No Adultery! Be Faithful Because God is Faithful | Ricky Sarthou | May 17, 2026

0:00 Hi everyone. Let me ask you a question. Would you knowingly pour poison into your favorite drink? Absolutely not. Right? But you know when we introduce sin into our lives, we are pouring poison into one of the greatest, if not the greatest gift God has given us. Today's message is exactly about that phenomenon. How we manage to pour poison into this wonderful gift of life. Now how that happens and how you can find a solution on redemption. That is what this message is all about. It is about the seventh commandment. You shall not commit adultery. Now hang on if you're thinking oh that's for married people. You will discover through this message that that commandment applies to

0:45 everyone, young or old, men or women, married or single. But this commandment is not meant to throw a guilt trip on you. It's meant to set you free so you can live a life of redemption and forgiveness and victory in Jesus. So watch the message and be blessed. Welcome everyone to our latest installment on our series on the Ten Commandments. I pray that you've been blessed by this series. But um I I want to make it clear that the series on the ten commandments is not only about the commandments. It goes much deeper than that. And I will be explaining that in

1:31 just a moment. But in the meantime, I think we all know what the topic for this afternoon is, right? We just read it a while ago. What commandment is it? What does it say? You shall not commit adultery. Now just in case uh you folks online and you folks here in person are already thinking ah I'm not married so that does not apply to me or you'll say I'm so happily married I'm madly in love with my husband or wife that does not apply to me please think again because you and I will realize this commandment is so critical so lifech changing so life and death situ situation to anyone and everyone, men,

2:19 women, single, married, old or young. But before we go on, uh, aside from welcoming one another, which we did a while ago, why don't we welcome the online church. Now, we won't do the usual crazy taxi wave, but we will do this. Let's all shout on the count of three, welcome online church. Is that okay? On three. 1 2 3. >> Yes, indeed. You are just a part of this congregation as anybody else. But as we often say, we would love to see you in person if possible one of these days here or in any of our satellites throughout the Philippines or throughout the world. Okay. So, let's now begin our

3:04 discussion on you shall not commit adultery. By the way, did it rain where you live? Like in the last day or so, did it finally rain? Yeah. Are you happy? You know, we should praise God for that rain and we should pray for more. But you know, in the in the weeks prior to that, the heat, unbelievable, right? It's like we were melting. But you know, when I think of the heat, I think of in preparation for this message, I was thinking of perhaps we have our favorite ice cold drink. Do you have a favorite ice cold drink? >> Something like this. Uh maybe an ice choco or mocha or Spanish latte or

3:53 matcha, the green thing from Mars, you know, whatever is your favorite. So, let's say to help you uh beat the heat, I am going to buy you your favorite cold drink. Would you like that? >> Yeah. It's just an illustration. Okay. However, there's something else. Aside from your favorite cold drink, I want to entice you to add a an additional ingredient to it. I'm telling you that added ingredient will make your drinking experience so unique

4:41 and so exciting. Interested? Now you're thinking twice. Actually, what's inside this cup is just water. But it's not just any water. It is water from the toilet. And it's not just any water from the toilet. It is water from the toilet before it is flushed. Interested? Of course not. You're thinking, "What does this guy think I am? to well if we were to do that we would really be too

5:28 you know this is really what adultery is about and you will you and I will see later that the application of adultery is far more is far broader and more far-reaching than many of us may realize But the principle is this. When we commit adultery in any of its forms, which we will discuss later, or for that matter, commit any sin willfully, it is like we're bringing poison into the gift of life that God has given us. The word adultery is very much related to the another English word adulterate which means to render

6:14 something poorer in quality by adding another substance. Your life, my life is a gift from God. It's a wonderful beautiful gift. But there will be times unfortunately when we disobey God and we bring garbage into our life. when we bring toilet uh water from an unflushed toilet into what should have been a wonderful refreshing drink as it were. And you and I said, "Why should I put that toilet unflushed toilet water in my drink? Do you think I'm stew?" Well, you know what? When we bring sin into our lives,

7:00 you fill in the blanks. You make the conclusion. And like I said, adultery is more than just a spouse cheating on another spouse. So let's go back to our scripture. Then God spoke all these words saying, "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." Okay. Uh two things that the Lord establishes here. Who he is. I am the Lord your God. Who God is. The next thing is who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. What God has done and actually continues to do because even to this day, God is still busy bringing people

7:46 out of the house of slavery of sin. And so the conclusion because of who God is and because of what he has done and continues to do, he says, "You shall therefore not commit adultery." And as what has been said in previous messages uh on in this series, the commandments are not meant to restrict us. They are meant to protect us. As a matter of fact, they are meant to set us free to live the life that Jesus really wants for us. So you and I need to shift our paradigm that the commandments are not just a bunch of rules that we have to obey with, you know, while gritting our teeth. They're really meant to bring joy

