It's so good to worship with you guys.
Sometimes when I worship, on Sunday mornings, I'm just overwhelmed by God's love for me.
! And then as I look around, I'm overwhelmed by God's love for you.
You are so loved by God, and that's reason enough for me to well up with love for you.
And it's a privilege for me to be counted among you, to worship with you,
and to get to now preach God's word to you.
So please turn with me in your Bible to Matthew chapter 5, verse 27 to 32.
Let me pray before we read for God's help.
Heavenly Father,
You know all things.
You see all things.
And Your word searches our hearts.
And as we stand before a bracing, searching passage like this, Lord, we feel exposed, ashamed in our sin.
I ask, Father, that the conviction of sin would not lead us to wallow in guilt and shame,
but it would lead to godly grief and sorrow that leads to repentance,
to transformation, to growth, to holiness and purity.
And I ask, Father, that You would reveal more deeply the power of the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ,
so that we walk away from this place assured and rejoicing in the full forgiveness and freedom that is found in Him alone.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
If you are able, please stand as I read from Matthew 5, 27 to 32,
to honor God as we read from His word.
You have heard that it was said,
You shall not commit adultery.
But I say to you,
that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent
has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
If your right eye causes you to sin,
tear it out and throw it away.
For it is better that you lose one of your members
than that your whole body be thrown into hell.
And if your right hand causes you to sin,
cut it off and throw it away.
For it is better that you lose one of your members
than that your whole body go into hell.
It was also said,
Whoever divorces his wife,
let him give her a certificate of divorce.
But I say to you,
that everyone who divorces his wife,
except on the ground of sexual immorality,
makes her commit adultery.
And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
It's God's holy and authoritative word.
Please be seated.
An estimated 50 to 60% of married men
and 45 to 55% of married women commit adultery.
That means marital infidelity affects nearly half of all couples in the world
or in our country.
Nearly 50% of married couples get divorced
and over 70% of second marriages,
a second try,
and then divorce.
Adultery and divorce are both rampant in our sinful world.
And I don't think it should surprise any of us
that what is often at the heart
and at the root of divorce and adultery
is lust,
which is what Jesus addresses in this passage.
As the redeemed bride of Christ,
we must fight both the adultery of the body
and the adultery of the heart.
That's the main point of Jesus' teaching here.
And we're going to first talk about adultery through lust
in verses 27 to 30,
and then adultery through divorce
in verse 31 and 32.
In his overarching teaching about the Old Testament law
in the preceding passage in verses 17 to 20,
Jesus said,
I have not come to abolish the law,
but to fulfill them.
And for I tell you,
unless your righteousness exceeds
that of the scribes and the Pharisees,
you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Then in the following six passages,
as I mentioned last week,
Jesus gives us a series of six antitheses
or contrasts where he uses the same formula.
You have heard that it was said,
and he will cite some Old Testament scripture
or how the Jews understood and interpreted that scripture,
and he will say,
but I say to you,
offering a contrast,
a better and a fuller exposition
and interpretation of that passage.
Jesus is showing us through this series
what true Christian obedience
and righteousness looks like.
This is the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees,
but your righteousness must exceed that,
and this is what Jesus shows us.
We looked at the first antithesis last week,
and we're looking at the second and third today,
and he begins with that same formula in verse 27.
You have heard that it was said,
you shall not commit adultery.
This time,
Jesus is citing the seventh of the Ten Commandments
from Exodus 20, verse 13,
and Deuteronomy 5, 17.
Adultery specifically refers to
a married person being involved
in some kind of sexual relations
with someone who is not his or her spouse,
or having sexual relations with someone
who is another person's husband or wife.
The Jews of Jesus' day
correctly understood adultery to be sinful,
and they believed that it was forbidden by God's word.
However, they defined adultery so narrowly
and thereby circumscribed and limited this law,
the scope of this law,
that it lost the true force and the heart
and the spirit of the law.
So in verse 28,
Jesus gets to the heart of the seventh commandment
and reveals its full scope when he says,
but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman
with lustful intent
has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
The Greek word for lustful intent
simply means desire or longing.
It's a neutral word that can be used
for desire for good things
as well as desire for bad things.
When it refers to desiring and longing
for something that is forbidden,
something that belongs to another
and is not rightfully yours,
it is often translated in scripture as coveting.
And the Jews should have already known,
based on the Ten Commandments,
that lustful desire is also forbidden,
not just adultery,
because the Tenth Commandment
in the Ten Commandments
is you shall not covet,
and it says specifically,
you shall not covet your neighbor's wife
and vice versa,
your neighbor's husband also.
