Hi, so I'm Mike and today's scripture reading is from Matthew 5, 27 through 30.
That's page 836 in the Bibles in the back of the pews. My wife nudged me
before I got up and said, all you're supposed to do is read the scripture.
You have heard that it was said, do not commit adultery, but I tell you, everyone
who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in
his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away,
for it is better that you lose one part of your body than for your whole body
to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and
throw it away, for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body
than for your whole body to go into hell. This is God's word. Well, if you have your
Bibles, go ahead and turn on over to Matthew chapter 5. We're gonna be
spending our time right there at that scripture, Matthew chapter 5 verse 27.
But we have launched back into our series in Matthew with these six examples
or six illustrations or what I heard one pastor say was six case studies of what
Jesus meant when he said, I did not come to abolish the law or the prophets, but I
came to fulfill it. And so Jesus moved from saying that to then giving six
illustrations or six case studies of what it looks like to fulfill the law
and prophets. And all of this is in the framework of the Sermon on the Mount. The
greatest sermon ever preached. Last week we looked at the command to not murder
and we looked at how Jesus filled full the command with all that God had
intended by it originally. Jesus said that the command always pointed to
something so much deeper than just the external act of murder. It wasn't just
about that. It pointed to this greater idea that humankind is made in God's
image and is worthy and special and worthy of special consideration and is
beyond any other created thing. It's the crown of God's creation and our contempt
and our anger and our degrading thoughts and when we say you fool, what we are
doing is we're walking down a pathway of destruction not only for us but for God's
good creation, his image bearers, other people who are made in his image. And so
he wanted to drive that point deeper and fill it out because you know it's so
easy to take a command and say well I've never picked up a rock and hit anyone,
I've never murdered anyone externally. And Jesus said well the laws were always
pointing to something deeper. The laws were always trying to get you to see the
deeper path, the deeper reality, the deeper experience of what it meant to be
in God's creation, to be a part of what God was doing. On our property we have
running just kind of off to the side of our house we have these
large, I guess they're high powered transit lines that run way
up higher than we are in the mountains and come all the way down to the valley
I believe and they run electricity. Well these lines have to be checked all the
time to make sure that they're still operating and they're not causing fires.
You guys know the fire situation here in California right? And the way that they
check these lines is they fly a helicopter with a, oftentimes at night
they fly a helicopter with a spotlight and he just tracks along the lines
there to make sure trees haven't fallen in on it, there's no issues whatsoever.
That reminded me the other night I was sitting out there we finally had some
clear days and so I could sit outside and I saw one of those helicopters come
through and you could see the spotlight on the ground as it moved across the
trees and that reminded me of a time when I was much younger. Me and my
sister, this is kind of humiliating so get ready, me and my sister when I was
younger we used to dress in all camouflage. My mom ran a home
based business, she would teach music students out of the house and what we
would do is on the nights that she was teaching we would get dressed in
camouflage and find our way hiding around the property so we could spy as
people arrived and left without being seen. That was it, that was the life.
So you can imagine me and my sister sitting in ivy that had grown up in the
front, we're sitting in there and our eyes peeking out of the ivy and just
watching as someone comes and goes inside and then taking off running, let's
go, they haven't seen us and then we'd run to another place and hide behind a
tree and look and I remember one time we were out doing this very odd
homeschooler game and entertaining ourselves by trying to act like we're
covert operatives in some foreign land and a police helicopter came and the
lights shining on the ground and it's moving around and immediately we're
like oh my gosh is that is that for us what do we do we got to hide deeper into
the ivy and pretty soon we're sprinting across the yard and we think they're
tracking and then there's police cars that start going all around zipping past
the property shining their lights out and we just we book it and we run inside.