8:32 and peace and meaning and order into our lives. But for us to be able to believe that, we need to see the God behind each of the commandments. In the end, obedience to this or any of the other ten commandments or any other part of God's word is a true worship response. And as we've said in the previous messages, true worship is our proper response to who God is, what he has done, and what he continues to do. Therefore, when we obey any of his commandments, any of the 10 or any of the other commands in his word, we are we should be doing it as a form of worship. When

9:20 we recognize the God behind each commandment, what do I mean by the God behind each commandment? Okay, let me tell you. For example, no other gods. The character of God behind that commandment is the fact that he is unique. There is no one like our God. Do I hear an amen? >> There is no one like our God. There is no other god like him. No idols. What does that mean? The character of God is he alone is worthy of worship. Not anything, not any benefit, not any perk, not any person. Only God. Honor God's name. God is holy and must be revered. Keep the Sabbath holy. God is our rest, our refuge, our provider. Honor your

10:07 father and mother. God is our father. If we have received Jesus as our Lord and Savior, as it says in John chapter 1, do not murder. God is the author and giver of life. And for today, no adultery. The character of God behind that commandment is God is faithful. How many of you will say that God is indeed faithful to you? How many of you will say that? Keep your right hand or whatever hand up. Bring the other one up and give him the praise today. God is faithful. And if we really believe that, if we truly believe that and have experienced that in our lives, it's not a theory.

10:54 Then what business do you and I have being unfaithful to God? You see, if we truly believe that God is faithful, we will be faithful to him in return. And when we are faithful to God, we will be faithful in all of our committed relationships. husband and wife, parents and children, siblings, people in ministry, in a disciplehip group, whatever it is, all of those committed relationships, we will be faithful because God is faithful. Are we together so far? Okay. So, today's message, no adultery. Be faithful because God is faithful. Let me explain. This is the commandment. No

11:40 adultery. Be faithful is our worshipful response to who God is. God is faithful. So you have all of those elements captured in that title. And this afternoon's message has only two points. Are you happy? Let's see. No adultery. Be faithful because God is faithful. Two things we're going to talk about. Number one is the deadly disease, the adultery pandemic. and then we'll talk about the divine cure, the faithfulness of God. So, let's start by talking about the deadly disease, the adultery pandemic. Folks, if you and I are too enough to put the unflushed toilet water into our cold drink, we

12:26 realize that it's not just going to make it taste lousy, it's going to be poisonous, it can even be deadly. When the pandemic was declared in the summer of 2020, the world was in a panic. Do you remember those days when people started to die left and right? Before there were people you didn't know. Then later on it was your cousin and your uncle and your brother and there was no cure and people would say drink this, drink that, avoid this, avoid that. It it was awful. It was such a dark time in the history of the world. And you know, we may not see adultery as something as desperate as that in

13:14 terms of how it impacts the world, but it is even more serious. It is all over the place. And none of us again men, women, young, old, married, single or any other category you feel you belong to, nobody is immune. Nobody is immune. So this is a very serious matter. So let's start by asking ourselves, what is adultery? Okay, let's take the literal definition. By the way, all of these definitions you find in the Bible. Okay? So, literal literal ad is sex between a married person and someone that person is not

14:02 married to. That is your textbook. But also in the Bible, the definition of adultery. But in the Bible, you discover how deep this issue, how serious it is. Because in the Bible you will see a biblical definition which is the same as the first but Jesus raises the bar by saying lust is equal to adultery. In the same way that he said if you are angry with your brother that is equivalent to murder. So now we can see how serious this thing can be and we need not be married people to fall into this sin. And finally in the Bible we will see spiritual adultery. And this is like the allencompassing aspect of this sin.

14:49 Spiritual adultery, as we will see later on in God's word, is unfaithfulness to God, which includes any form of idolatry, which reminds me, even if I keep myself sexually pure, for as long as I have an idol of some other form in my life, an idol that takes God's place as number one in my life, I am still committing adultery. Are we on the same page? >> So, how bad is this disease? Impact on marriages, loss of honor and trust folks.

15:36 A husband and wife can forgive each other, but regaining trust is a whole different ballgame. It takes a lot of work. It takes amazing grace. Forgiveness is one thing. Gaining earning trust is totally different. It is a deep wound that will take much time in most cases. Adultery is also a catalyst for separation and divorce. I'm not saying it justifies it. I'm just saying that in many cases it ends up that way. emotional and physical health issues, betrayal trauma, and look at this. I never knew this existed. PISD, post infidelity stress disorder.

16:25 Amazing, Doc. Tony, I only knew post-traumatic stress disorder. Now I know there is post infidelity stress disorder. And then financial strain. Now, let's talk about the impact on children. Psychological and emotional trauma. uh I think it's easy enough for us to understand that but look at this thing role confusion you know I have seen this happen where uh husband and wife are estranged let's say the husband leaves and runs away with secretary who is half his age and then the the wife and the children are left behind and one of the children steps up and becomes like a a husbandish person to his own mother and becomes a fatherish person to his own siblings things. And you might say,

17:11 "Well, then that means he will grow up and mature." Excuse me, what happens to the life stage that he's in? That will never come back again. That is not the way to mature. I know God can cause all things to work together for good, but children should not have to go through something like that. And then of course, there's the loss of sense of trust and security. Finally, impact on future generations. Even secular sources acknowledge the existence of generational patterns and cycles of infidelity. Apart from the grace of God, people will say, you know, when they see infidelity in their parents, in their family line, they'll say that will never happen to me. And guess what? It happens.

