uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,
uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,
uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,
uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,
uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,
uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,
uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,
uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, But they also gave him some kind of encouragement,
saying that once they start the treatment, he'll probably swell
and go down in 8-10 days, which would be a good thing, because
that edema causes a lot of pain, because of the pressure on the
nerves, plus the stress on the skin. But if you've had a swollen
limb, you know, it hurts. So remember him in your prayers,
and also Arlene, she mentioned Greg Fender. Not any better. What it is, he's
continually, just continually battling him out, incoherently. And they are trying to get him
into Wake Forest to see if they can do something about the brain.
So far, the scans and things haven't shown anything, but it's
appearing that there's some kind of brain damage, maybe a stroke
or something else. So remember him in your prayers. And the same goes for D. Fox.
I haven't heard anything, so I doubt anything has changed
in this situation. I've never heard any prayers.
And the others who requested prayer, St. Louis Health Corps. I'll call out their name. On Saturday, Crow's birthday
party, I was surprised. Okay, let's begin our worship
service now in the hymn number 70, Holy, Holy. Holy, holy, holy
Lord God Almighty Early in the morning our song
shall rise to thee. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and
mighty, God in three Persons, blessed Trinity, Holy, holy, holy, all the saints
adore thee. Casting down their golden crowns
on bout the glassy sea. Cherubim and seraphim falling
down before thee. Each word and our day evermore
shall be. Holy, holy, holy, Lord, the darkness
might be. Holy are your saints, all men,
thy glory make us see. Holy, thou art holy. Heaven and earth beside thee. Earth, wind, and fire in thee. Love and purity in thee. Holy, holy, holy. Lord Almighty. God our Lord shall praise thy
name in earth and sky and sea. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and
mighty, Thine we purge not, blessings fill. Number 268, Alfermo Foundation,
the Saints of the Lord. Alfermo Foundation, the Saints
of the Lord, we pray for your faith. in his excellent work. What more can he say than to
you he has said? To you, who for him is to Jesus
their place, be an outright gift. He'll be not dismayed, for I
am thy God, I will still give thee aid. Thou shalt strengthen
me, help me, and cause me to stand, prepared by my gracious
God, me for today. With her the deep waters I call
thee to flow. The rivers of woe shall not be
overflowed. For I will be with thee, I promise
to bless and sanctify They are deepest distress. When through fiery trials Thy
path we shall find, My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy
supply. The words shall not hurt thee,
I only desire, I will. I'll never, no never, no never
forsake. I love that other thing. Exodus 20, I'm going to read one verse of
Scripture. My title, my message is adulterous. verse 14, Thou shalt not commit
adultery. Our Father in heaven, blessed
Lord Jesus, King of kings, Lord of lords, you who reign supreme
over this universe, in your pleasure in heaven and earth, among the
heavens and the earth, and in the sea, you do as you please,
Father, and we are thankful for it. For we know that you are
working all things together for good to them that love you, to
them who are the call according to your purpose. We praise you,
Father, and what happens around us, what may disturb us and shake
us in our frailty is still operating in your great plan for our good
and final glorification when we meet Christ face to face.
We bless you and thank you for that. We know it was made possible,
in fact, it was made sure by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He died in the room instead of his people, and fully and freely
forgave them all their sins, set aside their sins, made to
be their righteousness. And they stand before you even
now, We thank you for your work. It's a lamp unto our feet, a
light unto our path, the entrance of which gives understanding
to the simple. It calls us to hide thy word
in our heart that we might not see it. Help us to understand
what is before us in this passage of Scripture. Simply stated,
pure and simple, No misunderstanding that what you believe will be
hidden and that what you command to be not done. We ask the Lord
to give us an understanding as we look at the Scriptures concerning
these things. Help us, Lord, to remember those
who seek. Remember, especially that brother,
Freya, as he suffered because of his loneliness, swelling in
the leg and the jaw. We ask the Lord to give him for
you and those doctors who prepare this new medication. I pray,
Father, that if it might bring you glory and honor, that you
might be healed from these things and draw back to me as you have.
I pray for our shut-ins, Brother Wayne, Sister Ethel, Peggy Lambert,
and the others who requested prayer and follow you. I ask
for those who can't be here, for whatever reason, that you
watch over them. I pray for Rick Penny, his wife
and children, Help us now to worship you. Now read as it is in this simple
and precise statement, there's no doubt that anyone who reads
it can understand what it means. It's pretty clear. Thou shalt
not commit adultery. Now this commandment is addressing
practice of adultery. Now this differs, adultery differs
from fornication in the matter of the state of the characters
involved. Fornication is usually accounted
for occurring outside the bonds of marriage. The word in the
original Greek is porneio. We get our word pornography from
it. This encompasses all manner of illicit sexual activities
between outside the bonds of marriage. Now what is common
to both fornication and adultery is that it is a communal sin. It can't be done by yourself. It can't be done by yourself.
That's to say that it must involve someone else other than yourself.
