THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT

     Now, you folks kinda staying kinda formal. You're broadminded, aren't
you. I mean, you believe rough folks enjoy themselves, surely! I'll just bet
you do.

     Exodus chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20. Now, you picked a rough morning to
come this morning. We've been preaching a series of sermons on the Ten
Commandments. We've got now to Commandment number 7, "Thou shalt not commit
adultery." Jeremiah says the land is full of adulterers. Jeremiah says the
land is full of adulterers, and he says, "Will ye steal and kill and commit
adultery and come into this house that is called by my name, and say you're
delivered to do these abominations?"

     Exodus chapter 20, verse 3. First commandment: "Thou shalt have no other
gods before me." Second commandment: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven
image, or any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is]
in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth:  Thou shalt
not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a
jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the
third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me;  And shewing mercy unto
thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments." Third commandment:
"Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will
not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." Next commandment, fourth
commandment: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days shalt thou
labour, and do all thy work:  But the seventh day [is] the sabbath of the LORD
thy God:" That's a ceremonial law. In the middle of the moral commandments,
that's a Jewish sign, and a Jewish ceremony. "[In it] thou shalt not do any
work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy
maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates." So
that's a multiple thing.  That has to do with the whole nation; that's a
national commandment. These other commandments are individual. "For [in] six
days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and
rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and
hallowed it." Fifth commandment: "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy
days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee." Sixth
commandment: "Thou shalt not kill." Seventh commandment: "Thou shalt not
commit adultery."

     Now, Father, we pray the Holy Spirit of God this morning will enlighten
this congregation. We're thankful for the good time we had in the Lord today.
We're thankful that Sunday morning for us is not one of these cut-and-dry,
dead, ritualistic, formal things with the curse of God upon it. We're
thankful, heavenly Father, that our Saviour is just as real to us Saturday
night and Monday morning as He is this morning. We pray that the word of God
will be clear today, and give thy servant the spiritual lips and the spiritual
heart and the spiritual mind to preach this message the way it ought to be
preached. Take these lips of clay and transform by your grace, that I might
utter the words that are pleasing in your sight. We pray that if there are any
unsaved people got in this building this morning, they'll not leave without
Jesus Christ. And may they learn the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanseth
us from all sin. We pray it in His name. Amen. Amen."

     Now this commandment says, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." The Bible
has this word in it many, many times. The first sin that a Pharisee noticed
after a Sabbath-breaking was adultery. And they brought a women to Jesus
Christ one time taken in adultery. And they got her there, and they said, "We
caught this woman in the very act." John chapter 8. Those Pharisees had that
thing in their mind all the time for some reason.

     It seemed like the more straight-laced, the more secondarily-separated,
and the more doubly-disciplined and ascetic a fellow gets, the worst he's
tempted with that kind of stuff. I bet you the convents and the nunneries and
the monasteries in this country, I'll bet some of those places are demoniac
hell-holes. The Pharisees, that thing worked on them all the time. All the
time. The caught that woman, they said, they caught that woman in the act, and
they were gonna stone her. And Christ wouldn't let 'em stone her. And he said,
"The first one of you doesn't have any sin, you cast the first stone."

     And the reason why He said that is back in your Old Testament, Leviticus
chapter 20 verse 10. It says, "If a man commits adultery with a woman, the
adulterer and the adulteress shall be both put to death." Now, they brought
this woman and said, "We caught her in the act." Well, if they caught her in
the act, they caught her with a man. How come they didn't bring the man? Boy,
there's some chauvinism for you. How do you like that one? I mean, they
brought in the woman, and said, "She's guilty." Why, she isn't guilty just by
herself. There's a man involved.

     All right, the woman got blamed. And women usually get blamed. And, I
must confess, after something like 62 years on this earth, I'm convinced that
most of the people who commit adultery are men. I think, when it comes to
adultery, I think the men probably outnumber the women about five-to-one. Men
are polygamists. I mean, got more than one. Women are monogamous. They want
just one--a certain one.

     I don't know why that is. But, the longer I live and the longer I observe
human nature, the more a thing impresses me, and it's worked on me, and I've
thought about it very often. And the thing that has impressed me is Western
women, is that they all want to look different. A woman won't forgive another
woman for wearing the same dress to the same party. Why is that? Isn't that
peculiar? You never saw two men embarrassed about wearing the same clothes; in
the Army they all wear the same uniform, and nobody thinks anything about it.
Do you know why that is? I'm treading on very soft ground here; I must be
careful what I say, but I'm gonna say it. There must be something women know
about themselves. Women, way down deep, they must feel like they're all kind
of alike. And they try so hard to be different.

     And you take men. They don't have to try to be different; they're all
different. Believe me, ladies, they are. I know maybe 100 of you personally,
and 300 of you indirectly, and I don't know any two men in this building even
slightly alike. They don't think the same way, they don't act the same way,
they don't talk the same way, they don't have the same taste--but if you put
them all in the same clothes, they all look alike. But they're not. But
they're not.

     I don't believe there's a case in the Old Testament where you find a
woman messing around with more than one man. Not in the history part of it,
see. I mean, in the Book of Proverbs, they step out on their husband, that
kind of thing. But Solomon had 1,000 wives. You never find any woman in the
Bible who had 1,000 husbands. Even five of them. Even two of them. Isn't that
a strange thing? He had 1,000 wives, and he wasn't satisfied with that.