It is sinful to sleep
with your neighbor's wife or husband,
it's also sinful to desire
or long for your neighbor's wife or husband.
True obedience to God
is not only external,
but internal.
It entails not only keeping our bodies pure,
but keeping our hearts and minds pure,
because out of the heart,
Jesus says in Matthew 15, 19,
out of the heart comes evil thoughts,
adultery, sexual immorality.
They originate in the human heart.
Our sinful world appeals to this lust
in innumerable ways.
Sex appeal is a major selling point,
remains so to this day in advertising and media,
especially in fashion, lifestyle,
and entertainment industries.
Many influencers on social media
are not shy about selling their product
with visual appeal to get more clicks.
Dating apps pander to instant gratification,
and they promise casual encounters.
The global porn industry,
which some estimate to be worth
up to $287 billion,
which is more than Hollywood and NFL combined,
inflames people's lusts every day
to the tune of hundreds of millions
of daily visits to porn sites
and billions of visits per month.
Studies say that 78% of men
and 44% of women watch porn.
This is not a male-only problem.
It doesn't matter that it is
pornified cartoons or manga or anime
or a video game.
It has the same adulterating effect
on the human heart
and the same deadly consequences
in our lives.
It's a pernicious lie,
in fact, that porn is harmless.
It objectifies women primarily,
but also some men.
It promotes sexual degradation,
exploitation, and trafficking.
It distorts real-life intimacy
and relationships,
creates unrealistic expectations,
and makes it increasingly difficult
for people to have real intimacy
and real relationships.
It erodes trust.
It impairs people's capacity
for genuine sexual intimacy as well.
A study published in the journal
Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity
found that 70% of wives of sex addicts
could be diagnosed
with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Another study reports
that 56% of divorce cases
involved one party
having an obsessive interest
in pornographic materials.
In fact, when pornography
is involved in a marriage,
couples are twice as likely to divorce.
Jesus was right.
Lust is far from harmless.
And don't think that lust
always involves the eyes only.
Sometimes it takes place
entirely in the mind
and in the imagination.
Last year,
a New York Times article claimed
that a certain novel
which talks about
a middle-aged woman
committing adultery
and experimenting with open marriage
is the, quote,
talk of every group text
composed of women over 40.
I was a little skeptical.
So this week,
when I was preparing for this sermon,
I checked the Cambridge Public Library
for this book.
I did not check it out.
Don't worry.
Even if I don't want to,
I don't want anything to do with it.
But even if I wanted to check it out,
I couldn't check it out
because the library
has 260 hard copies.
260!
This is Cambridge Public Library,
not Boston Public Library.
Cambridge Public Library,
260 copies all checked out
with 349 people on the wait list.
This is our city.
There are 286 e-book copies
of this book all checked out.
957 people on that wait list.
157 audiobook copies of this book
all checked out.
501 people on that wait list.
And that's just in Cambridge,
a tiny city.
Also last year,
a popular collection
of female sexual fantasies
was published by an actress.
That kind of literature
that capitalizes on people's sinful lust
is on the rise.
Once again,
Jesus is here exposing
the pitfalls of legalism.
Legalism is concerned
with the letter of the law
and not with the spirit
or the heart of the law.
Both Jews and Romans
actually denounced adultery
because they saw it
as a violation
of man's property rights
and because they saw it
as a threat
to legitimate paternal lineage
because it might raise questions
about whether someone
is a true heir or not.
So they both opposed adultery.
However,
here's the catch.
A married man
was considered
to be adulterous
only if his female partner
was a free woman.
If he slept
with a slave woman,
a concubine,
or with a prostitute,
then there were no problems,
no legal ramifications.
He could do it
as many times
as he wanted.
Fourth century B.C.
Greek politician Demosthenes
famously captures this reality
in his saying.
He says,
we keep prostitutes
for pleasure.
We keep mistresses
for the day-to-day needs
of the body.
We keep wives
for the begetting of children
and for the faithful
guardianship of our homes.
The Jewish position
was unfortunately
not too dissimilar
at the time.
Do you see
how evil this is?
to justify
all manner
of sexual sin
and saying,
well,
it's not adultery.
I haven't really
crossed the line.
Related to this,
there was also
a gross double standard
at play.
While husbands
could sleep
with any many concubines
and prostitutes
as they want,
the wives could not
because of the fear
that they'll be impregnated.
For example,
in 1 Corinthians 6,
12-19,
Paul rebukes
reputedly Christian men
for sleeping
with prostitutes.
