Antidote to Keep From The Infection of The Sin of Adultery Part 2

Thomas Watson

(14) Take delight in the Word of God. "How sweet are your words unto my taste." Psalm 119:103. Chrysostom compares God's Word to a garden. If we walk in this garden, and suck sweetness from the flowers of the promises, we shall never care to pluck the "forbidden fruit." "Let the Scriptures be my pure pleasure," says Augustine. The reason why people seek after unchaste, sinful pleasures—is because they have nothing better. Caesar riding through a city, and seeing the women play with dogs and parrots, said, "Surely, they have no children." So those who sport with harlots, have no better pleasures. He who has once tasted Christ in a promise, is ravished with delight; and he would  scorn a temptation to sin! Job said, that the Word was his "appointed food." Job 23:12. No wonder then, that he made a "covenant with his eyes."

(15) If you would abstain from adultery, use serious consideration.

    [1] Consider that God sees you in the act of sin! He sees all your curtain wickedness. He is totus oculus—"all eye." The clouds are no canopy, the night is no curtain—to hide you from God's eye! Whenever you sin—your Judge looks on! "I have seen your detestable acts—your adulteries and your neighings." Jer. 13:27. "They have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives. I know it and am a witness to it! declares the Lord." Jer. 29:23.

    [2] Consider that few who are entangled in the sin of adultery, ever recover from the snare. "None that go to her return again." Proverbs 2:19. This made some of the ancients conclude that adultery was an unpardonable sin; but it is not so. David repented. Mary Magdalene was a weeping penitent; upon her amorous eyes which sparkled with lust, she sought to be revenged, by washing Christ's feet with her tears! Some, therefore have recovered from this snare. "None that go to her return," that is, "very few." It is rare to hear of any who are enchanted and bewitched with the sin of immorality, who recover from it. "I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare." Eccl. 7:26. Her "heart is a trap," that is, she is subtle to deceive those who come to her; and "her hands are chains," that is her embraces are powerful to hold and entangle her lovers. This consideration should make all fearful of this sin. Soft pleasures, harden the heart.

    [3] Consider what Scripture says, which may lay a barricade in the way to this sin. "I will be a swift witness against the adulterers." Malachi 3:5. It is good when God is a witness "for us", when He witnesses to our sincerity, as He did to Job's; but it is sad to have God as a "witness against us." "I," says God, "will be a swift witness against the adulterer." And who shall disprove God's witness? He is both witness and judge! "God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery." Hebrews 13:4.

    [4] Consider the sad farewell, which the sin of adultery leaves. It leaves a hell in the conscience. "The lips of an immoral woman are as sweet as honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil. But the result is as bitter as poison, sharp as a double-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to hell." Proverbs 5:3-5. The goddess Diana was so artfully drawn, that she seemed to smile upon those who came into her temple—but frown on those who went out. So the harlot smiles on her lovers as they come to her—but at last, they come to the frown and the sting! "Until an arrow pierces his liver." Proverbs 7:23. "Her end is bitter."

When a man has been virtuous, the labor is gone—but the comfort remains; but when he has been wicked and immoral, the pleasure is gone—but the sting remains. "He gains momentary pleasure—but after that, eternal torment," says Jerome. When the senses have been feasted with unchaste pleasures, the soul is left to pay the reckoning. Stolen waters are sweet; but, as poison, though sweet in the mouth, it torments the conscience. Sin always ends in tragedy! Sad is that which Fincelius reports of a priest in Flanders, who enticed a young girl to immorality. When she objected how vile a sin it was, he told her that by authority from the Pope, he could commit any sin; so at last he drew her to his wicked purpose. But when they had been together a while, in came the devil, and took away the harlot from the priest's side, and, notwithstanding all her crying out, carried her away! If the devil should come and carry away all who are guilty of immorality in this nation—I fear more would be carried away, than would be left behind!

(16) Pray against this sin. Luther gave a lady this advice, that when any lust began to rise in her heart, she should go to prayer. Prayer is the best armor against sin; it quenches the wild fire of lust. If prayer will "cast out the devil," it will certainly cast out those lusts which come from the devil.