     All right, the Bible says, "Thou shalt not commit." The Bible says,
"Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." I don't care what they call that
in the world, the Bible says, "Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge."
And they call it, "Adult consent." Well, just change the label on the bottle;
that doesn't mean a thing.

     The Bible says in the last days in the Book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah said,
"They're like fed horses in the morning; everyone neighed after his neighbor's
wife." Isn't that a picture of America. Get up in the morning---NEIGH NEIGH
NEIGH! That's what it is! Listen, you hang around the locker rooms, the
baseball place, and the spa, you'll hear the talk! You think this Bible hasn't
got their number? Hosea says, "They [are] all adulterers, as an oven heated by
the baker, [who] ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until
it be leavened." That word for adultery is a word like leaven; it means to
mix. Basically, adultery is mixing two things that don't belong together.

     If a guy and his wife are married, and their flesh is one flesh, then her
flesh has no business mixing with somebody else's flesh. And his flesh has no
business mixing with somebody else's flesh. That's the wrong mixture. That's
leaven. That's adultery.

     I know what the world says about it, what they teach about it. I came up
in the world. I know what the world system teaches about it right now. I know
at Woodham High School, Pensacola High School, and Washington High School,
they teach those kids, when these matters come up, that different people have
different values that they live by, and your lifestyle should fit you. I'm
here to tell you that "Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." That's it.
If you don't believe it, mess with the whores, mess with the adulterers, and
watch God judge you.

     If I've told you a hundred times, I've told you once, if you break a law,
you pay the price of the law. And the fact that you pay shows there was a
violation. And the fact that you don't believe it's a law is immaterial.

     Now, I'm gonna talk about three things. First of all, the cause of
adultery. Then the curse of adultery. And then the cure for adultery.

     First of all, the cause. One of the main causes, and perhaps the main
cause, is unhappy marriages. You get married, and you don't know what you've
got until it's too late and find out. You fall in love with a man and find out
he's a person. You fall in love with a female and find out she's a woman.

     I won't marry people who have only known each other for one or two
months. It isn't safe. It isn't safe. You don't know that person one or two
months. You married folks who've lived with each other for ten and twenty
years, you're beginning to wonder if you know 'em after ten or twenty years.
How ya gonna know them one or two months?

     Unhappy marriages can cause adultery. I mean, a fellow gets tired with
his wife, hang around another woman. If she gets tired of her husband, hang
around another man. And the modern civilization trains them quickly. Florida
law is, 25 bucks go down there, split the thing up, and quit. That's a bad
law. You know why it's a bad law? There's no character training in it.

     Back in the old days, when people get married--my mother and father
stayed married all their live--something like almost 50 years. My mother was a
very unhappy woman; she drank herself to death. So did my aunt. So did my
uncle, as far as that goes. The whole family was full of drunks. But they had
old-fashioned standards about certain things. When my mother and dad married,
the divorce rate was about one out of 20. Back in those days, they considered
that if you made a failure in your home, you were a failure whatever else you
were a success at. I don't know if I look at those things exactly like that or
not, and maybe not exactly that way. But I'll say this for them. They had
character, and they tried to stick it out, and make the best of a bad
situation, and did the best they could.

     And you don't teach kids that any more. You teach kids, if you don't like
it, quit. If you can't have your way, quit. You don't want to go here? Don't
go here! If you want to go there, go there!

     NO!

     I mean, try your best to do right, and work at it day and night, and do
the very best you can, before any marriage breaks up. If your marriage is
breaking up, just make sure it doesn't break up just because you don't have
the character to make it last. Work at it.

     And unhappy marriage is the cause. You take the modern way of doing
things. How can you expect people to have character? Some of you girls, you're
raised on a washer and dryer and a TV and a refrigerator and an electric
range, and your husband hasn't walked since he was 17 years old, got one foot
for the break and one for the gas pedal. And you got a bunch of people that
will not take something hard. When something hard comes, they quit. I've seen
'em come down. I've seen 'em come down here, and when the winter came, they
took 'em a 30-gallon oil drum and cut it open and put coal in it and burn wood
in it and put the pipe out the window to stay warm. Because there wasn't
anything they could have. The fellow did that, by the way, is Brother Erdas,
who now has a church and a Bible institute. The Lord took care of him. They're
not used to going where it's tough.

     You take in high school and junior high school, you young people coming
up, you're gonna have a terrible time getting married right. Because the crowd
you're with doesn't have any character. They haven't been made to do anything.
You girls 13 and 14 and 15, I don't envy you, boy, I'll tell you. You got it
tough. What you got to pick for a man is practically nothing. I mean, it was
bad enough 20 years ago, now it's really something!

     I mean, you girls 13, 14, 15, that love babies, love little children. Can
you write on a sheet of paper all the young men you know, 17, 18, 19, 20, that
want to raise a family, and want to take care of children, and want to take
care of you, and are male enough to have a protective instinct--when another
man messes with you, they'll give him a hard time? It's getting mighty quiet
in here!

     Folks say that's old fashioned. You can't beat that! And the reason why
he gets to lookin' around is because he can't stand you, and you get lookin'
around is because you can't stand him. The reason why you can't stand each
other is because there's nothin' there to stand!

