Adultery.
"Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman you have
taken, for she is married"
-Gen. 20:3
I. DEFINITIONS OF ADULTERY
A. DICTIONARY
1. Extramarital intercourse
• Voluntary sexual intercourse between a married man and someone other than his wife or between a married woman and someone other than her husband (Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc., Publishers, Springfield, MA, 1986).
2. Lust
• Unchastity of thought (ibid)
B. OLD TESTAMENT
1. Extramarital intercourse
1• "You adulteress wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband!" (Ezek. 16:32).
C. NEW TESTAMENT
1. Lust
• "Everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matt. 5:28).
2. Extra-marital intercourse, as in the Old Testament, see B.l.
3. Marriage to another partner after divorce.
• "Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and he who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery" (Luke 16:18).
• "Whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery" (Matt. 5:32b).
• See Chapter Six—A Second Marriage
II. THE SIN OF ADULTERY
A. SIN AGAINST YOUR OWN BODY
• Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body (1 Cor. 6:18).
Immoral: porneuo - have illicit sexual intercourse, commit fornication or adultery
B. SIN AGAINST YOUR MATE, YOUR ONE-FLESH PARTNER
• Because of immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband (1 Cor. 7:2-3).
2 Immoralities: porneia = illicit sexual intercourse, fornication, adultery
• "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her; and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery" (Mark 10:11-12).
C. SIN AGAINST ONE'S NEIGHBOUR
• This is the will of God... that you abstain from sexual immorality... that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things (1 Thess. 4:3, 6).
Immorality: porneia = illicit sexual intercourse, fornication, adultery
D. A SIN THAT MAKES ANOTHER SIN
• "I have seen a horrible thing: the committing of adultery and walking in falsehood; and they strengthen the hands of evil doers, so that no one has turned back from his wickedness" (Jer. 23:14).
• "If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or I have lurked at my neighbors doorway, may my wife grind for another, and let others kneel down over her, for that would be a lustful crime; moreover, it would be an iniquity punishable by judges" (Job 31:9-11).
• "But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the cause of unchastity, makes her commit adultery" (Matt. 5:32a).
• "Why have you have despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon.... You have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.... By this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme" (2 Sam. 12:9-10, 14).
despised: bazab = to disesteem
3 E. SIN AGAINST GOD
• Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord" (2 Sam. 12:13).
• You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? (Jas. 4:4).
• Ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ (Jude 4).
licentiousness: aselgeia = disregard of sexual restraints deny: arneomai = to contradict, disavow, abrogate
• "I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me" (Ezek. 6:9)-
E SIN AGAINST GOD'S LAW
• "You shall not commit adultery" (Exod. 20:14).
• "You shall not covet your neighbors wife" (Exod. 20:17).
• Let the marriage bed be undefiled, for fornicators and adulterers God will judge (Heb. 13:4b).
• "You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God" (Lev. 25:17).
• Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. For He who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not commit murder." Now if you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law (Jas. 2:10-11).
• Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4).
4 G. Is WITNESSED BY GOD
• "'They have acted foolishly in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives, and have spoken words in My name falsely, which I did not command them; and I am He who knows and am a witness,' declares the Lord" (Jer. 29:23).
III. ADULTERY INVOLVES:
A. EVIL AND WICKEDNESS
• My son, observe the commandment of your father and do not forsake the teaching of your mother.... For the commandment is a lamp, and the teaching is light; and reproofs for discipline are the way of life to keep you from the evil woman and from the smooth tongue of the adulteress (Prov. 6:20, 23-24).
• For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness.... All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man (Mark 7:21-23).
wickedness: poneria = hurtfulness, malice evil: poneros - hurtful, evil
• "As the proverb of the ancients says, 'Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness'" {1 Sam. 24:13).
wicked: ra = bad, evil wickedness: rasha = a wrong, especially a moral wrong
• "Do we then hear about you that you have committed all this great evil by acting unfaithfully against our God by marrying foreign women?" (Neh.. 13:27).
