TO COMMIT ADULTERY OR FORNICATION, ONE MUST . . .

 

There is nothing about salvation that allows for or encourages sin. The impulse to sin never comes from God, Christ, or the Holy Spirit. No word of God leads a person to desire to sin, or to seek an occasion to do so. The holy angels, given charge of those who are the heirs of salvation, will never arrange circumstances so it is convenient to sin. The new creation, or "new man," never desires to sin, and will never consent to it.

Sin in all of its involvements is always traced to Satan and his hosts. In adultery and fornication, we have a kind of ultimate sin, as taught in First Corinthians 6:18. It involves the whole man, spirit, soul, and body. The "spirit" is totally thrust into the background, with the influences of the "new man" being subdued and rejected. The soul is brought under the domination of the inferior part of man – the body. The body, which is intended to be a vehicle for the glory of God, is used for purely selfish purposes and temporal interests – interests that are summarily condemned by God. This condemnation is not ambiguous or vague. It is sharp and to the point. Only one who is spiritually blind and hard of heart CAN commit such sin.

This sin voids any claim of belonging to Christ. It confirms the person, at that time, is nothing more than a vassal of the devil (2 Tim 2:26). Such a person is to be excluded from any and all members of the body of Christ. In that exclusion, God alone can work with the individual (1 Cor 5:5). This exclusion is to remain in place until such time as he repents, and is clearly recovered from the snare of the devil.

An additional disadvantage created by the sins of adultery and fornication is that they create a sort of breach in the wall of the soul. A degree of vulnerability is brought about that did not exist before. Unlike Jesus, who declared Satan had "nothing" in him (John 14:30), the fornicator now has something in him with which Satan can work – a sin that "so easily" besets (Heb 12:2). Such a condition can be overcome by the grace of God, but only with an unusual degree of diligence, godly focus, and spiritual fortitude. The person who commits fornication was spiritually weak and unacceptable when he did it, otherwise it would not have been possible to do so.

Here are a few things that must be done to commit adultery and fornication.

1. Quench the Holy Spirit (1 Thess 5:19).
2. Grieve the Holy Spirit (Eph 4:30).
3. Resist the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51).
4. Refuse Him who is speaking from heaven (Heb 12:25).
5. Leave their "first love" (Rev 2:4).
6. Reject the teaching of the grace of God (Tit 2:11-12).
7. Refuse to "walk in newness of life" (Rom 6:4).
8. Refuse to "put on the new man" (Eph 4:24).
9. Refuse to "put off the works of darkness" (Rom 13:12).
10. Refuse to "put on the armor of light" (Rom 13:12).
11. Refuse to "put on the whole armor of God" (Eph 6:10).
12. Refuse to take the "way of escape" that comes with every temptation (1 Cor 10:13).
13. Refuse to "put on" the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 13:14).
14. Refuse to "walk in the light" (1 John 1:7).
15. Refuse to "resist the devil" (James 4:7; 1 Pet 5:8-9).
16. Refuse to let the word of Christ dwell within "richly" (Col 3:16).
17. Refuse to "live by every word of God" (Luke 4:4).
18. Refuse to think upon good, pure, and holy things (Phil 4:8).
19. Refuse to hide the word of God in the heart (Psa 119:11).
20. Refuse to let the word of Christ dwell in them richly (Col 3:15).
21. Refuse to "touch not the unclean thing" (2 Cor 6:17).
22. Refuse to "seek the things that are above" (Col 3:1).
23. Refuse to set one's affection on things above (Col 3:2).
24. Refuse to "look unto Jesus" (Heb 12:2).
25. Refuse to make a covenant with one's eyes (Job 31:1).
26. Refuse fellowship with Christ, into which God called us (1 Cor 1:9).
27. Refuse to add virtue, temperance, and godliness to one's faith (2 Pet 1:5-8).
28. Refuse to watch for the Lord's coming (Mark 13:37).
29. Refuse to "avoid fornication" and "flee fornication" (1 Cor 6:18).
30. Refuse to glorify God in one's body (1 Cor 6:20).
31. Refuse to let one's light shine (Matt 5:16).
32. Refuse to call upon the name of the Lord and be delivered (Psa 50:15).
33. Refuse to maintain a hold on the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience (1 Tim 3:9).
34. Refuse to keep oneself pure (1 Tim 5:22).
35. Make a place for Satan to work (Eph 4:27).
36. Make provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts (Rom 13:14).
37. Forget salvation makes us "strangers and pilgrims" in the world (1 Pet 2:11).
38. Forget that fleshly lusts "war against the soul" (1 Pet 2:11).
39. Forget he was purged from his old sins (2 Pet 1:9).
40. Forget Lot's wife (Luke 17:32).
41. Forget Jesus died to deliver us from this present evil world (Gal 1:4).
42. Forget that we must die, and then be judged (Heb 9:27).
43. Forget that the Lord is coming again, and doing so suddenly (Mark 13:35-36).
44. Forget that the earth is passing away, and will catch sinners unawares (Luke 21:33-34).
45. Forget that our bodies are "the members of Christ" (1 Cor 6:15).
46. Forget that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19;20).
47. Forget the truth, which makes free (John 8:32).
48. Forget the commandment to "sin not" (1 Cor 15:34; Eph 4:26; 1 John 2:1).
49. Forget the commandment "Thou shalt not commit adultery" (Ex 20:14; Rom 13:9).
50. Forget God is going to make known the counsels of the heart (1 Cor 4:5).
51. Forget that God will judge adulterers (Heb 13:4).
52. Love the world (1 John 2:15).
53. Walk in darkness (1 John 1:6).
54. Look on a woman to lust after her (Matt 5:28).
55. Must return to the realm from which the person was once delivered (2 Pet 2:21-22).
56. Be ignorant of Satan's devices, and therefore have him gain the advantage (2 Cor 2:11).
57. Deliberately turn aside after Satan (1 Tim 5:15).
58. Covet another man's wife, even though God said not to do so (Ex 20:17; Deut 5:21).

PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS
In the case of adultery, there are practical measures that must be taken for it to be committed. Adultery cannot be committed accidently. It is a deliberate sin in which one must will, choose, purpose, and carry out a plan.

1. One must forget his own wife.
2. He must entertain extended thoughts about another woman.
3. If the woman is married, he must ignore that fact, and despise her husband.
4. He must make some advances toward the woman.
5. He must be creative in hiding what he has done.
6. He must arrange for a place of meeting.
7. He must blot all consciousness of God from his mind.
8. He must immerse himself in the "now," with every thought of eternity being blotted out.
9. He must make his own will the primary will.
10. He must make his own person the primary person.
11. If he is a minister, he must forget his accountability to God.
12. He must remove every thought of the church and its reputation.
13. If he has children, he must blot them from his mind.
14. If the woman he desires has children, he must blot them from his mind.
15. He must forget the pledge he made when he married, thereby nullifying the covenant with his wife.
16. Now he must pretend that he is godly.
17. Now he must pretend that he has not sinned.
18. Now he must pretend that he loves God.
19. He must consider his own will to be more preeminent than the will of God.
20. He must forget why Jesus died.