     All right, I'll tell you another cause of adultery. Magazines and
television. You can't keep looking at these dirty pictures in these dirty
magazines, and come out clean--no way you can. You can't keep comparing
Hollywood models and Tennessee models and Texas models with your wife. She'll
look like a freight train that ran off the bridge.

     And the same goes for you women. You can't keep watching these bold,
dashing, daring your Burt Reynolds, with all this charm, and your old man
comes home and looks like some fellow who fell off the back end of a garbage
truck--you can't do that. That's right, man!

     I'll tell you, that thing has a detrimental influence on the home. You
watch "Dallas"? What is it? Adultery, adultery, adultery! You watch "Dynasty"?
Adultery, adultery, adultery! That's just a big fornicating mess! Don't you
know that? I mean, who's shackin' up with who? He's shackin' up with her! He
quit shackin' up, shacking up, shackin' up! I mean, cook has got an affair
with the guy that runs the stable, you know, and he's got an affair with the
postman's daughter, and she's got an affair with the head of the company, and
he's got an affair with a girl who lives next--

     What a mess! What a stinkin' mess!

     You get foolin' with that stuff, and it encourages adultery. It
glamorizes adultery. That's a cause of adultery. A fellow said, "I've seen
television grow from infancy to adultery." And I believe that.

     Did you ever stop to think about this? Where did that word "adult" can
from? Think about that. I just can't wait until I get to be an "adult"! What a
strange word! Did you ever wonder where that word came from? You don't find
that word in the Bible. There are no "adults" in the Bible. There are
"adultereresses" in the Bible. And there's "adulterers" in the Bible. But no
adults.

     You know what somebody has done? Somebody has switched your language
around to make you think that you're not grown up until you've messed around
with a married woman or a married man! And they got away with it! They said,
"Child," and they become an "adult." What does that mean? That means a
fornicator--or whatever it did mean. An "adult" movie. Or this "PG"--"parental
guidance." "PG"--"pretty gross." Rated "R"--"rotten." "Raunchy."

     Cause of adultery--magazines, television. Finally, extenuating
circumstances. You say, "There's no such thing as extenuating circumstances."
Yes, there is. Yes, there is. My wife is in the hospital today, and she was
talking with a fellow that was an old drunk, drinking himself to death. And
that fellow gave her a fine witness, a good witness for the Lord, and told her
how he got saved, and everything else. Gave a real testimony--I mean, a much
better one than Reagan or Abraham Lincoln ever gave. But just couldn't whip
that liquor. I believe that.

     This is where I part company with Jack Hyles and Bob Jones III and Arlen
Horten and over at Santa Rosa and Jerry Falwell and all the kiddies. I've
worked in rescue missions, slept with the bums, ate with the bums, talked with
the bums, followed 'em down the street! I know bums. I think there are
thousands of saved bums in this country. I think there are thousands of men
who can't whip that liquor till the day they die. That old boy said he died
one time, his heart stopped, he dreamt of going to Heaven, and the Lord said,
"Go back, I don't want you!"

     Boy, that would be a disappointment, wouldn't it?

     You take in adultery. There's no way to justify it. I wouldn't justify
the thing until Hell froze over. It's wrong. It's wrong. But, boy, let me tell
you, some of you folks better be careful how you walk, some of you good, clean
folks. You're not married to a husband who's been in a wheelchair for 50
years. You don't know what you're talking about! You know, I find a couple of
adults up there in Ohio, been married to a fellow hasn't hadn't worked at all
for 20 or 25 years. Nice young fellow, good looking fellow, got shot up in
Vietnam. You better be careful!

     I got a telephone call tonight. About half of my counseling ministry is
on the telephone. In here, just any hour of the day or night. And they come
there with the telephone, "Well, Brother Ruckman, I'm a Christian. I've had
this man got hardening in the arteries, and he's practically senile now, and
he's not 40 years old. I'm a Christian, he's Christian. And there's a man down
in the office that makes remarks at me and invites me out to lunch, and he's a
Christian--and he's single. And I can't tell you my name, but I'm at the end
of my rope, and I want some advice. I don't want to sin against God, I want to
do right. What should I do?"

     Any of you want to pick up the phone? Some of my great Christian leaders,
some of my great Christian brothers, pick up the phone and say, "It is the
will of God..." huh! You're a fool! You're a fool!

     You take in World War I and World War II, there's many a guy got a "Dear
John" note, boy. What you gonna do? Go off overseas. Some of those boys were
overseas 42 months. You women gonna stay home? Your wife gonna wait for you 42
months, is she? Missing in action? Don't know whether you're gonna get back or
not? Sit around and play cards? Nit, is she?

     You say, "Well, maybe she should." But you better be careful! You better
be careful. Circumstances like that can cause adultery. That's one of the
causes of adultery.

     Now, the curse of adultery. First of all, illegitimate children. You say,
"I'm gonna play it safe, and I know this, and I know that, and I know what to
do." Yeah, people always think they're smarter than what they are. This
country is filled with illegitimate children; if you don't believe it, talk to
the postman. You understand, he carries the check; I'm trying to get something
across to you here; he carries the check, you know. Go down to Cervantes, you
know, and watch them carry the checks!

