It is sin and it is destructive. And we are to be actively keeping the marriage bed pure in the second place by turning from the thought of adultery. We've considered the act of adultery. But what about the thought of adultery? You see, Jesus gives a deeper definition of adultery when He says in verse 28, but I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. You see, the Pharisees were committing a dangerous error. They had also with murder. Jesus before this says that murder is not just stopping a beating heart. It's hatred. It's in the heart. And for the Pharisees as well, adultery, for them, it was the physical act only. as long as they did not physically have their neighbor's wife, they were okay. They hadn't violated this one. But Jesus makes it clear that the act of adultery is a response of a heart filled with adultery. Maybe you have heard someone say, maybe you have said at some point in your life, I may look, but I may not touch. It's okay if I look. It's okay if I look long and hard. i just may not touch as long as i don't touch i'm okay but you see with regard to that saying it means to look with a purpose it means to gaze at to to admire inappropriately and with regard to a saying like that jesus says you're wrong you're wrong notice he did not say anyone who happens to look at anyone who just by accident glances in the direction of a woman that's not what jesus says but the word that jesus uses here is what we might say pregnant with meaning it's filled with meaning it means to look at with a particular tendency in mind it means to have an ultimate goal in mind it is a conscious continual deliberate stare in which you simply cannot get your eyes off of the object to lust after here means to pursue to dominate to use even if only in your own mind and heart for your own selfish pleasure using as an object. With regard to what our Lord says here, someone has said that He is not giving a prohibition against normal attraction between men and women. And I trust the writer means as God gave it. What He says what Jesus is talking about is a deep-seated lust which consumes and devours, which in imagination attacks and rapes, which mentally contemplates and commits adultery. That's what we have done if you have ever had thoughts like that. Consumed and devoured. Attacked and raped. Contemplated and committed adultery. And we are called to turn away from and destroy these thoughts because as Jesus makes it clear, it's more than a look. It's a doorway to the heart and to the mind. And therefore, one can be guilty of the act of adultery without outwardly acting. You see, when David saw Bathsheba bathing, there's no hint in the text, the inspired text, that he was interested in her mind or in her hobbies or in her intelligence. Or having a polite conversation. There's no hint that he was interested in her personal life. The very opposite. He was told she was Uriah's wife and he still sent for her. And then he callously sent her back home afterward. His only thought was about having her and holding her and fulfilling his desires. He didn't get serious about her until after she says, I'm pregnant. And again, we know the story. Beloved, in many ways, adultery in the heart may be a hidden sin. But even if it's not acted upon outwardly, even if no one else knows about it, God knows it is still sin. And it includes even thinking about another in an appropriate way, even thinking about holding and kissing another that you shouldn't be. It includes hardcore adultery and soft-core adultery. And the responsible parties are those who are the cause, may very well be the cause of the adultery. And the cause are those who may outwardly or even in their hearts and minds commit the offense. Answer 108 says again, God condemns all unchastity. We should therefore thoroughly detest it and married or single, live decent and chaste lives. 109, does God in this commandment forbid only such scandalous sins as adultery? We are temples of the Holy Spirit, body and soul. And God wants both to be kept clean and holy. That is why He forbids everything which incites unchastity, whether it be actions, looks, talk, thoughts, or desires. Anything that incites unchastity. Very simply, that means whatever promotes or draws one into sexual promiscuity and impurity, whatever it may be, and we are to do all we can to keep from committing adultery and to keep others from committing adultery. We must confess that we are all guilty. The late Edmund Clowney, in his book, How Jesus Transforms the Ten Commandments, the very book that our men's Bible study is studying right now, says, what husband has not looked on another woman and lusted? What wife has not thought, why did God give me this husband? Would I not have been happier with another? What spouse, male or female, has not dreamed of using his or her body to impress or manipulate? What single has not been tempted to idolize a longed-for marriage partner rather than trusting God for the sufficiency of His love? Now, with regard to what Clowney says, we may not like to admit it, but it's true of all of us in some way, shape, or form. Maybe not in the formulations in which he states it, but it's true. And anything that leads to sinful sexual behavior in one's thought or words or actions is condemned by God. And that includes filthy books. It includes pornography, whether internet pornography or pornographic magazines or maybe pornographic shows. It includes suggestive music or sexually explicit movies and TV programs. It includes dirty jokes. It includes simply staring at someone of the opposite sex as they walk down the street or on the beach or in the