after Matthew as we are still working our way through this great book.
This great book.
The word Jesus says in Matthew 5 beginning of verse 27 ending of verse 30.
He says you have heard that it was said to those of old
you should not commit adultery.
But I say to you
that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her
has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
If your right eye causes you to sin pluck it out and cast it from you.
For it is more profitable for you
that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell.
If your right hand causes you to sin
cut it off cast it from you.
For it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish
than for your whole body to be cast into hell.
Would you join me in praying?
Father would we come again to a very sobering passage of scripture Lord.
Earlier we read that those who practice such things do not inherit the kingdom
of God and
Father here must we radically
make war and wage war against our sin or we don't enter the kingdom.
Father our bodies cast into hell.
Father help us look to Jesus.
Help us to celebrate grace and help us to take seriously the warning that your
son gave
on this glorious day and we thank you for that and
Lord I pray for the aid and the help, the comfort of your spirit,
the conviction of your spirit. Lord lead us to Christ today and help us to see
him as an
all-glorious Savior who alone can deliver. It is in his name we pray.
Amen.
One of the early Christian martyrs, his actual name was Justin Martyr,
when he was standing before the Roman Emperor and he was giving a defense of the
Christian faith,
one of the arguments that he put forth for the proof
or authenticity of the Christian faith, he said simply
look at our chastity. Look at our
sexual ethic and he's talking against the Roman Empire there
and see that our faith is real and living.
But I wonder today if we were to stand before the President or if we were to stand
before some high-ranking official
if we could point to the church's purity in sexual
conduct as an evidence of our faith.
See in verse 20 of chapter 5 the Lord said this,
unless your righteousness exceeds, goes beyond that of the scribes and Pharisees,
you don't enter the kingdom of heaven. His words not mine.
You don't enter the kingdom unless somehow you are more righteous than
scribes and Pharisees.
Now that is a very sobering thought. It's attention-grabbing.
It was meant to be that. So now in verses 21
all the way through verse 48, the Lord is going to give six examples
of what kingdom righteousness actually looks like.
And as he's giving these examples he's actually going to clarify
the internal righteousness that is needed of those who enter into the
kingdom
and he's going to also contrast that with the hypocrisy
of the Pharisees and leading religious officials. So as the Lord Jesus who's the one
who gave the law,
he's looking at the law of Moses holistically. That is to say
he's interpreting the law comprehensively showing how
the differing commands are interrelated. It is one law because it's one lawgiver.
Now last week we looked at the first example he gave
that dealt with the sixth commandment. You shall not murder.
So now everyone thinks okay if I've not committed homicide I am then
innocent or blameless of the sixth commandment.
The Jesus showed how it was truly to be interpreted. He said the law
not only forbids homicide but it also forbids that murderous anger that
resides in your heart. So the sixth commandment was given by
God because life is so precious. He wanted to protect life. Now today we
come to the second of six examples and he refers now to the
seventh commandment. You shall not commit adultery. Sixth
commandment given to protect life. Seventh commandment to given to protect
marriage. So once again we're going to see this
morning that the Lord he's going to dive past
the surface of the commandment to reveal the inner
purity that it enshrines and demands. If you are to keep this commandment
fully it is not simply to avoid the act of
adultery but it is also to rid yourself of the
consuming lust in the heart that precedes the act.
If you do not break the letter of the law but you want to in your heart
Jesus said you're still guilty before the tribunal of God.
Adultery is a violation of the marriage covenant.
It was taken very seriously in Jewish law taken very seriously in the law of
Moses. We see that in Leviticus 20. The man
who commits adultery with another man's wife,
he who commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the
adulteress shall surely be put to death. Just like
murder adultery was a capital offense under the law of Moses. Now no doubt the
religious leaders of Jesus day they took this very seriously.
The problem wasn't they took it too seriously the problem is they didn't
take it seriously enough. They didn't go deep enough because what
is prohibited here in the seventh commandment
again it's not just a physical act of adultery
that is forbidden is the lust that lies in the heart
of the man or the woman that will lead to the act.
