Adultery in the 90's

In the, March edition of a, periodical called Pulpit Health, which is a periodical administered guest, a fellow named Ron Blankenship stated in an article that adultery is the most accepted sin in today's society. I repeat that. Adultery is the most accepted sin in today's society. And, you know, if you would have read that a year and a half ago, you might have wondered, but in light of a lot of the things that have been happening, especially in Washington, you start thinking, well, just maybe this might be true that adultery is the most acceptable sin in our society. You know, I've been watching TV like you, concerning the, the events in Washington, the events with president Quentin and Monica Lewinsky.

And I'm I'm interested not so much in what he's saying, but I really am interested in what people are saying when they interview them. And what's interesting and fascinating is that when people are interviewed, usually their answer is that this is a private matter and nobody has the right to judge, right? Nobody has the right to judge. You know what people are really saying when they say that? What people are really saying is that they don't feel that they have a right to make a moral judgment on the conduct of another person.

That's what they're really saying. Now this is because we've come to a point in our history in this nation where morality has become a relative thing, and can no longer be judged objectively. Most people think you can't judge objective morality. In other words, I have my morality, and you have your morality, and she has her morality. And what we aim to do is not to find out what is right, no what we aim to do is how to respect each other's morality and privacy.

That's what we're shooting for. How can I respect your private morality? Actually in today's society the worst sin is not adultery. The worst sin in today's society is intolerance of somebody else's set of morals. That's the big sin.

Being intolerant of somebody else's set of values. Now, as Christians, we have long held that there is an objective set of values and morals that has been established by God, and recorded in the bible. And it was upon these values and moral standards that this great country was first established. And it was this set of values and morals that was used as the foundation for all of our laws. I mean our laws in this country were based on biblical morals and values.

And our social system, our family system, were all based on biblical morals and values. And I believe that because of this, this nation has several centuries later grown to be powerful and prosperous because we have based our system and our laws on god's set of values. But I dare say in this day and age as we dismantle our society, and as we cast away these precious foundations that we will suffer the loss of greatness, and the weakening of our position in the world. Because that's what happens when any nation goes away from God's word, God's law, God's value system. Anytime a nation begins to wander away from these things, they also begin to experience a loss of greatness and a loss of power.

You know, America is not gonna be the 1st nation in history to lose its way because of the sexual sins of its leaders. We're not unique in this predicament. I mean, look back in history, Greece and Rome, the great, you know, empire of Rome, even God's chosen people, the Jews, all disintegrated largely due to the sexual immorality connected to their philosophical thinking or to their adventures in pagan religions which included sexual immorality. And so our task as Christians is to do what we've always done. Nothing new.

We've got nothing new to do here, it's the old stuff. And that is to speak the truth in love in reminding our world about God's laws, about God's value system. And to tell the world that these things never change. They're always the same. And so tonight in this lesson, I'd like to talk about adultery in the nineties.

And what God's word says about the modern attitude and practice in this area of human behavior. Well first of all, let me repeat Mr. Blankenship's comment that prefaced his article on the subject that adultery is the most acceptable sin in today's culture. See, when I when I read this, I believe, he's not using the narrow definition of the word adultery. The narrow definition of the word adultery is sex between a married person and someone other than their spouse.

That's the narrow definition. The broad definition which I think he is using in this particular article is more in line with the original meaning of the word adultery. The original meaning of the word adultery was to spoil that which is pure with something which is based. When it comes to sexuality, that which is pure is the human sexuality enjoyed by a man and a woman within the marriage bond, that's pure and that's good. And any mixing of that pure relationship with anything else, that's adultery.

In other words, all forms of sexual sin or illicit sex is what he is referring to here with the word adultery. Well, if that's what he means, it's quite easy to see that our culture really does wink at sexual sin. I mean, we just let it go by, we don't even think about it anymore. I mean sex is exploited through pornography and other forms of media. In our society, we're truly becoming what Peter the apostle described as the people and I quote him in 1st Peter chapter 2 verse 14, he talked about a people having eyes full of adultery.