18:00 Such is the deadly nature of sin. How bad is it? Look at Leviticus chapter 20. If there is a man who commits adultery with another man's wife, one who commits adultery with his friend's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. And you know, this reminds us of our previous messages where Jesus said, "If you're angry with your brother, you are you can be guilty of the fires of hell or uh when a when a son is incouraably rebellious towards his parents, ultimately he will be stoned to death." And you know, just like Joker, the nemesis of Batman, we ask the question, why so serious? Why stoned to death? Really,

18:46 you and I need to understand the objective behind what God is saying. And he says in Deuteronomy, "If a man is found lying with a married woman, then both of them shall die. the man who lay with the woman and the woman. Thus, you shall read this with me. Purge the evil from Israel. You and I need to understand that from the beginning of history, God chose these people not because they were smart, good-looking, or well behaved or whatever. He just chose them out of his grace. He chose them to be a blessing to the nations specifically so that they will be the people from whom the Messiah would come. In the same manner, today God has chosen you and has chosen me to

19:32 be a royal priesthood who will proclaim the excellencies of him who has taken us from darkness into his marvelous light. He has chosen us to be a holy people who will reflect his character, his holiness. And that's why he said you need to purge the evil from Israel. Today you and I need to purge the evil from ourselves, from our own hearts, so that we can shine the light of Jesus in this dark world. Fast forward to the first century church during the time of the Roman Empire. Look at the uh quotation from Tim Keller. He said, "The early Romans were amazed about Christianity in two particulars. They believed they the Christians believed in giving large proportions of their income to the poor." So the the the people of the

20:18 Roman Empire who were looking down upon Christians, many of whom were their slaves, who were persecuting them, they saw at least two things. I know there are more. One is they saw their charity, their incredible charity. And it's not just about giving money. If you remember, you probably heard this uh historical story before when there was when there were plagues throughout history and the people from the government, you know, the officials, everybody who was in a position to help people who were getting sick because of the plague, they all flew the coupe. The Christians stayed behind and nursed them, even died with them. And they looked after even people who were not Christians. So charity was one major light shining from the lives of these Christians. But

21:04 there was another thing and they believed in no sex outside of marriage. Again, married people, single people, their light shone because of their sexual purity and personal holiness. And in spite of the fact that people couldn't understand where that was coming from, Christianity won the day and swept the modern world at the time. The question for us today is can we win the day and sweep the modern world for Jesus today? It will take the same thing. Living countercultural lives, lives of purity, holiness, and joyful

21:50 obedience. And you and I, now that we know more or less the um or we're beginning to understand the the length and the breadth of the sin of adultery, you and I need to stop making excuses for what we may have done. Here are some excuses of of people who have committed adultery. Now, you can say, okay, yeah, so that applies to husband, wife. Many of these things apply to single people. You you look carefully. My needs were not being met. I was unhappy. I was bored. He She did it first. It was revenge. It was not supposed to happen. Oh, really? Ah, so you and this person

22:37 all of a sudden you were in the room and your clothes fell to the floor. Really? Wow. It's a magic act. You should be on America's Got Talent. It was just once. It was just sex. No emotion. I even paid for it. He meant nothing. She meant nothing. Again, remember this can be for single people, not only married. Number six, I was drunk. I was seduced. And look at the last one. It was just porn. Nobody involved. As a matter of fact, it was AI. H excuses. We cannot afford to make excuses.

23:25 Let me tell you the story about a couple from CCF and I have their permission to share this story. This happened a long time ago, 40ome years ago. They were not yet followers of Jesus at that time. They they had already been married for six years and the wife cheated on the husband. not yet followers of Jesus. The wife cheated on the husband. Why did she cheat on the husband? Just to show you the distorted thinking we are capable of having. Remember putting the unflushed toilet water into the wonderful drink. So this was her thinking at the time. Number one, my h my husband when we were single, she was thinking cheated on me

24:12 while we were still boyfriend girlfriend. Ah, number two, his father was a womanizer. So the chances that he will cheat on me are higher than lower. Therefore, the woman said, the wife said, I will cheat on him first. The truth is he never cheated on her. Two years past the the affair of the wife, they both became followers of Jesus. They joined CCF. The wife confessed to the husband. Again, this is a story of hope and redemption. The wife confessed to the husband and apologized. The husband forgave. The husband also apologized for his shortcomings and she forgave him. But one thing the husband

24:58 said, "You know what? If we were not yet Christians, I would have at least thrown you out of the house or I could have killed you." He was serious. So folks, again, putting unflushed toilet water into your wonderful drink, it will not just make the drink taste bad. It can kill you. It is deadly. It is poison. Now, I want to show you the results of a survey done around maybe 2017. So it's uh quite a while back but it doesn't matter because the the results are very relevant to us today. In the survey

