680. The Ten Commandments - #7 - You Shall not Commit Adultery - November 8, 2024

[00:00:06] Welcome to Wisdom Today. My name is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. In this podcast we will be exploring the book of Proverbs.

[00:00:21] Let's open in prayer. Father God, I thank you for anyone listening to this podcast today. Lord, I pray that you would reveal to everyone listening how much you truly love each and every one of them. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

[00:00:37] This is Proverb 8, beginning in verse 1.

[00:01:07] Verse 1.

[00:01:08] Understand prudence, and you fools, be of an understanding heart.

[00:01:15] Listen, for I will speak of excellent things,

[00:01:19] and from the opening of my lips will come right things,

[00:01:22] for my mouth will speak truth.

[00:01:25] Wickedness is an abomination to my lips.

[00:01:29] All the words of my mouth are with righteousness.

[00:01:33] Nothing crooked or perverse is in them.

[00:01:37] They are all plain to him who understands,

[00:01:41] and right to those who find knowledge.

[00:01:44] Receive my instruction, and not silver,

[00:01:48] and knowledge rather than choice gold,

[00:01:51] for wisdom is better than rubies,

[00:01:53] and all the things one may desire cannot be compared with her.

[00:01:59] I, wisdom, dwell with prudence,

[00:02:02] and find out knowledge and discretion.

[00:02:05] The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.

[00:02:09] Pride and arrogance and the evil way,

[00:02:13] and the perverse mouth I hate.

[00:02:16] Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom.

[00:02:19] I am understanding.

[00:02:22] I have strength.

[00:02:24] By me, kings reign, and rulers decree justice.

[00:02:28] By me, princes rule, and nobles,

[00:02:32] all the judges of the earth.

[00:02:35] I love those who love me,

[00:02:38] and those who seek me diligently will find me.

[00:02:42] Riches and honor are with me,

[00:02:45] enduring riches and righteousness.

[00:02:48] My fruit is better than gold,

[00:02:51] yes, than fine gold,

[00:02:53] and my revenue than choice silver.

[00:02:56] I traverse the way of righteousness

[00:02:59] in the midst of the paths of justice,

[00:03:02] that I may cause those who love me

[00:03:06] to inherit wealth,

[00:03:07] that I may fill their treasuries.

[00:03:10] The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his way,

[00:03:14] before his works of old.

[00:03:17] I have been established from everlasting,

[00:03:21] from the beginning,

[00:03:22] before there was ever an earth.

[00:03:25] When there were no depths,

[00:03:27] I was brought forth.

[00:03:29] When there were no fountains

[00:03:30] abounding with water,

[00:03:32] before the mountains were settled,

[00:03:34] before the hills,

[00:03:36] I was brought forth.

[00:03:38] While as yet,

[00:03:40] he had not made the earth or the fields,

[00:03:43] or the primal dust of the world.

[00:03:46] When he prepared the heavens,

[00:03:48] I was there.

[00:03:49] When he drew a circle on the face of the deep,

[00:03:53] when he established the clouds above,

[00:03:56] when he strengthened the fountains of the deep,

[00:03:59] when he assigned to the sea its limit,

[00:04:02] so that the waters would not transgress his command,

[00:04:07] when he marked out the foundations of the earth,

[00:04:11] then I was beside him as a master craftsman,

[00:04:15] and I was daily his delight,

[00:04:18] rejoicing always before him,

[00:04:21] rejoicing in his inhabited world,

[00:04:24] and my delight was with the sons of men.

[00:04:29] Now therefore,

[00:04:31] listen to me,

[00:04:32] my children,

[00:04:33] for blessed are those who keep my ways.

[00:04:36] Hear instruction and be wise,

[00:04:39] and do not disdain it.

[00:04:42] Blessed is the man who listens to me,

[00:04:45] watching daily at my gates,

[00:04:47] waiting at the posts of my doors.

[00:04:50] For whoever finds me,

[00:04:52] finds life,

[00:04:54] and obtains favor from the Lord.

[00:04:57] But he who sins against me,

[00:04:59] wrongs his own soul.

[00:05:02] All those who hate me,

[00:05:05] love death.

[00:05:07] Friends, today I'd like to take a closer look at verse 8.