So-called Christians
were justifying
sleeping with prostitutes
saying,
food is meant
for the stomach
and stomach for food.
Likewise,
what they were implying
was the body
is meant for sex
and sex for the body
and that's what I'm doing.
I'm using what the body
was made for.
That's what God
created the body for.
There's nothing wrong
with that.
That's the kind
of promiscuous culture
into which Jesus
is speaking into.
And in John 8,
do you remember
the story in verses
1-11?
The scribes
and the Pharisees,
they catch somehow
a woman in the act
of adultery.
This woman is caught
in the act of adultery
and they bring her in
and then they say this
to trap Jesus.
They say,
now in the law of Moses,
Moses commanded us
to stone such woman.
What do you say?
If Jesus says,
stone her,
then they can get him
in trouble with the
Romans who did not
give the Jews
the right to capital
punishment.
But if he said,
no, don't stone her,
then they could paint him
as someone who abolishes
and nullifies the law
of God as a law breaker.
So they're just trying
to trap him.
But when you read
that story,
have you ever wondered,
where is the man?
Because it takes two
people to commit adultery.
And she was caught
in the act.
The man must have
been right there.
You only bring
the woman
to charge
before Jesus.
Rampant
promiscuity,
adultery,
a double standard
at work.
That's the problem
with legalism.
You can be
a legalistic Christian
that obeys
God's law
in all of its
outward forms,
yet without ever
having love
for God
in your heart.
Legalism is concerned
with legality
out of
self-preservation,
out of self-interest.
In contrast,
true Christian obedience
is concerned
with pleasing God.
What is God's will?
What tends
to God's glory?
Legalism is concerned
with the limits
and the lines
of obedience,
of God's commands.
True obedience
is concerned
with the heart
and the spirit
of God's commands.
Once again,
when it comes
to sexual immorality,
too many Christians
ask,
where are the lines?
Where are the limits
of God's commands?
So that I can
edge as close
as I can
to that line
without crossing it.
how physically
intimate
can I get
with my boyfriend
or girlfriend
without crossing
the line?
Is kissing okay?
Is petting okay?
Can I cuddle
and sleep next to them
as long as we're
not having intercourse?
Can I cohabit
with them
as long as we have
separate rooms?
Why would you
invite temptation
into your life?
Why would you
inflame the lusts
that are already
strong enough
in your life?
How many times
have people
said this kind of things,
these kinds of things
to themselves?
Well, I've been
exchanging suggestive texts
with my co-worker,
but we haven't actually
done anything.
I haven't committed adultery.
I've been exchanging
long glances
and flirting
with this woman
at the gym,
but nothing ever
really happened.
Adultery of the heart
happened,
Jesus says.
Have you ever
scrolled through
suggestive photos
and videos
on Instagram
and TikTok
skirting
on the edges
of propriety
without going
into full-blown porn
and then
justifying yourself
saying,
well,
it's not porn.
The idolatry,
the adultery
of the heart
has already
taken place
in your heart
when you look
at others
with lustful
longing.
love.
If coveting
is sin,
if lustful
desire
is sin
in and of
itself,
I'm about to say
something
controversial here,
but I wouldn't say it
if I weren't fully
convinced that this is
exactly what God's
Word teaches.
If lustful desire
is sinful
in and of itself,
then that means
homosexual desire
and all kinds
of other
deviant sexual
desires
are also sinful.
I singled this out
because I have noticed
a misguided tendency
among Christian leaders
and Christian authors
to separate
homosexual acts
from homosexual
desires
and to justify
the desires
as long as
they are not
acted on.
That's a grave
mistake.
Sure,
is there a difference
between temptation
and sin?
Of course,
there's a difference
between temptation
and sin.
We can be tempted
from the outside in.
It's not your fault
that you're driving by
and there's a billboard
with a naked woman
on it.
In that case,
that outside in
temptation,
Martin Luther's
proverb applies,
you cannot prevent
the birds
from flying in the air
over your head
but you can certainly
prevent them
from building a nest
in your hair.
When you're tempted
from the outside in,
don't linger
on that temptation.
Don't let that
temptation take
residence in your heart.
Flee.
But that's not
the only kind
of temptation.
There is another
kind of temptation.
temptation that is
from the inside out.
James 1, 14-16
says,
but each person
is tempted
when he is lured
and enticed
by his own desire.
Then,
desire,
when it has conceived,
gives birth to sin
and sin,
when it's fully grown,
brings forth death.
When we are
sexually tempted
from the inside out,
the old theologians
used to call that
concupiscence,
it betrays
our sin nature.