25:44 they asked oh by the way the respondents supposedly were evangelical Christians. All right so this is not like across the board uh worldview evangelical Christians professing bibleelving Christians. And the the question was this. Say yes if you believe any of these are a form or a way of cheating on your spouse. Okay. So the percentages you see there they are the people who said yes I agree it is a form of cheating on my spouse. Now before we go to the details, I want to tell you upfront everybody including me beginning with me all of

26:31 these things we will see all of them are forms of cheating on our spouses. All of them. The other thing I want us to look at is the amazing percentages of people who said yes. Because to me the flip side is even more amazing. You mean to tell me there are people who did not agree that these are forms of cheating on your spouse? Okay, let's let's go on. Following an ex on social media, 23% said yes, it is a form of cheating. Watching porn, 31%. Going to a strip club, 37%. Going out for a meal alone with someone you are attracted to, 53%. My question is what about the balance between this

27:20 percentage and 100%. What are they thinking? What are they thinking? Sending flirtatious messages 58%. Emotional involvement with someone else 67%. Amazing. As high as what is this? 33% one-third do not agree that emotional involvement with somebody who's not your spouse is a form of cheating. For them, it is okay. But wait, >> there is more. Actively maintaining an online dating profile even while married. 68% said, "Yeah, it's cheating." Sending sexually

28:06 explicit messages content to someone else. 75%. So 25% feel you can send not only messages but videos of yourself doing whatever it is they feel it's okay really having a one night stand 77%. Romantically kissing someone else 78% having get this having regular sexual relations with someone else 82%. boss 18%. Dun number 11. What does that mean? It's okay. Evangelical Christians, are we in trouble? What is your answer to these questions?

28:51 Again, let me say they are all forms of cheating. And if you're single, you need to look at this carefully because these are the same things you need to watch out for even if you remain single for the rest of your life. So how bad is this adultery thing? In the book of Malachi, God was addressing the Jewish people, especially the leaders, and he's saying, "This is another thing you do. Do you cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand? So these guys were in trouble. They were at their wits end. They're saying, "Lord, how come you don't answer our prayer? How

29:36 come you don't accept our worship, our offerings, our sacrifices?" You know, they didn't even have to ask because God asked the question and he answered it himself. He said, "Yet you say, for what reason? Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant." Again, it could be the husband dealing treacherously with the wife. It could be the wife dealing treacherously with the husband. Okay, how many single people in the house today? Single. Single. You can learn a lot from this. Don't bring unflushed toilet water into your

30:22 future marriage. So this will help you prepare. Have a marriage that go that will be pleasing to God. Anyway, so this word treacherously, what does it mean? Look, in the original language, it means to cover with a garment. You know, it's like you're under a blanket hoping nobody will see you. to act covertly by implication to pillage. To pillage means to steal violently, to steal the sanctity of that relationship, to deal treacherously. And you know what the problem with that is? Uh dealing deceitfully, assuming, oh, nobody will know.

31:10 Where is God in that equation? What happened to our perspective of God when we used to believe that God sees everything? That's why it all begins with our perspective of who God is. Everything will follow after that whether good or whether bad. For example, what are the ingredients for adultery? Now please don't leave this place and say today we learn the ingredients for adultery. No you and I need to understand we are exposing the sin. So in our in our typical coup's retreat in CCF we would say for adultery to take

31:56 place you will need a period of time you have time on your hands. You need a place and you need a partner. But I added one more ingredient which I believe is the most important. We will need a poor perspective of God. It all begins with that and then period of time and then place. And by the way, a place, it doesn't need to be a room. It could be in your mind. It could be in your heart. And then a partner, it doesn't need to be a physical person. It could be your gadget. And then the place is the toilet. when you bring your gadget into the toilet and you do stuff you're not supposed to do. But let's look at a classic example from the Bible where we see all of these

32:41 ingredients, David and Batshiba. Then it happened in the spring at the time when kings go out to battle that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabba. But David stayed at Jerusalem. Okay, right away we see the time factor. The time factor, the time of that of year was when kings go out to battle. Did David go out to battle? >> No. >> No. Where was he? >> In Jerusalem. What was he doing there? We'll find out. Of course, we know the story. But he should have been somewhere else. But but the other thing you see here is a poor perspective of God. Don't

33:27 you say, "Well, where is a poor perspective of God?" You and I need to know the life of David. When David was much younger, walking humbly with God, so dependent on him, David would often ask God, "Lord, shall I pursue the enemy? Lord, will you grant me victory over this uh band of raiders?" And the Lord would answer him. He would say, "Go, I will be with you. You will vanquish them." But here there is no consultation with God. He there is no evidence that David asked God, "Lord, can I just stay home today?" "Yes, David, you're so tired." None. God is not in the picture. And now he had time. Now when evening came, David arose from his bed, walked around the roof of the