Foreign: nokriy = one who breaks wedlock, alien, non-relative women: ishshah = women, wives
B. ROBBERY
1. Of Conjugal Rights
• The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.... The immoral man sins against his own body (1 Cor. 7:4; 6:18).
2. Of Trust
• All of them adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men (Jer. 9:2b). treacherous: bagad = to cover, to act covertly, to cheat
C. FOOLISHNESS AND DECEPTION
• "They have acted foolishly in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives, and have spoken words in My name falsely, which I did not command them; and I am He who knows and am a witness, "declares the Lord (Jer. 29:23).
• "For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret but that it should come to light" (Mark 4:22).
D. IDOLATRY
• No immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God (Eph. 5:5).
E. BONDAGE
• "Every one who commits sin is the slave of sin" (John 8:34).
• Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or in obedience resulting in righteousness?....
For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to6 lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification (Rom. 6:16, 19b).
IV. THE THREE PEOPLE INVOLVED IN ADULTERY
A. THE ADULTERESS
• The lips of an adulteress drip honey,
And smoother than oil is her speech;
But in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
Sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death,
Her steps lay hold of Sheol.
She does not ponder the path of life;
Her ways are unstable, but she does not know it (Prov. 5:3-6).
• An adulteress hunts for the precious life (Prov. 6:26b).
• The adulteress flatters with her words;
(She) leaves the companion of her youth,
And forgets the covenant of her God;
Her house sinks down to death,
And her tracks lead to the dead (Prov. 2:16-18).
• One who is pleasing to God will escape from (the adulteress), but the
sinner will be captured by her (Eccl. 7:26b).
B. THE ADULTERER
• "The eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, 'No eye will see me'" (Job 24:15).
• Keep your way far from [the adulteress]
And do not go near the door of her house
Lest you give your vigor to others,
And your years to the cruel one; lest strangers be filled with your strength, and your hard-earned goods go to the house of an alien; and you groan at your latter end , when your flesh and your body are consumed; And you say, "How I have hated instruction! And my heart spurned reproof "And I have not listened to the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to my instructors! "I was almost in utter ruin In the midst of the assembly and congregation " For why should you, my
son, be exhilarated with an adulteress, and embrace the bosom of a foreigner? For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He watches all his paths. His own iniquities will capture the wicked, and he will be held with the cords of his sin. He will die for lack of instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he will go astray (Prov. 5:8-14, 20-23).
• All of them are adulterers,
An assembly of treacherous men.
"And they bend their tongue like their bow;
Lies and truth prevail in the land;
For they proceed from evil to evil,
And they do not know Me," declares the Lord (Jer. 9:2-3).
C. THE MATE AGAINST WHOM THE ADULTERY IS COMMITTED
• Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them, 'If any man's wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him, and a man has intercourse with her and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband and she is undetected, although she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act, if a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife when she has defiled herself... " (Num. 5:11-I4a).
• Remember, 0 Lord, what has befallen us;
Look, and see our reproach!
Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
Our houses to aliens (Lam. 5:1-2).
strangers: uwr = adultery, adulterers, strangers aliens: nokriy = foreigner, non-relatives
• "For the Lord has called you,
Like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit,
Even like a wife of one's youth when she is rejected,"
Says your God (Isa. 54:6).
• For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a man bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly... If when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God (1 Pet. 2:19,20b).
• Then the Lord said to [Hosea], "Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods" (Hos. 3:1).
D. ADULTERY'S CONSEQUENCES
A. Adultery Diminishes One's Knowledge of God
• No one who sins has seen Him or knows Him (1 John 3:6).
• All of them are adulterers.... "And they do not know Me," declares the Lord... "Through deceit they refuse to know Me," declares the Lord (Jer. 9:2b, 3b, 6).
• By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him (1 John 2:3-4a).
keep: tereo = to guard from loss or injury, maintain
B. ADULTERY AFFECTS ONE'S LOVE OF GOD
• "If 'you love Me, you will keep My commandments" (John 14:15).
• "He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me" (John 14:21).
has: echo = to hold, possess keeps: tereo = to guard from loss or injury, keep an eye on
• "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word" (John 14:23).