These scribes and Pharisees they were walking in pride
self-righteousness and they were bragging about how they adhered to the
law of God and so they assumed they really assumed
that they were blameless before God because they thought that they had
kept this law. Yet our Lord in mercy is showing they had
not kept it. Jesus in this discourse in the sermon on
the mount he's speaking to a large crowd of would-be
followers. There's a large crowd at this time
following him they're hanging on every word
but also present that day are the religious leaders not because they would
be followers of him they want to listen to see if they
might gather something to entrap him. So Jesus then is revealing
and warning against the hypocrisy of the religious leaders who loved to
look good on the outside. They loved to look holy and righteous
and inwardly they were corrupt. They were very good at pretending
to be righteous very good at pretending to look holy
but they were hypocrites and they had reduced the law
they'd reduce the whole law to commands that they could keep
or felt that they could keep but they never stopped to look at the spirit or
the intention that lie behind the law. Now what is interesting is they
held the respect of the people the people that they would have looked
to the scribes they would have looked to the Pharisees
as respectable people that were worthy of emulation.
Bruce Hurt says this external respectability
is no guarantee against internal impropriety.
So in other words real reputation is not always indicative of your character.
What others think of you is not necessarily what God knows of you in
private. Recently there's a man that many of
us would have esteemed and followed and listened to his preaching and
he was found out to be really a hypocrite for the past five years
having an illicit relationship with a young lady and the whole time preaching
on righteousness. But everyone would have thought this man
was respectable but God knew him to be a hypocrite
because God sees the heart he sees what's in the heart
and that will be the basis of our judgment before him.
So he knew so the Lord there that day he knows these men they're full
of self-righteousness he knows that they're actually full of adultery
but the same time they're using the law of God as a
weapon to bludgeon others. They're pretending to love God and to boast in
the law but the truth of the matter they love to boast in it to make
themselves look superior. They loved having an edge
over other people and we see this clearly in John
chapter 8. In John chapter 8 there's one example
where these men they're going to use the law of God as a tool
to further their own evil agenda and you all know the passage it's of the
woman caught in adultery beginning in verse 3. Then the scribes
and Pharisees same group of people he's talking about in Matthew 5
brought to him a woman caught in adultery. When they sat her in the midst
they said to him teacher this woman is caught in adultery in the
very act. Now Moses in the law commanded such such
should be stoned that's what it was 2010. But what do you say? This they said
testing him that they might have something of which to
accuse him. These people don't love the law at all.
If they love the law so much this situation would have been handled much
much differently. In fact their actions are a terrible
abuse of God's law. So they're not upset about the law being violated.
They want to catch Jesus saying something wrong something that can pit
him against the law. They want to bring something that's going
to find something that's going to bring Jesus down if you will.
And furthermore these men were not even consistent with the law itself.
You remember back in Leviticus 20 verse 10 we read it. It's that those who
commit adultery it says the adulterer and the adulteress
shall be brought forth and both will be put to death.
So I ask you of course where's the man here in John 8?
Why not bring him? The law demanded that both the man and the woman be put to
death. And by the way why were they watching the act?
Why didn't they step in before the act took place?
See their hypocrisy and their false piety were on full display and by the way
it angered our Lord. It sickened our Lord.
So these so-called experts were failing to pull the righteous demands
that God's law commanded. The point that Jesus is making is that the
law of God has always always been more than simply
external or outward compliance. Always. The scriptures are clear. Murder
and adultery they don't begin in the hand but rather in the heart.
That's the problem. The problem with man is not outside of him
and we can say this and say this and say this but I still think we get it wrong.
Man's problem is not outside but man's problem is inside.
We are corrupt and our internal corruption
shows itself in external acts. Matthew 15 verse 19.
Jesus said for out of the heart, out of the heart of man,
proceeds evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications,
thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies, the list can go on.
