Word of Salvation – Vol. 31 No. 39 – Oct 1986

 

The Seventh Commandment: God’s Blessing For His People

 

Sermon by Rev. D. J. van Garderen on Exodus 20:14

Reading: Matthew 5:27-29,
                      1Cor.6:18-20, 1Thess. 4:3-8, L.D. 41

Singing: Ps.H. 286:1,3,4; 55:1,2,3; 377; 137; 204:1,2,5.

 

Dear Congregation,

Christians know and accept that not only their hearts but also their bodies belong to God.  This is true in a general sense of ALL people, the entire human race.  For example, in Psalm 24:1 we read:

            “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it.”

It is also true in a very special sense for all Christians.  As God’s children in Christ we know that Jesus, by His Holy Spirit, has taken up residence right inside us.  We are His holy dwelling places here on earth.  We are his temples.

1Cor.6:18-20 comes into focus here:

“Flee from sexual immorality.  All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.  Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?  You are not your own; you were bought at a price.  Therefore honour God with your body.”

What this means is simple but extremely important.  Christ is to be Lord and Master over not just our hearts, our minds, our future, our faith… but also OUR BODIES.  Jesus controls how we should use our bodies.  He lays down the absolute, unchanging rules.  He decides what is good for our bodies and what is not.  He is LORD… without any “ifs” or “buts” or excuses!

In terms of the seventh commandment, “YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY”, the rules are clear as crystal.  Sexual love is reserved for and may come into full and pure expression only and exclusively within the marriage bond.  That is God’s absolute, unchanging will for all.  That is the law which we, in Christ, live by unconditionally.  Young and old, married and unmarried, whatever your personality and so-called personal preferences, when you acknowledge that you belong to God and that, as a Christian, your body is now a special, holy temple which Christ has made his own… then HIS will, THIS command, controls you!

And that is not a burden!  It is not a restrictive thing!  It is not something that puts a heavy strain on you or makes life a drag.  In fact, living out and experiencing Christ’s Lordship over your body, living subject to the seventh commandment, is one of the greatest joys and freedom-giving experiences around.  Living out the seventh commandment is an expression of Christian GRATITUDE.

Let us TEST this today by considering once again how keeping the seventh commandment as an expression of Christian gratitude is a BLESSING and a source of true JOY and PEACE.

We focus on how keeping this commandment is an expression of Christian gratitude:

i) It is a source of joy, peace and blessing to YOU,

ii) It becomes a source of joy, peace and blessing to OTHERS,

iii) It glorifies and testifies to the love of God.

1.  THE COMMANDMENT: SOURCE OF BLESSING TO YOU

One of the greatest myths and lies doing the rounds in our society is the idea that to be really happy, to find real fulfilment in life, you must remove all the shackles of old-fashioned beliefs in morality.  Be FREE!  Come out of the closet!  The only people with hang-ups and problems are those who still believe in the idea of a God who restricts freedom of sexual expression in whatever way happens to turn you on.  What a happy, hassle-free society we would have if Christian kill-joys and their morality would be removed from the scene!  Get rid of the seventh commandment and the sense of guilt and shame that it imposes on every member of our society.

To believe that requires considerable naivety or an unwillingness to face a few solid facts.

a)  It is striking how often those who advocate these views use arguments that are like a two-headed coin.  Whatever way the coin falls they win!  Listen to this argument: “All homosexual people are happy people.  Homosexuals who are not happy are so because of bigots who impose their views and insist that homosexual practice is evil.”  There is no way in which it is now possible to maintain that homosexuals in and of themselves could be anything but happy.  That is precisely the same as saying, “All Christians are bigots.  Those who don’t seem to be are only pretending that they aren’t.”

There are many similar statements which are at least as bigoted as the so-called bigots they are supposed to attack!

b)  What is the evidence to suggest that people who have rid themselves of all rules and restraints regarding the seventh commandment are happier, better integrated and more fulfilled people?  Do we see them in the divorce courts?  I cannot think of a less happy place!

