In Jason Dohm's sermon 'A Forever Faithful Husband and God', the focus is on the seventh commandment, 'You shall not commit adultery'. Dohm emphasizes that while the commandments are often framed negatively, they reveal the perfections of God, particularly His eternal faithfulness. The sermon discusses how Jesus, in Matthew 5, expands the commandments to include internal thoughts and motivations, illustrating that adultery encompasses more than just physical acts, but also includes lustful thoughts and intentions. The sermon underscores the idea that each commandment represents a category of sin, with adultery highlighting all forms of sexual sin. It stresses the importance of guarding one's heart, eyes, and actions to avoid sin. Dohm explains that marital love and faithfulness are reflections of God's character, and that adultery is seen as the severest violation because it distorts the divine image of Christ's relationship with the church. The sermon concludes by highlighting God's absolute purity and faithfulness, and calls for believers to reflect these attributes in their lives.

The title of the sermon this morning is A Forever Faithful Husband and God. Last week we concluded our study of the sixth commandment, You Shall Not Murder. This week we began our study of the seventh commandment, you shall not commit adultery. It will be two weeks like most of the commandments have been two weeks. This is another of the commands which are framed in the negative.

It tells you what you must not do. You shall not. Eight out of the Ten Commandments are framed in the negative. The only two that are framed in the positive are remember the Sabbath day, remember God's special day, and honor your father and your mother. All of the rest of them say, God says don't do this.

But I exhort you, don't lose sight of the fact that at the heart of every commandment is a perfection of God. Do you have that? At the very heart, at the core of every single commandment is one of the perfections of our God. God is revealed in His commandments. We are told what He loves and what He hates.

The eternal character of God and God can't be like anything else. He is that He is. He is unchanging from eternity past through eternity future. The eternal character of God is here in His commandments. So commandment keeping is Christ likeness.

Period. In that sense there's not more to say. Commandment keeping is Christlikeness. In this case, God is a forever faithful husband and God. So Christlikeness is to learn how to be ever faithful like He is ever faithful from eternity past through eternity future.

So we come to our text and this commandment, let's ask for the Lord's help. Oh God, I pray that you would show us yourself and all your glory. Peel back the curtain just a little bit and allow us to see you in all of your glory and all of your holiness And all of your eternal perfection, let us see you. Let us go so far beyond a single isolated physical thing that we shouldn't do. Let us behold you, God.

I pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Well, we've got a pattern that we've been undertaking at each of the commandments. We'll just follow that. Number one, what the seventh commandment forbids. I think up until this point, I've been starting with what the commandment requires, then what it forbids.

Going forward, and I really wish I had started this way, however the commandment frames it is going to be number one. That was really, if I could go back in time, that's how I would do it. We need to honor how God frames it. I want to frame it like God frames it. This is negatively framed, so we'll begin with number one, what the seventh commandment forbids.

What does it forbid? It forbids adultery. You shall not commit adultery, but there's more to it than that. Remember when we were studying our last commandment, the sixth commandment, you shall not murder, we went to Matthew chapter 5 where Jesus says, you have heard that it was said, you shall not murder. He just gives an unaccompanied quotation of the Sixth Commandment and then he says, but I say to you if you hate your brother, if you speak evil of your brother, you've broken the commandment.

You're worthy of hell even for the things that have happened in your mind or have words that have come from your mouth. So we work to shrink the commandment, whittle it down to something that we can keep and think of ourselves as self-righteous, but Jesus expands it out to what it always has been including the motivations of our heart, the thoughts of our mind, the words that come out of our mouth. Yes, murder is the taking of a physical life, but there is also heart murder. When you're angry with your brother without a cause, when you hate your brother in your heart, you violated the sixth commandment, you shall not murder. When you speak evil of someone, you might not have physically ended their life, but you violated the sixth command, you shall not murder.

So each commandment isn't simply an isolated external action, it is a category. You have to know, if you get nothing else from today, get this. Each commandment is not an isolated external action alone, It is a category of ways that we either honor or dishonor our God in our thoughts, in our words, in our actions. They each are a category. In the case of the sixth commandment, the most severe violation is named.

If you go to the outer edge of the category, you take a person's life and that is the violation that is named but it's a category murder is a category yes I lost my place I will find it The most severe violation is named, but everything leading up to the most severe Violation is included. How do we know that? Because Jesus says that in Matthew chapter 5. You shall not murder, yes, the most severe violation, but everything that leads up to it. Anger against your brother without a cause, speaking evil of your brother, also a violation of the commandment.