     And there are children all over this country who don't know who their
father is. Hundreds of them. Illegitimate children growing up. Don't know who
Daddy is; some of them don't know who their mamas are. Just dumped.

     Secondly, disease. Some of you have got syphilus whipped; you haven't got
AIDS whipped. "Well, we've got this other disease whipped." Yeah, but you
haven't got herpes whipped. And, when you whip them, the Lord'll whip
something else up on you.

     That Bible says, "Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." I don't
care how careful you are, how much you know, and what you know to take, and
what not to take. The Lord'll find some way to get to you.

     Go up there North, and a guy said, "Do you know what GAY means?" I said,
"No." He said, "It means, 'Got AIDS yet?'"

     Ah, that's pretty good. I don't mind laughing at things like that. They
laugh at my religion, they laugh at what I preach, they laugh at my Bible,
I'll laugh at them. Ha ha ha ha ha! Want to ruin my kids and get ahold of my
little boys and girls and make perverts out of 'em? Do some laughin' myself!
Ho ho ho ho, boy! Caught up with you!

     Why, the undertakers are now saying the body should be cremated. Because
they're saying that when the people have that disease when they die, that
stuff goes in the ground and messes up the water system. How 'bout that, boy?
I mean, burn 'em!

     Sex education has raised the rate of disease in America 800 percent in
less than twenty years. Since 1964, up V.D. 800 percent. That's mixing races
in the school and putting sex education in the school.

     Population in that time increased less than 20 percent. It isn't a matter
of balance. It isn't a matter of, "Well, there are more people." It isn't like
that. It's a matter of this: "Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his
clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?
So he that goeth into his neighbor's wife, whosoever toucheth her, shall not
be innocent." Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his soul when
he's hungry; that's a necessity. But if he be found, he shall restore
sevenfold--extenuating circumstances, but he still had to pay. "But whoso
committeth adultery with a woman lacks understanding; he that doeth it
destroyeth his own soul." A wound in dishonor shall he get, and his reproach
shall not be wiped away. Why? "For jealousy is the rage of a man; therefore he
will not spare in the day of vengeance."

     You keep on messin' around with somebody's wife, messin' with his wife,
pretty soon you'll get a guy who's jealous, and he'll take you through court,
and hound you the rest of your life. Eat you alive, boy. Just because he hates
you.

     He may not have any reason after it's over to hate you; just keeps right
on hating you. Some men are like that; some women are like that. You wouldn't
mess around and step out on your husband, your husband will step out on you,
some of you women, your hatred will sustain you for 30 years. It'll show up on
your face, too, sister. You get up there around 40 years old, you'll like me;
how'd you like to have a face like me? You imagine a woman with a face like
me?

     You know how some women live? They live just on the envy and the jealousy
of something that happened back there 10 or 20 years, their hatred for
somebody, some other woman, or some man holding them up--and they live and
feed off it. You know what it is? It's the judgment of God! A wound of
dishonor shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away. Now, maybe
you won't get a disease; you'll get something else.

     All right, the curse of adultery. It causes illegitimate children. It
causes disease. It causes divorce.

     People can talk all they want to; the main cause of divorce is people
messing around with other people. You can talk all you want to about this
money trouble and liquor trouble, and all this and that and so forth and so
on, but the real trouble is people stepping out on each other. People are by
nature proud; they're by nature self-centered. They resent somebody messing
with something that's theirs.

     And a guy that would normally not care what his wife did, and give a flip
about it, if some guy gets to messin' with her, he suddenly turn around and
become a different man altogether.

     Back about 20 years ago, we had this communal yippie-hippie commie zippie-
zappie junk, and a bunch of kids running around out in the bushes naked and
trying to live together and trying to raise families together--it didn't work.
You know why it didn't work? Because of human nature. No woman out there is
gonna be content to share a man with four or five other guys, and when the
anniversary comes around, he remembers two of them, and doesn't remember her.
And, "He shows more attention to her baby than to my baby!" Oh, you bet your
boots, boy!

     I'll tell you, people are self-centered. You know what human nature is?
It's "Me first, and you next!" That's how it is. It'll never work right,
unless you're for him, and he's for you. Won't work right.

     Why, eventually, they're gonna get rid of the family, keep on foolin' on
like this, everybody steppin' out, steppin' out, swappin' kids and all this
mess. Pretty soon the child will be the property of the federal state. You
know who first proposed that? Plato. In Plato's Republic, 300 years before
Jesus Christ was born, he said the state ought to raise the children.

     All right, now there are different kinds of adultery. First of all,
there's desire. By desire we mean, "Whoever looks upon a woman to lust after
her in his heart hath already committed adultery with her." The prodigal in
his daddy's house got to thinking about the far country and dreamin' about the
far country, and desiring to go to the far country, and pretty soon he got to
the far country. Why? He wanted to get there. You desire the thing before you
take it. Jesus Christ says in Matthew 15, "Those things which proceed out of
the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the
heart--out of the heart--proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
adulteries, adulteries--" they come from inside. That's desire--wanting the
thing--"fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies"--these are the
things which defile a man. But to eat with unwashen hands does not defile a
man.

