We're in a series of messages on the Ten Commandments,
some good heart-to-heart talks regarding God's ten rules for living.
And the little heart-to-heart talk that we're going to have today
is the second in the series that I am bringing on the Seventh Commandment.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
When I left you in the first of these heart-to-heart talks regarding the Seventh Commandment,
I showed you something.
God gave this commandment five short words.
It follows, thou shalt not kill.
Therefore, we know the importance of the Seventh Commandment.
No argument is used, no reason given,
because this is one commandment that needs no argument.
It needs no reason.
God states it, He makes it a commandment,
and any man or woman who breaks it will suffer.
It's just like that.
Immediately after the commandment,
declaring the sacredness of human life, thou shalt not kill,
follows that which safeguards the highest earthly relationship that we know,
the relationship between man and woman.
Now, I left you with just the answer to what is adultery.
I know there's no subject more difficult to deal with faithfully.
There's no subject, probably, that needs more finesse in dealing with it, especially publicly.
There's no subject that needs greater tact in dealing with it than this one.
We must deal with it reverently.
And yet, there is none demanding more fearless handling than this subject.
It's that important.
And I reminded you that 50% of all human misery is caused by the violation of this commandment.
For the next several minutes, I shall ask and I shall try to answer three questions.
What is adultery?
Why is it wrong?
What can one who has violated the law do about it?
Simple, yet vitally important.
All right, first of all, what is adultery?
Adultery is violation of the marriage law of faithfulness to each other.
It's just that simple.
There it is.
Adultery is violation of the marriage vow of faithfulness to each other.
Watch it.
I'm going to go a little further.
Any sex experience outside the marriage bond is adultery.
And it's wrong because God says it's wrong.
Even though 10 million people may say it's right, it does not make it right,
because 10 million people believe that it's right and have their own personal ideas regarding it.
If God says it's wrong, it's wrong.
And it's so important to keep this thing right that God lists it next to the sacredness of life itself.
Thou shalt not kill.
And there it is.
Take it or leave it.
If you leave it, take this law in your own hands, live contrary to it, you'll suffer.
You'll pay the price.
And not only you, you may find that the next generation will be suffering because of it, even to the third generation.
This is something that is very sacred in the sight of God.
There seems to be an increasingly popular notion, very popular.
It's extremely popular among our high school, our college students, this young present generation,
that the marriage relation is a civil one only.
You can do just as you please.
As common as eating your three meals a day.
As common as a date.
This present generation gets the idea that when you talk about marriage,
that the marriage relationship is a civil one only.
This is a vital error.
It is wholly divine.
Once the union is consummated, it is for the period of life.
And there's only one reason for its disannulling.
Until death itself.
And that is fornication.
Which is far more awful than death.
I think that I'm giving you my opinion.
You may call me old-fashioned.
I'm telling you something.
Don't you dare call me old-fashioned.
I'm just about as modern as they come.
That's right.
But I'm old-fashioned in just one thing, and that is the Word of God.
I'm as old-fashioned, and I think that's the only thing that I am old-fashioned into
when it comes right down to it.
That's right.
But I'm just as old-fashioned as the Scripture.
I'm as old-fashioned as God's Word.
I'm as old-fashioned as the Bible.
And when God says it, I'm a sticker for it.
I believe it.
And I'm a fool if I would live contrary to it.
Because I would be the one who would suffer.
You cannot break any one of God's rules without suffering for it.
And it's just like that.
And when it comes to the seventh commandment,
it's something that's very delicate.
It's something that's very vital.
It's something extremely sacred.
Yes, ma'am, I've given you the definition for adultery.
And remember, this thing of husband and wife, this thing of marriage,
is a whole lot more than just a piece of paper.
Much more than just a minister signing a piece of paper
or a judge signing a piece of paper.
Or paying out two bucks for a marriage license.
Once the union is consummated, it is for the period of life.
And in the sight of God, there is only one reason for its disannulling,
and that is fornication.
All right?
Right here and now, let's clear up something once and for all,
because there are so many letters that come in week after week with questions.
Now, I'm going to make this so clear that after I get through bringing these little heart-to-heart talks,
don't just want me with letters with 10,000 questions,
because in analyzing your questions, I usually find that they come from people
who try to argue God into believing that they are right,
and they are trying to fit the problems of their own life with the Bible
or bring the Bible down to their level.
It is so simple, it's like A-B-C.
There'll be no questions in your mind unless you are trying to make parts of the puzzle fit where they aren't supposed to fit.
All right.
So, for a few minutes, we're going to go into this matter of divorce.
Let me first of all give you what the Lord says, His own words.
When I get it out, when I get my Bible, it's Matthew the 19th chapter.
You get your Bible out too.