It turns out they weren't there for us at all but we thought they were there
for us we thought we'd broken some law that you're not allowed to hide in the
ivy or something and they were coming but those lights you know at night
those lights are their way for them to bring clarity to the darkness to pierce
the darkness with their light and shine so that they can see and and I think one
of the things that Jesus is trying to do in this section of the Sermon on the
Mount is to show us that God sees it all. The spotlight of God's sight pierces all
it's not just looking on the external he can see all the way in at all times and
what as we talked about with murder one might land you in court in a human court
you're always courts always in session in your heart it's always being weighed
and judged the thoughts and motives of our heart and Jesus is reminding us and
saying that we can listen carefully to his wisdom and learn more what it means
to walk with God at a deeper level. God can teach us how to flourish inside
leading outward. So we're gonna look at three points this morning around our
scripture the first one is the command verse 27 and 28 says you have heard that
it was said do not commit adultery but I tell you everyone who looks at a woman
lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart like the previous
statement about do not murder do not commit adultery is right out of the ten
commandments right out of Exodus word for word do not commit adultery but it
also has a little bit of the tenth command that would be the seventh
commandment it also has a little bit of the tenth commandment where it says do
not covet your neighbor's wife and this one Jesus is addressing directly to his
male followers he's directing to you men here not that there isn't anything that
the women can get from it there's not principles that they can receive but
here he is talking specifically to men and he's telling us that God cares
deeply about our sexual desires and our sexual experience here on earth it's not
something separate from the kingdom it's not something that he doesn't care about
and he wants to you know turn a turn an eye to that's the embarrassing part but
I really care about this thing over here it's a part of it and he wants to
redeem even that and his kingdom includes his kingdom teaching and his
kingdom life includes how men and women can flourish together that that's tough
right you know that it's hard for men and women to get along just look at
Facebook and you'll see someone dissing someone all the time someone bagging on
this someone complaining about their relationship and how it's gone wrong
man-to-woman woman-to-man just look at the relationships around you and you
know that this relationship is difficult Jesus comes and says that the external
act like the first one the external act of adultery is when a married person
engages in a voluntary sexual activity with a person other than their spouse
that's what adultery is that's it acting itself out and Jesus affirms that it's
forbidden by the law it's true again it sounds like in his statements remember
we talked about this last week it sounds like he's saying the law says this but I
say this I'm changing it that's not at all what he's doing the law says this
and let me tell you the deeper meaning of that law let's go beyond the surface
yes adultery is bad but the deeper reality is that there's other things
that lead on that road to adultery Jesus affirms the Old Testament ethic no sex
outside of the covenantal relationship of marriage
it was very common at that time in the first century among the Greco-Roman
world for there to be all kinds of sexual exploits including adultery in
fact it was kind of expected especially of men that they wouldn't not settle
down to a monogamous a faithful relationship but that they would do all
kinds of things in the culture but among the Jews that Jesus is talking to you in
the first century adultery was not actually very common it was something
that was forbidden and they knew it and they tended to obey that they did not
engage in that and so it's another one of those will murder yeah I've never
murdered well yeah I've never committed adultery and Jesus says hold hold on
let's take it a little deeper and let's see if you still answer that way
afterward the laws were pointing to something much deeper and on that road
to the external action there is something that goes on in the heart and
the mind that will make you as guilty of the action as if you had done it this is
the internal act the internalizing of the law against adultery and so let's
look let's look at that scripture there where it says verse 28 but I tell you
everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her
in the heart can you go and put that first slide up Nate for the scripture
looks lustfully at a woman or looks at a woman lustfully let's kind of break that
down a little bit looks is an interesting word because it in the Greek
it is this present active participle and it basically means looks is this present
and ongoing action engaged in and so he's saying anyone who is the present
and ongoing action of looking it's kind of like our word stairs anyone who
stares or or goes on looking at a woman lustfully and that that is more or less
in order to lust and so he's saying anyone who who intently looks or looks
ongoing at a woman in order to lust after her is the same as if you broke
the law of adultery as if you went and slept with someone who was not your wife
and that right there I think immediately jumps it to a whole new level that
deepens the reality of the command if you are looking in order to lust after
your heart now I I think we can say there's a reason why Jesus is
addressing it to men men struggle with lust if you're in here and you say you
don't you're not telling the truth struggle with us do women yes I'm a man
though I can explain I can I can relate I can understand I can speak and say yes
man I have three boys three three young men lust is a real struggle for men and
he says it's that internal action that goes on looking in order to lust after
her in his heart that takes the law and the intent of the law and goes deeper
drives deeper into it lust isn't just a strong desire lust isn't on the spectrum
of love oh I just went too far on love love the love spectrum and I went into
lust lust is something wholly different lust lust is disordered corrupted
anti-love
why because love we talked about this before but love is self-giving right love
is the giving of yourself the pouring out of yourself the emptying of yourself
for another lust is self-taking it's a form of internal taking and dominating
when we lost it's saying I will mentally force you to do whatever I want you to
do for me I will steal your image and use it for self gratifying purposes
that's what lust is we who are created in the image of God when we lust we say
I will steal that image and use it to gratify myself like the Old Testament