34:13 king's house, and from the roof he saw, oo, a woman bathing. And the woman was very beautiful in appearance. And you know, as we read these two verses, I want to point this out, remember the character of God we're talking about today is what? God is what? >> Faithful. >> Okay? Faithful, right? We see the faithfulness of God here. It may not be explicit, but you see, God was giving David possible exit points, not to go and pour unflushed toilet water into his life. Because when he saw the woman bathing, he had a choice. He could have said, "Wait a minute, but this is sorry,

34:59 Lord. This is not right. Um, I I I'll go somewhere else. I'll go read the book." But he saw and he saw and he watched. And apart from that, so David was David sent and inquired one step further inquired about the woman. And one said, "Is this not Bath Sheba, the daughter of Eli, the wife of Uriah the Hitittite?" You know, it should have hit David right away. Uriah the Hitittite. My goodness, that is one of my most loyal, devoted soldiers. How in the world can I think of even looking at his wife that way? What am I?

35:46 But poor perspective of God. David sent messengers and took her and when she came to him, he lay with her. And when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house. Question, when and where did David's adultery with Bath Sheba happen? Okay, one at a time. When How many of you say the adultery happened when he lay with Batiba? How many of you say the adultery happened even before he lay with Batshiba? You know your Bible. Congratulations.

36:31 Praise God. What about the where? How many of you say it happened in the bedroom of David? How many of you say it happened in his mind and in his heart even before it happened in the bedroom? Very good. Very very good. We just need to apply what we know. Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust, for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." And folks, this works any which way. Man to woman, woman to man, man to man, woman to woman. It is the principle. And this thing about the heart, you know,

37:17 we refer to the heart in many ways and even in unbiblical. Oh, follow your heart, you know. Uh but truly the Bible says we need to guard our heart with all diligence. The Bible also says that our heart is deceitful. And Jesus says out of the heart come evil thoughts. That's where it begins. By the way, obviously heart here does not mean our physical heart, right? Murders adulteries fornications etc., etc. No wonder the Bible says we need to guard our heart with all diligence. So, now we're getting deeper. Literal adultery, biblical, and now we

38:02 will go to spiritual adultery. Spiritual adultery occurs when I give the love that belongs to God alone to something or someone else. We will know exactly what spiritual adultery means. Jeremiah, why should I pardon you? Your sons have forsaken me. They have turned their backs on me and sworn by those who are not gods. Tell me, what do you call something that somebody regards as a god but is not really God? What do you call that thing? >> Idol. You call it an idol. We will learn a bit more of what that is. When I had fed them to the fool, they committed adultery and troop to the harlot's house. So, this is not literal adultery. It is not about people going to the

38:48 house of the prostitute. But he is saying it is as bad and as ugly and as repulsive as that because this is about spiritual adultery. And you know, it's not surprising that the word adultery sounds almost the same as idolatry. Adultery. Idolatry. So similar. Now in Ezekiel, they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. Oh, adultery and murder. This is getting worse. What is he talking about? Thus they have committed adultery with their idols. You know you and I can be by the grace

39:35 of God sexually pure. We could be faithful to our spouse. We could resist the temptation of sexual sin. But if we have any idols in our life, it is still spiritual adultery. Now I hope we understand how farreaching and how deep this issue really is. I bring you back to Tim Keller. This is a bit long, but I believe it will enrich our appreciation of idolatry. An idol is anything so central and essential to your life that should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living. It

40:21 can be family and children. In other words, idols are not always bad things. The problem is when we love what is good more than what is best. And of course the best is God. He should always be number one. So family, children, career, making money, achievement, critical acclaim, saving face meaning our reputation and social standing. It can be a romantic relationship, peer approval, competence and skill, secure and comfortable circumstances, your beauty or your brains, a great political or social cause, your morality and virtue, even success in the Christian ministry. Our

41:09 hearts are deceitful and it can easily be the throne room of idols in our life. And these are just some of them. And therefore in James chapter 4, he says, "You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?" Now notice, look at the the female version of the noun. He didn't say adulterers. He said adulteresses. Is he talking to women only? Of course not. He's talking to everybody. Why did he use the female version of this term? We'll find out. Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Now the context of this phrase the world is not

41:56 the environment. I mean God has given us a wonderful world, right? But the world here means the world system. the ways of the world which are in direct opposition to the ways of God. That's what it means. So he says friendship with the world is hostility toward God. There is no demilitarized zone. There is no neutral corner. It's either we are for God or we are against him. Jesus said that himself. Now therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Folks, enemy of God. We don't want to be that. We don't want to be that. But the moment we succumb to spiritual adultery,

42:42 we know that that is now our dilemma. God will oppose you, oppose me. He will do whatever it takes to win our hearts back to himself. All the way to the end of the Bible, Revelation 2:4, but I have this against you that you have left your first love. It's the same idea. Why is again we go back to James 4. Why the female version adulteresses? Because the church is the bride of Christ. You and I, both men and women, we comprise the bride of Christ. Jesus is our bridegroom. As a matter of fact, the Apostle Paul wrote this. I am

43:29 jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I betrothed you to one husband. Who's that? So that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray. Say this with me. From the simplicity >> and purity >> of devotion to Christ. That is Jesus expectation from you and from me because we are we have the incalculable honor of being the bride of Christ. Let me ask the married people in this

44:16 room, do you expect your spouse to be faithful to you? >> Yes. >> Single people, assuming you will get married someday, do you expect your future spouse to be faithful to you? >> Yes, >> of course. That is the expectation of our bridegroom, of you and of me, that we will be faithful to him. So, we've dealt a lot with the first part. Very heavy stuff. I think I'm already sweating in my back, but it's got to be talked about. It's got to be threshed out. But now, let's talk about redemption. And you know what?