It must involve someone else in the sin that you commit. A
man or woman commits this sin and in effect causes the other
participant according to scripture, to be an adulterer. The sin of
adultery is usually attributed to sexual congress committed
by a husband or wife outside the bonds of marriage. It is
then a contagious sin or an infectious sin. The Lord made it clear that
this sinful act originated in and proceeds from the heart of
men. In Matthew chapter 5, talking
to those law keepers, who could tell him flat out that they never,
ever committed adultery. Just as Paul said, before the
law, I was blameless. He never committed the act of
adultery. But our Lord says in Matthew
chapter 5 and verse 27, He says, He hath 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 he makes that period of comparison.
He says they may have never committed the act, but they were all guilty
of adultery. They were all guilty of adultery.
There's a law in Numbers chapter 5 verses 11 through 31 that concerns
a man to prove her innocence or guilt
is ministered. You can read that in Numbers
5 verse 31. I may even look at that next
week. And we know that because the
law was added because of transgression that the nation was guilty of
this sin when the Lord added the law. In Ezekiel chapter 6
verse 9, our Lord said that they that escape of you shall remember
me. among the nations with that they
shall be carried into captivity, because I am broken with their
whoreish heart, talking about his people, which have departed
from me, and with their eyes which go whoring after their
idols, and they shall loathe themselves for the evils which
they have committed in their abominations. This passage makes
it clear That adultery involves more than the marriage of two
human beings. It involves a relationship between
God and His people over in Hosea chapter 2. The reason that is
so, and the Lord calls this foreign adultery, He says in Hosea chapter
2 verse 16, He says, And it shall be in that day the Lord that
thou shalt call Me, Ishii, and no longer call me Baal-dee. He's
in his husband, and that day, when he's talking about taking
Gomer out into the wilderness and giving her the door of Acre,
or the Valley of Acre, which is the Valley of Tribulation,
or the Door of Hope, he says, and that day, you'll no longer
call me Baal-dee, which is my lord, but you will call me Eshu,
which is my husband. This is my husband. So when we're
talking about adultery, we're not just talking about the physical
act between a man and a woman outside of marriage. We're talking
about the relationship of God and His people. Because that's
how, that's what this is. As to adultery committed within
a marriage, it has far-reaching implications. Marriage is a real
thing, ordained of God since the beginning. For it says of
Adam that he shall leave his mother and father and keep his
wife, and they too shall be one flesh. And Eve is called his
wife. His wife in Genesis. So that's
a real thing. But marriage is a real thing
that has symbolic importance. There's a symbolism in marriage. And it teaches something other
than just the fact that a man and a woman are joined together
in marriage. the union of Christ and His Church. In Ephesians chapter 5, if you
want to turn there, the Lord makes that very clear. In Ephesians chapter 5, it says
in verse 25, we'll get there. Husbands, love your wives as
Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. That's
a tall order of business. Tall order of business. that
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water
of the Word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having a spot of rank or any such thing, but it should
be holy without any. So all men to love their wives
as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself, for no man ever hateth his own flesh, but nourishes
it, and cures it, even as the Lord his church. For we are members
of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause
shall a man leave his father, and another shall be joined to
his wife, and the two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery,
this thing called marriage. But I speak, concerning Christ
and His Church. That's what this is about. That's
what marriage is about. So, to commit adultery is to
declare that the bride of Christ can join herself to another. That's what it is. Now, we know
that Christ cannot be guilty of any of this. Because He loves
His bride. and has promised never to leave
her nor forsake her. He is not a man that he should
lie. Unity with adultery is attributed to a believer having a relationship
with something else altogether. A relationship with the law.
For the believer to have a relationship with the law, God calls it adultery.
God calls it adultery. Because the work of Christ, the
believer is said to be dead to the law, and the law is dead
to the believer. Now the law was said to be in
Romans chapter 7, the former husband of the believer, and
since he is dead, the believer is said to be free to be married
to Christ, and therefore is not adultery by being married to
Christ. That's the language that's used.
Turn over to Romans chapter 7 for a moment. We'll just look at
that very quickly. Verse 1 says, Know ye not, brethren,
for I speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath
dominion over man as long as he lives? That to be a tribute
to the man and the law as long as they live. For the woman which
hath a husband is bound by law to her husband so long as he
lives. That's the law. That's the law. But if the husband be dead, If
the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
So then, if while her husband liveth, she is married to another
man, she be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she
is freed from that law, so she is no adulteress, so she be married
to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, and the body
of this man, that he should be married to another lady, even
to him that is raised from the dead, and we should bring forth
fruit unto God. So there's the simplifying truth.
