Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20130505.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Deuteronomy: Moses' Great Appeal For Israel To Obey God For Blessing
Part IV: The General Call For Loyal Obedience, Deuteronomy 4:44-11:32
A. The Ten Commandments, Deuteronomy 4:44-5:21
7. The Seventh Commandment: Avoiding The Sin Of Adultery
(Deuteronomy 5:18)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    The seventh commandment, Deuteronomy 5:18 KJV, "Neither shalt thou commit adultery," in our post-sexual revolution era, is a very debatable commandment today:

    (1) The April 29, 2013 New York Post, p. 4 ran M. L. Nestel and Erin Calabrese's story on city councilman, Dan Halloran and his multiple affairs with younger women that sunk his marriage. Halloran, is a "practicing pagan," an "arrogant" politician and a "Republican" according to the article, so it openly roasted him for his infidelity.

    However, the same paper also ran ads for Cheetahs (p. 46), the VIP (p. 51) and the Diamond (p. 53) clubs, clubs for men with topless women entertainers, so in accepting advertising dollars from the clubs, the paper showed it did not think mental adulterous lust was evil!

    That raises the question: "Is adultery limited to the physical act, or can you commit it on the mental level?! How do we know?"

    (2) Adultery is certainly prevalent: the North American Investigators web site home page advertises offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Greenwich, Connecticut and Short Hills, New Jersey, and at the top of its list of services is "Matrimonial Investigations and Infidelity Investigations" that aim to "determine if a . . . spouse . . . partner, significant other is unfaithful or committing adultery."

    However, this ad raises another question on adultery: "Is adultery something only heterosexual spouses can commit, or can those in homosexual unions with partners' and those of extramarital live-in' unions with significant others' commit adultery as well?! How do we know?"

    (3) The company ad above leads to yet another question: with infidelity leading to divorce, and divorce to remarriage, the question of whether divorce and/or divorce and remarriage are "adultery" rises with passages like Mark 10:11-12, Matthew 5:32 and 1 Corinthians 7:1-15 in the Bible! Mark 10:11-12 claims divorce and remarriage is adultery, Matthew 5:32 claims it is wrong "except for fornication" that some think allows for divorce due to infidelity, and the "not under bondage" clause of 1 Corinthians 7:15 some claim allows a Christian in the context to remarry another person if his unsaved spouse divorces him! These passages are greatly debated by Christians today!

    Thus, we ask, "What does the command, Thou shalt not commit adultery' really mean, and how are we to apply it today?!"

    Need: "What does God's Deuteronomy 5:18 command, Thou shalt not commit adultery' really mean, and how are we to apply it today?!"