That's us. That's our society. We've become desensitized to nudity. We've become desensitized to watching true people having intercourse. We've become desensitized to, explicit sexual material in books and movies, whatever it is, it just doesn't faze us anymore.

An extra marital affair in our society are no longer seen as terrible terrible sin and shameful activity, but rather, a transitional experience. A trans somebody laughs back there. If you had one of those, oh my. Transitional experience. And yet the bible says that adulterers will not inherit the kingdom of heaven.

You know, I've repeated that verse in a lot of my lessons lately. Adulterers will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. What does that mean? It's just a gentle way of saying that adulterers will go to hell. That's all.

Because if you're not going to heaven, where are you going? Yeah. You're going to hell. It's the only other place to go. And we've also seen in our society that premarital sex no longer considered as fornication.

When was the last time you heard that word on TV? Fornication. In reference to premarital sex. That's what the bible calls it. 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 3 to 5.

1st Corinthians chapter 6 verse 9. Today, the main effort is to promote safe premarital sex. Hey, everybody's gonna have premarital sex. What we need to do for our teenagers is make sure that they have safe premarital sex. That's the mantra, being given to us from all kinds of sources.

But Christians have known for a long time that the safest sex is that which is practiced by life partners in a committed relationship of marriage. And what about marriage? Today we see nothing wrong with couples living together without the commitment of marriage vows. No problem. You know, it's no problem, but I always love to have this conversation with a couple that are telling me, you know, it's the same thing.

We're living together. It's the same thing. It's as good as you. It's as good as marriage. What's the point?

What do we need this scrap of paper for? We don't need that. We love each other. You know what's interesting? When you ask them, well what do you do if you get tired of your partner?

If you get fed up and you want to hit the road, what do you do? He said, well you just pick up and leave. And I say to them, Well don't you need to get some paperwork done? Don't you need to get a divorce? And they said, No, I don't need a divorce.

And I say, Why? Because they say, Well we're not really married. You can't have it both ways, you know? If you have a committed relationship, committed relationship includes marriage. If you're just living together, that's all you're doing.

You're living together. You're not having a committed relationship. Committed relationship takes a commitment for life. And a commitment for life requires that we commit one another with vows. That's how it's done before God, and thankfully for the time being before the state.

I could go on, it's easy to point out sin, I don't want to be that negative. I mean there's so many other examples of the lowering of sexual morals in our country that we don't we don't even have time to cover. Domestic sexual abuse, abuse of children sexually, homosexuality is unacceptable, even a desirable lifestyle, Abortion process I mean just go on and on and on. In every area of sexual morality, the effort in our time is to lower the biblical standard or to do away with it altogether. Isn't that what's happening?

Am I ranting and raving here? Am I living on another planet or isn't that what's happening? We don't see the effort of of raising the barriers. We're we're seeing it all kinds of efforts to lower the barriers or take them away altogether. We're beginning to enter into an age where there is what I call sexual anarchy.

And you know what? We're gonna pay the price. We're gonna pay the price for this. That brings me to my other point about adultery. Not only is it the most acceptable sin in our society, adultery is also the most unhealthy sin in our society.

Solomon, 1000 of years ago understood this idea of an unhealthy sin when he wrote in Proverbs chapter 6 verse 32 he writes, The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense. He who would destroy himself does it. Proverbs chapter 6 verse 32. He understood, didn't he? Witness the destruction, and I say this not in in an attacking fashion, I mean like you, I read the papers, I watch TV.

Witness the destruction of mister Clinton's presidency. Witness the destruction of his personal honor as a man. Witnessed the destruction of the ties of his family. Witnessed the destruction of his place in history. And for what?

For what did he throw all of this away for? Admittedly, we're not talking we're not telling tales out of school here. For a few moments of stolen sexual pleasure. And if you put those 10 times together, would it add up to maybe an hour? For an hour of sexual pleasure this man who worked his entire life, gave his entire being, spent 1,000,000 of dollars and threw it all away for just a few moments of sexual pleasure.

