2/22/15 Christ
Fellowship
“What Jesus Says About Adultery” –
Matt. 5:27-30
I want you
to use your imagination with me this morning. We are all soldiers in a fierce
battle that has been waging for some time.
We are pinned down on one side of a battlefield that has been filled
with landmines. We have to go forward
but we know that if we step in the wrong spot it will mean certain death and we
know this because some of us have done it and paid the price. So we hunker down and try to come up with a
plan.
Just then we
look across the big field and we see one of our own on the other side. One of our men has somehow made it and he is
encouraging us to follow him. He says, “Just come straight across right through
there. I found the way. It’s safe.” So, we, of course, believe him and start to
go across but we realize quickly that it is a trap. Members of our team are dying all around us
because this man betrayed us and now our whole squad is in danger of being
killed by the enemy.
We finally
make it back to the original side and our betrayer has come back with us acting
like nothing is wrong, in fact offering to cook us dinner. How do you feel about that? This man who we thought was our friend has
made the choice to lead many of us to death and yet here he is expecting us to
take him back like nothing happened.
What do you do? You know he’s a
really friendly guy. He has a great sense
of humor and he’s a great cook. So,
maybe we should give him another chance, right?
Of course
not! What do you do with that
person? You get rid of him. Maybe you even kill him. He has proven himself to be an enemy so you
certainly don’t let him back in. At the
very least you send him back to our side to be tried and put in prison but the
last thing we would do is just continue to accept him as one of our own. That’s just obvious and yet every day in
reality we do basically the same thing with sin in our lives
We put
ourselves in position to be tempted knowing that the Bible says that the wages
of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). We know that Satan prowls around like a lion
(1 Peter 5:8) waiting for his
opportunity to kill you dead and yet we still want to dabble in it. We still want to just get a little
taste. It’s just like Satan himself
standing on the other side of the minefield saying, “Come out just a little further.
It’s safe.”
Let me
change the scenario for a second. Let’s
say you come home from work, have dinner, put on your slippers and kick back in
your La-Z-Boy with the remote in your hand.
Just then the doorbell rings and there is a half-naked couple standing
at your door. “Hey, we want to have sex. Can
we borrow your living room for a while?”
What do you do? You shut the
door and call 911 if it’s reality and yet if it comes on TV…well, it’s just the
way the world is nowadays. That’s how
our culture is. But Jesus says that His
disciples will be counter-cultural.
We will be
counter-cultural and so much so that when we find ourselves tempted, not only
do we resist that temptation then we also never let ourselves be put in that
position to be tempted by that thing again.
We get rid of whatever led to that temptation like we would a traitor
trying to kill us. There is no wriggle
room here. There are no second
chances. The source of the temptation has
to go and the world may think we are crazy.
They may make fun of us, tell us we are missing out, that we are
uneducated and old-fashioned.
Do you
remember what Jesus said about situations like that in the beatitudes? Matthew
5:11 says we are blessed when people insult us like that. I want to continue looking at this sermon
Jesus preached on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. We are disciples of Jesus Christ around here
and because of that we know that our purpose is to learn from Jesus and then
teach and encourage others with what we have learned. So we are learning what Jesus said as He
taught His other disciples so many years ago.
Matthew 5-7
is the Sermon on the Mount and we see Jesus here preaching about some pretty
sensitive subjects but His overall theme is that His disciples will be
radically different from the rest of the world.
The world, then and now, can’t understand how His words could possibly
be true. He wasn’t politically
correct. His message was the opposite of
everything they believed and even hard to take in yet it didn’t keep Jesus from
preaching and teaching what would become for us and others a life-changing and
even life-saving message.
This
includes what He said in Matthew 5:27-30
and I encourage you to look in your Bibles there to follow along with me as I
read. In the Bible in front of you in
the pew it is probably on page ??? Look with me there to see what Jesus had to
say specifically about adultery and lust but it also applies to other kinds of
sin as well.
Matthew 5:27-30 says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall
not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman
lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out
and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for
your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And
if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is
better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go
into hell.”
You will notice that Jesus starts this passage by
saying, “You have heard that it was said…” It is the same thing He said
in the previous passage talking about murder in verse 21. “You have
heard that it was said…” Where would they have heard it said? In the Law;
the 10 Commandments, the Law of Moses found in the first five books of the
Bible. Those Old Testament laws were found in what the Hebrews called the
Pentateuch (the first 5 books) but specifically in the Torah. There was a total
of 613 laws in the Torah written by Moses concerning all aspects of life.