It reveals
that our desires
themselves
are not aligned
with God's will.
These desires
incubate
and ultimately
give birth to sin
which eventually
when fully grown
leads to death.
If that's the case,
should we not resist
these desires?
Should we not fight
these desires
instead of coming
to terms with it?
Why do people,
why do some Christians
call themselves
gay Christians
or same-sex attracted
Christians,
SSA Christians?
The fact that
so many Christians
in the world
consider that to be okay
shows just how much
homosexuality has become
normalized
and how worldly
the Christians have become.
I've never met Christians
who identify themselves
as adultery-attracted
Christians
or fornication-attracted
Christians
or BDSM-attracted
Christians
or zoophilic
Christians
or pedophilic
Christians
who would identify
with such things.
Why would we
identify ourselves
with something
that is something
that is disordered
and displeasing
to God?
Because humanity
is fallen
and depraved,
we have all kinds
of ungodly desires
that rise
from within our hearts
and these desires
can feel
very natural
but that does not mean
that they are
right.
when we're tempted
by those desires
we need to struggle
against them
fight against them
not accept them
and make peace
with them
and declare proudly
that that's a part
of who we are.
Making sexual orientation
or preference
a part of your identity
is Sigmund Freud's idea.
It's not a biblical idea.
Lustful desires
not only lustful acts
are sin.
D. Marlon Jones
is helpful here.
He says in his book
studies in the Sermon
on the Mount
but let me say a word
about the subtlety of sin.
Sin is this terrible thing
which so deludes
and fools us
as to make us feel
quite happy
and contented
so long as we have
not committed the act.
Yes, I say
I was tempted
but thank God
I did not fall.
That is all right
up to a point
so long as I am not
too content with that.
If I am merely satisfied
with the fact
that I did not do the thing
I am all wrong.
I ought to go on
and ask
but why did I
want to do it?
legalists are always
trying to circumscribe
and limit God's word
so that they can claim
I have kept it
I did not cross the line
I did not do the thing
but that betrays
the minimal obedience
mindset that I have
been talking about
rather than the
maximal obedience
mindset.
It betrays the fact
that they do not
actually see God
is good and benevolent
and that he has
their good interest
in mind
rather they see God
is stingy and begrudging
always trying to
stifle them
and deprive them
of the good things
that the world offers.
I have used this
illustration before
but if we see
God's word
and his commands
as a straight jacket
intended to stifle us
and restrict us
then we are
going to try
to wiggle out of it
as much as we can
and to push
the boundaries
as much as we can
and sneak out of it
as often as we can
because we don't see
God's word
as good.
But if you see
God's word
and God's command
as a life jacket
I'm clasping
all the straps
keeping it tight
keeping it right
at the center
fitting snugly
into God's plan
and God's will
because I know
it's for my good
because I know
it's for my salvation
because I know
it's to preserve me.
So instead of flirting
with sin
and skirting
the edges
of God's will
I want to encourage you
and exhort you
to seek to live
at the center
of God's will.
for those of us
who do want
to strive
for that maximal
purity and obedience
Jesus gets very practical
in verse 29 and 30.
If your right eye
causes you to sin
tear it out
and throw it away
for it is better
that you lose
one of your members
and that your whole body
be thrown into hell
and if your right hand
causes you to sin
cut it off
and throw it away
for it is better
that you lose
one of your members
and that your whole body
go into hell.
The word
causes you to sin
is a translation
of a word
that literally means
to cause someone
to stumble
which is a recurring word
in the gospel of Matthew.
In this context
it means to make someone
stumble
into sin
in such a way
that they fall
into perdition
into hell
fall away from
the saving purposes
of God.
Jesus says
it's better for you
to lose
one of your members
of your body
than for your whole body
to be thrown into hell.
The word for hell
is not the word
for Hades
or that shadowy
realm of death
that is sometimes
mistranslated
as hell
in the New Testament.
This is the word
Gehenna
which is referring
to the valley
of Hinnom
which comes from
the valley of Hinnom
the word from
Gehenna
because that was
the area
where sacrifices
human sacrifices
to Molech
the idol
of the Old Testament.
And because it was
such a desecrated area
tradition says
that people
in Jerusalem
went outside
to the valley
of Hinnom
and burned
all their garbage
there.
So there was always
stink and fire
and smoke
rising up from the place
which made it
an apt picture
of the eternal
destruction
and the eternal
fires of hell
that await
the devil
and his minions
and those humans
who follow him.
So this is meant
to be a shocking
statement.