During the late 1960’s and early 1970’s there was considerable alarm over the fact that marriage, a permanent relationship that legally binds people together, was going to be a forgotten thing in the near future.  Marriages were being replaced with casual, no-strings-attached, “free-to-go-when-you-want” relationships!  But has the trend continued?  No.  Marriages are increasing and many, many couples living in so-called “common law” or “de facto” relationships ARE getting married!  Check on NZ statistics which show this very clearly.  People NEED permanency in their relationships.  They need the protection and security that civil law, watered down as it may be of late, still offers.

Casual relationships don’t deliver the promises once thought!

c)  If it is true that active and committed Christian faith and living causes Christians to have all manner of sexual, emotional and psychological hang-ups, and causes them to be burdened and blighted with an unhealthy, perverted sense of sin and shame… WHERE is the evidence?  The usual evidence is in the form of that infamous two-headed coin!  “All Christians are people who repress their true sexual desires and needs and are therefore less than honest with themselves.  Christians who deny this are liars!”

Congregation, let no-one or nothing fool you!  For Christians the pressure to BREAK this commandment, to indulge in sexual immorality is extremely real and pressing.  The temptation to sin is as great for you as for any one.  Christian faith and practice does not block out or prevent temptation to sin against the seventh or any other commandment.  Yes, we fail and often fall in terms of its requirements.  Reading Matt.5:27-29, who of us dares to stand and proclaim our moral purity and perfection?  We fall, but the miracle is that, as Christians, we are able to DO something about these temptations and sins.

a)  In Christ, by means of the seventh commandment, we KNOW that sexual thoughts, deeds, gestures and acts which are contrary to it are wrong and unacceptable to God.  We can SEE right from wrong; distinguish good from evil.  That in itself is a marvellous thing.

b)  In Christ we know that sexual sins are not only unacceptable to God, but that doing them is NOT going to help us.  True, doing things that are contrary to God’s will… committing adultery, acts of fornication, you name it, give some IMMEDIATE gratification.  They may, for a while, seem like the best thing that has ever happened… but eventually, by their very nature, these things end up having a sting in their tail that can utterly destroy and ruin life.  You yourself can offer a list of examples!

c)  In Christ we know the possibility and reality of FORGIVENESS… of genuine repentance followed by a being able to start afresh!  In Christ God forgives and remembers our sins no more.  In Christ we are able to forgive as we ourselves have been forgiven!  In a word… Christ offers RENEWAL even for the worst and most hopeless mess!

d)  In Christ we have the Spirit’s power to live and use our bodies in a manner that is beautiful and gives us genuine peace and satisfaction.  The security of God’s will, the grace of forgiveness and daily renewal, the power to do it… THERE IS NO OTHER FORMULA FOR BLESSING!

Congregation, the seventh commandment, far from stifling and stunting you, allows you to use your body on God’s terms.  Doing THAT is blessing indeed.

II.  THE COMMANDMENT: BLESSING TO OTHERS

Thus far, the focus has been on how this commandment is a source of blessing to you yourself.

YOU live by it and YOU will be blessed.

But that is not all that needs to be said here.  Keeping this commandment is a source of blessing, of joy and peace for OTHERS!

a)  Think of your husband or wife (present or future!).  A marriage relationship is built on the ability to TRUST each other no matter what.  It is built on the assurance that for your spouse YOU, your physical, spiritual, emotional and mental wellbeing, are the most important thing in the world.  It is built on the confidence that no other human being cares for you and loves you so much and so deeply as your husband or wife does.  This holds “for better and for worse, in sickness and in health, in joy and in sorrow.”

Because Christ controls us, because He has fully bound our hearts, consciences and bodies to this commandment, that guarantee of trust in each other, that assurance of faithfulness, that certainty of love has a fantastic foundation.  I trust, am certain of and have confidence in my partner, and vice-versa, because of Christ in and over our lives!