45:01 If you're watching today or you're here in person and you have been unfaithful to your spouse in any of those ways that we talked about earlier, I want you to know, yes, there are consequences, but I want you also to know there is hope. There is hope. There is redemption in Jesus. So, let's talk about the divine cure, the faithfulness of God. Charles Spurgeon said, "The glory of God's faithfulness is that no sin of ours has ever made him unfaithful." Circumstances will never change the character of God. Our behavior or misbehavior will never change or alter

45:48 the character of God. He is immutable. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And among all of his other attributes, we can say today, God has been, is, and always will be faithful. That is his nature. When Paul wrote to Timothy, he said this, "If we are faithless," meaning we refuse to believe, we refuse to put our trust in him in a particular situation. He says he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. He cannot be somebody else. God is God. He is who he is all the time, everywhere. And he is faithful. He will be faithful to the end and forever. So folks, I think I said this earlier.

46:34 If we truly believe God is faithful, we have no business even entertaining the thought of being unfaithful to him. If we truly believe and have experienced his faithfulness in our lives, our worshipful response is to be faithful to him. in lamentations. Oh, this is the most famous verse maybe about the faithfulness of God. The Lord's loving kindnesses indeed never cease. For his compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Everybody now. >> I pray we say that from the heart and I believe we are. Great is your faithfulness. And that's where the the famous hymn comes from. And so let me just kind of summarize

47:20 the two points that we've talked about. And this is the principle. Our faithfulness to God is our worshipful response to his faithfulness to us. And when we are truly faithful to God, we will be faithful in our committed relationships. Let me tell you a story. And I'm sure so many of you have stories about the faithfulness of God in your life. But let me just encourage all of us. Now, this story has nothing to do with infidelity, but it has everything to do with the amazing faithfulness of God. This has to do with one of the members of our disciplehip group. In the last year or so, this man had four heart

48:07 attacks and he had four angoplasties. Last month, he had his fifth heart attack and he was on his way to having his fifth angoplasty. When he was brought to the hospital, the his cardiologist told him the after checking you out thoroughly, the procedure will just be too risky. The blockages in your heart are too hard. Uh it it looks like, you know, this will be so risky. I don't even want to do anything anymore. So it was like, so what now?

48:54 Can I tell you the faithfulness of God? It just so happened. Okay, it just so happened that that hospital was expecting a group of doctors from Japan to come to the Philippines and to go to that hospital. Now, it just so happened those doctors could have gone to any country in the world, but they went to the Philippines. They could have gone to any hospital in the Philippines, but they went to that hospital. They could have come at any time of the year, but they came a few days after our member was confined. And the doctor had said,

49:39 "I really don't know what to do." coincidence or faithfulness of God? So the Japanese doctors came, they had a machine with them specializing in difficult heart blockages like what he had. So they operated on him. The operation was a success. And wait, wait, wait, wait wait. Miraculously, he went home and the bill was fully paid. Hallelujah. Now you can clap. I believe that man, that couple will never be the same again.

50:25 But there's another story I want to tell you, but I won't tell it myself. I want to call our brother Neil. Neil Astronomo. Will you uh welcome our brother Neil? He will tell you an amazing story about his life. I led a very worldly lifestyle before I met Christ. Chasing self-help, materialism, and immoral relationships. Yet in all these, I felt empty. This longing led me to seek God. And in that season, I met Alvi. It was in a local community church where both of us came to know Christ. We served together, grew close, and were married in 2015. God God blessed us with two sons. In

51:12 2018, I left my corporate job to study full-time in seminary, sensing the need to be equipped for ministry. Alvi carried much of the financial and family responsibilities during this time. But despite being in ministry, I struggled with rudeness, impatience, and anger rooted in insecurity. I also entertained impure thoughts while maintaining an outward image of spiritual strength. Over time, I became emotionally involved with a young woman close to my wife. What began as seemingly harmless conversations and counseling slowly

51:59 turned into secrecy, private meetings, and eventually sexual sin. I hid this for nearly two years, too proud to confess, convincing myself that since it had ended, I could simply move on. I had prayed for an opportunity to transition from our previous church and through an invitation, God brought us to CCF in 2021. Around that same time, I also graduated from IGSL. Because life seemed to be moving forward and ministry opportunities continued, I deceived myself into thinking I had