So there may be different temporal penalties. What do I mean by that? The civil government may have different thoughts about this according to the law of God. If you murder someone in the Old Testament, you were to forfeit your own life for that. It's not the same for anger against your brother or speaking evil of your brother.

The civil magistrate has nothing to do with that. So the temporal penalties are very different. If you physically take a life here to be killed, if you just think hateful thoughts towards your brother, the civil magistrate, The civil government has nothing to do with that. God says He'll take care of that Himself. God reserves dealing with that to Himself.

And yet, in Matthew chapter 5, what Jesus teaches is both make you worthy of hell. Both separate you from God. Both make you an enemy of the holy, holy, holy God in heaven who can't even look upon unrighteousness. Listen, God knows how our minds work. He made my mind in your mind and He wants us to be able to know these categories, to know them.

You can't memorize Deuteronomy without making it that your life's work for a long period of time, But you can memorize the Ten Commandments. We have, or we are memorizing the Ten Commandments. I'm really thankful for that. The Dumbs pretty much have it down at this point. Which means that these ten categories, which reveal the eternal character of God, are pinned down in our minds.

They are top of mind for us. We've done that with very little effort. God wants us to know the categories in which his character has been perfect from eternity past. And so he gives us the Ten Commandments, often referencing, naming the most severe violation in the category. But that is by no means the whole category.

That's what Matthew chapter 5 means. What is adultery? Adultery is the marital act of physical affection. I'm going to use that phrase over and over again, the marital act of physical affection between two people who are not married to each other, but at least one of them is married to somebody else. That's technical Webster dictionary adultery.

I'll say it again. The marital act. What do I mean? Why do I say the marital act? Because God designed the act for marriage, to be reserved for marriage, to be only for marriage, to be only a part of marriage.

The marital act of physical affection between people who are not married. A marital act by people who aren't married to each other. But at least one of them is married to somebody else. So it's betrayal on that level. What is the temporal penalty for that in the Old Testament.

In other words, in Old Testament Israel, what is the civil government supposed to do that? Put both to death. Both to death. So that's adultery. What is the category?

So adultery as an isolated external act is somewhat rare. This Marital act committed with someone that you're not married to but one of those people is married to somebody else is relatively rare when you look across the category. What is the category itself? Sexual sin. All sexual sin is the category.

So fornication is sexual sin, but it's not Marion Webster adultery. It doesn't fit the textbook definition. It is actually a marital act of physical affection between people who aren't married to each other or anyone else. And what is the temporal penalty? What is the Old Testament Israel government supposed to do about that?

Supposed to either make them marry or for the man to pay restitution to the father of the woman. Very different temporal penalties. Adultery, death, fornication, make them get married. Or make him pay restitution if the father will not allow them to get married. Jesus says both are worthy of eternal separation, eternal punishment.

Hell. Like previous weeks, let's begin by consulting Jesus. Turn to Matthew chapter 5. This is right on the heels. We were just in Matthew chapter 5 with You Shall Not Murder.

Jesus' expansion and explanation of you shall not murder. He's not expanding in the sense that he's saying anything that wasn't always true. The things that he says in Matthew chapter 5 were always true. They were true before Moses gave the Ten Commandments, After Moses gave the Ten Commandments, during the time of Jesus, they have always been true. Matthew chapter 5, I'll be reading verses 27 through 30.

Jesus says this, You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. Again, Jesus begins this section by simply quoting the Seventh Commandment, you shall not commit adultery.

Isn't that true? Yes, it's true, it's perfectly true, but it's not complete. Because the seventh commandment, you shall not commit adultery, isn't an isolated external act, it is a category. So Jesus fills out the category. Then what's missing when you just say, you shall not commit adultery, period, and you only think of it as an isolated external act?

What's missing? Eye adultery. Mind adultery. Thought adultery. Imagination adultery.

And by the way, Jesus doesn't mention it here, but there's lip adultery. There is words from your mouth that entice into these immoral relationships. When people have reached the end point, the severest violation of the Seventh Commandment, you shall not commit adultery, they've already run ten stop signs. They've already run ten stop signs. They've cherished notions in their heart.

They've looked in ways that they shouldn't have looked to feed thoughts that they shouldn't be thinking, imaginations that they shouldn't be harboring, they've said words that they shouldn't have said, and then it led to this, that led to this, that led to this, and then there's the outward external physical marital act that was to be reserved for marriage but it wasn't reserved to marriage. Ten stop signs have been run. Listen to 2 Peter 2 verse 14 describing wicked men in their midst. 2 Peter 2 14, it's a part of this verse. He's describing these wicked men.

