We all see and obey traffic signs everyday: stop signs, red lights, green lights, yellow lights, one-way, do not enter and speed limit signs. Some people think that the signs of just an inconvenience, to be ignored if there are no police cars around. They think that traffic signs just make their life difficult, signs impede their freedom to drive the way that they want.
But do traffic signs simply make life difficult or do they serve another purpose? Suppose you ignore that red light and go right through the intersection. You might get away with it a few times but one day somebody else will be going through that intersection and you’re going to get hit. Traffic signs are there for your own protection and for maintaining order in society. When you ignore them, you put yourself and other people in jeopardy.
God’s commandments are like those traffic signs. God’s commandments are warning signs put there by God to protect us and other people from dangerous actions and attitudes. Just as children need to be taught to respect and obey traffic signs, so they must be taught to respect and obey God’s commands.
All of God’s commands find their basis in God’s top ten, the ten commandments. These commands are the basis for our current message series “Building Strong Families.” God’s commands are the values, the warning signs, that we need to respect and teach our families to obey. When you ignore the warning signs and break the rules there will be negative consequences. You are going to be hurt and you will end up hurting other people as well.
Today my message is entitled “Keeping Pure.” We’re going to be looking at the 7th commandment, which is a commandment that deals with relationships between people.
Exodus 20:14 (NIV) You shall not commit adultery.
The 7th commandment warns us about adultery. Adultery is dangerous, it destroys people and families. What is adultery? The word used here in the Hebrew refers to a married person having intimate relations with someone they are not married to. The implication of the command is that it requires sexual purity in all of life. Those requirements are spelled out in other biblical commands based on the 7th commandment.
Today we want to focus on the primary meaning of the commandment. The 7th commandment requires sexual purity in marriage. Today we typically refer to adultery as having an affair. Affairs have devastating consequences for marriages and for families. Although it doesn’t always have to be, most affairs ultimately result in divorce.
God wants to protect you and your family from disaster, so He warns us in the 7th commandment. If you think it couldn’t possibly happen to you or your marriage, you’re in more danger than the person who takes God’s warning seriously.
1 Corinthians 10:12 (NIV) So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!
Today we want to learn how to be careful. We’re going to look at 3 guards that you and your spouse can put into place to keep pure in your marriage. Not only will these guards protect your marriage, they will enhance it and help you build a strong family that will stand the test of time.
Listen to or watch my March 27, 2011 message Keeping Pure.