It's the same thing that Paul said in Galatians 5. The works of the flesh are
evident but all those works of the flesh
begin in the heart. God is not simply concerned with outward
deeds although he is but he's concerned with the heart.
Let me say this. Our external piety must first begin with our inner purity.
We have to have those match up. It's not enough to have the externally pious.
There must be inner purity. Psalm 51 verse 6.
Behold, you desire truth where? Where do you want truth, God?
And then we're parts in the heart. The problem is all of us, we can look
good outwardly and inwardly we can be full of lust and
deception and idolatry and this is an affront to God and it's
affront to his law. Martin Lloyd Jones says far too often
there have been people who have been smug and glibly satisfied with themselves
because they are not guilty of certain things, adultery for example.
And therefore they think they are all right and this happens in the church by
the way but they've never examined their heart.
Here we see holiness as a matter of the heart and not merely a matter of conduct.
It's not only a man's deeds that count but his desires.
Not only must we not commit, we must not even covet.
It's not enough to not just not do it. We shouldn't even want
to do it. So what is the real application of the Seth commandment?
Let me ask you, who is guilty of breaking this law?
Who would stand condemned before God? Verse 28, I say to you Jesus said,
whoever looks at a woman to lust for her in his heart, he's already committed
adultery with her in the heart. Jesus once again
he's given the true interpretation, he's given the true intention of God's
law. It's not just clean hands the Lord desires but
actually pure hearts. Pure hearts, clean hands, that's how we worship him.
Dr Constable says fantasized immorality is just as simple to God as physical
immorality. The fact that fornication just takes
place in the brain and has fewer bad consequences than fornication that takes
place on a bed does not mitigate this truth.
Do you see what Jesus is getting at here? Now the word's interesting, he said
whoever looks at a woman. The word looks it's from the Greek word
it's bleppo and it's actually in a present participle which means
it is continually looking, the continual act of looking.
So you have not broken the law because there's a casual glance
but this is the man who can't stop staring. The idea is not an involuntary
glance whereby you see someone it's an intentional and repeated looking
or gazing. I put this word down I don't know if it
really stands I would say gawking. He's standing there mouth agape and he
is just not turning away. So this is not someone who notices beauty
or someone who notices someone might be attractive
but it's meditating on the beauty or the attraction of another
and you're beginning to fantasize about it. It's a desire of an illicit
encounter with that person and we know we have a biblical example.
It's David, King David he sees Bathsheba bathing while walking on that spring day
upon his palace roof. So here you have a man, much powerful
man at the time he's the king. He sees an attractive lady she is
unclothed at that moment and he should have turned away right
then. You're saying well that would have been a strong
temptation regardless of how strong the temptation may have been
he had the responsibility to turn away and look no longer.
He didn't have to continue but he chose to and he continued to gaze he continued
to look blep pose what Matthew 5 would say and this is
why eventually led him to commit adultery with her in
the act. He had already committed adultery in his
heart. He liked what he saw he didn't turn away from it and his
lust unrestrained led him to take another man's
wife into his own bed. But friends this is what the law of God
would say to David. Your adultery only confirmed what was
already in your heart. This is what Jesus is driving at. Had
David never slept with Bathsheba he still would have been guilty
before God of adultery in his heart for the continual gazing upon her.
He said whoever looks at a woman to lust epithumeo
is the word. It means you're setting your heart upon that you're coveting
you're desiring a good word to be craving you have this craving for something.
We use this with food and you can use it in the context of food but it comes from
two words you have a preposition epi and it means above or over and then
you have thumas. Thumas is passion and it can be passion
for anything. The idea of something breathing hard like
if you ever get really angry and you're steaming you're breathing hard that's
passion but it can also refer to sexual lust.
So it could be in the sexual arena it could be anger it could be fear it could
be a lot of those things but the what the word is driving out
here this is a forceful over the top passion. It's lust.
It's like an animal in the heat that simply wants to be satisfied.
