3D Worship Part 13 – Worship is a Commitment: The Seventh Commandment
Deuteronomy 5:18 March 29, 2026
Introduction
The following is a story that I have made up. The only inspiration was scripture
itself. Tragically, the account is one that probably feels way too familiar for many
of us.
(Adapted story of Hosea). Hope was a young woman who was raised in the
church. She loved the Lord and had a sincere faith and desire to serve Him. As
she grew into her twenties, she met a young man named Garret. He too was
raised in the church and was a great guy who “believed in Jesus” and was happy
to go to church with Hope. He treated her well and was so much nicer than all of
the immature, godless guys that were typically all she had to consider.
Garret had been in several relationships before and had crossed all the
boundaries of purity in a few of them. He had struggled off and on with
pornography, but Hope was different and he was willing to put aside his desires
to make her happy. The two had a whirlwind romance and Hope was confident
that the Lord was telling her that Garret was the one. She and Garret didn’t cross
any sexual boundaries and Garret eagerly proposed to the love of his life. They
had a short engagement and were soon married.
Not too long after their marriage, Hope and Garret had their first baby. They were
ecstatic, though the baby certainly made their own intimacy more difficult.
Quicker than they had expected, they got pregnant again and had their second
baby. This began to put even more of a strain on their relationship. Hope was
exhausted with the little ones and Garret was working harder than ever to provide
for his family.
Spending time together became even more difficult and they grew more
withdrawn from their church friends – often times not able to make the weekend
services – as they tried to keep finding time for each other. Hope continued
spending what little free time she had praying, studying scripture, listening to
sermons or Christian podcasts, and uplifting music but Garret seemed to
disconnect. It was never a question of what he believed – he knew Jesus died for
his sins – but “church stuff”, as he put it, just wasn’t a priority.
It wasn’t too long after that Hope discovered that Garret had been falling into his
old pornography habits. Of course, she was heartbroken. She confronted him on
it and he tearfully apologized. He agreed to all the blocks and filters they could
muster. Hope thought maybe she was doing something wrong and tried to
redouble her efforts to find time for intimacy with her husband. It wasn’t too long
after that they were pregnant again.
This pregnancy was the hardest for their marriage yet and after a couple months,
Garret was withdrawing even more than before, but there wasn’t anything Hope
could do. She continued to cling to her faith asking God for help and He gave her
the strength to get through each day. They had their third baby and life just got
crazier. Garret seemed to be working more than ever and Hope could barely
keep up with the kids, let alone everything else.
Not long after, Hope discovered that Garret had found a way around the software
protections and was looking at porn again. When she confronted him on it, he
apologized and agreed to new blocks, but he still seemed distant. They barely
went to church or really ever even hung out with anyone beside their family.
Garret worked later and later, and Hope felt isolated and alone. The Lord gave
her strength each day, but her joy was being sucked dry – she didn’t even feel
like herself anymore. On top of that, she had a hard time trusting her husband
and things in their marriage got more strained.
And then one night, Garret didn’t come home. She woke up and realized he
wasn’t home. She tried calling, no answer. And then the text came. He had met
someone else and needed space. He wanted to figure things out and wasn’t sure
if he loved Hope anymore. Hope was broken, devastated, couldn’t even think
straight. All she could do was cry out to God for help.
We live in a culture that is permeated by sexuality and temptation, and pretty
much nothing in our culture encourages couples to remain faithful and committed
to each other, let alone to pursue sexual purity before the Lord. Subtle and overt
messaging can be found everywhere to pursue what makes you happy and to
gratify yourself.
o Sexual promiscuity is expected, pornography in its various forms is
widespread for men and women, and divorce is the norm.
o Culture constantly entices with and elevates sexualized “romance” and
“love” as the highest pursuits for our happiness. Why shouldn’t you love
and be loved? Why should you be miserable? You deserve to be happy.
You deserve to have what you want. Sex makes everything better, go
ahead and indulge. So goes the thinking of the world and the pressures
that will constantly press in on us from every side if we let them.
Our definition: exaltation and prioritization of the object of your highest love in
any given moment
o Devotion + Desire = Delight in the Lord, worship in Truth and Spirit (John
4:23)
o Today we turn our attention to the 7 th commandment and we see that
Worship is a Commitment as we study God’s call to sexual purity in His
worshippers.
Sections: 1) The Truth of Commitment; and 2) The Spirit of
Commitment
The Truth of Commitment
Deuteronomy 5:18 “You shall not commit adultery.” (see also Exodus 20:14)
“adultery” (Heb. nāʾap̱ ) refers to the consensual, physical act of having sexual
relations with someone other than your spouse.
o Matthew 5:27-28 “27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not
commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman
with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
It is not merely a physical act, but is engaged with in the mind first.
o Hebrews 13:4 “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the
marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and
adulterous.”