If you're married to one, you can't have a relationship with
the other. That would make you an adulterer. But it also makes
you an adulterer even if the law is dead to you, if you're
dead to the law, if somehow you go back to the law, you're committing
adultery. That's your former husband. That's
your former husband. The believer is not to return
to the dead husband and seek a relationship with him, or justification,
or sanctification, or movement of life. Such an activity would
not only be adultery, it would be necrophilia. It would be going
back to a dead corpse. The law is dead to get information,
to get a movement of life, to get a way to live. It would be
better to say that would be crazy, but that's what the Lord says
to go back to the law as a believer rather than believe in Christ
and grace as adultery so it is obvious that thou shalt not commit
adultery it's obvious that thou shalt not commit adultery carries
more weight than what is involved in natural marriage and the scripture
bears that out it's primarily and finally about the relationship
of God with those It puts a whole different spin on the man. Because
generally speaking, I could preach about adultery, physical act
of adultery, and all of y'all would go out of here righteous.
Or at least feel like so, because I believe none of you are committing
adultery at the moment, but I don't think they will. But, that would
set you free wouldn't it, just to be able to justify it. What
about your relationship with God? That's what this is about. And
it's very important because many profess to know God who go back
to the Lord. Many profess to know God who
don't believe the gospel. They talk about a relationship.
Well, they're really adulterers. And the Lord sets that forth.
Look over Matthew chapter 16, verse 4. Matthew 16 verse 4, Our Lord says, A wicked and adulterous
generation seek after a sign, and there shall no sign be given
unto them but the sign of the prophet John, and he left them
and departed. Now this is part of the group
that just before he said four or five thousand people, some
dishes and loaves, and in John they said, How is it we do the
works of God? That's not included in this conversation.
It says in verse 1, the Pharisees, also with the Sadducees, came
and tempted him, desired him that he would show him a sign
from heaven. Now what are they looking for?
Now he's just done fed 5,000 people with a few loads of fish. What are they looking for? A
sign that he's really the Messiah. I think that pretty well proves
what he's done. But nonetheless, he answered and said, when it
is evening, you say it will be fair weather for the sky is red.
You see the sky red in the evening. It's a pretty red sunset. You
say, it's going to be a nice day tomorrow. And in the morning,
it will be foul weather today, where the sky is red and lowering.
In the morning, the sunrise is red. You say, it's going to be
a bad day. He said, oh, you hypocrites.
You can discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the
signs of the times. He was the sign of the times.
He was given for a sign and for an incident. A wicked and adulterous
generation. That's what he calls them. A
wicked and adulterous generation. They were indeed adulterous in
the natural sense. One Jewish writer wrote that
the synagogue had been turned into a brothel. Another Jewish
historian wrote that the Lord made this indictment because
they rejected the truth. They rejected the truth. He took
them to Jonas. What did Jonas do? He preached
repentance to Nineveh. And they repented. What does
it say of Christ? That He came to this world and
He started His ministry preaching repentance and the Kingdom of
God. That's what he preached. And that was what he gave when
he ascended up on high in Luke chapter 24. He gave this commission
to the children of God to preach repentance. Now, he has done
like Jonah. This is a sign. He says, you
don't have anything but Jonah. He took the Jones who preached
repentance, and then the Lord had preached repentance, and
the Pharisees and Sadducees had not repented, but rather saw
some visible proof. that he was indeed a Messiah.
He said, if they desire Messiah, Messiah. And Jonah was that Messiah.
A preacher of repentance. This was their adultery. He called
them an adulterous generation. Now he's not talking to a bunch
of people in a whorehouse. He's talking to a group of people
that go to synagogue every Saturday, who debate the scriptures, who
read the scriptures, who pray the scriptures on prayer, the
Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Ethnics, all of these people
who spend time in the synagogue. He's not talking about a bunch
of hormones, he says you're a total fly because you refuse. Now even
in a more clear representation of this adultery, sin, and the
works of our Lord, in Mark chapter 8. Mark chapter 8. look at verse 34 here our lord
tells the people this he's not talking necessarily describing
the pharisees here but i'm sure they're in the midst and when
he called the people unto him with his disciples also he said
to them whosoever will come after me let him deny himself take
up his cross and follow me take up the burden take up the tribulation
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it. But whosoever
shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's the same shall
save it. For what profit a man if he gain
the whole world and lose his own soul? Then he says, what
shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Whosoever, and
there's the word therefore, whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of
me and my words and this adulterous and sinful generation, Of him
shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of
his Father. The word ashamed means to disfigure
or dishonor. That's the meaning of that particular
word. It has to do with the words that he has spoken, proven by
the fact that he said, therefore, you're going to have to deny
yourself and take up the cross and follow me. You see, following
Christ has to do with the result of salvation. That result is
to deny yourself. In other words, it is to attribute
all of your salvation to Christ, and none to yourself. One man
said, when salvation is spoken of, the first person singular
is never ignored. In other words, when you talk about salvation,
you don't say I. When salvation is spoken of,
the third person singular is ignored. He. He did it all. Inserting myself in my works,
in my will, in my thoughts, in my salvation brought along by
Christ is simply and precisely this. Adultery. Deny the gospel
is adultery. Now you understand the meaning.
But thou shalt not commit adultery. Let us pray. Father bless us
to understand and pray for Christ.