TEXT: "You shall not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14).

IDEA: A covenant is not a contract, and a contract is not a covenant.

PURPOSE: To help listeners appreciate how a covenant goes beyond a contract.

Do you ever analyze letters that people write to you?

• When they write “Dear Mart” do you think they really mean it?
• When they write “Yours Truly” can you believe that?

Do you think a couple believes everything their intended spouse says to them at a wedding?

The language of Christian weddings is the language of a covenant.

I. How does a covenant compare or contract with a contract? Both can be good.

A contract spells out in detail what the two parties are expected to do for one another and the penalties for breaking it.

Contracts are human accommodations to the bottomless depravity or men and women. Lawyers are a testimony to our inherent sinfulness.

The vocabulary of a contract is the vocabulary of law, spelling out verifiable controls, divisions, penalties, etc.

Contracts are made between people with God as witness.

A covenant is an unconditional commitment to another person. It is a solemn unbreakable promise.

Covenants are a human approximation of the unfathomable goodness of God.