Jesus is here saying that the Law says this but I say
that. Now, is that blasphemy? Is Jesus changing or getting rid of the Old
Testament laws and making His own? I wish I had time to preach through every
word of this Sermon on the Mount by Jesus and I would bring this out more but
Jesus answers those questions in verse 17. Go back a little and read
that. Verse 17 says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the
Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
Jesus is not doing away with them at all. He is just
redefining them as only He could; with the authority that only He has. The Old
Testament Pharisees would have not seen any problem with thinking about or
dwelling on any sin as long as it wasn’t acted upon but Jesus changes that
thinking. Today He would say, “Yeah, I know Webster’s dictionary defines the
word that way. But I am changing the definition.” Then in these 6 major
topics in chapter 5 He not only changes the definitions but broadens them
considerably.
He says you have heard that doing these things is wrong
but I am here to tell you that even thinking about them is wrong and offensive
to God. It is sin. In verse 27 He is talking about adultery. Let’s
define adultery because we will be talking about it today AND next week when we
see what Jesus says about divorce.
Adultery is basically having sex with someone not your
spouse; someone with whom you are not legally married. Now, we all would agree that is wrong. But Jesus is saying that just thinking
lustfully about someone not your spouse is sin.
Man, that’s so mean of Jesus to say that, right? God just doesn’t want us to have any fun,
does He? He is just a big ol’
meanie-head waiting for us to mess up so He can karate chop us into dust.
Or…maybe that’s just how the world sees Him and we know
that everything Jesus taught here was counter-cultural so maybe God really does
love us and is just trying to protect us by giving us these rules. I’m pretty sure that’s it. Aren’t you?
But how and why do we keep from thinking lustfully and sinning when the
world we live in not only accepts it but actually promotes it?
I have three brief points that will hopefully help all
of us with this and not only lust but other sins as well to some degree.
·
It starts in the
mind
·
It shames the
body
·
It is stopped at
the source
The first thing to realize is that all sin starts in the
mind. That’s why Jesus has broadened
these sins to include just thinking about them.
Jesus also said in Mark 7, “For
it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual
immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed,
malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.”
So, all of these sins, not just lust but all sins start with just a
thought.
If that is the case; if all sin starts with a thought,
then let’s change the way we think. Look
around. Every single person you see is
somebody very special to somebody else.
Every one is a mother or daughter or sister or
aunt. Every one is or has been the apple
of her daddy’s eye, her mama’s pride and joy, the gift from God that some man
would kill or die for; a fearfully and wonderfully made mystery that no man
will ever fully understand but who is made in God’s own image and created for a
reason and that reason DOES NOT include your thinking of her in ways that
include sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance
or folly!
When we change the way we think, it changes the way we
see each other. I want to bring up
another aspect of this but it, too, comes back to this. Ladies, you have a responsibility to look and
act like I just described you. When you
dress immodestly, you can expect to have people think immodest thoughts toward
you. You may think that skin is in but I
am here to tell you that skin is sin.
You don’t have to dress like a Puritan to look
pure. I’m not advocating long sleeves
and long skirts so no scandalous bare ankle shows. I’m saying you can look attractive without
looking seductive. Also, I have to say
that I don’t think I am talking to anybody here. It just needs to be said. I appreciate the way our ladies dress. As a pastor and as a man, I appreciate
it.
It all starts in our minds but
includes how we think of each other and ultimately how we think of ourselves. Those poor Hollywood celebrity sex symbols
need somebody to tell them they are fearfully and wonderfully made and in God’s
image. Then maybe they would put some
clothes on if they knew they were valued with them on. Speaking of clothes, Romans 13:14 says, “Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and
do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
Lustful thinking and all sin starts in the mind but lust especially shames the body. Paul writes
in 1 Corinthians 6, “Flee
from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body,
but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the
Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your
own; 20 you were bought at a price.
Therefore honor God with your bodies.”
Proverbs
6:32 says, “He who
commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself.” We are all
fearfully and wonderfully made. That’s
from Psalm 139, by the way, not from
me. God made us special and He made us
in His image. Then the Bible says that
we are bought at a price. Picture that. God created us from nothing to be something
special and then paid the ultimate price for our eternal lives and then we
damage the product – the actual temple where He resides – by our lustful
thoughts.
