I do hope that you have been following me in the series of messages that I have been bringing on the Ten Commandments, or God's Ten Rules for Living.
Today we're going to have a little heart-to-heart talk regarding the seventh of these Ten Rules for Living.
Now I might just as well tell you at the beginning that you're perfectly free to turn off your radio.
If you think you might be a little uncomfortable, if you are afraid to face facts, if you are afraid of God's Word, if you will not look yourself directly in the face,
if you're one of those folk who will never face an issue, never wants to admit that sin is sin,
then you'd be so much more comfortable if you'd just turn your radio off right now.
That's right. Sure, let's just be honest about this thing.
Because that seventh commandment is going to hit somebody right between the eyes.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Those are not my words.
And remember something.
No matter how many books have been written contrary, no matter how many authors may believe differently,
ten million people can think otherwise.
But God says, thou shalt not commit adultery.
And there's coming a day when you and I are going to be judged according to His Word.
Know that.
In that day of judgment when we stand in His glorious presence, and every man, every woman will one day stand before Him,
He's not going to be taking off of the shelf some book written by some author, and you will not be judged according to the philosophy of that author.
Regardless of what that professor in your college or the psychiatrist may believe and may have had his influence on you and caused you to believe,
in that day it will make no difference whatsoever.
For that one too will have to take his place in the presence of Almighty God and be judged according to God's Word.
And it's just like that.
If I preach one thing, the Bible preaches another.
If you are taught one thing, God says something contrary.
Always remember something.
God is right.
Know that.
Now, for a minister to speak on the seventh commandment, thou shalt not commit adultery, requires unusual tact and finesse and reverence.
I know that.
I also know that it's a sin which should be discussed as little as possible.
But since God lists it next to murder, I know that it is vitally important.
And I have come to the conclusion today that it is not being preached enough by those of us who stand behind the sacred desk.
I believe that.
We are reproving our young people today.
We shake our heads when a young girl gets pregnant out of wedlock.
We shake our heads at the immorality and the lack of morals in our home, our moral standards that are being trampled under feet.
But I believe that we can lay the blame, much of the blame, to the man who stands behind the pulpit, to those who should teach and preach the word of God.
We're lacking in courage.
It's God's word and we need to proclaim it.
We need to teach it to our children.
I know we blame our teachers, but our teachers are not to teach these things.
These things are to be taught in the home by a godly mother, a godly parent.
We are permitting our teenagers to learn about these things from sources that are not Christian sources.
And they get the wrong ideas.
Lay the blame at your own feet.
These things should begin in the home.
They are to be taught not merely by a Senate school teacher, but by a godly mother and a godly father
who have the responsibility of these children.
And this Seventh Commandment, I remind you again, is something that is vitally important, believe me,
when you realize that it comes immediately after the commandment, thou shalt not kill.
Immediately after the commandment, declaring the sacredness of human life
follows that which safeguards the highest earthly relationship.
This marvelous thing of the institution of marriage, the holiness, the sacredness of marriage.
Now, God's first circle of society is that of the family, the origin of the family.
In his purpose lies within the sacred unity of man and woman.
The first principle of human life is its relationship to God.
That's the first.
As we take God's Ten Rules for Living, we find that the first four that he gives
deal with man's relationship with God.
That's the greatest.
As a human being, you have no greater responsibility than your relationship to God.
That must come first.
That's the reason the first four of God's Ten Rules for Living deal definitely with this relationship.
Then, second in its inner relation is that of man to man.
And within this second realm, the type and origin of all subsequent relations is the family.
Nothing can be more essential, therefore, for the social order
than that of the relationship upon which all subsequent ones are based
and should be very jealously guarded against,
lest any attack should be made upon this sacred relationship.
Remember something.
The unity of the race is the purpose of God.
And it grows out of the unity of husband and wife.
The union of husband and wife is essential for God created man in his own image.
Male and female created he them.
And the unity of husband and wife is the unity of the expression of the divine image.
Pause with me just a moment.
And for the sake of someone who may not have been following me in these Ten Rules
that God lays down for man,
remember that commandment,
thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother.
Now, there are those who would consider this relationship,
that of parent and child,
the most essential of all family relationship.
It is, it's vitally important.
But I want you to see something.
That relationship is vitally important through those tender years of that child.
For remember, in that relationship, the parent is viewed as being in the place of God to the child.
During those tender years, as I made clear in a previous message,
the first contact that the little baby has when it makes its first cry,
when it draws its first breath, is with the mother.
Its first contact with the outside world, with life, is with its parent.
