1st April 2025

1st April 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Exodus 20v14)


Message (Scott Woodburn)


Many years ago I was approached by a man who wanted my acceptance of lifestyle choices he had already made. He didn’t need my advice, he certainly didn’t want a lecture nor did he seek a Bible study. He had moved on from his wife to another woman and he wanted me to give his behaviour a stamp of approval. He told me in great detail about the many faults of his wife and how he was a man of great patience who just couldn’t put up with her anymore. She didn’t meet his needs, she wasn’t the woman he married and he had grown bored in a dead-end relationship. This chap hadn’t sought marriage counselling or talked to his wife, he instead found another woman who apparently was absolutely perfect and the person he was always supposed to be with.


Needless to say, my response to this individual was not what he was looking for. I urged him to be reconciled to his wife and to end the illegitimate relationship immediately. His anger quickly surfaced and he revealed that he had talked to countless ministers and pastors who had all told him the same thing. He was sure that the “liberal” Presbyterians would be different and was deeply frustrated when my counsel was exactly the same as everyone else.


That man’s attitude isn’t anything extraordinary in the modern age. The western world has gone through a sexual revolution over the past fifty years and modern wisdom says if your current relationship doesn’t scratch your itch then you should follow your heart and go in search of true love. Marriage bonds are no longer held in high esteem, sexual preferences are fluid and the act of sex is itself seen as something fun with little to no deeper meaning.


Earlier this year an English woman by the name of Bonnie Blue made the news by having sex with 1057 men in just twelve hours. Those she slept with were described as “barely legal, barely breathing” and husbands. Not everyone praised Miss Blue but she herself was delighted that she made a fortune from her exploits and was able to pay off her parents mortgage.


Such topics may make our cheeks red and perhaps we don’t think such issues should be addressed in polite company but God is not silent. The seventh commandment is intensely relevant for our day and age with God saying “you should not commit adultery.” We’ll consider what is required and forbidden in this commandment later in the week but today it is enough for me to simply write that sexual intimacy is a gift from God which is to be delighted in and cherished but certainly not abused.


Following our hearts is always a bad idea (Jeremiah 17v9) but hearing and heeding God’s Word is always recommended. If we have grown bored in our stale marriage, if we are considering breaking Bonnie Blue’s record or if we just like looking at our attractive next door neighbour may the Word of the Lord stop us in our tracks. To our sexually charged generation He says “you should not commit adultery.”


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC


Q46 What is required in the first commandment? The first commandment requireth us to know and acknowledge God to be the only true God, and our God, and to worship and glorify him accordingly.
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