Adultery encompasses all other forms of sexual impurity, whether you
are married or single.
We are not to dishonor or forsake marriage and think that this
somehow gives us a pass to have sex with whoever we want.
Why does God give this prohibition for physical and mental purity for His people?
o Pagan sexual practices: temple prostitutes, sexual rituals and rites to many
pagan gods (e.g. Baal, Asherah, Diana, etc.)
Sex and worship go hand in hand….in fact, sex is an act of worship
Every time I engage in any sexual act I am worshipping
someone. Our culture teaches us to use sex as a means to
worship myself.
God made sex good and enjoyable (it is a good gift for His children)
and encourages His image bearers to marry and be fruitful and
multiply (see Gen. 1:28) – i.e. have lots of sex in your marriage.
In having sex in a God-honoring way, we are actually
worshipping our God by obediently following His command,
enjoying His good gift, strengthening the relationship we have
with our spouse and helping them to overcome temptation (1
Corinthians 7:5), honoring God with the appropriate and
proper use of our bodies, which is His temple, and reflecting
God’s holy character by remaining pure and committed to our
spouse.
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 “18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every
other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually
immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not
know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,
whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you
were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
So let me reiterate, any sexual act or thought is first and foremost an act of
worship. I am either worshipping my God if I am properly engaging with my
spouse, or I am worshipping myself and the lies of our culture in any other
context.
o The command to not commit adultery is a command to keep our body and
our mind committed to our spouse – men to our wife, and women to our
husband. Sex is good and you should enjoy it with all the freedoms that
come with a god-honoring marriage as you worship our God with your
body.
o But this command is not only about commitment to our spouse, but as you
have likely already surmised, it is really about commitment to our God.
The Spirit of Commitment
Not just a physical sexual act, or a mental lustful act, it is actually about the
commitment of our heart to the one who we claim to be in covenant with.
o Yahweh is a covenantal God, marriage is a covenant and is meant to
reflect the relationship between Yahweh and His people and Jesus and His
bride.
Jeremiah 31:31-32 “31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the
Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and
the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their
fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of
the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their
husband, declares the Lord.”
Ephesians 5:25-28 “25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved
the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her,
having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so 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.” (see also 2 Corinthians 11:2-3, Revelation 19:7-9)
The OT is filled with God calling His people out for breaking their covenant with
Him and being an adulterer, going after other gods. (See e.g. Ex 34:15-16; Lev
17:7; 20:5, 6; Nu 15:39, 25:1; Dt 31:16; Jdg 2:17, 8:27, 33; 1 Chr 5:25; 2 Chr
21:11-13, 13; Isa 23:17; Jer 2:20-23, 3:1-9; Ps 78:58, 106:39; Ezek 6:9, 16:15-
17, 25-29, 20:30, 23:3-5, 19, 30; Jer 3:8, 13:27, Hos 1:2, 2:5, 3:3, 4:10-18, 5:3,
7:13-16, 9:1; Isa 50:1, 57:3-7)
The NT picks up on that same imagery:
o James 4:4 “You 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.”
Jesus Himself uses this language several times.
o Matthew 12:38-39 “38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered
him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he
answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no
sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.”
o Matthew 16:1, 4 “1 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test
him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven….4 “An evil and
adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except
the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed.””
o Mark 8:38 “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this
adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be
ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Triumphal Entry and Cleansing of Temple
o The truth was hidden from this generation because they were evil and
adulterous. The wanted a sign – and after Jesus raised Lazarus from the
dead on the 4 th day (John 11:17), that is after he had been in the ground 3
days and 3 nights (1 st sign of Jonah, Jesus Himself being the full sign of
Jonah on His resurrection day), they still did not get it and He wept over
their adulterous ways.
o Luke 19:41-44 “41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over
it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things
that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the
days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade
around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear
you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not
leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of
your visitation.”
o After cleansing the temple and pronouncing woes on the scribes and
pharisees, Matthew 23:36-38 “36 Truly, I say to you, all these things will
come upon this generation. 37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills
the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have
gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her
wings, and you were not willing! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate.”
Jesus wept over their spiritual adultery, even as He weeps over ours. Yet, He still
loves us.
Be not discouraged by your sin, by your adultery. The Bridegroom Jesus is
always willing to receive us back if we will return to Him in humble, repentant,
faithfulness.
o We cannot hope to change physical and mental adultery, until we deal with
the spiritual adultery of our heart.
Conclusion
Hope = Hosea, Garret = Gomer (Hosea chapters 1-2)
Hosea 3:1-3 “1 And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved
by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of
Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” 2 So I bought
her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. 3 And I said
to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or
belong to another man; so will I also be to you.”
Jesus is committed to us. Amen. Amen.