From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Worse than physical adultery is spiritual adultery. When we who have been saved and rescued and blessed by God wander from Him and go after other lovers, so to speak, other gods, when we depart from the God we love. All throughout the Old Testament, God's Old Testament people struggled with it, spiritual adultery. It's a horrible sin, and God tells us about it and what to do about it.

Larry Nobles: Nothing undermines a marriage like adultery. And likewise, nothing undermines our relationship with God like spiritual adultery. At some point in our lives, we've all been guilty of it to one degree or another. Thankfully, in His word, the Lord tells us the cause as well as the cure for spiritual adultery.

This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. Thank you for joining us today as he's going to share two insights from the book of James that will explain how we can draw near to God once again, even if it's been a while. The message today is entitled "Spiritual Adultery," from Pastor Jeff's five-lesson series, "Soul on Fire: God's Plan for Revival," which is also our gift of thanks to you for your support this month of any amount to From His Heart.

Find out more when you go to FromHisHeart.org. If you can now, open your Bible to the New Testament book of James and turn to chapter 4. Here's Pastor Jeff to begin describing what exactly is spiritual adultery and what you do about it.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Weddings are wonderful things. When I do a wedding, I always have the bride and groom repeat these words in their vows to one another: "And leaving all others, I will be to you a true and faithful husband, a true and faithful wife as long as we both shall live." To make that vow that I am going to be faithful. Now, nothing undermines a marriage like adultery. And as horrible as that sin is, there's a worse sin.

Worse than physical adultery is spiritual adultery. When we who have been saved and rescued and blessed by God wander from Him and go after other lovers, so to speak, other gods, when we depart from the God we love. We're in a series entitled "Soul on Fire: God's Plan for Revival." And we have said that we can relate to the song by Robert Robinson, "Come Thou Fount," where it says, "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love."

The Lord says in Hosea chapter 4 and verse 12, "My people ask their wooden idols for help. A piece of wood tells them what to do. A spirit of prostitution leads them astray. They commit adultery by giving themselves to other gods." As bad as physical adultery is, spiritual adultery is worse and we are so prone to wander. We're so prone to leave the God we love to go after other things.

The Lord tells us in His word what is the cause of spiritual adultery and what is the cure for spiritual adultery. Because the bottom line is you struggle with it, I struggle with it, James struggled with it, Paul struggled with it, John struggled with it. All throughout the Old Testament, God's Old Testament people struggled with it, spiritual adultery. It's a horrible sin, and God tells us about it and what to do about it.

James chapter 4, I'll begin reading in verse 1. "What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures, your desires that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have, so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."

I want you to notice with me two insights from James chapter 4, insights that will help us understand this thing called spiritual adultery and to be able to make our way back to God. Insight number one: Spiritual adultery, what is it? It is making friends with the world. Look at verse 4 again. "You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."

John says in 1 John chapter 2 verse 15, "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Now, God is anti-the world because the world is anti-God. You might say, "Wait a minute, I'm thinking of the world and John 3:16, 'For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.' So God loves the world, but now He doesn't love the world, He hates the world, and if we're friends with the world, God's not friends with us, we become enemies of God. I don't get it."

God loves the world of people. When it says in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world," it's not talking about the world system, it's talking about the world of people. And when the Lord says, "Do not love the world because if any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him," when the Lord says we're spiritual adulterers when we go after the world, He's talking about the world system. The world system that is anti-God.

The world system that lies in the lap of the evil one. 1 John chapter 5 verse 19 says this: "We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one." Literally, it's cradled in the lap of the evil one. That's the world system. The world system is anti-God. We read in the Bible, especially in the book of the Revelation, about the coming Antichrist. "Anti" means against, and it also means instead of.

The world is against God and it presents itself instead of God. That's how the devil uses the world, tries to pull us away to go after the things of the world. It is anti-God, it's against Him, but it's also an alternative to God. The first of the Ten Commandments says, "I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before Me." No other gods that come alongside of Me. I am exclusive to you.

Just as in marriage, "and leaving all others, I will be to you a true and faithful husband, a true and faithful wife as long as we both shall live." There's an exclusivity in the marriage because it is just you and me and this intimacy that we have in marriage, we don't share that with anybody else. God says, "I am the Lord your God, you don't go after any other gods, you follow Me and follow Me exclusively."

The world is anti-God and friendship with the world is spiritual adultery, just like in the Old Testament, they would go after the Baals, they would go after the false gods and they would step out on God. What is the cause of that? The cause is in your heart, it's the desire that you have in your heart. Beware of desiring the things of the world.