There's a craving. You crave pizza you're like I have to have pizza you're like oh
I love it. This is a craving for the forbidden
and they want their lust satisfied. Craig Keener says lust is antithetical
to true love. This is the problem this is what's so
wicked about it. It dehumanizes another person into an
object of passion leading us to act as if the other were
a visual or emotional prostitute for our own use.
And this is what fuels the porn industry unrestrained passions.
There are documentaries there's tons of evidence those people who are involved
in the pornography industry it's incredibly dark it's incredibly
sad. There is so much drug use because the
people just can't do it not being high because that's what's fueling it and
that's what led them to end the industry many times.
There's sexual abuse there's sexual trafficking
and yet there are people who name the name of christ
who will continue to indulge their lust and dehumanize another person
because they want their flesh gratified. Do you see how evil it is? It's the very
opposite of love. It is antithetical to the kingdom of God.
Those who give themselves over and over to lust
not only do you learn to be selfish you will soon not be able to properly love
another person because you're training yourself in the
wrong way. This is what's a problem and it's happening all across our country.
Again I want to quote Keener here. Lust demands possession.
I've got to have its mind. Love though values respects and seeks to serve other
persons with what is genuinely good for them.
Lust is always incompatible with acknowledging God
as the supreme desire of our hearts because it is contrary to his will.
Jesus never came seeking his own. He always walked in love seeking the
welfare of the other and yet many through the use of tv
movies and internet allow themselves to be entertained by things you
wouldn't personally do. You'll watch other people do them and
you'll be entertained and you'll laugh. You do it by proxy perhaps your
imagination or watching some illicit image or
reading a book that speaks of it. Friends this is what is called hypocrisy.
It's the same thing the religious leaders were guilty of. Oh they weren't
doing the act but they're full of adultery inside.
They didn't get a pass. See when you sin sexually whether it be in your heart
in your mind or in your imagination our lord says you've broken the seventh
commandment and you're guilty of adultery. That's what he's saying. Now
growing up I have heard Matthew 5 28 preached a lot. I've
heard many messages and most of them unfortunately were directed at ladies
for being a temptress by the way they dress or act.
Sadly so many people place the onus for purity only upon the woman
and yet our lord here is directing his warning to the man.
Now there's a question. Do women have a responsibility to dress in a way that
would not arouse lust in another? Of course.
Absolutely they do. If you know sister what you're doing is causing others to
sin you have a responsibility before god to stop.
Arthur Pink is very he spoke very very clear on this. He said if
lustful looking is so grievous a sin and it is then those who dress and expose
themselves with the desire to be looked at and lusted after
are not less but perhaps more guilty. In this matter it is not only too often
the case that men sin but women tempt them to do so.
How great then must be the guilt of the great majority of modern Mrs. who
deliberately seek to rouse the sexual passions of young men
and how much greater still is the guilt of most of their mothers for allowing
them to become lascivious temptresses.
Now let me just say this our lord doesn't allow men to escape.
He's not softening the matter and he's not blame shifting.
He's not seeking to shift the blame. I will say this even if a woman were
dressed scandalously the man who belongs to christ, the man
who's in the kingdom of god has an imperative a moral responsibility
to turn away regardless of how strong the temptation may be.
You must do it. There is no wiggle room. There's no much blame shifting. You can't
say well she was dressed a certain way. You sir take care of you.
King David didn't get a pass because Bathsheba was bathing in plain view.
He didn't say well man men are just men and boys are just men boys.
Yet I would also say to young sisters here if you belong to the kingdom of god
you do have a moral responsibility before god
to dress in a way that avoids scandal. Absolutely you do.
It is incongruent to try to dress to seek male attention sexually as a woman
of god. Paul told the Christians in Rome and you're
like well is there a chapter and verse? He told the strong Christians in Rome he
said if you know that eating meat causes your weaker brother to sin
then he said you don't eat meat. So I would say this young lady if you know
that how you dress or how you behave is causing a brother to stumble you must
stop doing so and learn to walk in love. He had at the same time men
kingdom men you have to learn to deal radically with the temptation to lust
and not to blame shift and blame the woman.