I read this week that recent medical research has
shown that the addictive nature of lust actually alters brain activity and
therefore how we think. It makes it
harder for us to see what is truth. Romans
1 says, “Therefore
God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for
the degrading of their bodies with
one another. 25
They exchanged the truth about God
for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the
Creator.” When Jesus said not to lust, it was said with
concern for those He loves. He wants us
to know the truth and the truth is that lust, like so many other sins, is
addictive and will bring physical and mental shame.
We as believers are bought with a price and that price
was for all of us, not just our souls.
We have no right to bring shame on our minds or our bodies. That is why Jesus spoke of the extreme
measures that have to be taken to stop this sin at the source. It starts in our minds. It shames the body and it is stopped at the
source. Going back to verses 29 and 30,
Jesus says we should pluck out or cut off the offending body part. This was also mentioned later in this Gospel
where He even mentions the foot as well.
Sounds pretty extreme to me.
Well, while these statements are examples of our
Lord’s use of dramatic figures of speech – He is not saying we are to mutilate
our bodies – He is talking about but a ruthless moral self-denial. Not mutilation but mortification or taking up
the cross to follow Christ means to reject sin so resolutely that we die to
them or put them to death. (John R W Stott, p. 89)
Gary Richmond, a former zoo keeper, had this to say: Raccoons go through a glandular change at about 24 months. After that they often attack their owners. Since a 30-pound raccoon can be equal to a 100-pound dog in a scrap, I felt compelled to mention the change coming to a pet raccoon owned by a young friend of mine, Julie. She listened politely as I explained the coming danger. I'll never forget her answer. "It will be different for me. . ." And she smiled as she added, "Bandit wouldn't hurt me. He just wouldn't." Three months later Julie underwent plastic surgery for facial lacerations sustained when her adult raccoon attacked her for no apparent reason. Gary Richmond, View From The Zoo.
Too often, in fact, every time we allow sin of any kind, but especially lust, to continue growing in our lives it turns to destroy us. Remember the story I started with about the soldier who betrayed us? What did we do with him? We didn’t give him another chance to hurt us, did we? We got rid of him. Jesus is saying here that the source of our temptations needs to be cut off.
What did Joseph do when Potiphar’s wife came on to him in Genesis 39? Did he try to convince her not to? Did they sit down and have a long talk about it? Maybe he figured that just a little adultery would be ok, right? No! He ran immediately. She grabbed him by the coat and he left the coat in her hands. The coat was not worth it!
Where does your temptation start? This is something you really need to consider and it doesn’t matter if we are talking about lust, greed, gossip, lying, stealing, murder, theft or any other sin. Where are you and what are you doing when that first thought comes to you? It’s not even a temptation yet. It’s just a thought. James 1 says, “each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”
What are you doing when that first desire hits you? Are you shopping, watching TV, maybe even at work? I heard about a young man who joined the army and every week he had to get a haircut. The problem was that the barber had put up a bunch of pictures of women all around the barber shop and the young man was forced to look at them while his hair was cut and he had to get it cut. So…he bought his own clippers and never went back.
The point is that no matter what the root problem is it has to go. If it is your job, get another. “Oh that’s real easy for you to say preacher man. You don’t know how hard it is to get a job around here.” Maybe not but I know that God will honor your efforts and He will provide. I’ve seen it too many times.
Is it your TV that is the problem? Get rid of it. I’m not kidding. Neither was Jesus when He said that no matter what it is to get rid of it and never take it back. Don’t let the internet or your friends or your family or anything else in the world be the tool that Satan uses to kill you dead. Because that is exactly what he is trying to do and has done to countless others that never thought it could happen.
Do you want to be a real disciple of Jesus? Do you really want to be able to make changes in this nasty old world? Do you want your neighbors, friends and family to have a relationship with Jesus? It won’t happen if you are being dragged down by that same old sin that you keep struggling with.
Remember, it starts in the mind and it shames the body but it can be stopped if you make the decision to stop it at its source.
Everybody is different and everybody struggles with different things and in different ways but if you have never truly become a disciple of Jesus and repented of your sins and started following Him then you will always struggle. Being a believer doesn’t mean you will never sin or even never struggle with sin. But it does mean that with the help of the Holy Spirit and the power of God’s Word you can overcome those habits or even addictions. If you don’t believe me then come see me and I will introduce you to some folks that can prove it.
Maybe today you need to ask Jesus to be Lord of your life. Or maybe you need to rededicate your life to Him or join the church. I would love to pray about that with you this morning. Come right now as the music plays.
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