O let us labor for soul purity! To keep the soul pure—have recourse to the blood of Christ, which is the "fountain open, to cleanse from sin and impurity." Zech. 13:1. A soul steeped in the briny tears of repentance, and bathed in the blood of Christ—is made pure! Say, "Lord, my soul is defiled! I pollute all I touch! O purge me with hyssop—let Christ's blood sprinkle me, let the Holy Spirit anoint me. O make me pure, that I may be taken to heaven—where I shall be as holy as You would have me to be—and as happy as I can desire to be!"

A Four Fold Salvation — Part 13

Arthur Pink, 1938 

It is in this way we are experimentally taught to look off from the present to the future, for our rest is not here. "We are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?" (Romans 8:24). Let it be duly noted that this comes immediately after "we ourselves groan within ourselves." Thus to be "saved by hope" respects our present salvation from the power of sin.

Complete salvation is now the Christian's—only in title and expectation. It is not here said that we, "shall be saved by hope," but we are saved by hope—that hope which looks for the fulfilling of God's promises. Hope has to do with a future good, with something which as yet "is not seen"—we "hope" not for something which is already enjoyed. Herein hope differs from faith. Faith, as it is an assent, is in the mind; but hope is seated in the affections, stirred by the desirability of the things promised.

And, my reader, the bitter disappointments of life are nothing but a dark background upon which hope may shine forth the more brightly. Christ does not immediately take to Heaven the one who puts his trust in Him. No, He keeps him here upon earth for a while to be exercised and tried. While he is awaiting his complete blessedness, there is such a difference between him and it, and he encounters many difficulties and trials. Not having yet received his inheritance, there is need and occasion of hope, for only by its exercise can things future be sought after. The stronger our hope, the more earnestly shall we be engaged in the pursuit of it. We have to be weaned from present things—in order for the heart to be fixed upon a future good.

Fourth, by the gift of the Spirit and His operations within us. God's great gift of Christ for us—is matched by the gift of the Spirit in us; for we owe as much to the One as we do to the Other. The new nature in the Christian is powerless, apart from the Spirit's daily renewing. It is by His gracious operations—that we have made known to us the nature and extent of sin, are made to strive against it, and are brought to grieve over it. It is by the Spirit—that faith, hope and prayer are kept alive within the soul. It is by the Spirit—that we are moved to use the means of grace which God has appointed for our spiritual preservation and growth. It is by the Spirit—that sin is prevented from having complete dominion over us, for as the result of His indwelling us, there is something else besides sin in the believer's heart and life, namely, the fruits of holiness and righteousness.

To sum up this aspect of our subject—salvation from the power of indwelling sin is not the taking of the evil nature out of the believer in this life, nor by effecting any improvement in it, "that which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3:6), and it remains so, unchanged to the end. Nor is it by the Spirit so subduing indwelling sin that it is rendered less active, for the flesh not merely lusts—but "lusts (ceaselessly) against the spirit"—it never sleeps, not even when our bodies do, as our dreams evidence. No, and in some form or other, the flesh is constantly producing its evil works. It may not be in external acts, seen by the eyes of our fellows—but certainly so internally, in things seen by God—such as covetousness, discontent, pride, unbelief, self-will, ill-will towards others, and a hundred other evils. No, none is saved from sinning in this life.

Present salvation from the power of sin consists in, first, delivering us from the love of it, which though begun at our regeneration, is continued throughout our practical sanctification.

Second, from its blinding delusiveness, so that it can no more deceive as once it did.

Third, from our excusing it, "that which I do—I allow not" (Romans 7:15). This is one of the surest marks of regeneration. In the fullest sense of the word, the believer "allows" it not before he sins, for every real Christian, when in his right mind, desires to be wholly kept from sinning. He "allows" it not fully when doing it, for in the actual committing thereof, there is an inward reserve—the new nature consents not. He "allows" it not afterwards, as Psalm 51 evidences so plainly of the case of David.

The force of this word "allow" in Romans 7:15 may be seen from "truly you bear witness that you allow the deeds of your fathers—for they killed them (the Prophets) and you build their sepulchers" (Luke 11:48). So far from those Jews being ashamed of their fathers and abhorring their wicked conduct, they erected a monument to their honor. Thus, to "allow" is the opposite of to be ashamed of and sorrow over—it is to condone and vindicate.