I mean, adultery is not only unhealthy to your mind and to your career and to your honor as a person, it's also unhealthy to the body. Those people with AIDS, those people that suffer with venereal diseases can tell of the suffering that their improper sexual conduct has caused them long after the pleasure is gone, the pain remains. And look at the many broken homes in every community and note that families are destroyed because one partner searched for sexual adventure outside of his or her marriage. So much of the guilt, so much of the low self esteem, so much of the anxiety and depression can be traced back to improper sexual activity regretted by those who suffer emotionally long after, as I said before, long after the encounters are over, the pain and the suffering continue. In the nineties, we're suffering from a sexual hangover due to the sexual revolution back in the sixties and in the seventies.

And we're paying the price for breaking down the walls that protected us from the ravages of sexual sin. One other point, adultery is not only the most unforgiven and most unhealthy sin, or rather the most acceptable sin and and and unhealthy sin, it's also the most unforgiven sin in today's culture. Nobody bothers to search for forgiveness for sexual sin. You see the problem that occurs when you have a relative morality, the problem that happens here is that you can't objectively determine what is truly and universally right or wrong. That's the problem.

When you have relative morality, you can't nail down what's right or what's wrong. And the net result is that you cancel out the notion that real sin exists. Now that sounds pretty good to start with. To cancel out the notion that real sin exists. Well, yeah.

That sounds pretty good. But think about it. If no real sin exists, only relative sin, then there's no need for a real savior, is there? And there's no need for real forgiveness and real redemption. And I guess there's nowhere we can go for unburdening.

And there's nowhere we can go for cleansing if there's no real sin. And in this type of environment, Jesus becomes a kind of a benign spiritual teacher, some kind of spiritual cheerleader to help us be our best selves, and to live happily in this world. That's what Jesus did. Yay Jesus! Let's get a t shirt.

Yeah. He's no longer the crucified savior. He's just a cheerleader. He's just a t shirt. In this kind of environment, people refuse to acknowledge adultery or sexual sin of any kind as wrong.

In this kind of environment, we say, well, sexual sin, well, it's a weakness. It's a mistake. It's bad judgment, it's a lifestyle choice. Or most recently, it's none of your business in this kind of environment. But it's never a damnable sin.

It's never something that can cause you to lose your soul forever. It's never totally 100% wrong wrong wrong. It's never that. I made a mistake. I made a bad judgment.

How about I'm a lustful evil man who can't control himself. I'm a sinner, and I'm one foot away from going to hell. How about that as a confession? Wouldn't that be refreshing for a change? The problem here is that sin is sin.

Whether a person acknowledges it or not, sin is sin. And sin always has this effect on a person whether they realize it or not, then has an effect. The best example I can give to you is the example of the little kid who thinks he's superman. A little kid thinks he's superman and he watches Superman on TV so he goes to the bathroom and he gets a towel and he puts it around his neck and he's got himself a cape and he takes a marker and he puts s on his chest and he says, Hey, I'm Superman. Only one problem, he lives on the 3rd floor.

And so he goes out to the balcony and he says, Yeah, Superman can fly and I'm Superman too. And he climbs up on the railing and he jumps off. What happens? Well the law of gravity comes into play. Does the little boy know about the law of gravity?

No. Is he a bad kid? No. Does he want to plunge to his death? No.

He thinks he's Superman. But you see, the law of gravity doesn't care about if you're young or old, if you're nice or not nice, if you're an innocent child or if you're a mean old man. The law of gravity works all the time. Well in the same way, there's a spiritual law that takes place that comes into effect whenever somebody sins. Whether it be a sexual sin or lying, whatever it is.

And this is a law, a universal and absolute law regarding sinfulness. And I'll read this law to you, it's very short, it's in Romans chapter 6, verse 23. The Holy Spirit through the words of Paul says, For the wages of sin, you finish it for me, the wages of sin is? That's right. The wages of sin is death.