He says, having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin. They have eyes full of adultery. Did you know that your eyes can be full of adultery? That's what Peter says. Their eyes.

You can go a lifetime and never commit the external act, physical act of adultery, but your eyes can be full of adultery. Jesus says, you've already committed adultery with her in your heart. You stand condemned. It's so serious that if to hold you back from it would require that you pluck out your eye, then pluck out your eye, would you rather go to hell? If to hold you back from it, you have to cut off your hand.

Cut off your hand, would you rather go to hell? Hell is eternal, it never ends. The pain of plucking out an eye or cutting off a hand will be nothing compared to the pain of hell. And it never ends. Through a million ages it will never end.

Friends you can maintain your respectability and wallow in sins that violate the seventh commandment. And your friends never know. Your pastor never knows, your neighbors never know, your coworkers never know, and you're wallowing in it. Can happen just in your mind. Eye adultery, mind adultery, thought adultery, imagination adultery.

Those are things that are missing from the full category when you just say adultery and only think by that an isolated physical act. What else is missing from you shall not commit adultery? Well, other forms of sexual sin. There are many other forms of sexual sin. I've already mentioned fornication, a marital act by people who aren't married.

But if you go to Leviticus 18 and 20, if this was a series and not just two weeks, we would go to Leviticus 18 and 20 because they are the chapters on the category of sexual sin. And in Leviticus 18 and 20 we find all sorts of other forms of sexual sin like incest, marriage acts with immediate family, close relatives, homosexuality, which the Bible calls sodomy, Marriage acts with people of the same gender as you. It doesn't matter if you say you're married. The Bible knows nothing of Same-sex marriage. The Bible doesn't call that marriage.

So you can hijack the term and say we're married so we can have marriage acts, but the Bible doesn't recognize that as marriage. There is no such thing. That's not a thing. Bestiality, marriage acts with an animal, you find. There are these other forms.

God says this in Leviticus 18. This is one of these chapters on the category of sexual sin. Leviticus 18. Do not defile yourselves with any of these things. For by all these the nations are defiled which I am casting out from before you.

For the land is defiled, therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants." We get God's disposition towards this category of sexual sin, marital acts committed outside of the bonds of marriage, what does God think about that? He causes the land to vomit you out. He says you're defiling yourselves, you're defiled, you're polluted by this and you pollute the soil that you walk on the land will Vomit you out in time Paul gives us insight into this turn to first Corinthians 6 First Corinthians 6 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians 6. We're reading verses 15 through 15-20.

1 Corinthians 6 verses 15-20. Paul writes this to the Corinthians, Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot, of a prostitute? Certainly not. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her?

For the two, he says, God says, shall become one flesh. But he Who is joined to the Lord as one Spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." Paul argues in 1 Corinthians 6 that in this sense this is a unique sin. He sets it apart as a different kind of sin. Now is it different in that it makes you worthy of hell when something else doesn't make you worthy of hell. No, it's not different in that sin.

God is holy, holy, holy, and any sin even the ones that we count small, He doesn't count small. He's so holy He cannot abide sin. So it's not different in that sense, but Paul argues you're sinning against your own body. This is a different sin in that sense. And it's true of non-Christians who were made to be the Lord's, to worship the Lord.

So it is a sin for the non-Christian, but it's devastatingly true of Christians who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. He says, you're a temple of the Spirit, How can you join that to a prostitute? How can you engage in marital acts outside of marriage when you are one with God in Spirit? That's cringe-worthy. That makes me cringe when I read it.

When you think about it in those terms, it repulses you, it must repulse you, knowing who God is and what He's done to pay for you to be right in His sight, and then to join yourself, who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, with someone outside of the bonds of marriage. When you think of it in that way, no one ever thinks of it in that way when they engage in it. But we should. So the seventh commandment, though it only names adultery, forbids all those forms end to end, starting in the mind where no one can see it and it's not external at all. But when I say no one can see it, that's not exactly true.

It's not exactly true. Person next to you can't see it, not even your spouse might know. The person who knows you most intimately may never know but God knows. He sees every thought. He knows every word.

These things are all done in His sight. He is present for them. That's one, what the seventh commandment forbids. Two, what the seventh commandment requires. It's the other side of the coin.

What's on the other side of the coin? If I could just use one word, I would use faithfulness. Adultery is often even called unfaithfulness. It's textbook unfaithfulness. So what's the opposite of that?