I'm turning the pages of mine.
The 19th chapter of Matthew, let's begin with that 9th verse.
Jesus is speaking, and I say unto you, He's talking,
whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication.
Now, there is one license for a divorce and remarriage.
It's one thing.
God looks upon fornication, God looks upon adultery as such a great sin
that He uses it as a license for divorce and remarriage.
Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication,
and shall marry another, committeth adultery,
and whosoever marryeth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
So both of you are guilty.
If you've got a husband that you're sick and tired of,
oh, you'd give anything in the world if you could get rid of the old boy.
Oh, he was so wonderful.
When you married him and now you're so tired of him,
you forgot when the moon was shining and you were so romantic
that you were going to have to sit across the table from that same face three meals a day.
Oh, you were so romantic that night.
You forgot you'd have to wash his old dirty socks.
You forgot about all those dishes that had to be washed.
The drudgery of keeping house is like a young fella.
And if I were to give you his name, a great many of you folk would know whom I speak.
He came to me, oh, this has been years ago.
Oh, he said, Catherine.
I got myself in a mess. I said, what did you do?
I got myself engaged.
I said, you didn't.
Yes, and I knew he'd been down in San Diego singing.
I said, you didn't.
You don't even have the money to support yourself, much less getting engaged.
And if there's anybody that doesn't need a wife, you're the guy.
What made you do it?
And I'll never forget the look on his face.
He looked at me and this was the only answer he could say.
Oh, the moon was so beautiful.
You know something?
That sounds silly, but you were just as foolish.
Now watch.
You were going to have him.
You got him.
He's a good old plug.
But he's not just what you want right now.
And you got eyes on somebody else.
Listen, according to the Word of God, you cannot get rid of him.
If he is true to you, if he is not committing adultery, he is faithful to you,
you do not have the license to divorce him and marry somebody else.
If you do, you commit adultery and the one who marries you commits adultery.
That's the Word of God.
If your husband is untrue to you and living with another woman,
you have a right to get a divorce and to marry someone else.
But listen, you better be dead sure that your husband is committing adultery.
That is not only your imagination.
Some women have the wildest imaginations.
They want to believe that their husbands are committing adultery
when he's just as true to you as can be.
Be sure it's not your imagination.
I'm going to pause and let that soak in.
You just think so.
You better be dead sure.
Now the Lord goes on.
His disciples say unto him, if the case of the man be so with his wife,
is it not good to marry?
And the Lord goes right ahead and gives the rest of the Scripture.
It's found in the 19th chapter of Matthew.
Now let's see what Paul says.
We got that straight. It's simple as can be.
Turn to 1 Corinthians, the 7th chapter.
Oh, Paul is great.
He begins by saying, now first of all I'm going to give you my opinion.
This is my opinion.
I speak this by permission and not of commandment.
In other words, he's saying, this is my idea.
God didn't say it, I am giving you my idea first.
Then after he gives his own, then he goes on and gives God's word.
I would, this is Paul's idea, that all men were even as I myself.
In other words, don't get married.
But every man has his proper gift of God, one after this manner and another after that.
I say therefore to the unmarried and the widows, it is good for them if they abide even as I.
In other words, you'll certainly save yourself a lot of trouble.
I hear somebody saying, that's the truth.
I know. You'll save yourself a lot of trouble, a lot of worry.
That's what I don't understand about some of these men.
My goodness, the life.
I've gotten some of their prayer requests.
They had such a hard time with their first wife and then she dies.
I watched the procedure. They practically crawl into the casket with her and six months later,
they've gotten themselves into a mess worse than the first one.
They can't wait to get married again.
I see some of these women.
They can't get along with the husband they have.
He dies, they become widows.
And I breathe a sigh of relief and say to myself,
my, she'll at least have five, ten good years of happiness
because she's wept on my shoulders and told me her troubles in the flesh,
trying to live with the husband she had.
I am shocked.
Eight months haven't passed in the history before.
She's got another one.
Paul says if you want to save yourself a lot of heartache and a lot of trouble,
do like I do.
Don't get married.
Now he says unto the married I command,
yet not I but the Lord.
The Lord is saying, let not the wife depart from her husband,
but and if she depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband.
And let not the husband put away his wife, but to the rest speak I not the Lord.
If any brother hath the wife that believeth not,
and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away.
And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not,
and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not put him away.
In other words, if you're a Christian and your husband's unsaid,
that's no cause for divorce.
If he's willing to stay with you, go right ahead.
Same way with the husband and wife.
But he says, if you're going to get a divorce,
and we see here that divorce is not a sin,
but to remarry is a sin,
except in the case where the other party has been untrue.
That's the Scripture.
That's God's Word.
Amen.