Jesus is talking
about lust
right?
So many of you
in accountability groups
have confessed
the sin of lust.
Jesus is saying
if you don't fight
this tooth and nail
your whole body
is going to be
thrown into hell.
Are you catching
the drama
of what Jesus
is saying?
Too many Christians
think that
the fight against sin
is a friendly
risk-free
wrestling match
between friends
or something like that.
They think that
there are no
real consequences.
Sure,
sin might hurt me
and affect my life
here and there
but I'm saved
and I'm eternally secure.
sin, however,
is under no such
delusion.
Sin knows
that it's in a
death match
with you.
It's trying to
choke you to death
when sin gets
a stranglehold
on the so-called
Christian
and then the
Christian starts
to wonder,
oh, ouch, ouch,
that actually
really hurts.
That's a little
overaggressive,
don't you think?
I mean,
it's a friendly
wrestling match
and then
eventually,
your very life
breath is ebbing
out of you.
17th century
English pastor
John Owen
famously said,
be killing sin
or sin
will be killing you.
If you make
peace with sin,
you're no longer
repenting of sin,
you're no longer
resisting sin.
The final result
is not
less sanctification,
it's eternal
damnation.
Why?
Not because
true Christians
can lose their
salvation,
but because all
true Christians
persevere in faith
and obedience
until the end.
That's how we know
they are true
Christians.
You know them
by their fruit
because the fight
for holiness
is the fight
for faith
because if you
really believe
God's promises
and God's word
that it is true
and good
and beautiful,
then it's going
to show in your
life.
Pastor John
Piper wrote
about this in his
book,
Future Grace.
He says,
A few years ago,
I spoke to a high
school student body
on how to fight
lust.
One of my points
was called,
Ponder the eternal
danger of lust.
I quoted the words
of Jesus that it's
better to go to heaven
with one eye than
to hell with two
and said to the
students that their
eternal destiny was
at stake in what
they did with their
eyes and with the
thoughts of their
imagination.
After my message,
one of the students
asked,
Are you saying then
that a person can
lose his salvation?
This is exactly the
same response I got
a few years ago
when I confronted a
man about the
adultery he was
living in.
I pled with him to
return to his wife.
Then I said,
You know,
Jesus says that if
you don't fight this
sin with the kind of
seriousness that is
willing to gouge out
your own eye,
you will go to hell.
As a professing
Christian,
he looked at me in
utter disbelief as
though he had never
heard anything like
this in his life and
said,
You mean you think
a person can lose
his salvation?
So I have learned
again and again
from first-hand
experience that there
are many professing
Christians who have
a view of salvation
that disconnects it
from real life and
that nullifies the
threats of the
Bible and puts the
sinning person who
claims to be a
Christian beyond the
reach of biblical
warnings.
I believe this view
of the Christian life
is comforting thousands
who are on the broad
way that leads to
destruction.
The main concern of
this book is to show
that the battle against
sin is a battle
against unbelief or
the fight for purity
is a fight for faith
in future grace.
the great error that I
am trying to explode is
the error that says
faith in God is one
thing and the fight for
holiness is another
thing.
The battle for obedience
is optional because only
faith is necessary for
final salvation.
Jesus is being totally
serious in verse 29 and
30.
He's not being literal
but he nevertheless is
totally serious.
It's better to enter
heaven with one eye than
hell with two.
It's better to enter
heaven a cripple than
hell with two whole
legs.
How do we know Jesus is
not being literal here
because some people in
church history have
actually interpreted this
literally and have
carried out these
commands?
Yeah, do you think you're
serious about following
Jesus?
We know it's not
literal because in verse
28 Jesus told us that
he's concerned about
what's going on in our
hearts, not just what we
do with our bodies, with
lustful desires and not
merely with lustful acts.
We can't physically remove
lust from our hearts, can
we?
I wish we could.
I wish they had
surgeons for that.
I'd be the first to line
up.
Literally gouging out our
eyes will not stop us
from lusting.
I've used the example of
Ray Charles before, the
famous soul musician from
the 20th century.
He was blind, but he was
famous, famously a
womanizer.
He had no eyes to gouge
out, but he was full of
lust.
Married and divorced twice,
many affairs, fathered a
total of 12 children by 10
women, 10 different
women.
All that to say, Jesus is
not telling us to mutilate
our flesh literally.
He's being figurative, but
his command is no less
real and bracing.
He's telling us to remove
decisively the things that
cause us to fall, the
sources of temptations in
our lives.
Don't read things or scroll
through things or watch
things that you know will
inflame your lusts.