Its brain has not developed.
It has no sense regarding spiritual things, the things that are divine.
That parent is there in the place of God.
That child must learn obedience to the parent.
The parent, in turn, must be the child's teacher, must provide for that child,
train that child, be the lawgiver.
For that child's mind will not be able to comprehend the spiritual things
until its mind so develops and it reaches the age of accountability
where it can make its own decision, where it can grasp the things of the spirit.
No child has the knowledge of accepting Jesus Christ as his Savior,
or can fathom the things regarding the atonement.
Until he reaches the age of 9, 11, 13, there's a difference in children as they develop.
But up until that time, the parent stands in the place of God to that child
and gives that child its early training.
Then, of course, it's easy for that child to make that transition from the adolescent stage
into the adult stage where it makes its own decisions regarding spiritual things.
We have often thought that this scripture, this commandment, meant obedience to the parent.
Obedience is included, but it means a reverence.
It means to honor.
As that child develops into the stage where it becomes an adult,
I always think of the little birds in the nest.
For every spring, there's a robin who comes and makes its nest right outside my bedroom window.
Oh, that mama robin is so careful.
She'll sit on those eggs and sit on those eggs so patiently.
And the papa comes and will bring her worms.
I have watched it now year after year.
And then I've seen the little eggs hatch out and the baby robins.
Oh, they're so helpless. And still the mother is so careful.
The day comes when, yon and behold, she throws them out of the nest.
The first one. It's time to go, kids.
Come on now. I've given you the best I had.
Up you go.
It never was in the will of God that a man should continue to be a little boy the rest of his life.
That's why in the sight of God it's so vitally wrong for a man who is married
and has his own family to have to run home to mama.
That's right. There comes a time when that which was once a child,
an adolescent, is to be thrown out of the nest and he's on his own.
He's a man now. Not tied to his mother's apron string.
He's a man now to make his own decision.
Accountable not to the mother, not to the father, but accountable to Almighty God.
He in turn brings his own precious little birds into the world,
hovers over them, gives them that training.
Oh, isn't that thrilling to you? Don't you think God has a wonderful plan?
I think God's plan is superb and you and I cannot improve upon it.
It's impossible to improve upon God's plan.
So therefore the parent is viewed as being in the place of God to the child.
Now we come to the next stage of human life, that of marriage.
The unity of the husband and wife is the unity of expression of the divine image.
Oh, this is great. Now watch something.
That's why you cannot, I want you to see something.
You cannot separate the physical, the human, and the spiritual.
You absolutely cannot.
They all fit in together as one unit.
That's why in the scripture the Lord always likens the church, the body of believers, as a virgin, a spouse.
The church is likened unto the bride of Christ.
Let me just refresh your memory to that scripture that's given in the 21st chapter of the book of the revelation, the ninth verse.
Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the lamb's wife.
And who was that bride? The church.
Also, if you will please, turn to 2nd Corinthians, the 11th chapter, the second verse.
For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy.
For I have espoused you to one husband, just one, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
Yes, ma'am.
One bride, one wife.
And this marriage, this relationship between woman and man in the sight of God is one of the most sacred,
is the most sacred relationship that a man or a woman can enter into.
Read the scripture. It's there.
Now, here we come to the subject of adultery.
And I repeat, there's no subject perhaps that's more difficult to deal with faithfully, tactfully, with finesse,
and yet reverently than this subject.
And I still believe that there is no subject demanding more fearless handling than this subject.
Do you want to know why?
I'm convinced that 50% of all human misery is caused by the violation of this commandment.
Oh, you say, Miss Cooman, don't you think you're a little far out on that?
Well, I'll challenge you with something.
You sit with me in my office for one week and read the letters that come in.
You listen to the prayer requests that I get.
You deal with as many people in all walks of life that I deal with.
You hear the sobs. You see the tears that I see on the faces of young unmarried girls who are pregnant.
You hear the sobs that I hear from women who have faceless husbands.
You hear the conversations that I have from the lips of young people who are from broken homes.
I challenge you for just one week to experience the things that I experience with human beings,
and you will agree with me that 50% of all human misery is caused directly or indirectly by the violation of this commandment,
thou shalt not commit adultery.
It's a commandment.
God gave no argument.
There's no argument used.
There's no reason why he doesn't give us a reason.
He makes no explanation, just five words.
And do you want to know why he gave no argument?
Do you want to know why he gave no reason?
It's because none is required.
The thing speaks for itself.
You go contrary to this law, and my friend, you will pay the price.
Amen.