mall and thinking certain thoughts. It includes physical contact. Physical contact between young people who are in love, they think. You see, light touching and light contact leads to heavy. It includes getting friendly with someone of the opposite sex. And when joking around gets serious and suggestive talk makes two people become ever too comfortable with each other. It includes what I'll call eye candy. And now I'm getting to the clothing. a lack of clothing showing too much skin, or tight, form-fitting clothing. Both of these leave nothing to the imagination. Now, girls, I understand that you may only want to be in style, but you need to understand that the world's style is exactly for the purpose of promoting, in a large part sex and a get what you want lifestyle. It is meant to be noticed. It is meant to grab the attention of others. And you need to understand as someone explained it to me this past week it has a shotgun effect. You know if you shoot a gun with just a single bullet that bullet goes straight. One bullet. But a shotgun, a 12 gauge shotgun shell is filled with hundreds of BBs and it spreads out. That's the shotgun effect. And you may intend only to grab the attention of one particular young man or only the boys your age, which you shouldn't be doing either. But you need to understand that the shotgun effect is this, that it attracts the attention of men of all ages. It may even attract the attention of someone who is old enough to be your grandpa. I mentioned this to a young lady this past week. She had never thought about it that way. Her response was, ooh, disgusting. Dads, moms, be cautious with your daughters and your sons. Sons and daughters, let your moms and dads be cautious for you. Because even if you don't mean to be suggestive, Your inappropriate clothing may very well incite unchastity in others. At times it shouldn't, and that's one thing. But if you are dressed inappropriately and it incites unchastity, even if you didn't mean it, you share in that guilt. Like all sin, beloved, adultery begins in the sin-soaked heart. But it also deals with the passions and the desires within us that God created good, And because of sin, these have become ugly and twisted and perverted. They have become a danger to ourselves and to others in violating the purity of the marriage bed. And we are to turn from these for the glory of God and for the sake of others and ourselves. Finally, we are to be keeping the marriage bed pure by running from the temptation of adultery. Jesus says, if your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. We are to actively be running from temptation of adultery because of its deserved consequence, which is hell. Being cut off from God. All throughout Scripture, from beginning to end. Sexual immorality of any kind It is condemned because it is the very opposite of the purity and the holiness that God requires of us. Paul says in Galatians chapter 5, he says, the acts of the sinful nature, and then he gives a list including sexual immorality. He says, those who live like that will not inherit the kingdom of God. Israel, throughout the Old Testament, God was pictured as Israel's husband. And God is the picture of faithfulness. But Israel was a picture of unfaithfulness. And God explained that to them when He commanded the prophet Hosea to marry Gomer the prostitute. She represented the adultery of Israel stepping out on her husband. Adultery violates love for God and our neighbor. It points to spiritual adultery having other gods, the God of lust. It is rejecting God's faithfulness. Beloved God created mankind with a deep desire for her husband or wife. A deep jealousy. A good jealousy. A jealousy that is not willing to share. Husbands should never desire to share their wives and wives should never desire to share their husbands. He created mankind with that deep desire so that we might understand the jealousy of His love for us. And as well, experience the joy of jealousy for Him. He is not willing to share us. And you see, it's not His jealousy that has changed. But our jealousy has changed. We are to be actively running from temptation through drastic measures. Jesus says, gouge out the right eye, cut off the right hand. Now, he's not talking literally as some have taken it because we still have the left eye and we still have the left hand and you can still sin through those and even if you don't have those, you can still sin in your mind. But his point is deal with it severely and seriously and immediately. Beloved, we will face judgment. And Jesus teaches here that no pleasure of life is to be more precious and valuable to you and me as obedience to God. He is teaching us that whatever hinders us from being obedient to God ought to be cut off. He is teaching us that no sacrifice can be too great if it keeps us from sin. He is teaching us how far better it is and how incomparably more necessary it is to prepare for eternity than to enjoy the sinful pleasures of this life. Now, we know that Satan, through society, keeps sexual impurity before our minds and our eyes. It's everywhere. On the magazine racks. On billboards. In innocent TV commercials, which aren't innocent at all. And you know as well as I do that even our TV commercials, no matter what the product is, they try to sell a lifestyle. And in the advertisement, it implies it plants the seed for physical attraction, for sexual activity. Whether it's cars, or whether it's food, or whether it's medication. They're largely all the same. Satan keeps sexual impurity before our minds and our eyes because he knows that it will draw us away from obedience to God. He knows