The universal law whether you like it or not, whether you believe it or not, whether you care or not is this, if you sin, you die. If you sin, you're separated from God forever. That's the law. It don't matter if you don't care. It don't matter if you don't believe it.

It don't matter if you have some other kind of law going. That's the law. And if you die as a sinner, you suffer eternally in hell. That's the law. Do I like that law?

Not really. Because I'm a sinner and I, you know, makes me nervous. Whether you know the law or accept the law, it doesn't matter. You are subject to that law. In today's culture, people are suffering from the ravages of sexual sin.

Disease, depression, shame, broken lives and families, but because they refuse to see it as sin, and they also refuse to look for and find a solution and cure for their ailments, they miss totally the forgiveness that God offers to each and every one of them. You see the problem? When you deny that sin exists, if there's no sin, then you don't have to look for forgiveness. Now that same verse, chapter 6 verse 23 contains the answer to all who are suffering from the results of sin. And that is the free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ.

That's what he says. He says, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Isn't that good news? Amen. I didn't hear you.

Say it for the people at home. Amen. Alright. God extends forgiveness and eternal life to all those who come to Christ in faith. But you see brothers and sisters and friends and visitors, all those who come to Christ in faith must also acknowledge that their problem is sin.

You know what I'm saying? You don't just go out and buy a t shirt for this one. You have to really acknowledge that you are a sinner and you're in big trouble. And that includes sexual sin and every other kind of sin. There is no forgiveness without repentance.

And there can be no repentance unless we are ready to recognize and acknowledge that we are sinners. We've broken God's laws. You can't have the liberating joyful experience of total forgiveness without a conscious adult confession that you are and always have been and always will be a sinner before God. So much of our national burden would be lifted if we could finally seek true forgiveness for true sins from the true and merciful God who wants to forgive us through Jesus Christ. You know, the only hedge against sexual sin.

I say this truly. The bible tells us this. The only hedge against sexual sin and temptation that the Bible gives us is a healthy marriage between a man and a woman for life. This idea was established at the very beginning in Genesis when God instituted the marriage bond. And the idea of a healthy sexual marriage was confirmed by Jesus and his apostles.

Matthew 19, 1st Corinthians 7. Sex is great. Amen? Well, that's not very loud. Must not be great at your house.

Is sex great or not? Amen. Alright. That's better. Of course, sex is great if it's in marriage.

If it's in marriage. Because if it's in marriage, it's not only great physically, but it's also great spiritually. It's great spiritually. You get the best of both worlds. It's through faithful marriage and exclusive sexual bonding within the union of marriage that partners find self esteem and love and comfort and pleasure and satisfaction that protects them from the temptation of sexual sin outside of marriage.

Somebody once said, and I agree, the trouble with sex in marriage is that there's too much sex outside of marriage. If you keep sex in marriage exclusively, you'd find out that sex is great. It's because we kind of open the doors a little too much and let it outside of marriage. That's why we have problems. And for those who have failed at marriage, for those who have sinned in sexual activity, there's also wonderful hope in Jesus Christ.

Oh, what a great savior we have. What a great lord and savior we have. There's constant renewal and constant forgiveness offered to all who come to Jesus. Those who confess their faith in him. Those who are ready to acknowledge, Yes, I'm a sinner, God.

I'm ashamed of it, but I that's what I am. And those who accept to be baptized in his name. If you're one of those who need him now, whatever that need may be, if you need to come and confess let's forget for a second that this is being televised. We're not we're not creating a worship service here to put it on TV. This is a worship service.

And the people who are watching at home are simply watching at home what we normally do week in week out. So let's let's not get showbiz on this deal here. This is a worship service. This is an invitation. If you have sinned, if you have a burden, if you need to come to Christ, if you need prayer, we'll turn off the lights.

We'll pray for you. Let's not let the lights get in the way. Alright? Bob is gonna lead us in a song of invitation. If you need to come to the Lord, you need to be renewed, you need to place membership, whatever you need.

The elders are here tonight and they're ready to pray for you. Please come now as we stand and as we sing our song of invitation of invitation of invitation