     One of my most viable critics in America is a fellow who came to school
here one time; his name is John McGraw. He's out in California now; we call
him "The Gospel Blimp." I never saw him when he wasn't 50 pounds overweight.
Most of the time he was 80 pounds overweight. He was a good kid; just got
misdirected and misguided; ran up with the wrong company and the wrong crowd.

     But you take, when he wrote me a letter one time, he said, "Well," he
said, "My overweight, you needn't make fun of my gluttony." He said, "It's
kept me from committing adultery." No, it won't keep you from committing
adultery. Those things come from the heart. Your size, boy, ain't got nuthin'
to do with it. "Whoever looks upon a woman to lust after her HATH ALREADY
committed adultery."

     Even those legalistic fellows, one of those "Don't do this, don't do
that," you know, "This is wrong," and "That's wrong," and "Look out," and
"Don't touch this," and "Don't take that." One of those doubly highly-
separated fellows. Uh-huh. Well, Christ says it's INSIDE you. It's desire.
That's one kind of adultery.

     Second kind of adultery, which you're familiar with. Physical adultery.
Of course, you have that mentioned all the way through the Bible. David's an
outstanding case. Joseph is an outstanding case. Joseph is tempted, but runs
and flees. The Bible says "Flee youthful lusts." He runs and resists and gets
away. David doesn't. David surrenders.

     You say, "Well, can a Christian do those things?" Yes, a Christian can do
those things. I get so tired of these doubly highly-separated secondary
brethren, sometimes, I could--I was going to say one word, but I'll say
"regurgitate", the other word. But, oh, what a holy bunch of spiritual people
they are! Oh, these Christians just can't do anything wrong! When I read the
life of histories of Westcott and Hort and Nestles and Waldorf and Vinegar and
all these good, godly, dedicated men, I wonder if they ever just ever commit
any sin! They must have been sinless.

     "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulation, wrath, strife, sedition, heresies, envyings, murders,
drunkenness, and such like, of the which I tell you before, as I have told you
in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of
God." That list I read you is given to born-again, Bible-believing Christians,
under a Pauline ministry in the New Testament. And he told you the works of
your flesh are these, and told you what your flesh would do. And you know
what's right next to murder in that list--ENVYING! You mean to tell me none of
the brethren are ever jealous of each other? My, my, my, my. "Heresies"--
plural. You mean to tell me that none of the brethren ever teach any false
teaching? My, my, my, my.

     This brings me to say that there's not only physical adultery, and
adultery by desire, but there's spiritual adultery. There can be a leavening
of the word of God--messing up the word of God. You take David. David lost
four of his kinfolk because of that sin of adultery. And I never read about
Solomon losing any of his. All of Solomon's sons lived. But God destroyed
Israel because of Solomon. Solomon's sins were spiritual.

     Christian leaders lust after money. You know how they lust after money?
"Out of the abundance of a man's heart, his mouth speaks." I'm suspicious of
any man--I don't care if he's a godly man, as Lester Roloff or Billy Graham or
Falwell--I'm suspicious of a man, every time he gets up on a thirty-minute
program, and spends fifteen minutes trying to get to drum up money.

     "Out of the abundance of a man's heart, his mouth speaks." Some of you
folks have been going to this church for nine, ten, fifteen years. You haven't
heard a dozen times in this church in fifteen years, any pitch for money. You
haven't heard it. You might have heard it maybe three times. Maybe three times
in fifteen years. Maybe once every five years. You know why that is? The
reason why that is? I don't covet the money; the money's no good unless you
can give it to God. All you can do with the money is buy junk. You say, "I
sure like to have a lot of junk." You'll have some some day, bless your heart.
Some day, you'll have a house full of junk. So much junk you won't know what
to do with it.

     They lust after money, they lust after property. I mean, "Buy a square
foot of Liberty Mountain," you know, that kind of stuff. They lust for
recognition. "Look at us!" They lust for accreditation; "we want the world to
recognize us." They lust for publicity. Lust, lust. What's it like? It's just
like lusting after a woman.

     I know some fellows who wouldn't think of lusting after a woman, but
they'll lust after a new car. Or a Yamaha! These people who commit spiritual
adultery, they fancy they're spiritual, and they're not spiritual at all. You
take these new Bibles they put out; you know what they are? They're adulterous
Bibles. They're adulterated. They're leaven. Why, these fellows talk about
"Goin' to the Greek," "Goin' to the Greek," I believe I got one Greek nugget
out of the Greek in reading it through something like 15 times--I mean, every
word in the Greek. I believe I got one "nugget" in 15 times through--that's
pretty slim pickin's, man! You can get more than that in one reading through
John.

     But you take, I went through there one time, and found in Matthew 19
where it says, "If that fellow wants to put away his wife, let him give her a
bill of divorcement." I looked up that word in Greek and it said, "An aposteas
biblion." "An apostate bible." He said, "If a guy wants to put away his wife,
let him give her an apostate bible!" Woooo! Boy, does that put the church in
rough shape! But that's what you get! You get an apostate bible!

     Why, you take these bibles. You don't have to know Greek or Hebrew to
know something's wrong with these bibles. I mean, figure it from the
standpoint of human nature. Be broadminded. Put yourself in the other fellow's
shoes. I figure to myself and I say, "Now, suppose I really did love money.
Suppose I thought that was the greatest thing in the world. What in here would
I change?" And then I would turn to that verse and I would change it.

