Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1747
September 13, 2026
Exodus 20.14 Click here for audio worship.
Dr. Ed Pettus
(This is an extended outline, not a verbatim transcript.)
“Seventh Commandment – What is Required”
“You shall not commit adultery.”
- Purity in Sexuality
Today we explore what is required of us in the Seventh Commandment. In the broadest sense the Seventh Commandment falls under the category of sexually purity. It is not just about husbands and wives, but extends to all sexual immorality. The requirement offered in the Larger Catechism is that we are required “to be sexually pure in body, mind, inclinations, words, and actions.” It is not only inclusive of marital infidelity, but also any sexual betrayal or impurity in our actions, thoughts, speech, and, in this day and age, in how we consider identity.
So many people in our time are sexually confused and “murdering” themselves with their beliefs of sexual autonomy, that “my body is my own” and whatever desires I have are normal or I am “born this way”. Perhaps even worse is the distortion of identity based on whatever choices one might make as to male or female, basing identity solely on a plethora of alphabet categories that have no end in sight. It is so far from biblical categories of male and female that they are forced to put a plus at the end of the alphabet.
Along with that confusion is the nonsense of personal pronouns that range from plural for a single person to made up Ze and Zod or whatever the imagination can produce. As we seek to comprehend all that this confusion does to the individual person, families, and society, we can acknowledge that it is a breaking of the Seventh Commandment because it forsakes the created order given us by God. It breaks the First Commandment as well because it makes the self a god. People believe they have a certain degree of self-determination that denies what God has created. There may not be any conscientious thought process behind it but if there were it would be something like this, “I am not made in the image of God but in whatever image I might imagine and claim for myself.” Every bit of this adulterous and sexually autonomous generation is focused on the worship of self, thus breaking multiple Commandments, at least the First, Second, and Seventh. It is a case of spiritual adultery against God and His created order, against God and His Commandments.
The Seventh Commandment not only requires every human being to recognize and acknowledge they are made male and female, but requires all who believe to practice a biblical sexual ethic that stands upon the created order and the commands that the whole of the Bible teach for our lives, health, and the good of society. The specific Command requires fidelity in marriage. There are many Bible passages that speak to the specifics of marriage and breaking the covenant of marriage. But since the Seventh Commandment includes more than just marriage, I want to begin with a general teaching on sexuality from Paul. 1 Thessalonians 4.3-8, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. 7For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. 8Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.”
Hear again those first words in verse three, “For this is the will of God…” Many of us want to know God’s will for our lives in a specific manner of details contoured to each of us. What the Bible often teaches instead, are specifics that are directed to every believer. In this case, the will of God is to abstain from sexual immorality. We might say it this way today – Keep the Seventh Commandment! This requires us to control ourselves in any situation that would tempt us to sexual misconduct with our body, mind, inclinations, words, and actions. Our goal is to seek holiness and honor in our entire being as it relates to sexuality. Paul says we are called for holiness, that is, to be like Christ. It is also important toward understanding the Seventh Commandment in what Paul writes in verse eight, 8Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.” This means that disregarding sexual purity, or disregarding the Seventh Commandment is not just a sin against ourselves or others, but against God who made us male and female. For we have with us the Holy Spirit who is continuing to work sanctification in us toward the goal of holiness.
- Purity in Life
The second point in the outline today is about purity in life. Sexuality is a part of our lives and the Larger Catechism teaches that this Commandment seeks purity in a variety of areas in order to maintain purity in this specific area. Therefore our words are to be clean,
Colossians 4.6, Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
Ephesians 4.29, Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
In the book of Titus we see a generational call to maintain purity in ourselves and others. Titus 2.1-8, But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. 2Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. 3Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. 6Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. 7Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, 8and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.
When we run this type of passage across modern ears, especially of non-believers, we are accused of antiquated ideology and behind the times of feminism and so forth. But all through Titus we see the term self-controlled. This is a concept absent from many in the world today!
Self-control involves controlling all our senses, living with restraint. Proverbs 23.31-33, Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. 32In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder. 33Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart utter perverse things.
The Catechism goes on to teach about keeping good company, dressing modestly, and avoiding those things that are indecent or obscene. That is difficult to do in a culture that is so sexually perverse in so many areas of entertainment, advertisements, social media, and the like. We have to be diligent and intentional to keep our eyes focused on Christ and not on the things of the world. One of the ways we are able to meet the requirements of the Seventh Commandment is to keep our eyes set on God and His ways. Psalm 26.3, “For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness.” It also means keeping our eyes away from worthless things, Psalm 119.37, Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.
- Purity With Christ
In this last section for today’s message, I want to widen the Seventh Commandment even further to what I have already mentioned a little bit, that the Seventh Commandment requires us to never betray the Lord, that is, to not be an adulterer to God. There is a metaphorical connection of marriage between God and His people. In the New Testament it is described as Christ as the groom and the Church as His bride. Ephesians 5.25-27, Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the Old Testament God is husband to Israel and Judah and required devotion to Him alone.
Jeremiah 3.8-10, 8She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. 9Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. 10Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord.”
Israel and Judah committed adultery by worshiping other gods!
The Seventh Commandment it not just about human relationships, not just about human sexuality, but also about our relationship with the Lord. We commit spiritual adultery when we love the world and the things of the world. 1 John 2.15-17, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
Only with and in Christ can we keep ourselves pure.
In one sense this Commandment is related to the First Commandment. You shall have no other gods before me. One God, just as we have one spouse. If we worship another god we are committing spiritual adultery against God.
Our final passage for today is from James and I want us to listen carefully to how James connects breaking some, and perhaps all, Commandments to adultery.
James 4.1-4 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
These people were called adulterous because they broke the Commandments of murder, coveting, and making the world their god (friendship with the world). I doubt that they murdered in the sense of physical taking of life, but they murdered in some emotional or spiritual manipulation to get what they wanted. In the same manner they coveted which led to fighting and quarreling. In these behaviors they became adulterous.
But James does not leave them, or us, without a way to holiness.
5Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
God has given us His Spirit. He has given more grace. Therefore, we are to submit to the Lord, draw near to God, and notice one other phrase that relates to the Seventh Commandment, “purify your hearts!” That takes us back to our three outline points: Purity in sexuality, purity in life, and purity with Christ. This is God’s will for us, and it is only in Christ that we can obtain the way of holiness and the way of obedience to the Seventh Commandment and to all the Commandments. Amen.