• "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love" (John 15:10).
• For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith (1 John 5:3-4).
• Whoever keeps [God's] word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected (1 John 2:5a).
keeps: tereo = to guard from loss or injury, maintain
C. ADULTERY IS ENERVATING
• Strangers devour his strength, yet he does not know it (Hos. 7:9). strangers: zuwr = adultery, adulterers, strangers
• [Adulterers] weary themselves committing iniquity (Jer. 9:5b).
D. THE ADULTERER IS SELF-DESTRUCTIVE
• The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense; He who would destroy himself does it (Prov. 6:32).
• "For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?" (Matt. 16:26a).
• "Behold, all souls are Mine.... The soul who sins will die (Ezek. 18:4).
E. ADULTERY INVITES A CURSE ON SELF AND FAMILY
• Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord (Jer. 17:5).
• The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; He who is cursed of the Lord will fall into it (Prov. 22:14),
• "You shall therefore obey the Lord your God, and do His commandments and His statutes which L command you today.... Cursed is he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them" (Deut. 27:10, 26).
• "L, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing loving-kindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments" (Exod. 20:5b-6).
E ADULTERY'S CONSEQUENCES ARE WITHOUT PARTIALITY
• He who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality (Col. 3:25).
• "But everyone will die for his own iniquity" (Jer. 31:30).
• The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil (Eccl. 12:13-14).
G. ADULTERERS HAVE AN UNENVIABLE END
• While we were in the flesh, the sinful passions... were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death (Rom. 7:5).
• The present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men (2 Pet. 3:7).
• The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23).
VI. GOD'S RESPONSE TO ADULTERY
A. FOR THE REPENTANT SINNER WHO FORSAKES HIS/HER SINFUL WAYS: FORGIVENESS
• And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go your way. From now on sin no more" (John 8:11).
• "Return, faithless Israel, " declares the Lord; "I will not look upon you in anger, for I am gracious," declares the Lord; "I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God and have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed My voice, " declares the Lord (Jer. 3:12-13).
Strangers: zuwr - adultery, adulterers, strangers
B. FOR THE UNREPENTANT ADULTERER
1. Invitation to God's Wrath
• The wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience (Eph. 5:6).
• This is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor... and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things (1 Thess. 4:3-4, 6).
2. Punishment
• Can a man take fire in his bosom
And his clothes not be burned?
Or can a man walk on hot coals
And his feet not be scorched?
So is one who goes in to his neighbour's wife;
Whoever touches her will not go unpunished (Prov. 6:27-29).
• "Why should I pardon you?....
[Your sons] committed adultery
And trooped to the harlot's house.
They were well-fed lusty horses,
Each one neighing after his neighbour's wife.
Shall I not punish these people?" declares the Lord (Jer. 5:7, 8, 9).
• Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness and truth... who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished" (Exod. 34:6-7).
• "If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do harm and consume you after He has done good to you" (Josh. 24:20).
3. Judgment
• The Lord knows how to... keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority (2 Pet. 2:9-10a).
• Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge (Heb. 13:4).
• "Thus I shall judge you, like women who commit adultery or shed blood are judged" (Ezek. 16:38).
• "Then I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness... against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely... and do not fear Me," says the Lord of hosts (Mai. 3:5).
4. No Heavenly Inheritance
• Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers... shall inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-10).
• Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity... and things like these, of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God (Gal. 5:19,21).
immorality: moicheia = illicit sexual intercourse with the spouse of another, adultery impurity: porneia = illicit sexual intercourse, fornication, adultery
• "Not every one who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 7:21).
• And to whom did He swear that they should not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? (Heb. 3:18).
VII. OTHER PEOPLE AFFECTED BY ADULTERY
A. CHILDREN AFFECTED BY ADULTERY
1. Come Under a Curse
• "For I, the Lord, am a jealous God, visiting the sins of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing loving-kindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments" (Deut. 5:9-10).