     I say to myself, "Now, just suppose I thought I was a real bigshot, like
some people think I am, and a lot of people don't think I am. Makes no
difference to me. But suppose I thought I was really something because of my
education, really proud of my degrees. I wonder what verses I'd change?"

     Hey, boy! I know where they are! I could fix that bible up so it would be
a Peter Ruckman bible! I could fix that bible up so it wouldn't ruffle my
feathers or cross me one time! Because I know what verses to change! You know
what I'm gonna do? I ain't gonna change nuthin' in there!

     These fellows who promote these new bibles, you come across here to 1
Timothy chapter 6, and it says, "For the love of money is a root of all kinds
of evil." Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah! Ah, ah! Naughty, naughty!

     I pick up that Bible in Romans chapter 1, where they said, "They changed
the truth of God into a lie," and the fellow has written down there, "They
exchanged the truth of God for a lie." And I say, "Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah--
somebody's messin' with that Book!" You know what that is? That's spiritual
adultery.

     Now, there are people who haven't committed adultery who think they have.
There are people who have committed adultery who think they haven't. There are
people who have not committed adultery who think they have, and sometimes the
brethren make them think they have, too. Some of you have had the misfortune
to go through a divorce, and you've been remarried, and some of the brethren
will lie to you until Hell freezes over about you living in adultery.

     "He's got two living wives." "She has three living husbands." All that
kind of business. Listen, if your wife or husband left you on Scriptural
grounds--fornication, joined her body with another man--you have Scriptural
grounds for divorce, and you are not living in adultery. And you haven't
committed adultery. And that goes for you ladies, too. Your husband went off
and left you, and married somebody else, or one left you and shacked up with
somebody else, and you remarried, you're not living in adultery, and you
haven't committed adultery. And don't let them tell you you have, when you
haven't.

     Oh, some of the brethren are so holy, boy! Listen, I thank God for you
folks that are married and stayed married ten, twenty, thirty, forty years--
more power to you. Really! I mean, sincerely! I hope you stay married sixty
years. Well, I want the Lord to come before then. But, I mean, if the Lord
tarried, I hope you stay married to the same woman sixty-five years. More
power to you, man! You've earned, you deserve the Congressional Medal of
Honor. And she deserves five Purple Hearts! I'm all for that.

     But don't let them kid you into thinking that you've sinned when you
haven't sinned. You ladies, you're married to an unfaithful man stepping out
on you, he's guilty, and you're not. You fellows who have married a woman
stepping out on you, she's guilty, and you're not. Common! Common!

     I mean, right here in this church, right here in this school, we've had
at least three guys, went through the whole thing, man. I know at least three
guys--I'm not going to give you their name--but their wives, their wives
weren't fit, man, to raise a rag doll, let alone boys and girls. And I mean
it. I mean it.

     You take those fellows there, and they worry about getting married again,
fine, more power to 'em. Hope it'll be a good one, I sure hope it'll be a
better one than what they had. And folks say, "Well, Christians shouldn't do
those things." They shouldn't do 'em, but they do 'em.

     My good friend Glen Schunk--I never will forget what a shock it was to me
one time. He was telling me about a lady he witnessed to up in Greenville,
South Carolina, in an office where they worked, and he was dealing with this
lady about her soul. She claimed to be a Christian. And about three days he
heard her back at the water cooler talking to one of the single men in the
place. And he said, "Well, is your husband out of town this week?"

     She said, "Well, sometimes."

     He said, "Well, let's get together."

     She said, "Well, I don't believe I could make it."

     He said, "What about Monday night?"

     She said, "No, he's in town that night."

     And he said, "What about Tuesday night?"

     She said, "No, we have some people over at our house that night."

     He said, "What about Wednesday?"

     She said, "Oh, no, that's prayer meeting night."

     My, my, my, my, my!

     I mean, what do go on in good Christian churches!

     A fellow said to me one time, "If you knew how you congregation lived,
you'd be horrified!" No, I wouldn't. That wouldn't even keep me awake. But, if
I knew what was going on in these congregations that don't even believe the
Bible, it might make my hair stand on end. I'll tell you, if God's people in
the mess they're in, can you imagine the mess the rest of that bunch is in?

     "Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest
that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my
servants to commit fornication. And I gave her space to repent of her
fornications. She repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them
that commit adultery with her, into great tribulation, except they repent--
they repent--of their deeds."

     People do commit adultery. Second Peter chapter 2 says in the last days
they'll have eyes full of adultery, everywhere they look committing adultery.

     You say, "Well, if things like that so bad, what am I going to do about
it?"

     All right, in closing let me talk about the cure for adultery. Number
one, the first cure is love in the home. And I mean not just lust and not just
sex. You can tell this next bunch of homes is gonna bust up by the courtin'
music they court with, how they sing. You don't hear those fellows singing
about loving anybody. They're always singing about wanting somebody, or gotta
have somebody, or gotta see, or "I need ya," or "I can't live without ya."

     Hey, boys, what about the love? It's getting to be an old-fashioned word.

     Love in the home--not just lust or sex.