[00:05:12] And Proverb 8,

[00:05:14] verse 8,

[00:05:15] says this,

[00:05:16] All the words of my mouth are with righteousness.

[00:05:21] Nothing crooked or perverse is in them.

[00:05:26] Friends, we will come back and take a closer look at that verse prior to closing today.

[00:05:32] But what I'd like to do is continue our study that we have been on on Fridays.

[00:05:40] And we have been studying the Ten Commandments.

[00:05:43] I started this about two months ago.

[00:05:45] Today we'll be going over the Seventh Commandment,

[00:05:49] which is,

[00:05:50] Do not commit adultery.

[00:05:52] But before we begin that lesson,

[00:05:56] what I'd like to do is to review each of the Ten Commandments.

[00:06:01] And the first time we can find the Ten Commandments is in the book of Exodus,

[00:06:07] chapter 20.

[00:06:09] So I would like to read verses 2 through 17 for you,

[00:06:14] for those who have not been tuning in to this particular study.

[00:06:19] This is chapter 20,

[00:06:22] beginning in verse 2.

[00:06:24] I am the Lord your God,

[00:06:26] who brought you out of the land of Egypt,

[00:06:30] out of the house of bondage.

[00:06:33] So friends,

[00:06:34] in verse 3,

[00:06:35] we begin the Ten Commandments.

[00:06:38] So verse 3 is commandment number 1.

[00:06:41] You shall have no other gods before me.

[00:06:44] Verse 4 is the second commandment.

[00:06:48] You shall not make for yourself a carved image,

[00:06:52] any likeness of anything that is in heaven above,

[00:06:57] or that is in the earth beneath,

[00:07:00] or that is in the water under the earth.

[00:07:03] You shall not bow down to them,

[00:07:05] nor serve them.

[00:07:07] For I,

[00:07:08] the Lord your God,

[00:07:09] am a jealous God,

[00:07:11] visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children

[00:07:15] to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me,

[00:07:20] but showing mercy to thousands,

[00:07:23] to those who love me and keep my commandments.

[00:07:28] And I would just like to review just a little bit

[00:07:31] on the second commandment,

[00:07:34] because the second commandment,

[00:07:35] I think we can get caught up with the idea of a carved image.

[00:07:40] But basically,

[00:07:41] the second commandment is anything that you place above God.

[00:07:46] So it doesn't have to be like a physical object.

[00:07:51] In other words,

[00:07:52] it can be your work,

[00:07:53] or it could be,

[00:07:56] for example,

[00:07:57] sex,

[00:07:57] or it could be alcohol,

[00:08:01] but anything that you place of value before God.

[00:08:06] The third commandment is found in verse 7.

[00:08:10] You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain,

[00:08:14] for the Lord will not hold him guiltless

[00:08:18] who takes his name in vain.

[00:08:21] Commandment number 4 is in verse 8 through 11.

[00:08:26] Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

[00:08:30] Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

[00:08:34] but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.

[00:08:38] In it you shall do no work,

[00:08:41] you,

[00:08:42] nor your son,

[00:08:43] nor your daughter,

[00:08:45] nor your male servant,

[00:08:46] nor your female servant,

[00:08:48] nor your cattle,

[00:08:50] nor your stranger,

[00:08:51] who is within your gates.

[00:08:53] For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth,

[00:08:58] the sea and all that is in them,

[00:09:01] and rested the seventh day.

[00:09:04] Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day

[00:09:07] and hallowed it.

[00:09:10] And the fifth commandment is verse 12.

[00:09:13] Honor your father and your mother,

[00:09:17] that your days may be long upon the land

[00:09:20] which the Lord your God is giving you.

[00:09:23] So at this moment,

[00:09:25] what I'm going to do is pause briefly,

[00:09:28] because as we have gone through this study,

[00:09:33] I have mentioned that if you are honoring God,

[00:09:38] and if you are worshiping God,

[00:09:40] and looking to God for who he is,

[00:09:44] and realizing that we are not God,

[00:09:47] and if you are honoring him with a Sabbath day,

[00:09:50] and if you're not taking his name in vain,

[00:09:53] and if you do the fifth commandment,

[00:09:56] honoring your mother and father,

[00:09:59] then you will not commit and break commandments six through ten.

