It is good to be with you once again this week for the Weekend Sermon. It is my prayer that all of you are doing well, and I hope that you all have a good week ahead.
I want to thank those who have prayed on my behalf about various situations. I really appreciate it. I would like to ask for your prayers once again. Tonight, we are expecting very bad weather in my area. So far, we have not had the flooding problems where I live, but we are not out of the woods yet with the flooding and bad storms. Please pray that things won't get bad. Thank you.
In prayer this week, please remember those affected by the various hurricanes and tropical storms. Also, continue to pray for the flood victims in Louisiana and the earthquake victims in Italy.
Please continue to pray for peace in this troubled world. Let us pray for peace in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and South Sudan.
For our prayer focus countries this week, let us pray for Zimbabwe and Yemen. Pray that people in these nations will hear the message of the love of Jesus.
Last week, we finished one of our two summer sermon series. The sermon in our lessons from the animals series last week was the most read sermon of the summer. That made me happy. Now for the next three weeks, we will concentrate our attentions on finishing up our series on the Ten Commandments.
Today, we will study the commandment that says, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." As with most of the commandments, this commandment on the surface is straightforward enough. This commandment instructs those who are married not to engage in sexual relationships with those to whom they are not married.
The Lord holds marriage to be an important institution. Jesus said that in the original order of creation, man and woman were created to be together. A man was to leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife. According to Jesus, the only grounds for divorce was adultery.
This goes to show how serious the sin of adultery is in the eyes of the Lord. The Bible tells us in the book of Malachi that God hates divorce. That is very strong language. However, adultery is so serious that if one partner commits adultery, the Lord allows the marriage to be ended.
Let me state just for a moment that I believe that the Bible does allow for self defense. If you are in a situation where you are being abused by your spouse or your children are being abused, I believe it is implied in the Bible that this is a grounds for divorce as well. You don't have to keep you or your children in a dangerous situation.
With the most obvious application of this commandment dealt with, let's look a little deeper. What does this commandment imply about some other situations?
The Bible says that adultery is a sin, but it also states that any sexual relationship outside of marriage is also a sin. In the Bible, it is know as the sin of fornication. I know that speaking about these issues isn't very popular today. However, the Bible speaks clearly in this matter. The Lord Jesus was very clear in this regard. Jesus said in Matthew 15:19 that fornication was one of the evil things that proceed from the heart of humans.
We live in a society today where marriage is not held in as high esteem as it was in generations past. Many couples decide to just live together instead of getting married. This is certainly not a Biblical attitude or action.
In our society here in the United States the issue of gay marriage is a hot-button issue. In my opinion, many in the Christian community went way overboard with this issue. Many treated gay people in a very hateful fashion. Some have just gone off the deep end with this. With that said, I think that the Bible is quite clear that the Lord intended for marriage to be between one man and one woman. However, this was not practiced much in the Old Testament where men often had several wives and concubines. This was not God's best.
In dealing with all areas of sexual ethics those of us who seek to follow Christ need to be respectful to others and not hateful. At the same time, we have to follow what the Bible states to be the truth.
It has been my opinion that the best way that Christians can demonstrate the importance of marriage is to model Godly marriages for others to see. When those who are not Christians see Christians getting divorced for unbiblical reasons or Christians not living to the standard of the Word, it causes them to not want to follow the Lord's design for marriage and sexuality.
That is about all I want to say on this matter. Next week, we will continue with our series on the Ten Commandments. I will post the verses on Monday, and there will be a review on Wednesday. May God bless you all. Amen.
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