This is a very, very beautiful and precious thing!  The number of couples who drive themselves to distraction because they have no foundation of hope or trust in each other is frighteningly high!  “I wonder what’s he’s doing tonight?  Am I still attractive enough to keep his attention?  She’s done it before, will it happen again now that the boss has said that I’ve GOT to go away for a week?”

The seventh commandment, when it is seen and maintained in Christ, brings peace and joy and security to your partner.

b)  The seventh commandment, as the foundation of family life, is a source of spiritual, emotional and physical blessing to children.  How many kids are there in our society whose major concern to the point of a phobia is “mum and dad splitting up”.  How many bitter and really hurting kids are there out there today who, because of no fault of theirs, have had the trauma of a separation?

Childhood and adolescence are THE great years of learning.  Growing up isn’t easy or without its pains and injustices.  It never was or will be.  Add to that business of growing up with a set of parents whose relationship is in trouble, (who are more concerned with themselves than with the kids; from whom Kids run away in terror once the words – and worse – begin to fly) and you have a sure road to another juvenile tragedy!

Children with parents relating to each other in Christ, parents who desire to be ruled by the seventh commandment, who know something of the renewing and revitalising glory of Christ’s cleansing blood… such children are blessed!  They too will learn to shout: “Thank God for the seventh commandment!”

c)  Beyond the family, the seventh commandment is a source of blessing too.  As adults and young people, when Christ controls us and the seventh commandment operates, we can trust one another without fear, suspicion or back-stabbing.  Life as a community, mixing together as men and women, openness and good clean fun, is real.  That this is no theoretical business is all too clear.  Take for example the number of women in our society taking self-defence courses, the fact that it is down-right dangerous for a woman to go outside at night!  Business in burglar/prowler alarms is booming!  Without the seventh commandment society is set for anarchy!

The seventh commandment, God’s grace at work in and through us to do His will, is a blessing to OTHERS – at least as much as it is to ourselves.

III.  THE COMMANDMENT GLORIFIES GOD

Finally, the seventh commandment, when kept and worked out in true thankfulness and praise to God, GLORIFIES and TESTIFIES to HIS goodness and grace.

As Christians we ARE the salt of the earth and the light of the world.  Christ’s great power and goodness, His redeeming work and its results become visible and shine through us.  This is both a matter of what we say and what we do.  That means that our marriage relationship, our lives in response to and as an expression of the seventh commandment IS the light and salt that Jesus spoke about!

God Himself – the fact that He is God – His love, His power, His grace and perfection becomes visible to others THROUGH US.  Even if an unbeliever refuses stubbornly to open a Bible or to listen to what you have to say, he will “read” the Bible… “read” about God every time he sees YOU!

And brothers and sisters, if there is one thing the world of today is crying out for it is the rediscovery of happiness and meaning in human relations, especially in marriages.  As a minister, by far the largest group of people who come to me from outside of the church are those who seek marriage guidance and counselling!  WHY?  Because time and again about the only marriages which seem to “succeed” in the eyes of many people are Christian marriages!  It seems that our MARRIAGE relationships, our FAMILY life is THE greatest and most impressive testimony many of us are in a position to give.  Christ is glorified through Christian marriage!  THAT is witnessing where you are, a testimony to God’s grace in the world of today!

And the world… many of our neighbours whose marriages are floundering and whose lives are shattered, NEEDS TO SEE THAT GOD IS THERE TO HELP!  Our gratitude to God as expressed through our keeping and living out the reality of the seventh commandment, glorifies and is a testimony to God’s love.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

Brothers and sisters, it is obvious and clear, isn’t it?  The seventh commandment is not burdensome, but, in Christ, provides the key to expressing our gratitude to God.  By striving to keep it, by making it the foundation of our relationships with each other, by honouring our bodies as it commands, we are blessed, become a blessing and indeed a salting salt and a dazzling, pure light.  And how our society, lost and confused in the muck and mire of its own immorality, impurity and sexual confusion, needs it!

What a glorious instrument God has placed in our hands!  Using it, praise and exalt the Lord!

Thank God for the seventh commandment!

AMEN