2. May Be Witnesses
• "Now behold, he has a son who has observed all his father's sins which he committed, and observing does not do likewise. He does not... defile his neighbour's wife or oppress anyone... but executes My ordinances and walks in My statues; he will not die for his father's iniquity, he will surely live" (Ezek. 18:14-17).
3. Are Loved by God
• "Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these" (Mark 10:14).
B. THOSE "WHO CARE FOR CHILDREN
• "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matt. 18:6).
C. THE REST OF US
1. Those Who Hate the Sin of Adultery
• The fear of the Lord is to hate evil (Prov. 8:13a).
• Hate evil, you who love the Lord (Ps. 97:10a).
• Seek good and not evil that you may live;
And thus may the Lord God of hosts be with you, just as you have said!
Hate evil, love good,
And establish justice in the gate! (Amos 5:l4-15a)
• Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves (Rom. 14:22b).
2. Those Who Condone the Sin of Adultery
• "Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord and so bring wrath on yourself from the Lord?" (2 Chron. 19:2).
• Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil! (Isa. 5:20).
•. To show partiality to the wicked is not good (Prov. 18:5).
• If you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors (Jas. 2:9).
• He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the righteous, Both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord (Prov. 17:15).
• "You disheartened the righteous with falsehood when I [the Lord God] did not cause him grief but have encouraged the wicked not to turn from his wicked way and preserve his life" (Ezek. 13:22).
D. HOW WE SHOULD RESPOND
• Peter came and said to Him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven" (Matt. 18:21).
• "Forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your transgressions. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgression" (Mark 11:25-26).
• Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men (Rom. 12:17).
• And we urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with all men. See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all men (1 Thess. 5:14-15)
VIIL GOD RESPONDS TO THOSE AFFECTED BY ADULTERY
A. His PROMISES FOR ALL WHO ARE AFFLICTED AND OPPRESSED
• [The Lord] will have compassion on His afflicted (Isa. 49:13).
• "Thou dost save an afflicted people" (2 Sam. 22:28).
• The Lord performs righteous deeds, And judgment for all who are oppressed (Ps. 103:6).
• The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen (2 Tim. 4:18).
• For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, "I dwell on a high andholy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit
in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite" (Isa. 57:15).
B. GOD HOLDS ACCOUNTABLE AS 'PARTAKERS' THOSE WHO CONDONE ADULTERY
• Do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them (Eph. 5:3-7).
• "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments and so teaches others shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:18-19).
• But to the wicked God says, "What right have you to tell of My statutes, and to take My covenant in your mouth? For you hate discipline, and your cast My words behind you.
When you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you associate with adulterers.
You let your mouth loose in evil, and your tongue frames deceit....
These things you have done, and L kept silence;
You thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you, and state the case in order before your eyes" (Ps. 50:16-19, 21).
IX. OUR RESPONSE TO THOSE AFFECTED BY ADULTERY
A. OUR RESPONSE TO THOSE COMMITTING ADULTERY
1. In General
• "When I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die;' and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood / will require at your hand. Yet if you have warned the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself" (Ezek. 3:18-19).
• "If your brother sins, go and reprove him in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax-gatherer" (Matt. 18:15-17).
• On the other hand 1 am filled with power—with the Spirit of the Lord—and with justice and courage to make known to Jacob his rebellious ac , even to Israel his sin (Micah 3:8).
• Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself lest you too be tempted (Gal. 6:1).
• To those who rebuke the wicked will be delight, and a good blessing will come upon them (Prov. 24:25).
2. More Specifically
a. The Sin Should Be Named or Described
• Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act" (John 8:4).
• "You have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband" (John 4:18).
b. There Should Be Neither Judgment Nor Condemnation
• "Did no one condemn you?.... Neither do I condemn you" (John 8:10, 11).
• "Lf anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day" (John 12:47-48).
• For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any twoedged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb. 4:12).
c. The Person Should Be Sent Away With an Admonition
• "Go your way. From now on sin no more" (John 8:11).
B. OUR RESPONSE TO THE OFFENDED MATE AGAINST WHOM THE ADULTERY IS COMMITTED
• Ls anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful?
Let him sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him (Jas. 5:13-15).