Well, but everybody's
watching that and talking
about that.
Everyone who is cultured
and educated reads and
watches that.
Well, then be content to be
considered ignorant and
uncultured and uneducated.
Be content to be excluded and
left out of those
conversations.
That's the hot topic and
trending for everybody else.
Be content to be not in the
know.
It's better for you to lose
one part of your body than
for your whole body to be
thrown into hell.
If your smartphone causes you
to sin, get a dumb phone.
If you're working from home is
ripe for temptations, go to a
co-working space or to a
public library.
If your boyfriend or
girlfriend is causing you to
sin, break up with that
person.
Seek counsel from a pastor.
If there's a flirty co-worker
that is tempting you, ask me
move to a different
department or quit the job and
move to a new job.
Well, that's kind of drastic.
No, that's so inconvenient.
Of course it's inconvenient.
Losing your eye and your hand is
also inconvenient.
That's exactly Jesus' point.
Why does he specifically say
right hand?
Because the right hand is, for
most people, the dominant
hand.
It's the more useful, more
needful hand.
And right eye, I think, is
just paralleling that.
He says, even if it's your
right hand, the thing that you
need the most to get around and
to do the things you need to
do, even if it's one of those
most important things in your
life, dear things in your life,
precious things in your life,
get rid of it if it's leading
you to sin.
Because isn't our eternal
well-being more important than
our temporal well-being?
What good is it for a man to
gain the whole world yet forfeit
his soul?
In 2019, a Nebraskan farmer
named Kurt Kaser was working on
his farm when he accidentally
stepped into a running machine.
I think it was a cornhopper.
I don't know exactly how that
works, but it was sucking him in
slowly, and the machine was
running, and he was stuck, and he
had no family around.
He knew it would be a while
before anybody came to the farm,
and he knew that not before
long he would die.
So he made a quick decision.
He took the pocket knife out,
and he amputated his own leg and
freed himself from the machine.
Do you think that's crazy?
That is the only sensible thing to
do in that situation.
Why?
Because he wanted to live.
Do you want to live?
Do you want to live forever?
Do you want to have eternal life?
Do you want to be in the kingdom
of heaven and have eternal
fellowship with God?
Gouge out that eye.
Cut off that hand.
1 Corinthians 6, 9-10 says,
Do you not know that the
unrighteous will not inherit the
kingdom of God?
Do not be deceived.
Neither the sexually immoral,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers,
nor men who practice homosexuality,
nor thieves, nor the greedy,
nor drunkard, nor redeemed,
revilers, nor swindlers will inherit
the kingdom of God.
If you have come to terms with
your sexual immorality,
if you have reached a ceasefire,
and you're not fighting sin
anywhere in your life,
you're not killing sin,
you're no longer repenting of your sin,
if you have troves of porn
downloaded on your hard drive,
if you know that you are in sexual sin,
but you're not willing to change
anything about it,
you're staying in it,
then you will not inherit
the kingdom of God.
Put to death, therefore,
what is earthly in you,
sexual immorality, impurity,
passion, evil, desire,
covetousness, which is idolatry,
Colossians 3, 5.
Cut it off.
Before I move on to the next point,
I want to share a potential objection
that some people might raise.
D. Martin Lloyd-Jones
is insightful on this point again.
He says,
but someone may ask at this point,
are you not teaching
a kind of morbid scrupulosity?
Is not life going to be
rather wretched and miserable?
Well, there are people
who become morbid,
but if you want to know
the difference between them
and what I am teaching,
think of it in this way.
Morbid scrupulosity
is always concerned about itself,
its state and condition,
and its own achievements.
True holiness,
on the other end,
is always concerned
about pleasing God,
glorifying Him,
and ministering to the glory
of Jesus Christ.
If you and I keep that
ever in the foreground
of our minds,
we need not be very worried
about becoming morbid.
All that will be at once avoided
if we do it for His sake
instead of spending
the whole of our time
feeling our spiritual pulse
and taking our spiritual temperature.
You guys understand?
It's very wise counsel
from the doctor.
If you have an overactive conscience,
and you suffer from scrupulosity,
get your mind off of yourself
and onto Christ
and onto God.
That's the key.
Now to my second point,
adultery through divorce.
This is a shorter point.
The topic of divorce
and remarriage
is more fully addressed
later on in Matthew 19,
so I'll reserve detailed treatment
until that point.
However,
I do want to note
the connections
between verse 31 and 32
and verses 27 to 30.
Technically,
they are separate passages.
They're distinct
and tip that cease.