how strong that physical attraction can be. In the power of the Holy Spirit, we are called to turn and run away from temptation. It is to be a conscious activity. David had no business being home. Someone else was with the king's men. He should have been out to war with his army doing what God called him to do. This is to be a conscious activity. In the negative sense, as Paul says in Colossians 3, verse 5, we are to put to death the deeds of the earthly nature. We are to actively get rid of them. We are to run away from the things that cause lust. Beloved, turn your head. Close your eyes. Change the channel. Leave the theater. Change your clothes. We need to be careful with Christian liberty. Many believers have become way too lax with Christian liberty. Instead of avoiding and fleeing things that simply attract us. In the name of Christian liberty, we often provoke and tickle our senses by getting as close as possible to the things that will very well cause us to fall into sin. We become desensitized. One good test for each one of us is something that's close to us here in Southern California, and that is the beach. That is the beach. The next time you go to the beach on a hot summer day, and I hope you remember this, Ask yourself, how will you protect yourself and how will you protect others from committing adultery? Beloved, we are to see sin for what it is. Joseph did and sacrificed his status and his position for obedience to God, but David sacrificed obedience to fulfill his lust. But this is to be a conscious activity, positively speaking as well. We are to seek to be faithful to God by exercising faithfulness to each other, to our spouse, finding in them all that God has intended for us. Exercising faithfulness with others, seeing them as image bearers of God, not as objects of personal satisfaction. Youth, our young people and those who are single, are to exercise faithfulness, protecting the marriage that God may give you one day by saving yourself. And each one of us, we are to ask the Holy Spirit to more and more give us each a heart and a mind makeover and erase the images and the thoughts that have already been planted there. And may it be that in the power of the Spirit we would take captive more and more every thought and make it obedient to Christ. We are to seek to be different from the world that is characterized by adultery. Clowney also says, perhaps in no other area is the contrast of Christian living more plainly seen than in the unusual purity that a Christian keeps in his or her sexual life, remaining a virgin before marriage and remaining faithful to one wife or husband until death parts that union. I believe he's right. Where else would that contrast be more clearly seen than the purity of God's people versus a world that has no clue what purity means? And only when you and I have single-minded devotion to God Can we be, will we be singly-minded to our spouse? We are to strive to demonstrate commitment to God and to holiness by committing to protect the purity of others and ourselves. And again, sadly, beloved, we have to confess that we have all failed. Over and over and over. But there is hope. There is hope only in Jesus Christ, the faithful bridegroom of His church. And despite those in our day and those throughout history, who say that He married, who say that He gave in to sexual temptation. He did not. He remained pure body and soul. And He has transformed the seventh commandment so that through union with Him, we, the church, taste the purity and the faithfulness of God's love. Jesus Christ has been and He remains a perfectly faithful bridegroom, giving Himself completely for His bride, the church. He remains jealous for his bride, not willing to share her with anyone. And in him, just as David was forgiven, he sings of that in Psalm 32. In the same way Christ paid for our sins of unfaithfulness to God and to each other, we are forgiven and His purity, His purity is given to us as our very own. And therefore, beloved, through the transforming power of His love, may we more and more recognize the things that are impure and would seek to steal our hearts and cause us to steal the hearts of others. And more and more may our commitment to and our jealousy for purity with our spouse and among each other be demonstrated through a deep commitment of obedience to God but out of a profound thankfulness for His jealous love and pure love for us demonstrated in Christ Jesus. And beloved, may we rejoice in God's protecting shield over the purity of His people. And may we demonstrate that confidence as we find refuge in the protective presence of our eternal Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. Let's pray together. Our great God and Heavenly Father, we must confess, O Lord, that You have made us feel very uneasy. You have convicted us again of our sin and our particular sin of adultery. Of indeed coveting someone else who doesn't belong to us. having desires that we ought not have. And Father, we pray earnestly and urgently that You would work in us by Your Holy Spirit, that You would bring a necessary change in our hearts and lives for the glory of God and for the edification of Your church. Create in us a pure heart, O God. Cleanse us by Your Holy Spirit more and more. We praise You for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and for His perfect obedience which is freely given to us by which we stand before You. That, O Lord, gives us comfort and we praise Your most holy name. Strengthen us and bless us and may we indeed, with all that is within us, bless Your name. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.