You will stand before god for your own lustful heart.
This is a serious matter because we live in an over sexualized society.
It's terrible shameful much of our society is
we talk about things that people wouldn't even blush to talk about years
ago. It's a horrible disgrace so we have to
deal seriously with it. We live in Rome just like the time this was written.
Now do not misunderstand what Jesus is saying. He's not saying a lustful thought
is identical to a lustful deed. Well if I've already had it in my heart I
might as well go ahead and commit the adultery right? It's the same. No.
The desire and the deed are not identical but spiritually speaking they're
equivalent before God. That's what he's saying.
Dave Guzik and his commentary I thought this was worth saying.
Jesus is not saying the act of adultery and adultery in the heart are the same
thing. No. More than a few people have been
deceived on this point and say well I've already committed adultery in my
heart so I might as well do it in practice.
The act of adultery is far worse than adultery in the heart.
Jesus' point is not to say they're the same thing but to say they're both sin.
They're both prohibited by the command against adultery.
Some people only keep from adultery because they're afraid to get cut
but in their heart they commit adultery every day. It is good that they keep from
the act but it is bad that their heart is filled
with it. This principle applies to much more than men looking at women.
It applies to just about anything that you and I can covet with the eye or the
mind. Friends, God just doesn't allow any
wiggle room. Man, he paints us into a corner.
So you're saying okay I get it so I understand the intention. I understand
God's desire. So how do we deal with this temptation? I
live in a sexually saturated culture. What's the answer?
Like verse 29 and 30. If your right eye causes you sin,
pluck it out. If it's your right hand, cut it off.
Go into heaven maimed than to hell whole. Now there were some in church history who
took this command literally. The early church father Origen
is said to have castrated himself in order to be obedient to the Lord's
command here. Obviously our Lord is using hyperbole
to illustrate a point that is radical. What is the point? You must do
whatever is necessary to remove the temptation that would lead you to lust
in your heart. If the problem is in your heart, well
then you're saying how does removing an eye or hand help?
Because then you're still left with the same heart, right? The same less of heart.
Why right eye? Why right hand? In Jewish culture the right eye and the right hand
represented a person's best and most precious faculties. Jesus said at the
right hand of the father. Why about the eye? Because the eye is
the gateway through which temptation comes.
He does mention right hand. Now I will say studying for this, I've not heard
this before, but there are many people well versed in Hebrew thought and
culture and they say that this word here, the right hand, is actually a
Lord, our Lord speaking euphemistically referring to the man's sexual organ. The
right hand in this case would that's what it would refer to.
So what does he say? Pluck out your eye, cut off your hand, castrate yourself,
do whatever is necessary. Now he's not advocating mutilation.
That's the easy low-hanging fruit here. Mutilation does not cleanse your heart,
it doesn't purify your heart. You can be blind and handless and still
commit lust in your heart. So what is he saying? Anything
that would morally or spiritually entrap us or trip us up in a walk with Christ
in holiness has to immediately be eliminated.
You cannot young man, young lady, old man, old lady, middle-aged woman, middle-aged
lady, you can't fool around with sexual temptation.
The Bible says flee from lust, flee from youthful lusts
that wage war against your soul. Lawrence Farley says in a choice between
losing one member now and losing all members later in the age to come,
it would only make sense to sacrifice one member to save oneself.
When you commit adultery, it only reveals the lust that was already present in
your heart. So when you are willing to radically
deal with your sin and you're willing to do whatever it
takes, that reveals a kingdom heart, that reveals a person who is hungering
and thirsting for righteousness. Do you understand the worth of your
soul? Jesus is saying it is so important, so
valuable, that it'd be better to go through life maimed
than to enter hole into hell. Whatever is leading me to sin has to be done away
with, even if it's good in and of itself. Right hand, right eye.