• The Lord God has given me the tongue of disciples, that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word (Isa. 50:4).
C. OUR RESPONSE TO CHILDREN AFFECTED BY ADULTERY
1. Teach Them God's Law
• "Take to your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons to observe carefully, even all the words of this law" (Deut. 32:46).
• "You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your sons and your grandsons (Deut. 4:2,9).
2. Discipline Them
• Discipline your son while there is hope (Prov. 19:18).
• (Do not follow Job's example: he covered up for his children, which enabled them to keep on): For Job said, "Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." Thus Job did continually (Job 1:5).
3. Rebuke Them When They Are Wrong, Even When They Are Grown
• "For [the Lord] have told [Eli] that I am about to judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons brought a curse on themselves and he did not rebuke them" (1 Sam. 3:13).
• Reproofs for discipline are the way of life (Prov. 6:23b).
D. OUR OWN RESPONSE
1. Stay Away from Adulterers
• / wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater... not even to eat with such a one (1 Cor. 5:11).
• Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep aloof from every brother who leads an unruly life (2 Thess. 3:6).
• If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special 21 note of that man and do not associate with him, so that he may be put to shame. And yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother (2 Thess. 3:14-15).
• Keep your way far from [the adulteress],
And do not go near the door of her house,
Lest you give your vigor to others
And your years to the cruel one;
Lest strangers be filled with your strength,
Your hard-earned goods go to the house of an alien;
And you groan at your latter end,
When your flesh and your body is consumed;
And you say, "How I have hated instruction!
And my heart spurned reproof
And I have not listened to the voice of my teachers,
Nor inclined my ear to my instructors!
I was almost in utter ruin
In the midst of the assembly and congregation" (Prov. 5:8-14).
strangers: zuwr = adultery, adulterers, strangers alien: nokriy = one who breaks wedlock, an adulterer
2. Do Not Commit Adultery Yourself
• Flee immorality (1 Cor. 6:18).
• For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality (1 Thess. 4:3).
3. Warn Others
• "When I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you shall surely die,' and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand.
But if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your life" (Ezek. 33:8-9).
X. How To QUIT ADULTERY
A. RETURN TO GOD
• Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body, And refreshment to your bones (Prov. 3:7b-8).
• By the fear of the Lord one keeps away from evil (Prov. 16:6b).
• "Return, O faithless sons, I will heal your faithlessness" (Jer. 3:22).
• Draw near to God and He will draw near to you (Jas. 4:8).
• The Lord gives wisdom....
For wisdom will enter your heart,
And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
Discretion will guard you,
Understanding will watch over you,
To deliver you from the way of evil...
To deliver you from the strange woman,
From the adulteress who flatters with her words (Prov. 2:6a, 10-12a, 16).
B. CONFESS
• Return , 0 Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to Him, "Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously, that we may present the fruit of our lips" (Hos. 14:1-2).
• "Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God and have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed My voice," declares the Lord (Jer. 3:13).
strangers: zuwr = adultery, adulterers, strangers
• "Then those of you who escape will remember Me... how I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me... and they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed.... Then they will know that I am the Lord" (Ezek. 6:9-10a).
• And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins (Mark 1:5).
C. REPENT
• "Repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15).
repent: metanoia = to think differently
• "I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance" (Luke 5:32).
D. PERFORM DEEDS APPROPRIATE TO REPENTANCE
• "They should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance" (Acts 26:20).
• "Break away now from your sins by doing righteousness" (Dan. 4:27).
• Lay aside the old self which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit (Eph. 4:22).
Deceit: from apatao = to cheat
• Do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but... be holy yourselves in all your behavior (1 Pet. 1:14-15).
• Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God (Rom. 6:13).
• You shall be careful to perform what goes out from your lips, just as you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God, what you have promised (Deut. 23:23).
Excerpted from the book Because of A Covenant, by Mary
Walmsley—http://www.soweroftheword.net/
You can contact Mary Walmsley at mwalmsley@verizon.net
Copyright© 2009 Mary Walmsley. All Rights Reserved. Used by
permission.