pattern that began with the fall of mankind of see desire take see man has
fallen into at that tree right tempted by the enemy see desire it take it but
we can easily deceive ourselves and say think that that's an only an external
thing only what I see with my eyes and I reach out with my hands and I take only
then do I actually sin and Jesus is saying no it goes so much deeper than
that when you use your eyes and you see the image of someone else who is not
your wife and you steal that and you take it for yourself you're doing the
same thing you're doing the same thing as if you took it physically now
sure it doesn't have the same consequences right who else knows you
did it it all happened here so other than the spotlight of God's all-seeing
all-knowing character it's just you but the problem is that it also never stays
there right lust begins to affect other areas like all sin it corrupts and it
drives itself out into other ways and behaviors we fall into the sea desire
take and Jesus is saying that it can even take place in your own heart and
when it does you and I we become half persons we fail to live out that glorious
wholeness and greater righteousness that Jesus is inviting his followers into
the command is that we would not commit adultery that command goes so much
deeper than the surface level number two the intent the intent back in Genesis we
read that God after creating all things all the creatures he created all of the
the earth and the planet the dirt the skies the waters the creatures that
roam on the earth the birds of the air and then he gets to day six and who does
he create mankind and says then God said let us make man in our image according
to our likeness they will rule the sea the fish of the sea the birds of the
sky the livestock the whole earth and the creatures that crawl on the earth and
then there's this little poem in verse 27 a chapter one so God created man in
his own image he created him in the image of God he created them male and
female and God blessed them and said to them be fruitful and multiply fill the
earth and subdue it rule the fish of the sea the birds of the sky and every
creature that crawls on the earth he made these living creatures according to
their kind and then he gets to humanity he says let's make them in our image and
with that poem that's in verse 27 of chapter one of Genesis he says so God
created man singular and that's that word Adam or humanity God created
humanity and he uses the singular there and he says in his own image he created
him the singular in the image of God he created them plural male and female
humanity like the birds that fly in the sky according to their kind humanity
also according to its kind male and female that make up humanity and God
blesses them and says be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue
it so that they together can be God's image bearers here on earth and in
imaging God what does God do he creates he multiplies and they say here here's
your little part creates multiply and fill the earth with the image of God
the command is to them to be fruitful to fill the earth and rule over it God's
original intent is that humanity together would rule together male and
female all of his good creation them but the fall you remember what hat what was
a part of the curse of Eve in the fall one of the last things that was said
your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you
God's original intent let them rule together the fall your desire will be
for your husband and he will rule over you
it's a product of the fall that there's this disjointedness between man and
woman between husband and wife and we see it manifest over and over again in
broken relationships in the difficulty of trying to make these things work how
many guys have experienced it how many are married easy peasy right no problems
no no threats of divorce no moments of I don't know if we're gonna make it no
confiding in friends saying I think I picked the wrong one we all know this
it's kind of the the secret we walk in not so secret secret we walk in we know
that there are broken families we know that there is difficulty in relationships
as a result of the fall there's this ruling over constantly trying to power
one another and dominates and lust is even more pervasive or perverse of what
was originally good than even that lust lusting especially in the context of
adultery lusting after another man's wife not simply ruling your own as bad
as that is in relation to the fall now you're looking to someone else's wife
and you want to dominate and rule lusting after another's my wife so that
you can mentally dominate and rule over her image in your mind is how deeply
depraved sin goes in our hearts and Jesus comes along in his teaching and he
says that in this kingdom that he is bringing about that he is ushering in he
intends to restore the proper relationship between men and women he
intends to restore that among his people men and women will be treated with
dignity and respect he does something that radically turns upside down the
world we don't even know it we don't even we don't even can't even
comprehend it because we've always lived in it but there's this tension because
we know something good about the relationship and how it's supposed to go
and yet we experience the difficulties and that tension is this idea Jesus
introduces to us this new kingdom that he's creating and that among his people
there'll be dignity and respect that self-giving love will mark this new
humanity not self-taking lust and so the third point is the solution we have the
problem or we have the command we have the intent and the solution if your eye
if your right eye causes you to sin gouge it out and throw it away for it
is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to
be thrown into hell and if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off and
throw it away for it is better for you to lose one part of your body than your
whole body to go into hell Jesus is saying that in order to obey the
filling out of this command that he is doing some of us will have to maim
ourselves some of us will have to maim ourselves and it begins with what we see
and it moves to what we do and if you're thinking maim ourselves oh it's not
literal fact in 325 the council in Nicaea they said it's not literal stop
doing it because people in certain sects of Christianity were were following it
literally most famously maybe a legend but origin castrated himself as a
response to these scriptures and they said I think you missed it so let's see
what it doesn't mean though right it's not literal Jesus is using a metaphor
Jesus is using this kind of exaggerated hyperbole and it's for a purpose it's a
it's a rhetorical device it's it's a way of using language and it's an example
that helps us as the listener move toward the right response it it jolts us
out of our thinking and they makes us start to think toward the right response