     Number two--prayer in the home. Prayer in the home, not provocation. You
tempted to get provoked? Get off alone with the Lord someplace, and pray
someplace. You can't get your wife straightened out? Then get off alone and
ask God to get your attitude toward her straightened out. And if that doesn't
work, then pray to God to get her straightened out--something's gotta give!
You gotta pray somewhere.

     You take you wives, you Christian wives, I love you in the Lord and
appreciate you, and know what you're going through, a lot of your homes. But
I'll tell you, a lot of you, you're not too bright, you haven't got good
sense. I'll tell you something, if you had any sense, you'd spend some time
talking to God about your husband, instead of talking to him. Now, you get God
to do something with your husband, you'd be a happier woman. And if God did
something with your husband and his attitude about you, why, he'd be a happier
man.

     Amen, amen, amen, amen!

     When was the last time you spent thirty minutes praying about your
husband? Not asking God to bless him, asking God to beat him! Thirty minutes,
lady--thirty minutes.

     "Now, Lord, you know he's wrong in this. And, Lord, you know he hasn't
been right about that. And, Lord, you know he didn't pick up this--he should
have picked it up. And, Lord, you know he hasn't been treating the kids right.
And, Lord, you know he's done this wrong, and done that wrong. And, Lord, you
know he shouldn't have lost his temper with me. Lord,---"

     What's the matter with you, sister? Got a problem there? You know what's
wrong with some of you ladies, you're afraid if you get to talking like that,
the Lord will being to read your list out! He might even say some of the
things your old man said! WOOOOOOO! Boy, wouldn't that be terrible!

     Prayer in the home--not provocation.

     How many of you ladies believe God can handle any man on the face of this
earth? Let me see your hands. Why, sure, you believe that--if you saved. You
surely believe God can take a man in hand and whip him into shape and beat him
down till he's right--surely you must believe that--if you're saved.

     Well, a little more prayer, a little less provocation.

     (You're not gonna get me under conviction; I just enjoy preaching; I'm
gonna preach it!)

     I'll tell you the next way to avoid adultery. Spend time in the Book and
spend time in serving God. The old folks used to say, "An idle mind is the
devil's workshop." You spend time in that Book, it'll keep you clean. You
spend time working for God, you won't have time to get in trouble. Get doing
something for the Lord. Find something to keep yourself occupied with.

     And finally, finally--watch your eyes. Turn to the Book of Proverbs.
Watch your eyes. Proverbs chapter 1. If the eye is the trouble causing
adultery, and they come from the heart, then a person ought to watch their
eyes. Take care of their eyes, and make sure they walk right. Look right. Turn
to Proverbs chapter 1. Proverbs chapter 1. Proverbs chapter 1, verse 11: "If
they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the
innocent without cause:  Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole,
as those that go down into the pit:  We shall find all precious substance, we
shall fill our houses with spoil:  Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have
one purse:  My son, walk not thou in the way with them;--" one "...refrain thy
foot from their path:--" two "...For their feet run to evil, and make haste to
shed blood.  Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.  And
they lay wait for their [own] blood; they lurk privily for their [own] lives."

     Another place in the Proverbs says when a man walks, he's to walk and let
his eyes look straight forward, let the paths for his feet be straight, and
not look to the right, not look to the left. If there's trouble with the eye,
look someplace else. You say, "Brother Ruckman, it's just everywhere!" You're
tellin' me?

     "It's everyplace you look!" Yeah, look up at the billboard, and there it
is, right? I mean, look on the street, there it is. Pick up a magazine, there
it is. Pick up the magazine, there it is. You say, "How can I control it?"
Just don't look too long.

     Some of you fellows have a terrible time. If you don't take care of it,
it's gonna affect your ministry and destroy your ministry. We've had young men
come through here and get so hotheaded and so upset about these things,
they're gonna spend half their life preaching against shorts and matador
britches and slacks. When a fellow gets like that, you know what I know he's
doing? He's lookin' too long. Amen, amen, amen!

     And folks say, "Well, you don't have any standards here, and you don't
tell 'em it's wrong this--"

     "Enter not into the path of the wicked. Avoid it. Pass not by it. Turn
from it. Pass away. When thou goest, thy step shall not be straightened. Look
straight ahead." Turn your eyes off!

     I'll guarantee, you can't help but look sometimes. That's a woman dressed
so that you'll look at 'em. You know that, don't you? Most of 'em do. Why
don't you look at it from the woman's standpoint? I mean, how they gonna get
you to look at 'em unless, you know, they look like the rest of them some of
you look at?

     I'm so glad I'm not a woman. But if you were a nice Christian girl, how
could you get a guy's attention in the first place? I'm not telling you to
dress wrong, see? Don't you go out of here and quote me somethin'. I'm just
saying human nature being what it is, people are going to do what they do, no
matter what kind of stuff you put on, how much you preach or how you handle
it.

     You yourself, bud, are gonna have to learn some self-control. And the
place to begin is your eyes. If you find yourself lookin' too long, look away.
Look at Pac-Man! BLBLBLBLBLBL! Frogger! Ting-tong-ting-tong-tong.

     And folks say, "Ah, that stuff!" You better hear what I'm telling you.
You keep lookin' too long, you get to thinkin'. You get to thinkin' too long,
pretty soon you'll make a decision to act, and you'll be in a mess. And,
"Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge."