However,
they're related.
Follow along with me
in verse 31 and 32.
It was also said,
whoever divorces his wife,
let him give her
a certificate of divorce.
But I say to you
that everyone
who divorces his wife,
except on the ground
of sexual immorality,
makes her commit adultery.
And whoever marries
a divorced woman
commits adultery.
Jesus is here
alluding to Deuteronomy 24,
1 to 4,
which talks about
writing a certificate
of divorce
for the woman
in the event
that the husband
is divorcing her.
But Jesus presents
a contrast,
an antithesis.
He says,
but I say to you
that everyone
who divorces his wife,
except on the ground
of sexual immorality,
makes her commit adultery.
To simplify it,
read that verse
without the exception clause.
Cover up the exception clause
with your finger
and try reading it.
Everyone who divorces his wife
makes her commit adultery.
And whoever marries
a divorced woman
commits adultery.
How is that so?
Usually we only call it adultery
if someone who is still married
is involved.
When a divorced person
marries another partner,
we call it remarriage.
But Jesus says
that this is tantamount
to adultery.
Why?
The assumption is
that the first marriage
is still binding
because it's a covenant
that God has brought together.
Jesus' teaching
is consistent elsewhere.
For example,
in Luke 16, 18,
everyone who divorces his wife
and marries another
commits adultery.
And he who marries a woman
divorced from her husband
commits adultery.
Almost identical formulation
in Mark 10, 11.
Jesus is essentially
forbidding divorce.
Why?
Once again,
it gets to the heart
of God's law.
Rather than merely observing
the letter of God's law,
in those days,
men often divorced
their wives
for frivolous reasons.
One prominent
Jewish school of thought
associated with
Rabbi Hillel
taught that a man
may justly divorce
his wife
for something as trivial
as spoiling a meal.
I'm divorcing you today
because you burnt my toast.
Legitimate.
That's what they said.
Josephus,
first century Jewish historian,
writes in a cavalier manner
about his divorce.
He says,
at this time of my life,
I sent away my wife
being displeased
with her behavior
and then I took a wife,
a woman from Crete.
What often underlies
such casual divorces
and remarriages?
Lust.
Men in those days
and both men and women
nowadays
game the system
by marrying,
divorcing,
remarrying,
divorcing,
remarrying,
divorcing,
remarrying
as often as their
fantasies
and fascinations
change,
thereby fulfilling
the lust of their hearts
without ever getting
into legal trouble.
But Jesus here
exposes the evil of that.
Why then did Moses
allow people to divorce?
Jesus answers
that exact question
in Matthew 19.8.
He says,
because of your
hardness of heart,
Moses allowed you
to divorce your wives,
but from the beginning
it was not so.
Divorce was intended
to be
a temporary provision
for a broken
and fallen world.
It was a concession
to the hardness
of the human heart,
intended to mitigate
human failure
and not to establish
the divine ideal
or standard.
If you have
a neighborhood
full of drug addicts
and because you
don't want them
to die from
contaminated syringes,
you put some
clean syringes
over there for people,
can those people say,
like,
oh, I'm following the law
because I use
clean syringes
every single time?
No,
you're doing
illegal drugs.
It's intended
to mitigate
human failure.
That's what divorce is.
Not the actual standard
that you're supposed
to keep.
What's the actual standard?
Jesus says,
he quotes Genesis 2,
24 in Matthew 19,
5 to 6.
Therefore a man
shall leave his father
and mother
and hold fast
to his wife
and the two
shall become one flesh.
So they are no longer
two but one flesh.
What therefore
God has joined together,
let not man separate.
God is the one
who joins a man
and woman together
in a covenant of marriage
and is not for man
to break it apart.
That still leaves
the exception clause
to make sense of.
But I say to you
that everyone
who divorces his wife
except on the ground
of sexual morality
makes her commit adultery.
The exception clause,
I think,
according to my best
interpretation at this point,
is there to
exempt the husband
from the guilt
of making his wife
commit adultery.
In this culture,
in this part
of the ancient world,
divorced women
would usually have
no recourse for survival.
They would be forced
to remarry
so that they could
be provided for.
And so when a husband
unjustly divorces her,
he would be guilty
of making her
commit adultery
because he forced her
into that.
But if the husband
divorced his wife
due to her own infidelity,
then he does not
bear that guilt
of making her
commit adultery
because she was
already one.
So sexual immorality
or infidelity
does become
a sort of
grounds for divorce,
though nowhere
in the Bible
does Jesus ever
command divorce
in such situations,
and there can still
be forgiveness
and reconciliation
even after sins
as deeply damaging
as adultery.