Faithfulness. Remember, the Ten Commandments reveal the eternal perfections of God, and from that angle the members of this three-in-one God are so much more than not unfaithful. If you ask someone to describe God and they said, well, he's not unfaithful, you'd say this person knows nothing of this God. I mean, Is that true? Yes, He's not unfaithful.

Is that sufficient to say of God? Oh, the God of heaven, the God of scripture, well, He's not unfaithful. God is forever faithful, eternally faithful, unbreakably faithful. So His creatures must not be unfaithful. This is the point of the Seventh Commandment.

Because God is eternally, unbreakably faithful, His people must not be unfaithful. His creatures must learn to be like Him. His creatures must learn to be faithful. Even though since Genesis chapter 3 and the entry of corruption into the world, into corruption into our natures where our natures are twisted, bent against God, finding that we find ourselves loving the things that He hates and hating the things that we love. Well that's the starting point, but when you're in Christ you must learn to be faithful.

What does that look like? Let me give you two things that that looks like. Number one, it looks like marital love, including physical love when that's possible. I only say when that's possible because sometimes physically either a husband or a wife cannot enter into physical love. What should happen then?

That's a long conversation, which I'm not going to undertake at all, but a bad answer to that question, what should happen then, nothing at all is a really bad answer to that question. So I'm not going to take the time to unpack that, I'm just going to say, I hate that answer to the question. What does faithfulness look like? Learning to be faithful as God is faithful. It looks like marital love including physical love.

Obviously not isolated to physical love. When we go to Ephesians 5 and examine Christ as a husband, what we find is that he is laying his life down, he is nurturing and cherishing, he's loving in sacrificial and practical ways. So this is just one little sliver of that picture, but it should not be counted as nothing. Being faithful is more than just sticking it out through difficulties. Thank God being faithful is more than just sticking it out through difficulties.

In marriage should we stick it out through difficulties? Of course we should. But faithfulness is more than this passive stance that we're just holding on for dear life. It is Active, sacrificing, cherishing, nurturing, feeding, strengthening, encouraging, expressing affection for in a hundred ways. One of those is physical.

If marital acts of physical affection outside of marriage are forbidden by the seventh commandment, then it's fair to say that marital acts of physical affection inside of marriage are required. It's fair to say that required. Listen to Hebrews 13 for this is an important verse. Hebrews 13 for Marriage is honorable among all. Marriage is honorable everywhere and every age, And the bed undefiled.

But fornicators and adulterers God will judge. The author of Hebrews touches on both sides of the coin. Marriage it's honorable. What's part of that? The marriage bed is undefiled.

The marital acts of physical affection in marriage are honorable. That bed is undefiled and undefiling. But fornicators and adulterers God will judge. He covers both. Look at 1 Corinthians 7.

We were just in 1 Corinthians 6, now just look at 1 Corinthians 7. I'm going to read 3 through 5 and then skip down to the last part of verse 9. So 1 Corinthians 7, 3 through 5, and then I'll skip down and I'll tell you when I'm doing it. First Corinthians 7 verse 3, let the husband render to his wife the affection do her. And likewise also the wife to her husband.

The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. Now I'm skipping down to the end of verse 9. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

Paul gives a husband rights over his wife's body, but not exclusive rights. No, no, no. He gives the wife rights over her husband's body and he tells you don't deprive each other unless you're fasting and praying and only for a time and then come back together again. He's talking about Marital acts of physical affection. What is the implication of what Paul is teaching?

Marital acts of physical affection are a bulwark against adultery. They're a thick, high wall defending you against adultery. Marital acts of physical affection are a thick, high wall against adultery. Marital love, of which the physical relationship is one part of, small but important, is part of what it looks like to be faithful? Two, what else does it look like to be faithful?

To learn to be like God in His forever faithfulness. Guarded eyes, heart, and footsteps. Guarded eyes, heart and footsteps. Guarded heart, eyes and footsteps. You see, you shall not commit adultery isn't just about what you don't do, what you can't do, it's about what you do.

Also, guard your heart. Guard your heart. Matthew 15 verse 19, we quoted it with murder because murder is here too. Matthew 15, 19, Jesus says, for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication. These things are in the heart.

They start in the heart. They proceed out of the heart. There is no murder without the seeds of it beginning in the heart. There is no fornication without the seeds of it beginning in the heart. There is no adultery without the seeds of it beginning in the heart.