that's its intent in other words it he's telling us to take drastic measures to
respond to this don't sit there passively and think oh that's a good
word and yeah I struggle with this inside but I'm I'm just gonna let it
sit and maybe time will heal it take drastic measures to respond to this take
radical steps to avoid falling into the pit of sin cast out the seed before it
takes root and begins to produce fruit in you the fruit is adultery the
physical part of it the external part of it kill the seed kill it before it takes
root and begins to produce things in your life you don't want James chapter
1 verse 14 and 15 says but each person is tempted when he is drawn away and
enticed by his own evil desire then after desire has conceived it gives
birth to sin and when sin is fully grown it gives birth to death you have to
begin to see what is the consequence of this sin if I map this out to where it
leads where does it lead and Jesus said it even there in Matthew chapter 5 it's
better that you would cut out an eye or cut off a hand then land yourself in the
hand of fire in hell and so if we were to take this and kind of wrestle with
it what are some practical thoughts on this well if Netflix causes you to lust
in your heart cut the subscription off if the internet causes you to sin turn
it off we lived most of humanity without it get some sunshine no I can't do that
man the world just operates it would be better that you cut it off and you find
yourself cut off from God if where you work causes you to sin quit get a
different job is better to be poor and to be caught in sins traps behave as if
you plucked your own eye out toward the sin whatever that is whatever that is
that causes you to stumble behave as if you plucked your own eye notice that it
doesn't say this is this is probably more of our modern bent and maybe some
maybe not so modern I don't know maybe we're we've moved beyond it but
certainly when I was growing up in church what we said in church was they
need to cover up because they're making me sin but he says it's your own eye
that's causing you to sin it's your own hand that's causing you to sin you deal
with you are there scriptures about modesty absolutely but that's all he's
talking about here so about you and me and how we're supposed to respond to
sin in our lives it's my hand it's my eye it's what I do
behave as if you plucked your own eye out in other words throw your gaze there
it is throw your gaze away remember it's look with intent it's stare it's look in
order to lust after it's not whoa it's not glancing it's not the pop-up on your
screen that hasn't yet birthed into sin necessarily unless you caused it
somehow but if that thing popped up on your screen and it's there staring you
in the face you look away throw your gaze throw the monitor out the window
burn it do something
behave toward whatever causes you to sin as if you had cut off your hand toward
it guard the approaches to sin think about your life and think about the
things the ways that things can approach you your eyes your hands your
ears and guard the approaches to your life put up centuries on the wall to
look up troubles coming let's go
do whatever it takes to live into the new kingdom that God is creating where
he is restoring relationship and away from the kingdom that is all about lust
and destruction about taking self-taking versus self-loving the question for you
and I is are we going to live for this world or live into the kingdom of God I
would say whatever you need to sacrifice in order to cut off sin it's worth it in
the end I didn't just say it though Jesus said it
there's a couple of quotes from John Owens who has a book called the
mortification of sin he says know that he that dares to dally with occasions of
sin will in the end dare to sin he who dally's with occasions to sin will in
the end sin and one of his most famous quotes is be killing sin or be
killing sin or sin will be killing you be killing sin or sin will be killing
you and I think that captures the force of what Jesus is saying be killing sin
we're gonna go ahead and pray and call the worship team to come on up but I
didn't want to say that as we kind of wrap up this and I think all of us in
some way male or female we all have some way that we should respond to this
because sin is always finding its way crouching wanting to steal us away and
each one of us has the responsibility to guard the approaches to sin in our life
I think some of us today if if we if we were just normal in the sense of the
world and statistics then there's a good number of you who struggle with
pornography today and what you are doing I think Jesus brings his word to it and
and the question beforehand we had a prayer time and we read out of out of
Proverbs and it's talking about wisdom wisdoms crying out on the streets trying
to bring flourishing in life the life of the kingdom to you is crying out and
saying come listen and learn I'll send my spirits and I'll teach you my words
and and all you need to do is respond to this call from wisdom and you can enter
into a life of flourishing a life in the kingdom a life under the care of God's
Word and so don't be hard into this if this is a problem or a situation in your
life that you just had forever today can be the day that you put sin to death
face it down put it to death kill it or it'll be killing you and probably
already has been I say modern age because did you know a pornography is on
the rise among women it's it's huge did you know pornography is being introduced
into marriage relationships even and encouraged and that's just one part of
it there's the part of just walking down the street and how we look at one
another is our heart moved with that new life in the kingdom that sees brother
and sister as the image bearers of God or are we trying to take what is not
ours so we can use and manipulate and destroy it in our own hearts and minds
and in the end destroy ourselves are we gonna live into the kingdom are we gonna
live according to this world and watch us sin destroys us this is our choice is
what wisdom the Word of God is inviting us into yeah I highlighted a few there's
probably others maybe your phone needs to get thrown out of the window and you
need to get one of those old-school what have dummy phones because you can't stay
off of certain things do it I'll give you a high five I'll help we'll get it
ordered life does not consist of phones and screens and internets and
pornography and sin life life in the kingdom is about giving of ourselves
about loving about seeing the image of God fill the earth fill the earth full
of the glory of our God it's worth giving up any of that it's worth giving
up everything I mean even the strictness of the literal definite it's even worth
that if that's what it took it's worth giving your life to see God's glory
magnified so what is this thing the sin the thing that holds on so dearly get
rid of it walk in wisdom let wisdom fill your heart and teach you