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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.

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Today we're going to have a little heart-to-heart talk regarding the seventh of these Ten Rules for Living.

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Now I might just as well tell you at the beginning that you're perfectly free to turn off your radio.

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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,

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if you're one of those folk who will never face an issue, never wants to admit that sin is sin,

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then you'd be so much more comfortable if you'd just turn your radio off right now.

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That's right. Sure, let's just be honest about this thing.

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Because that seventh commandment is going to hit somebody right between the eyes.

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Thou shalt not commit adultery.

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Those are not my words.

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And remember something.

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No matter how many books have been written contrary, no matter how many authors may believe differently,

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ten million people can think otherwise.

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But God says, thou shalt not commit adultery.

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And there's coming a day when you and I are going to be judged according to His Word.

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Know that.

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In that day of judgment when we stand in His glorious presence, and every man, every woman will one day stand before Him,

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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.

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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,

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in that day it will make no difference whatsoever.

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For that one too will have to take his place in the presence of Almighty God and be judged according to God's Word.

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And it's just like that.

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If I preach one thing, the Bible preaches another.

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If you are taught one thing, God says something contrary.

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Always remember something.

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God is right.

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Know that.

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Now, for a minister to speak on the seventh commandment, thou shalt not commit adultery, requires unusual tact and finesse and reverence.

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I know that.

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I also know that it's a sin which should be discussed as little as possible.

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But since God lists it next to murder, I know that it is vitally important.

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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.

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I believe that.

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We are reproving our young people today.

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We shake our heads when a young girl gets pregnant out of wedlock.

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We shake our heads at the immorality and the lack of morals in our home, our moral standards that are being trampled under feet.

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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.

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We're lacking in courage.

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It's God's word and we need to proclaim it.

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We need to teach it to our children.

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I know we blame our teachers, but our teachers are not to teach these things.

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These things are to be taught in the home by a godly mother, a godly parent.

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We are permitting our teenagers to learn about these things from sources that are not Christian sources.

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And they get the wrong ideas.

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Lay the blame at your own feet.

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These things should begin in the home.

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They are to be taught not merely by a Senate school teacher, but by a godly mother and a godly father

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who have the responsibility of these children.

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And this Seventh Commandment, I remind you again, is something that is vitally important, believe me,

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when you realize that it comes immediately after the commandment, thou shalt not kill.

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Immediately after the commandment, declaring the sacredness of human life

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follows that which safeguards the highest earthly relationship.

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This marvelous thing of the institution of marriage, the holiness, the sacredness of marriage.

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Now, God's first circle of society is that of the family, the origin of the family.

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In his purpose lies within the sacred unity of man and woman.

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The first principle of human life is its relationship to God.

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That's the first.

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As we take God's Ten Rules for Living, we find that the first four that he gives

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deal with man's relationship with God.

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That's the greatest.

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As a human being, you have no greater responsibility than your relationship to God.

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That must come first.

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That's the reason the first four of God's Ten Rules for Living deal definitely with this relationship.

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Then, second in its inner relation is that of man to man.

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And within this second realm, the type and origin of all subsequent relations is the family.

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Nothing can be more essential, therefore, for the social order

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than that of the relationship upon which all subsequent ones are based

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and should be very jealously guarded against,

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lest any attack should be made upon this sacred relationship.

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Remember something.

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The unity of the race is the purpose of God.

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And it grows out of the unity of husband and wife.

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The union of husband and wife is essential for God created man in his own image.

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Male and female created he them.

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And the unity of husband and wife is the unity of the expression of the divine image.

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Pause with me just a moment.

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And for the sake of someone who may not have been following me in these Ten Rules

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that God lays down for man,

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remember that commandment,

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thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother.

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Now, there are those who would consider this relationship,

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that of parent and child,

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the most essential of all family relationship.

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It is, it's vitally important.

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But I want you to see something.

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That relationship is vitally important through those tender years of that child.

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For remember, in that relationship, the parent is viewed as being in the place of God to the child.

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During those tender years, as I made clear in a previous message,

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the first contact that the little baby has when it makes its first cry,

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when it draws its first breath, is with the mother.

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Its first contact with the outside world, with life, is with its parent.

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Its brain has not developed.

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It has no sense regarding spiritual things, the things that are divine.

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That parent is there in the place of God.

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That child must learn obedience to the parent.

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The parent, in turn, must be the child's teacher, must provide for that child,

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train that child, be the lawgiver.