52:46 somehow moved past beyond my hidden sin without fully confronting it before God. Looking back, I realized I misinterpreted God's providence and kindness. But scripture reminds us in Luke 8:17 that nothing hidden will remain concealed. Hidden sin poisons the soul and quietly erodess relationships. In January 2023, everything was exposed when the woman confessed to my wife. When Alvi confronted me, I admitted everything. I feared losing my family, ministry, and testimony. Yet, in that painful moment, my wife

53:32 said something I will never forget. Despite what you did, I will not do anything that will not glorify God. And you should use everything you have learned in seminary. That night, as I sat alone, I felt condemned and hopeless. But in that darkness, I was reminded of Jesus. That this was precisely why I should come to him. Not when I am strong, but when I am broken. It was also in that in this moment that God began correcting my view of him. I realized that my shallow understanding of God had allowed me to minimize sin and overestimate myself.

54:19 But seeing him rightly as holy and faithful broke me. His holiness exposed the death of my sin while his faithfulness assured me that he had not abandoned me. This led me not just to regret but to genuine repentance, deeper worship, and a renewed desire to follow Christ in humility and dependence. That same evening, we reached out for help from trusted spiritual mentors and leaders. The next day, I confessed everything to my family and in-laws, expecting anger, but instead received grace, forgiveness, and support for

55:05 restoration. It was a living picture of Hebrews 12:6-7. The Lord disciplines those he loves. And even before I asked for forgiveness, Alvi said, "Christ forgave me, so I am willing to forgive you." That grace became a powerful instrument God used to soften my heart and lead me toward true repentance. We began the long process of restoration, meeting with pastors, receiving counseling, and rebuilding trust. It was painful to revisit the past, but God sustained us. The CCF community became his instrument of grace, walking

55:53 with us through biblical discipline and restoration. Our leadership roles were set aside so we could focus on healing. Through accountability, counseling, and faithfully walking with the community, God slowly replaced my shame with the assurance of his love. Today by his grace we are able to serve and walk alongside others through premarital counseling the across family ministry and even the privilege of officiating weddings. Alongside this we also belong to a disciplehip group and by his grace we also lead our own couples dgroup.

56:39 These are not rewards but reminders that God delights in using redeemed sinners for his purposes. In my role overseeing disciplehip management for CCF, I am continually reminded that this is not about merit but grace. All of this points to one truth. It has never been about me. It is about a holy and faithful God who restores what is broken, lifts the undeserving and e and uses even our failures for his glory. 2 Timothy 2 21 says, "If anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use,

57:25 useful to the master, ready for every good work." My name is Neil Astronom and to God alone be all the glory. Okay, we're at the end. It's amazing how Neil talked about that verse. If one cleanseth himself from these, you know, things, he'll be useful to the master. Um, we began our message today by talking about this wonderful cold drink and adulterating it with unflushed toilet water. Well, as we end our time together,

58:11 I want to let you know that God is in the business of taking what should normally be garbage, useless, something to be thrown away, but making it into something beautiful. What you see on the screen is an actual picture of one of the landfills in the slum areas of Catura in Paraguay. Now landfills like this are common especially in third world countries. We obviously have our own share of these but there's a reason why I'm showing you the one in Cura Paraguay. Now uh this happened some time back but uh on a regular basis 3 million pounds of garbage would be dumped into this landfill. And you and I know that

58:58 where landfills are there is poverty and where poverty is there is crime and there is drugs. There was a man who had a burden for the young people who lived in the slums of Catura Paraguay. And he said, you know, being a a musician himself, he said, I want to to get some of these young people and teach them to play music. As a matter of fact, his desire was to assemble an orchestra composed of these young people. But of course the question was where will I get the instruments? Instruments are expensive. So this man talked to a friend. This friend was an expert carpenter.

59:46 He told him his dream. He told him his heart's desire for the young people of the slums of Catura. And so this carpenter said, "I know what we will do. We will take pieces of garbage from the landfill and we will create instruments out of the garbage. And so that's what that expert carpenter did. And eventually the what they call the recycled orchestra or the landfill harmonic was formed. And so many of the young people from those slum areas, they had their instruments made out of garbage. They

1:00:31 had a bass with a body from an oil can, a saxophone made from rain gutters with bottle caps and coins, a violin fashioned from a pizza pan, a fork and a spoon, and so many others. And this recycled orchestra or a landfill harmonic, they became famous at one time all over the world. They played in many places throughout the world. They made beautiful music out of what once was the garbage in their lives. Folks, you may be here today or you may be watching online and you realize that there is garbage in your life.

