Sermon on the Mount (Adultery)
Notes
Transcript
What do I want them to know? Adultery is a heart issue not just a physical issue and there is free from adultery
Why? For their freedom and joy
What do I want them to do? Stop lusting
Why? It brings freedom and joy and life
ME/WE
We are in series called the Sermon on the Mount. This is the series that goes threw Jesus’ first sermon to the masses where he shares to Gentiles, Jewish people, and religious leaders what His kingdom looks like.
The part we are now in is the section where Jesus looks at the Laws and the Commands of the day and he revisiting them and showing them WHAT THE HEART OF THE LAW IS NOT JUST THE LETTER OF THE LAW.
We can be able to keep the letter of the law or commands.
God’s laws always lead to life.
We saw this last week with the letter of the law
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’
But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.
Jesus is saying I want to show you the heart of the law, not just the letter of the law.
We can totally miss the ways and goodness of Jesus and the law of God because we are following the letter and not the heart.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
Jesus doesn’t just show them the heart of the law and say don’t do it. He shows us last and will show us this week how get over our anger, how do we will do deal with the anger we have.
He shows we do so threw
- Forgiveness and apologizing
Forgiving the person as Jesus has forgiven us
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Today we are onto the next LAW that affects all walks of life, young, old, single (really affected me when I was a young man), married.
That our world struggles with significantly, it is everywhere and anywhere
- Though It is law that our world says is not a big deal....to the point that our world says to not recycle is a worst sin to commit than to commit the sin Jesus is going to say.
And it is sin that has brought a lot of damage, HURT, and PAIN into our lives, whether we person did it or someone else did it and it affected us.....
And it is a law of God that he has for us that all of have broken and as a result some of get anxious....I remember myself getting squirrly and anxious as a young man dealing with this sin.
The BIBLE BRINGS UP THIS SIN OVER AND OVER BECAUSE THE BIBLE KNOWS THE DAMAGING EFFECTS OF THIS LAW
Feel and now the grace and truth of God
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’
What is adultery? The letter of the law says adultery happens when a married person has sexual relations with someone who is not their spouse.
This is not the way God designed it.....God did not design us to sleep around with whomever we want, whenever we want....God has given us the gift of marriage and for sex to happen in marriage
God sexually relationships to happen with someones spouse.
One of the greatest gifts God has given us, many say the second greatest gift is marriage
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
Covential union that is one of legal union of loyal love.
it is in this marriage that we have
Where have the highest level of intimacy… two become on flesh Mark 10:
Physical sex for pleasure and procreation and it is spiritual it is a act, it is a mingling of souls
It is the highest level emotionally
Highest level Spiritually…marriage is about HOLINESS more than it is about happiness..you seek to help each other walk more and more like Jesus.
God said this union, this amazing union is for you and your spouse....
What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
do not break the coventant of marriage with adultery....so big under the old covenant that it
“If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.
The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst
they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.
Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”
This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground.
But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
That’s the letter of the law....Jesus says let me show the HEART OF THE LAW....There is not a single person besides Jesus who has broken the heart of the law.
But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
looks means not to glance, but to take in, gaze at, intently look at
Lust
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains 25.20 ἐπιθυμέω; ἐπιθυμία, ας
to strongly desire to have what belongs to someone else and/or to engage in an activity which is morally wrong—‘to covet, to lust, evil desires, lust, desire.
Lust has a selfish focus on gratifying ones own desires.
Jesus say it is not just the ACT that is adultery it is the motive of the HEART
- Anyone who looks at a woman who is not wife in a way that is to be for their spouse, has commit adultery....if you see this woman and think lustful sexual thoughts about this woman, you have committed adultery
Jesus is saying you are not breaking the letter of the law, but you are breaking the heart of the law.
Your eyes are for you to be for your wife or future wife
“I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?
This goes smack dab against the moral climate of our cultural that says have SEX as much as you want and it is ok to look as long as you don’t touch....
this comes out in pornography a multie billion dollar industruy…makes more money than all the 3 major sports combined.
It is so in our world that
90% of males in America look at pornography…10% daily…that is a lustful endeavor.