It is a plant that grows out of the heart. It proceed out of the heart. Guard your heart. Guard your heart about the influences that it receives, and guard the heart about what's in there. It really is sort of a guarding in both directions.

You can't safely trust what's in there because the seeds of adultery are in your heart. The seeds of murder are in your heart. You better guard your heart. It cannot be safely trusted, but also there are influences prevailing upon it, setting its direction, guard it from those influences. Proverbs 423, Proverbs 423, keep your heart with all diligence, guard your heart with all diligence, keep it, For out of it spring the issues of life.

I think that the application to Proverbs 4.23, keep your heart with all diligence, goes way beyond this one category, but it certainly includes this category. You can never think about Proverbs 423 without it including this category. Guard your heart. Guard your eyes. Job guarded his eyes.

Turn to Job 31. I'm actually going to read an extended portion here. Job 31. I'll be reading 8 verses. I marvel at what Job says here in Job 31 verses 1 through 8.

Job 31 verses 1 through 8. Job says this, I have made a covenant with my eyes. I made a deal, a solemn deal with my eyes. Why then should I look upon a young woman? For what is the allotment of God from above, and the inheritance of the Almighty from on high?

Is it not destruction for the wicked, and disaster for the workers of iniquity? Does He not see my ways and count all my steps? If I have walked with falsehood, or if my foot has hastened to deceit, let me be weighed on honest scales that God may know my integrity. If my step is turned from the way, or my heart has walked after my eyes. Look at that.

Or if any spot adheres to my hands, then let me sow and another eat. Yes, let my harvest be rooted out. Job begins here by saying, I made a covenant with my eyes. Why should I look at a young woman? He's talking about lustful looking.

And then he returns to that in verse 7. He's asking for God to judge him if his heart walked after his eyes. That's why he made a covenant with his eyes. The eyes lead the way and the heart comes after it. Eyes full of adultery, heart full of adultery.

Sooner or later, actions lead into adultery. It's the downward spiral. Job was discriminating about what he allowed himself to see? Are you discriminating about what you allow yourself to see? If you thought for a second that your heart walked after your eyes.

Would you change what you let your eyes gaze on? Well, guess what? Turn to Proverbs 6. If I remember right, this is our last stop in terms of going to other texts. Proverbs 6 and 7.

Proverbs 6 I'll be reading 23 through 25, Then I'll skip to 7 and I'll tell you when I'm doing it. Proverbs 6, 23-25. For the commandment is a lamp and the law a light. The proofs of instruction are the way of life. To keep you from the evil woman from the flattering tongue of a seductress.

Do not lust after her beauty in your heart, nor let her allure you with her eyes." This is a father writing to a son, don't you lust after her in your heart. Don't you let her entice you with her eyes. This is about guarding your footsteps. So we started talking about guarding your heart. We said, guard your eyes.

Job made a covenant with his eyes. Now we're talking about guard your footsteps, which brings us to chapter 7 verses 6 through 10. The writer of Proverbs 7 describes the scene. For at the window of my house I looked through my lattice and saw among the simple perceived among the youths a young man devoid of understanding looking through the lattice There's a dumb one passing along the street near her corner. And he took the path to her house in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night.

And there a woman met him with the attire of a harlot and a crafty heart. Friends, This is not a chance encounter. A wise, godly man can look through the lattice and say, I see what's happening here. The young man doesn't just happen to be here on her corner under cloak of darkness. Here's a young man who hasn't guarded his footsteps.

He's taking himself near temptation and he finds what he's looking for. On the flip side of this is the person who understands where danger lies and guards his footsteps, guards her footsteps, to avoid The things that she knows are trouble. The things that he knows are trouble. Here's what Thomas Watson says. This is really helpful.

Not to beware of the occasion of sin. That's just what the youth does in Proverbs 7. He doesn't beware the occasion of sin. He goes at night to her corner not to beware the occasion of sin and yet pray lead us not into temptation is as if one should put his finger into the candle and yet pray that it might not be burnt. God, please don't let me be burnt.

What is your finger doing in the candle? What does Joseph do in Genesis 39? He's a slave in his master's house. His wife says, what a good-looking slave, and entices him. He flees, he runs away, leaving his garment in the hands of the seductress.

She grabs the garment, he leaves the garment and runs. Paul says, flee youthful lusts, pursue righteousness. Second Timothy 2 22. Second Timothy 2 22. Flee youthful lusts.

Pursue righteousness. Part of pursuing righteousness is fleeing youthful lusts. That's what Job does with his eyes. He flees youthful lusts. I made a covenant with my eyes.