1:01:16 For some of you, it could be a lot of garbage. It could be garbage that was dumped on you. It could also be garbage that you dumped on yourself because of poor choices in the past. Well, I'm here to tell you that God specializes in taking garbage of our lives and turning it into something beautiful so that our lives can make beautiful music as worship unto the Lord. And by the way, the one who can do that, transform the garbage of our lives into something beautiful is also an expert. He's the most expert carpenter and his name is Jesus. And he can and he will do that for you if you

1:02:05 give your life to him. You may have given your life to him before, but perhaps you went wayward and now you regret it. There is hope. Yes, there are consequences. But believe that in Jesus there is forgiveness, there is redemption, and there is hope. I want us to pray. If you're here today and you want to totally give your life or recommmit your life to Jesus, do it now. Let's pray and tell him, "Lord Jesus, I just want to thank you that you are a faithful God." That even if when I am faithless, you remain faithful, Lord Jesus. And today, I want to commit or in some cases recommmit my life to you. I

1:02:50 want Lord my life to be yours completely. I pray Lord Jesus that you will forgive me of my sin. That you will take all of the garbage of my life and that you will redeem me from the pit that I'm in. That you will cleanse me. Cleanse my soul from the stain of sin. Make me a brand new person so that I can walk in newness of life and declare to the world that you are a faithful God because I will have experienced your faithfulness personally in my life and may the rest of my life Lord Jesus make one and one declaration and that is you are faithful. Thank you God for who you are. Allow us

1:03:38 to worship you through our wholehearted obedience to your commands joyfully not under compulsion that it may please you at all times. This is our prayer in Jesus name and everyone said amen and amen. Good day CCF family. Welcome to Sunday FastTrack where you ask real life questions and we give you biblical truths. I'm Michelle Oblashan from the Big Singles Ministry and we're here today with Pastor Ricky. Thank you, Pastor Ricky, for the message that you shared with us today. >> It was my pleasure and privilege. >> Praise God for that. Are you ready to answer our questions? >> Let's see.

1:04:24 >> All right, let's proceed with the first question. How should we deal with pornography struggles, especially when it has become habitual or hidden for years? What steps lead toward freedom, healing, and accountability? >> You know, there have been books written and seminars given for to answer this question. So, I'll really have to keep it short. I would say first admit and expose the sin. That's the first thing that needs to happen. Repentance, genuine. And then have deep accountability with people you can trust and who can tell you off when you need to be told off. And take practical steps like don't bring your gadget into the toilet or have some kind of software that will alert somebody else that

1:05:11 you're looking at stuff you're not supposed to look at. But in the end, it is about being spiritfilled all the time. Because as the Bible says, when we are filled with the spirit, we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. >> Thank you, Pastor Ricky. So, uh, practice accountability. And speaking of accountability, if you don't have a disciplehip group yet, please join one today. >> All right. Next question. How can someone recover spiritually and emotionally after falling into sexual sin or impurity? How do we move from shame toward repentance and transformation in Christ? >> That's another three hours. But I think the best way to answer the question as briefly as possible, but meaningful nonetheless, is to look at the example

1:05:57 of the adulterous woman. Now, in the case of the adulterous woman in John chapter 8, she was brought to Jesus. But when we or if we become guilty of this, we need to bring ourselves to him. First of all, come to him in humility and repentance. Like we said earlier, admit and expose the sin and allow him to minister to us and allow him to assure us that uh this is not the end of the world. We can still recover from this and receive his forgiveness. But at the same time, Jesus said something very important to the adulterous woman. Do you remember? He said, "Go and sin no more." So I would think that is like a summary of how to how to best answer that question. Thank you, Pastor Ricky.

1:06:43 We have new life in Jesus. Go and say no more. And for the next question, is adultery or repeated unfaithfulness biblical grounds for separation or divorce? How do we balance God's heart for covenant, forgiveness, wisdom, and protection in difficult marriages? >> I cannot answer that question categorically because up to today, there are people on, as they say, both sides of the aisle. As a matter of fact, if we had only one answer to that question, we wouldn't even need to ask the question. So, you have people who vehemently maintain that yes, if there is adultery, you can divorce. But I really think it's not as simple as that. Let me tell you what most if not all Christians must agree on when it comes to this issue.

1:07:29 And it's two things. Number one is you must forgive from the heart. And the second is you must exhaust all reasonable ways to be reconciled. At the end of the day, we have to take each case on its own specifics. But those two things, no compromise. >> For the last question, how do we process the reality that even Christian leaders can fall into sexual immorality? How can churches create healthy accountability, transparency, and restoration processes for leaders who fail? It is true that Christian leaders are held to a higher level of uh standard, higher moral standard. But the answer to that question is the same answer for anybody else, any other professing Christian and that is don't first of all

1:08:15 don't ever think that oh this will never happen to me. Second is you need to establish deep accountability. The problem with many Christian leaders especially those that we've seen who fell is that they lacked or maybe they had no accountability. Maybe people thought they were beyond reach or maybe that's how uh they portrayed themselves. But Christian leaders just like any other Christian, we need deep accountability. We h we need to have personal devotions. We need to make sure that people are speaking into our walk with Christ and that we are not afraid to be vulnerable and humble and ask for help when we are struggling. Same thing for everybody. >> Thank you, Pastor Ricky. So, let's practice accountability, find a group

1:09:01 that we can be accountable to and really grow in the Lord. Thank you so much for answering our questions, Pastor Ricky. >> You're welcome. >> And that's it for Sunday Fastrack. God bless you guys. >> God bless. Heat. Heat. N.