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February 2016 • SR
Top Ten Words
Covenant Sex: Exodus 20:14
Sermon Series by Pastor Dusty Mackintosh, Next Step Christian Church, Thornton, CO
Adultery, Pain and Brokenness
When there is a passage of Scripture on my mind, I dwell on it.
I think about it all the time. I am wondering about it, I am
listening, waiting for God to open up new paths and new
questions about it.
This was a hard week. I spent this week thinking about adultery.
That was especially difficult coming off the high of the marriage
enrichment retreat. I felt enriched. I felt connected to my
brothers and sisters. I was praying for the health and faithful-
ness of their marriages. Then God has this next verse for us.
There are some sins we wink at and there are some that just
break our heart. This one hurts me; it burdens me; it breaks my
heart. I have seen friends devastated by it. Broken by it.
Now that is kind of heavy and is a hard way to start a sermon.
But I am being honest — this was a heavy and hard sermon for
me. Everything is not all wrapped up here, but I can share with
you what I have learned so far.
Why does adultery feel like having one’s heart ripped out? Even
when it’s not me...when it is someone I love...why does this sin
strike so deep?
Now, a whole lot of this is going to be focused towards those in
our fellowship who are married. You can file some of this under
the “later” file...but if you hold tight, by the end you may see
that we are really after the heart of God. That’s ultimately what
all of us are about.
Book
Exodus 20:14
“You shall not commit adultery.”
Adultery vs. Fornica on
Now I am not going to preach about how lust, generically, is
wrong. It is. We could take that as a generalization of this word,
but God had me consumed this week, really focused on the
word “adultery.”
There is more than one word for sexual immorality in Hebrew.
This one, the one used in the seventh word of the Ten Words,
is specific. It is specific to marriage. Because God chose the
specific word for sexual immorality in marriage, it puts the focus
— not on the lust or the general sense of sexual immorality —
but on the specific breaking of the marriage covenant through
sexual immorality.
Adultery puts the focus on the breaking of covenant.
For example, if I say “murder” instead of “kill,” I am putting
the emphasis on what makes the two distinct: the hate and
contempt that accompanies murder. It is specific.
If I say, “I hate prairie dogs,” you might just agree. They are
generally a nuisance. If I say, “I hate that prairie dog with the
three spots on his head and the clipped tail,” you might start to
suspect that that prairie dog and I have a history. There’s a
story there. It is specific.
The seventh commandment puts the focus on the
breaking of the marriage covenant.
Love requires absolute faithfulness.