  1. Moses' general Deuteronomy 4:44-11:32 call for loyal obedience to God in the suzerain treaty format of Deuteronomy repeats the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5:6-21, and its CONTEXT reminds Israel of God's deliverance of her from Egypt's oppression (Deuteronomy 5:6), revealing WHY Israel should HEED the Lord.
  2. Thus, the SEVENTH commandment prohibiting "adultery" (Deut. 5:18 KJV) was given to guard Israel from oppression for blessing:
    1. The Hebrew text at Deuteronomy 5:18 uses the verb, na'ap for "adultery," and this verb refers to immorality that involves a husband and/or a wife, B. D. B., A Heb.-Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 610.
    2. However, Scripture elsewhere GREATLY EXPANDS this idea:
      1. If a husband and wife divorce, they commit adultery, Matt. 5:32:
        1. The Matthew 5:32 claim that the divorce of a husband and wife is "adultery" is qualified by the "except for fornication" clause.
        2. Yet, the similar Mark 10:11-12 declaration omits this clause, for Matthew's Gospel, written for Hebrews unlike Mark's Gospel that was for Gentiles (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, p. 1337, 1397), had the following Hebrew reasons that required this clause: (1) If a Hebrew wed a relative in the banned Leviticus 18 degrees, it was "fornication," Howard G. Hendricks, Christ. Couns. For Contemp. Prblms., 1968, p. 112. (2) If a Hebrew wed an unbelieving Gentile, it was fornication, Ezra 9-10, Ibid., p. 113. (3) If a betrothed Hebrew committed immorality, it was fornication, and a divorce terminated the betrothal, Ibid., p. 112.
        3. Thus, the "except for fornication" clause does not apply to us today, so we ignore it, holding God does not allow for divorce!
        4. [Note how this stance harmonizes with the conservative view of 1 Corinthians 7:10-15: the "not under bondage" clause of v. 15 does not mean one is free to rewed another after divorce, but that a believer is not guilty for letting the lost spouse initiate a divorce in hope of keeping peace with him as a good witness!]
      2. The Pharisees in Matthew 19:3-7 tried to say Moses commanded a divorce to occur in Deuteronomy 24:1-4, but that passage has been mistranslated in the KJ V: Hebrew grammar requires the "then" clause occur at the start of verse four as in the NIV and ESV and not part way through verse one as in the KJV! Moses thus taught that IF a couple divorced, and each rewed second partners, if they both then divorced their respective second partners, they could not rewed one another as in their first marriage! (Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Deut. 24:1-4; cf. also the NIV and ESV; Kittel, Bib. Heb., p. 299)
      3. Matthew 5:28 reveals that merely lustfully looking on any woman is adultery! [The word here for "woman," gune, refers either to an unmarried or to a married woman, U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966, p. 14; Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lex. of the N. T., 1968, p. 96.]
      4. Also, any violation of the Levitical degrees in Leviticus 18 is "adultery" before God: (a) incest (Lev. 18:6), (b) homosexuality (Lev. 18:22) and (c) bestiality (Lev. 18:23) are thus "adultery."
      5. God in 1 Timothy 3:2, 12 directs Church leaders to have one wife, and Western nations have followed this format to outlaw bigamy. Since we must heed civil laws today (1 Peter 2:13), we all must be monogamous in our marital unions just like elders and deacons.
      6. [God allows widows and widowers to rewed, 1 Corinthians 7:39.]
    3. God's prohibition of all such forms of "adultery" aimed to guard Israel from oppression, for violations of God's initial Genesis 2:20-25 monogamous, heterosexual model for marriage led to oppression (Genesis 16:1-16 [troubled threesome of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar]; Genesis 19:1-11 [mass homosexuality and abuse]; Genesis 29:15-30:24 [troubled marriage of Jacob, Leah and Rachel], etc.)
  3. Thus, with today's imperfect unions, Scripture directs as follows:
    1. If we believe in Christ for salvation, we are forgiven all pre-salvation forms of "adultery," John 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 NIV.
    2. Applying 1 John 1:9 yields forgiveness for post-salvation "adultery."
    3. As believers, we avoid all forms of "adultery" in life by relying on the Holy Spirit for proper behavior, Galatians 5:16-23.
    4. If we are in a union that is less than the Genesis 2 ideal, we must stay in our last human, heterosexual, marital state, 1 Cor. 7:20 with 6:9-11.
Application: (1) May we trust in Christ (Jn. 3:16; Col. 1:14) (2) or as believers confess post-salvation "adultery" for forgiveness, 1 Jn. 1:9. (3) May we heed Scripture in living rightly by God's power!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 Living above "adultery" as God defines it may seem outmoded in today's post-sexual revolution era, but fidelity is making a quiet comeback with young Americans because of how God has created us.

Ross Douthat's article, "Why Monogamy Matters," in the March 6, 2011 New York Times (nytimes.com/2011/03/07/opinion) reported on the research by "two sociologists, Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Ueker, in their . . . book, Premarital Sex in America.'"

Examining "sexual behavior among contemporary young adults," they found "a significant correlation between sexual restraint and emotional well-being, between monogamy and happiness -- and between promiscuity and depression." (Ibid.)

Douthat added that "(t)his correlation is much stronger for women than for men. Female emotional well-being seems to be tightly bound to sexual stability -- which may help explain why overall female happiness has actually drifted downward since the sexual revolution." The study found that "a young woman's likelihood of depression rose steadily as her number of partners climbed and the present stability of her sex life diminished." (Ibid.)

This research has ramifications for Planned Parenthood, "an organization that performs roughly 300,000 abortions every year," for "Planned Parenthood's larger worldview -- in which teen sexual activity is taken for granted" runs contrary to the findings by Regnerus and Ueker that rampant promiscuity decreases a young woman's level of emotional happiness!

Many young adults are apparently realizing this problem with promiscuity: Douthat reported "the Centers for Disease Control revealed that American teens and 20-somethings are waiting longer to have sex" and "(o)ther research suggests . . . young Americans have been growing more sexually conservative since the late 1980s." (Ibid.)



God's Word, if FOLLOWED, frees us from oppression, INCLUDING emotional oppression in avoiding all forms of "adultery" as God defines it.



May we trust in Christ for salvation and rely on Him for the power and wisdom to live free of every form of "adultery" to please the Lord and enjoy His blessing in our lives.