[00:10:06] Because commandments six through ten

[00:10:10] basically have to do with us living in our flesh,

[00:10:16] and doing things that we want to do,

[00:10:21] totally disregarding God,

[00:10:24] and totally disregarding our parents.

[00:10:27] Last week, we went over the fact that we should not murder,

[00:10:32] and I went over the story of King David,

[00:10:35] and how he committed adultery with Bathsheba.

[00:10:40] Later, he expounded on that,

[00:10:42] and later ended up having Uriah murdered.

[00:10:47] So he committed both adultery and murder.

[00:10:51] Today, we are going to look at

[00:10:54] you shall not commit adultery.

[00:10:57] Verse 15,

[00:10:58] you shall not steal,

[00:11:00] is the eighth commandment.

[00:11:01] Verse 16,

[00:11:03] you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor,

[00:11:06] is the ninth commandment.

[00:11:09] And verse 17,

[00:11:10] is the tenth commandment.

[00:11:12] You shall not covet your neighbor's house,

[00:11:16] you shall not covet your neighbor's wife,

[00:11:19] nor his male servant,

[00:11:20] nor his female servant,

[00:11:22] nor his ox,

[00:11:24] nor his donkey,

[00:11:25] nor anything that is your neighbor's.

[00:11:29] So friends, as we zero in,

[00:11:31] on today's lesson,

[00:11:33] verse 14 says,

[00:11:34] you shall not commit adultery.

[00:11:38] Now friends,

[00:11:39] I am going to go to a very famous passage of scripture,

[00:11:43] found in Matthew's gospel.

[00:11:46] And Matthew's gospel, chapter 5,

[00:11:49] we begin with the Beatitudes.

[00:11:52] And chapters 5, 6, and 7 is commonly referred to as the Sermon on the Mount.

[00:11:59] And Jesus came up with all of these things that we are to do.

[00:12:06] And I really want to go into this one adultery.

[00:12:10] Because Jesus here talks about not doing the physical act of adultery,

[00:12:18] but just simply looking at someone is already committing adultery with her.

[00:12:29] So friends, my very first point today is the actual commandment,

[00:12:33] you shall not commit adultery.

[00:12:36] Now, let's look at chapter 5 of Matthew's gospel,

[00:12:41] beginning in verse 27.

[00:12:43] We're going to go through verse 30.

[00:12:46] So it's four verses.

[00:12:48] And this short passage of scripture is entitled,

[00:12:52] Adultery in the Heart.

[00:12:56] You have heard that it was said to those of old,

[00:13:00] you shall not commit adultery.

[00:13:02] But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her

[00:13:10] has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

[00:13:16] So friends, my second point of today's lesson,

[00:13:20] whoever looks at a woman to lust for her

[00:13:24] has already committed adultery.

[00:13:29] Now, Jesus goes on here.

[00:13:32] Because Jesus is saying that it is a matter of the heart.

[00:13:37] Yes, if you go through the physical aspects of having adultery,

[00:13:42] if you go through the sexual intercourse action,

[00:13:46] I think we could all agree that we know that is not right to do,

[00:13:52] especially if you are currently married.

[00:13:56] But Jesus takes it a step further.

[00:14:00] Let's look at verse 29.

[00:14:03] If your right eye causes you to sin,

[00:14:07] pluck it out and cast it from you.

[00:14:12] For it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish

[00:14:16] than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

[00:14:22] Now, here we're talking about the eye.

[00:14:24] Now, let's look at verse 30.

[00:14:26] And if your right hand causes you to sin,

[00:14:30] cut it off and cast it from you.

[00:14:33] For it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish

[00:14:37] than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

[00:14:43] And friends, I think Jesus is trying to make a point here.

[00:14:46] So anyway, my third and final point for today's lesson is if your right eye or right hand causes you to sin,

[00:14:57] pluck it out, meaning your eye, or cut it off, meaning your hand.

[00:15:04] And friends, I think what Jesus is getting across to us is we need to be careful what we do.

[00:15:13] The book of Proverbs often talks about the importance of the words that we speak with our mouth.

[00:15:22] Proverbs 18.21 specifically says,

[00:15:30] In other words, if we speak forth life with our words,

[00:15:38] if we encourage people and build them up,

[00:15:41] they are going to get a jolt of energy, a jolt of life.

[00:15:47] We can actually bring that to people.