     Now, suppose you committed this sin. Suppose you commit this sin a number
of times. A lot of people have--more people every day. Folks say, "It's just
my lifestyle, the way I do things." Now, don't kid me. Don't kid me. I'll be
sixty-two here in a couple of months, and I am paying for things right now I
messed around with when I was 14, 15, 16. Don't tell me you're the one that's
gonna get out free. You old liar! You'll probably have a heavier payment than
I'll have if the truth is known, because you've got a rotten attitude about.

     But, you take this thing right here, if you've been guilty of these
things, and sin like this, there's a verse you want to remember: "The blood of
Jesus Christ God's Son cleanseth us from all sin." That woman came in, and
Jesus said to that woman, "I don't commit you. All your accusers are gone. No
man condemn you. I don't condemn you either. Get on out of here. And don't
mess up again! Go thy way, and sin no more."

     That stuff in the past, get it under the blood. One of the most unclean
women in the Bible is a professional harlot, prostitute, a hustler--Rahab. And
she got saved. She got saved with a scarlet thread--a picture of the blood of
Jesus Christ. God's Son cleanses us from all sin.

     If you're a woman here, and you're an unclean woman, the blood can clean
you. And if you're a man here, and an unclean man, the blood can clean you.
And don't you worry about these folks who think the blood cleanses from all
sin, except the ones they don't do. You have those problems. I wish I could
preach and get these things across, with the right emphasis. No matter how you
say it, somebody's gonna take it one way or another. I'm not telling you to
live dirty lives. I'm not telling you if you live a dirty life, it's all
right. I'm telling you, "Whoremongers and adulterers God'll judge!" You better
think twice before you step out on your wife; you better spend a couple of
weeks meditating about it. You better think twice before you think about
stepping out on your husband; you're gonna pay through the nose!

     And listen, if you're here this morning, and you're an unsaved woman, and
you've lived an unclean life, there's only one thing that can clean you. It's
not a bottle of liquor, not a wafer, not a religion, not a sacrament, not a
feeling, not an experience--it's the blood of Jesus Christ. "Come now, saith
the Lord, let us reason together; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall
be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

     All right. Father, bless the message this morning. And I pray the Holy
Spirit will apply the blood where needed in this congregation this morning,
this congregation of sinners. I know my congregation is no different from many
congregations in this earth. We're all subject to the limitations of the
flesh, and infirmities of the flesh. We're weak, Lord, we're sinful and we're
wicked. And we pray this morning the blood of Christ might cover us and wash
us and cleanse us. And though we pray every day of our lives, we'll take care
of our own individual sin before thee, and stay confessed up and judged up.
And, Lord, if I've talked to some Christian here this morning that's caught in
this sin, Lord, help them to repent and turn from it, forsake it, renounce it,
quit it, straighten up, and get right. And, Lord, the people here this morning
have probably never lived immoral lives. Maybe they've never had immoral
thoughts. Maybe they never lived an immoral life. Lord, help them to see their
own condition; there's no difference: "For all have sinned, and come short of
the glory of God." May they see they need the blood of Jesus Christ as much as
anybody, as much as fallen men and women, and many women who have been out of
the hogwall with the Prodigal Son in a far country. Help them to see there's
no way to get clean, except the God-ordained way that you set up.

     Let's remain in prayer a few minutes. We're going to stand in a minute
and sing this hymn: "There's a Fountain Filled with Blood, Drawn from
Emmanuel's Veins. And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all--lose all--
their guilty stains."

     Now, there are two kinds of people in this room. And some of you have
sinned and lived wicked lives, and you know it. The things I talked about this
morning got home to you. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Some of you
are paying for those sins right now. Now, to you, I want to say this. Don't
you despair. Don't you throw in the towel and quit. God can put the past under
the blood, God can forgive you. God can use you. And God can use you beyond
your farthest expectation, if you just let Him.

     Other kind of person sitting here this morning, you live a pretty good
life, a pretty clean life. Let's say, at least outwardly, before man, before
your fellow man. You're in danger of presuming. You're in danger of thinking,
"I thank God I'm not like other men--unjust, adulterers, extortioners, or even
as this publican." You're in danger. You look down in your heart this morning,
ask yourself this question, "Am I saved? Has Jesus Christ Himself ever saved
me?" I don't care how good a life you've lived, as far as God is concerned,
you're in the same boat with the rest of us. You're a sinner; you need to be
saved.

     Lord, help people to respond to the invitation this day, and do what's
right. And I pray it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.

     Let's turn to 222 in the hymnal. We'll stand and sing 222, "There's a
Fountain Filled with Blood, Drawn from Emmanuel's Veins," and sinners plunged
beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. Now, there's a prayer altar
here down at the front, and if you want to come and do your own prayin', in
private between you and the Lord, you feel free to come. Nobody will
interfere, nobody will bother you. A personal matter between you and the Lord,
personal business, you attend to it, like it's out in the world, one on one.
Let the Lord deal with you. If you're here this morning, and you'd like to
receive Jesus Christ, you come at the invitation, there'll be somebody to meet
you when you come down here, and show you from the word of God how the Lord
Jesus Christ will take you and save you and wash you and clean you, and get
you home to heaven. All right, let's sing.