Let me add one
slight qualification here
because I have met
some Christian therapists
in the past
who have counseled
Christians to divorce
their Christian spouses
because of their
sins of lust
and pornography.
And they would cite
this passage
and say,
well, adultery
is lust
and looking at pornography,
lust of the heart
is adultery of the heart,
and here it says
adultery is grounds
for divorce,
therefore you should
divorce your wife,
divorce your husband.
And I've seen therapists
use this logic
and reasoning before,
but that's a specious claim.
In that case,
should we also institute
the death penalty
for sinful anger?
Because in the
preceding passage,
Jesus said,
if you're angry
with your brother,
then you have committed
murder in your heart.
Does that make any sense?
No, it doesn't.
Is there a single man
in the world
who can claim
that he has never,
not once,
looked at a woman
lustfully?
According to
that interpretation,
every Christian woman
in the world
should divorce
their husbands
because they're
all adulterous.
This is misguided
application of the passage.
Jesus is not
legislating civil laws
that should be enforced
by the courts
or the governing authorities.
He is teaching
a personal ethic.
Jesus is not
lowering the bar
for divorce.
He's just raising
the bar for purity
and obedience.
Are you guys with me?
What are we as Christians
to do with such
a high bar?
Only the most
naively optimistic
person,
Christian,
can read a passage
like this
and think,
okay,
pretty reasonable,
doable,
yeah, sure,
let me create
a checklist.
That's the point.
When you understand
God's holiness
and God's word
in its right place,
then you realize
you can never
be holy enough.
You can never
be pure enough.
You can never
be righteous enough.
This is not
meant to
put a hurdle
in front of you
and say,
okay,
this is doable,
now do it,
jump over.
No,
it's meant
to be so high
that you despair
of any chance
of you
clearing that hurdle
on your own
and instead
you turn to Jesus
and cling to him
for salvation.
salvation.
Maybe right now,
and I know
this is the case
because of the statistics
and because of many
of you that I've talked to,
I know there's dozens
of you,
if not scores of you,
who have sinned
in these ways,
who struggle
with these sins
and you mourn it
and you grieve it
and you want to change
and you're having
a hard time change.
And maybe you feel
like that person
in Lauren's prophecy,
you feel like
you're in this bathtub
and you feel black
and stained
and you keep trying
to wash yourself
to the point
of scraping your skin off
and you still cannot
get the stain off.
That is the reality
for all sinners
in the world
apart from Christ.
You will never
get it off.
We're like a
prostitute,
a whore
who is trying
to come to a wedding.
The hair is disheveled,
the face,
the makeup's
all smeared
and the clothings
are all soiled
and tatter
from her harlotry.
How's she gonna
get married?
Who's gonna take her?
That's the church,
the bride of Christ.
And then we read
in Ephesians 5
that Jesus
loved the church
and gave himself
up for her
that he might
sanctify her
having cleansed her
by the washing
of water
with the word
so that he might
present the church
to himself
in splendor
without spot
or wrinkle
or any such thing
that she might be
holy
and without
blemish.
in the beautiful
picture of
the wedding supper
of the Lamb
and the bride
that's gonna be
married to Jesus,
the bridegroom.
What does it say
here
about the saints?
How does it
describe them
in Revelation 7, 14?
These are the ones
coming out
of the great tribulation.
They have washed
their robes
and made them white
in the blood
of the Lamb.
Did you guys
catch that
Psalm 51
that Lauren
shared from?
Cleanse me
with hyssop
and I will be
clean.
That's the Psalm
that David wrote
after he committed
adultery
with Bathsheba
and Nathan the prophet
came and confronted him
and saying,
you are the man
and he's broken
and heartbroken
and that's what he writes
because he knows
that his only hope
of cleansing
is not in his
righteousness
but the blood
of Jesus Christ
and if you forsake
your own righteousness
and you go to Jesus
and say,
with your blood
I can be made clean
and your blood
I can be washed
as white as snow
then Jesus
puts that white
beautiful wedding gown
on you
and you get to
hold your head up high
and go to the wedding
supper of the Lamb
to be the bride
of Christ forever.
That's the good news
and it's only people
who believe
and get that good news
who want to
be pure
in every way
who pursue
utmost purity
who want to remove
every blemish
every hint
of unfaithfulness
every hint
of infidelity
because you love
Jesus
your bridegroom
because you want
to please
your bridegroom
because you
would do anything
for the one
who gave everything
for you.
Let's pray
that it would be
all of us.