Look at verse 1 again. "What is the source, what is the origin of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures, your sinful desires that wage war in your members?" That word for pleasures is the Greek word "hedone" from which we get our English word "hedonism," and it's that sensual pleasure that's at war inside. You have an enemy within, I have an enemy within called the flesh, and the flesh wants to sin against God.

The flesh wants to go after what the flesh wants to go after, and the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another, the Bible says, so that we may not do the things that we please. The flesh wants to do what it pleases and so there's a desire that's there. The source of it all, sin begins in the heart, and it is this desire for the things that God has said no to.

The Ten Commandments were given to Moses on two tablets of stone. The first four commandments of the Ten Commandments is all vertical. It all deals with our relationship with God. It all deals with the greatest commandment, which is to love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind. The second tablet is all horizontal. It deals with the second greatest commandment: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

The last of the Ten Commandments says, "You shall not covet. You shall not covet your neighbor's house or your neighbor's spouse or anything that belongs to your neighbor." What does it mean to covet? It means to desire. You long for the things that your neighbor has. Before you break any of the first nine commandments, you break the tenth commandment, because the tenth commandment is in your heart.

The tenth commandment says I want to do this. The Apostle Paul in Romans 7 says, "I wouldn't have known about sin had I not read 'You shall not covet.'" The Apostle Paul, before he was the Apostle Paul, when he was Saul of Tarsus, he was a Pharisee of Pharisees and he would look at the Ten Commandments. He said, "'You shall not commit murder,' I've never done that. 'You shall not commit adultery,' I've never done that. 'You shall not lie,' I've never done that. 'You shall not steal,' I've never done that."

He would go down the list, "I've never done that." And then he came to commandment number 10, "You shall not covet. You shall not desire." Paul said, "That just slew me." Why? Because I desired to murder, I desired to commit adultery, I desired to steal, I desired to lie, I desired to be dishonoring to my parents. I desired all those things. It was in my heart. The Bible says, "Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the issues of life."

Larry Nobles: We'll continue exploring this truth about spiritual adultery when Pastor Jeff returns in just a moment. We're in his series, "Soul on Fire: God's Plan for Revival," and it speaks to the hearts of God's people who've grown empty from creeping and nagging sin and then wanting to seek Him genuinely in their lives. It doesn't begin in crowds, but in individuals.

It begins when God's people see their true condition, return to Him in humility and prayer, and once again place His word at the center of their lives. That's why this powerful series, "Soul on Fire: God's Plan for Revival," is our gift to you this month to say thank you for your support to From His Heart of any amount. If you'd like to get a copy of this series on CDs, DVDs, USB flash drive, or MP3 download, simply call 866-40-BIBLE.

866-40-BIBLE. Or go to FromHisHeart.org to make that gift of any amount and we'll be glad to send it to you. When you do make that gift, you'll be helping us reach the world, a world that is desperate for authenticity and truth. And we know that this can only be found in Jesus. Again, call 866-40-BIBLE. 866-40-BIBLE. Or go to FromHisHeart.org, make your gift, and request the series "Soul on Fire." Now let's return to part two of this lesson from the series "Soul on Fire" entitled "Spiritual Adultery."

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Beware of desiring the things of the world. Do not love the world nor the things in the world. For if any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away and also its lusts, but the one who does the will of God abides forever.

And beware of thinking that you can serve God and enjoy the world. You can have one foot in the church and one foot in the world, that you can do both. That is spiritual adultery. God's people in the Old Testament when they would get away from God, they weren't saying to God, "God, we hate you, we don't want to be married to you anymore, we want a divorce." They would just step out on God. They would just go after other gods.

Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived outside of Christ, the Lord gave him incredible wisdom. When he got old, remember he had 700 wives and 300 concubines. When he got old, his many wives turned his heart away from the Lord and he began to have idols that he would set up because his wives encouraged him to do so, idols to these detestable gods of the surrounding nations. It wasn't that he said, "Let's destroy the temple of Yahweh God," it's just, "let's add these other things too."

That doesn't work for God. Jesus said, "No one can serve two masters." It has to be exclusive. If you're going to serve God, you have to be exclusive. God doesn't want your heart to be a duplex where I serve God for some time and then I serve this false god for some time. Nobody goes into marriage saying, "Well, my spouse is good with me loving her some of the time, but then I love these other women some of the time."

It doesn't work like that. God says, "Hey, you can't do that because you become an adulteress and you become a friend of the world and any friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." "Enemy" is an interesting word in verse 4. It can mean passively odious, a stench in the nostrils of God, or actively hostile toward God. But either way, anytime you attach yourself to the world, you become an enemy of God.

Because the world is anti-God and God is anti-the world. The world hates God and God hates the world system. Loves the world of people, hates the world system. That's why the scripture says in Romans chapter 12, "Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold," because that is what the world does. Beware of desiring the things of the world and thinking that you can serve God and enjoy the world.