60% of woman in America look at pornography once a month… used to be 40%
This week I over heard a woman talking in sexual lustful about a man.
This should not be this is not for us.
Also, lustful desire doesn’t always need to be sexual but it can be in fantasy and this is where we see some (usually it is a woman’s lustful desire, men’s is usually sexually) a woman lustfully desiring fantasying about being with a man who is not their husband and thinking of him in ways that should only be for her husband.
We see these types of fantasies come out in some romantic books, romantic movies
There are in-sighting lustful desires…woman finds a married man who is in a bad marriage and he is Mr. Wonderful he needs to leave his wife for her.
Jesus said this is not to be among us....our eyes our desires are to be for our spouse or future spouse....to do something outside of that is adultery
IT IS DOES NOT NEED TO BE IN FICTION OR FAR AWAY....
What do we do with that?
Why does Jesus make such a big deal out of lust in the heart? (we will live in world that says not to recycle is a worst sin than this
FIVE reasons why, in no particular order
He knows that all actions start in the heart…every outward action starts with a heart intention… no one accidentally commits the letter of the law
Jesus wants us to stop what is in here before it becomes an action
2.. Lustful desires are selfish desires that often objectfy someone else…that is God’s creation that you are thinking lustfully about in a objectifiing way.
“that is someone else’s daughter or son that you are thinking that way about.
3. Lust is a sin issue....whether it is sexual lust or fantasy lust… .lustful desires are sinful and sin allways brings destruction and shame…BONDAGE....there is not liberation in sexual liberation…just bondage
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
And behold, the woman meets him, dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart.
She is loud and wayward; her feet do not stay at home;
now in the street, now in the market, and at every corner she lies in wait.
She seizes him and kisses him, and with bold face she says to him,
“I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows;
so now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.
I have spread my couch with coverings, colored linens from Egyptian linen;
I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
Come, let us take our fill of love till morning; let us delight ourselves with love.
For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey;
he took a bag of money with him; at full moon he will come home.”
With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him.
All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast
till an arrow pierces its liver; as a bird rushes into a snare; he does not know that it will cost him his life.
And now, O sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth.
Let not your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths,
for many a victim has she laid low, and all her slain are a mighty throng.
Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
4. It brings a road block between you and your future spouse....some people have a big road block before them of sexual sin that prevents or have us marry not God’s best for us… them getting married, most of the time it is because of the shame they carry because of the sin or because of lustful desires are to closely fiction not reality that a real person cannot meet those desires.
IT IS CALLED FICITION, ACTING
Lust changes the brain chemistry
5. It brings a sinful garbage into your marriage....sexual sin often has tied to it ANGER.....the person is angry at themselves for the sin and takes out on the other person or they are angry that the person is not who they want them to be.
How do we safeguard and get freedom from our lustful desires?
Set Boundaries
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.
He is not being literal if you cut out your right eye you still have your left left and same thing with you hand.
Jesus is saying do whatever it take to keep yourself free from the wrongful lustful desire of your heart.
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
- Set up accountability programs on your phone and computer.
Have an accountability partner (I have that)
Let your spouse have access to all of your accounts FB, emails,
When you go to the beach men sit at the front of the beach right by the sand....this is what I do
Go a dumb phone…got rid of their computer.
This maybe extreme
Billy Gramham rule…if you are marriage don’t go out in public with another married person.
If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
One man who wrote a book about “Ordering you Private World” asked by a reporter what area of your life can Satan not get a hold of? My marriage and sadly shortly after that he was found out to have an affair.
Sometimes your boundary is to flee
Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
2. Seek God
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
If we are going in this direction seeking God we have little time for sin.
David said
How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.
3. Prayer and confession
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
There is something supernatural that happens in confession…healing…strength.
Over and over this happen to me
Tell your brother or sister in Christ about your sin.
Say I need help
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.
For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!
Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone?
And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
4. Lastly through yourself to Jesus
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Jesus wants us to be away from sexual sin
JESUS WANTS YOU TO LIVE IN THE FREEOM AND JOY OF LIFE AND MARRIAGE