So I'd say to young people, if every time you're on the computer
you are led away by your lust to sin against God, get rid of the computer.
And you're like, well that's an impossibility. You don't understand school
and we live in a technological age. What, how could I do that? Well get
rid of your computer, gouge out your eye, you choose.
Which is more radical? Which seems more radical?
And I would ask the question, which is more important, your soul or your
computer? See we have to learn to hate sin, hate
it in all its form, and do all that we can to kill it in life.
Frederick Bruner said it is better to go limping into heaven than leaping into
hell. You said that sounds drastic, that
even sounds violent. But our Lord is speaking here of the
righteousness that the kingdom of God demands.
And such righteousness was earned by the violent,
bloody death of the Son of God.
Seeing friends, listen, seeing the righteousness that God's law demands
ought to humble us. Knowing that we have fallen,
fallen far short, that ought to produce a profound humility and poverty of spirit.
Lord if this is your demand, I can't get in the kingdom.
If this is what you're saying, I can't do it.
I'm guilty. And Jesus said that's exactly right. You are guilty
and all humanity is guilty, there's none righteous.
This in and of itself should be enough to destroy any form of
self-righteousness. If this is the standard, do you really
think that your poultry works are going to earn favor?
But what we learn from this passage, and I think this is one of the big points,
is the exceeding need for Christ atoning blood to save us.
We need Jesus. J.C. Ryle says what man or woman upon
earth can ever stand before such a god as this
and plead not guilty? Is there anyone here after hearing the demand says yep,
I'm completely innocent? Who is there that has ever grown to years
of discretion and not broken the command thousands of times?
You're guilty and you cannot make yourself clean.
You cannot make yourself free from sin. So what do you do?
You plead for grace and mercy from the throne of the most high.
You look to Jesus. You understand what you couldn't do, he did.
And where you failed, he succeeded. And the only way that you will ever enter
the kingdom of God is by the righteousness of another
who died and rose again for you. I close with this. Martin Lloyd Jones says
we must listen to the teaching of the blessed son of
God and examine ourselves, examine our thoughts, our desires, and our imagination.
And unless we feel that we are vile and foul
and need to be washed and cleansed, unless we feel utterly helpless with a
terrible poverty spirit, and unless we are hungering and thirsting
after righteousness, I say God have mercy upon us.
Friends, if you are listening this and you're not moved and you're not
convicted, I say God have mercy upon you. He says I thank God that I have a
gospel which tells me that another who is
spotless and pure and utterly holy has taken my sin
and my guilt upon himself. I am washed in his precious blood and he
has given me of his own nature. And when I realized that I need a new
heart, I found that God, that he had come to give it to me
and he has given it. What a gracious God we serve. Today in just a moment we're
going to come to the table of the Lord and we're going to partake in the
sacrament of communion where God has sealed his promise of forgiveness
in this precious sacrament. Today we feast upon Christ and we understand the
only grounding of our righteousness and entrance into the kingdom of God
is through the death, through the flesh and blood of the Son of God
that was given for us. And I would say to you believers
take, eat, rejoice, exalt, be jubilant. Your Savior has died
and he has risen and he has received you into his kingdom
by his own merit. Praise God for that. And if you're here today and you don't
know Christ and you think that by somehow of your
own works you will earn a place in the kingdom of God, you are deceived and I
pray for God's mercy. And if you're saying no I understand, I'm
hopeless, I'm in despair, absolutely would please and I'm begging
after the service would you come and talk to me.
Let me show you what Christ has done for sinners.
But today, right now, we end with the climax of Christian worship
which is his communion with the risen Lord, our risen Savior.
Today, not corporately but spiritually, we will feast upon the body and blood of
Christ to the nourishment of our souls and to the satisfaction of our hearts.
I'm going to ask in just a moment, that's after we pray, if deacons, if you'll come
forward. Let's pray. Father, thank you this morning
for the precious word of God. Lord, I thank you for the law of God,
for its exactness, its preciseness, its precision
that allows us.