There's an interesting story in the book of Genesis about Abram, before he became Abraham, and his nephew Lot. Lot is a picture of a guy who began to desire the world and thought he could serve God and still enjoy the world. In Genesis chapter 12, the Lord calls Abram while he was living in Ur of the Chaldees. That's in the area of Babylon. And he is there and the Lord calls him and says, "Go to a land that I will show you."

Abraham believed God and he went out and he went out with his wife Sarah, but her name wasn't Sarah at that time, it was Sarai. And he went out with his wife Sarah and he took his nephew Lot with him and they go to the land that God was going to show them. And the land that God was going to show them was the Promised Land. That was the land that God was giving to him and to his descendants, the land of Israel.

He was there in the land and everything was great, he had obeyed God. But then there was a test. Genesis 12, there's a famine in the land. The land of what? The land of promise. The land of promise is the land flowing with milk and honey. There's a famine in the land of promise which is the land of plenty, which doesn't seem to compute. So what does Abram do? He says, "There's food down in Egypt," so he goes down to Egypt.

Egypt is always a picture of sin in the Bible. God's people were slaves in Egypt for 430 years. Egypt is a picture of sin. He goes down into Egypt. He gets in all kinds of trouble in Egypt because his wife Sarai is good-looking and he says, "Ah, when we go down there, Pharaoh's going to want you, and if he finds out you're my wife, then he's going to kill me. So say you're my sister." She goes along with it.

Anyway, it was troublesome for Pharaoh because God started to plague his house because he took this man's wife—he didn't know it was his wife, thought it was his sister—he took her into the harem. And so the information comes out to Pharaoh, "This is not this man's sister, this is this man's wife." He tells Abram, "Get out of here." So Abram goes back to the land of Canaan with his wife and with his nephew Lot.

Now, the little trip down to Egypt, Abram was able to get over that, but you know who wasn't able to get over it? Lot. Abraham got Lot out of Egypt, but he never got Egypt out of Lot. And the Bible says in Genesis chapter 13, "And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock and the Canaanite and the Perizzite were dwelling then in the land."

Unbelievers are around them and these guys are fighting. Then Abram said to Lot, "Please let there be no strife between you and me nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers. Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If to the left, then I will go to the right, or if to the right, then I will go to the left." And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well-watered everywhere.

This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. It was like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar. What did he see? He looks to the east. This is Lot. And he sees all this rich pastureland for his flocks and herds and he says, "That looks like the Garden of Eden and it reminds me of Egypt. It's a little bit of Eden and a little bit of Egypt and man, I liked Egypt."

So he chooses for himself. The Bible says he pitched his tent toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord. He makes a terrible decision. Why? Because he began to desire the things of the world and he thought all this is not going to hurt me because I'm strong enough and I can serve God and play around with the world. I can have one foot in the church world and one foot in the world that is anti-God and I can straddle the fence.

He couldn't do it. You can't do it, I can't do it, nobody can do it because God is at war with the world. Beware of thinking that you can serve God and the world. The Bible says in James 4:5, "Do you think the scriptures mean nothing? The scriptures say the Spirit of God made to live in us wants us only for Himself." You can't play around with the world because the moment you do, you make yourself an enemy of God.

The Lord says this, "Or what harmony has Christ with Belial?" Second Corinthians chapter 6. "Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? Therefore come out from their midst and be separate says the Lord." I don't want you playing around with that. That's what Israel did. Beware when your heart starts to desire the things of the world.

The love of the Father is not in you. There's a serious love problem when that happens. You are missing out on the love of the Father. And when you think you can do both, you cannot do both. And then beware of thinking that you can get away with it. You can't get away with it, I can't get away with it, we can't get away with it. It's impossible.

Larry Nobles: It is a serious issue, this thing called spiritual adultery. It's one of five lessons in Pastor Jeff's series, "Soul on Fire: God's Plan for Revival." The lessons in this series remind us that Jesus didn't die so we'd live an empty second-rate spirituality. Rather, He wants you and me to have life and have it abundantly. That's found in John 10:10.

You can find out more about this "Soul on Fire" series when you go to FromHisHeart.org or call 866-40-BIBLE. 866-40-BIBLE. And request it when you make your gift today of any amount. Thank you for helping us reach the world, setting more souls on fire for the Lord. A big thanks too for joining us today on From His Heart. I'm Larry Nobles, inviting you to be right back here as Pastor Jeff elaborates on why Christians can't ultimately get away with being friendly to the world system that is against God.

Don't miss the conclusion to "Spiritual Adultery." That's on Thursday. Join us right here when we'll again open up God's word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from His heart.