Why should I then look at a young woman? Joseph does that with his feet. He leaves that woman standing there holding his garment. He won't stay to reason with her. He runs.

One, what the seventh commandment forbids. Two, what the seventh commandment requires. Three, and finally, what the seventh commandment teaches about God. The law is a reflection of the eternal perfections of God. What does it teach us?

I give you two things. I'm sure it's too short of a list. We'll content ourselves with two things for now. Number one, He is the forever faithful husband in God. That's what the seventh commandment teaches me about this God who is the lawgiver.

He is the forever faithful husband in God. In Genesis 1 and 2, God creates man, male and female, and He creates marriage. The joining of one man to one woman forever. In Genesis 2.24 we read this, Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one Flesh. Physical union isn't the only thing that one flesh communicates, but it's certainly part of what one flesh communicates.

Paul quotes that. Paul quotes Genesis 2, 24 when He talks about marriage in Ephesians 5, listen to Ephesians 5, 31 and 32. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. He just quoted Genesis 2, 24. Then he says, this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.

All this marriage stuff has been about Christ and the Church. Human Marriage serves to picture Christ and His self-sacrificing love for the Church. That's what marriage is. It is the gospel drama. The seventh commandment is rooted in this.

God is the husband of His people. His people are the bride of this God. Well, what kind of husband do we have? Oh, a lay down your life husband. A nurturing husband, a cherishing husband, a forever faithful husband.

He's faithful with the gaze of his eyes, the thoughts of his mind, the imaginations of his heart. He's faithful with the words of his mouth. He's faithful with his actions. From eternity past, He's been faithful. He's faithful today.

Through eternity future, He will be faithful. He can't be anything else! He doesn't know how to be any other kind of husband, but a forever faithful husband. Praise God for that. Let me ask.

The sixth commandment names the severest violation in the category, you shall not murder. Can't violate that commandment worse than that. It is the severest violation. It names and heads the category. So does the seventh.

You shall not commit adultery. Why is adultery the severest violation in the category? Why not homosexuality or sodomy? Why not incest? Why not bestiality?

Why not? Do they seem worse to you? They seem worse to me. Then why is adultery the severest violation? God isn't minimizing those other forms.

He's exalting marriage. Because Christ came and bled and died to buy a bride. That's why adultery is the worst violation in the category Because Christ would never do that to his bride. Christ bought his bride with his own blood. The first thing, the Seventh Commandment teaches me about God.

He is the forever faithful husband in God. The second thing, I'll end with this. He is light and in Him is no darkness at all. I'm quoting 1 John 1.5, this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you. Let me stop there in the middle of the verse.

This is John. This is the message we have heard from him. Whose we? I assume at least the disciples. Whose him?

It must be Christ. This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. In the seventh commandment meet the love of God and the absolute purity of God You can't get the love of God out of you shall not commit adultery. I have no help for you But if you also can't get the absolute purity of God out of this we should learn that these two things come together in this commandment. God's great love for His bride, but His absolute purity, His absolute inability to be unfaithful to His bride.

There's something God can't do. In Old Testament and New, sexual sin is often called uncleanness. In those two chapters I referenced Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20 uncleanness uncleanness uncleanness uncleanness I should have counted It's everywhere and it's always talking there About sexual sin in the New Testament the same uncleanness He is perfectly clean. He's perfectly clean. He's light.

In Him is no darkness at all. He's truth. In Him is no falsehood at all. He's pure. There is no impurity in Him at all.

Next week we'll wade into wage war against our law-shrinking tendencies. We'd like to acquit ourselves of wrongdoing against this commandment. It's entirely inappropriate. We'll talk about that next week. And then we'll revel in Jesus' righteousness.

We'll revel in Jesus's righteousness. Because He obeys His Father and wins our salvation. By keeping the seventh commandment. Let's pray. God how sweet it is to end here with a thought of a salvation won through law keeping.

The hope for me winning salvation through law keeping, I don't even remember when that was even a possibility. I'm left with one hope, but it's such a sure hope. He has kept every law To qualify himself as an acceptable substitute to die in the place of sinners. People who don't feel sick, people who don't feel sinful will never reply to Him for help. Those who have a sense of their defilements, how dirty, how unclean, we are in a hundred ways run to Him knowing that He kept those commandments and offered Himself up as a sacrifice in the place, people just like us.

Praise You. Thank you God for your goodness. Cause us to delight in you. Cause us to delight only in you. Wean us off of the world.

Pray this in Jesus name, Amen.