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For that child's mind will not be able to comprehend the spiritual things

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until its mind so develops and it reaches the age of accountability

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where it can make its own decision, where it can grasp the things of the spirit.

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No child has the knowledge of accepting Jesus Christ as his Savior,

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or can fathom the things regarding the atonement.

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Until he reaches the age of 9, 11, 13, there's a difference in children as they develop.

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But up until that time, the parent stands in the place of God to that child

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and gives that child its early training.

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Then, of course, it's easy for that child to make that transition from the adolescent stage

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into the adult stage where it makes its own decisions regarding spiritual things.

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We have often thought that this scripture, this commandment, meant obedience to the parent.

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Obedience is included, but it means a reverence.

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It means to honor.

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As that child develops into the stage where it becomes an adult,

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I always think of the little birds in the nest.

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For every spring, there's a robin who comes and makes its nest right outside my bedroom window.

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Oh, that mama robin is so careful.

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She'll sit on those eggs and sit on those eggs so patiently.

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And the papa comes and will bring her worms.

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I have watched it now year after year.

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And then I've seen the little eggs hatch out and the baby robins.

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Oh, they're so helpless. And still the mother is so careful.

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The day comes when, yon and behold, she throws them out of the nest.

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The first one. It's time to go, kids.

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Come on now. I've given you the best I had.

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Up you go.

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It never was in the will of God that a man should continue to be a little boy the rest of his life.

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That's why in the sight of God it's so vitally wrong for a man who is married

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and has his own family to have to run home to mama.

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That's right. There comes a time when that which was once a child,

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an adolescent, is to be thrown out of the nest and he's on his own.

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He's a man now. Not tied to his mother's apron string.

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He's a man now to make his own decision.

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Accountable not to the mother, not to the father, but accountable to Almighty God.

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He in turn brings his own precious little birds into the world,

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hovers over them, gives them that training.

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Oh, isn't that thrilling to you? Don't you think God has a wonderful plan?

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I think God's plan is superb and you and I cannot improve upon it.

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It's impossible to improve upon God's plan.

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So therefore the parent is viewed as being in the place of God to the child.

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Now we come to the next stage of human life, that of marriage.

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The unity of the husband and wife is the unity of expression of the divine image.

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Oh, this is great. Now watch something.

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That's why you cannot, I want you to see something.

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You cannot separate the physical, the human, and the spiritual.

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You absolutely cannot.

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They all fit in together as one unit.

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That's why in the scripture the Lord always likens the church, the body of believers, as a virgin, a spouse.

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The church is likened unto the bride of Christ.

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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.

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Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the lamb's wife.

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And who was that bride? The church.

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Also, if you will please, turn to 2nd Corinthians, the 11th chapter, the second verse.

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For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy.

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For I have espoused you to one husband, just one, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

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Yes, ma'am.

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One bride, one wife.

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And this marriage, this relationship between woman and man in the sight of God is one of the most sacred,

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is the most sacred relationship that a man or a woman can enter into.

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Read the scripture. It's there.

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Now, here we come to the subject of adultery.

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And I repeat, there's no subject perhaps that's more difficult to deal with faithfully, tactfully, with finesse,

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and yet reverently than this subject.

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And I still believe that there is no subject demanding more fearless handling than this subject.

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Do you want to know why?

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I'm convinced that 50% of all human misery is caused by the violation of this commandment.

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Oh, you say, Miss Cooman, don't you think you're a little far out on that?

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Well, I'll challenge you with something.

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You sit with me in my office for one week and read the letters that come in.

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You listen to the prayer requests that I get.

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You deal with as many people in all walks of life that I deal with.

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You hear the sobs. You see the tears that I see on the faces of young unmarried girls who are pregnant.

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You hear the sobs that I hear from women who have faceless husbands.

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You hear the conversations that I have from the lips of young people who are from broken homes.

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I challenge you for just one week to experience the things that I experience with human beings,

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and you will agree with me that 50% of all human misery is caused directly or indirectly by the violation of this commandment,

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thou shalt not commit adultery.

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It's a commandment.

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God gave no argument.

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There's no argument used.

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There's no reason why he doesn't give us a reason.

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He makes no explanation, just five words.

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And do you want to know why he gave no argument?

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Do you want to know why he gave no reason?

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It's because none is required.

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The thing speaks for itself.

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You go contrary to this law, and my friend, you will pay the price.

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Amen.