[00:15:50] But conversely, we can also tear people down.

[00:15:55] If we criticize them, if we belittle them,

[00:16:00] make them feel like they are less valuable than maybe you or maybe somebody else that they know.

[00:16:08] Friends, it is so vitally important that we watch our words.

[00:16:14] But Jesus here is demonstrating to us through these several verses

[00:16:21] that it not only is important that we watch our words,

[00:16:25] but that we also are very careful with what we do in life.

[00:16:33] Now, everyone knows that committing adultery is wrong.

[00:16:37] Everybody knows that.

[00:16:39] But Jesus is saying, if you just do it in your heart,

[00:16:43] if you look at someone of the opposite sex

[00:16:46] and penetrate and look at their body as though they don't have anything on,

[00:16:54] and that's basically what he's doing here.

[00:16:56] You're lusting for them.

[00:16:58] You see that body and you're invigorated by it.

[00:17:03] You're drawn to it.

[00:17:05] And if you take that step and literally undress that person,

[00:17:12] not literally, but just in your mind,

[00:17:16] he's saying that you've already committed adultery in your heart.

[00:17:21] And your heart's going to remember that.

[00:17:23] You may not have done anything physically,

[00:17:25] but mentally, emotionally, you have committed adultery.

[00:17:32] So Jesus is warning us and cautioning us not to do that.

[00:17:38] Be careful of what you do all the time.

[00:17:43] Before we close our lesson today,

[00:17:45] I'd like to go back to our verse of the day.

[00:17:48] And we are in Proverb 8.

[00:17:50] And verse 8 says this,

[00:17:52] All the words of my mouth are with righteousness.

[00:17:57] Nothing crooked or perverse is in them.

[00:18:01] So friends, I just talked about Proverb 18.21

[00:18:06] and talk about death and life are in the power of our words.

[00:18:11] And this verse is a little bit complimentary to that.

[00:18:14] It's basically saying everything that should come out of our mouth should be pure.

[00:18:19] It should be righteous.

[00:18:21] It should be uplifting to people.

[00:18:24] We are not to say words that people don't want to hear.

[00:18:31] We are not to cut people down in any way, shape, or form.

[00:18:37] So my call to action is simple.

[00:18:40] How careful are you with the words that you speak?

[00:18:44] Are you thinking about what's going to come out of your mouth prior to opening your mouth?

[00:18:54] Please give that some thought.

[00:18:57] Friends, I will never end a podcast without giving anyone an opportunity to receive Jesus

[00:19:03] as their Lord and Savior.

[00:19:05] If there is anyone listening today and you've never taken that step,

[00:19:09] I invite you to repeat a simple prayer after me right now.

[00:19:14] Jesus, I recognize that I am a sinner and in need of a Savior.

[00:19:19] I believe that you are the Son of God.

[00:19:21] I believe you came to earth and died on a cross for me.

[00:19:25] By doing that, I believe that all of my sins have been forgiven

[00:19:30] and you've put me back in right standing with God.

[00:19:33] Jesus, thank you for forgiving me of my sins.

[00:19:37] However, I still need your help.

[00:19:40] I ask that you come into my heart.

[00:19:42] I ask that you lead me and guide me from this point forward.

[00:19:47] I make you my Lord and Savior.

[00:19:51] Friends, if any of you said that prayer,

[00:19:53] I'd like for you to go to my webpage,

[00:19:58] WisdomTodayBK, those are my initials, .com.

[00:20:01] There is a contact tab.

[00:20:04] If you would simply click on that contact tab,

[00:20:08] let me know you said that prayer.

[00:20:10] I'd like to get back with you as soon as I can.

[00:20:14] Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you.

[00:20:18] The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

[00:20:22] The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

[00:20:27] Friends, this is the weekend.

[00:20:30] Go out with your spouse.

[00:20:32] Take your kids along.

[00:20:34] Go out to the beach.

[00:20:35] Maybe go out to the park.

[00:20:37] Maybe to the lake.

[00:20:38] Go out and have a good time.

[00:20:40] Let everyone know how much God loves them

[00:20:43] and how much you love them.

[00:20:45] And I will see you back on Monday

[00:20:47] as we further explore Wisdom Today.

[00:20:51] Okay.

[00:20:51] Good night.