Today we'll be going through Matthew chapter 5 Verses 21 to 30. We made a slight change from what was on the website Matthew 5 starting in verse 21 You have heard that it was said to those of old you shall not murder and whoever murders will be liable to judgment and 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. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. 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. Lord, Father, I ask that you be with us now. I ask for the impossible, I ask that we can come to know and understand you, Lord, and I say impossible, because without you, that is impossible, Lord, and so I ask that you come and illuminate your word to us, Father. Just remove me, Father, protect and guard me from adding or taking away from your word, Lord, and that your truth just be proclaimed this morning, Father, as we seek to understand not just what is being taught, but the purpose behind what Christ is teaching here in the greatest of sermons. Lord, allow us the understanding, Lord Jesus. We pray these things in your precious name, Jesus. Thank you, Father. Amen. Please have a seat. Church, on April 29th, 1992, A jury acquitted four white L.A. City policemen that were accused of beating Rodney King. This was the first day, this was a Wednesday, and it was the first day of much rioting that broke out in L.A. I was 15 at the time, and I'll tell you right now that I'm 35 because a lot of you are starting to do the math. So if I was 15 and 92, so I'm 35. I was at school. I was in high school down at Don Bosco Tech in Rosemead, which was about 20 minutes from LA. And I remember some professors called teachers. in high school, coming in and telling us that something big was going on, and we turned on the TV sets, and we started seeing the beginnings of the rioting. What I didn't know back then was these were many of the men that were already responding to this, the firefighters, and they'd be many of the men that I'd be working with one day, later when I get hired with L.A. County Fire Department. But this was a Wednesday, and they canceled school for the remainder of the week. And so the next day, having no school due to the riots, I did what any young man who has school council did is went with my buddies and grabbed a bag of M&Ms and went up to the roof of the house. And we hung out there and we watched the plumes of smoke. And we just saw the header on the horizon coming from the west. It's strange what we kind of started. We were talking about the rioting and the looting that we'd been watching on TV. And what I'm about to share with you, I'm not proud of. But what we sat and did was fantasize about looting. We sat on the roof. and talked about what we would loot, what we would take, in such a way that actually, I don't know, I was getting really excited about it. See, the Lord has created me with a passion, and now I know what that passion was for. It was for his word, it was to study the things of God. But I used to, until I got, I, Until I was saved, until I started studying his word, I would misplace that passion into the wrong things throughout my life. Many of you remember the golf phase in my life. Before that, there was video games. Before that was music. And I was really, for about three or four years, really into music in high school. I had my guitar. My buddies would play at the Roxy and the Whiskey. And that was my life. And so I sat on the roof with my buddies, and we fantasized about breaking into a music store. And there was a shop we used to go to in Alhambra called Pidgini's Music. And I remember picturing that we would, I didn't even have a truck, but I pictured a truck that we had, and I would back into the store, and we'd smash through, and just, we knew right where to go to start loading up the guitars we wanted, the Gibson Les Pauls, and the amps, and a bunch of strings, even the picks, we wanted to steal picks even. Depraved we were. But we'd load up the truck and just split. Well, after our day of fantasizing and M&Ms up on the roof, The following few days, as we continued to watch on the news all the tragedy and everything that was going on, I started seeing more and more of the looting. But after that, they started making the arrests. And they had a lot on surveillance, a lot videotaped, and they were going to the houses and busting everybody, arresting those that had been looting and stealing. And something, I praise God for this, but something became apparent to me, that I was not just on the roof Kind of thinking, yeah, that'd be kind of fun, but I wouldn't really do that. I knew I would really do that. I knew that given the opportunity, when it was going on, it didn't look like anybody was going to get caught. Cops weren't anywhere around. Everybody was called off. I know I would have stolen and taken a lot of stuff. And so, in my depraved mind still, it still occurred to me that there's these men, I'm watching them being arrested on TV, and there was men going to jail for doing the same exact thing that I wanted to do. That had I had the opportunity to do, I would have had no problems doing. I would have committed the same crime, except maybe even a worse manner, Because some of these guys were stealing in a way to feed their families, to help their situation. I wanted it just for my own fulfillment, just because I wanted these things. And I saw these men and women going to jail, and it really locked me up for a few days thinking, they're in jail and I'm not. I just couldn't get there. It wasn't safe for me. I had no ride. There was various reasons. I physically wasn't there to do the looting. That's the only reason that I did not commit the crime. For in my heart, I did and I would have. And so the justness of the entire situation weighed heavy on me thinking, that's not fair that they're in jail and I'm not. I'm still seen as a good person in society because I didn't get to do that. But I could have just as easily had I been born there, had I been living there, had I been there that day. And I praise God now, well, for protecting me from myself. But looking back also, the Lord taught me a lesson, which He didn't have to do, but He taught me a lesson even before I came to know Him. And I thank Him for that. And I learned that day, those few days, what Christ is here teaching to the scribes and the Pharisees, that it's not about the external actions, it's not the crimes that affect, it's the heart. And that was a huge lesson for me. And I believe that geared me and allowed me to accept the message of what Christ is here teaching the scribes and the Pharisees and the disciples of that day, that it is not in the external actions, that it is in the heart, for I knew my heart was guilty. Church, what Christ does now, from verses 21 to 48, the remainder of the chapter, is expound upon this one verse in verse 20. Okay, he has led the disciples up, he's on the mount, he's taught through the beatitudes, what the characteristics of the man and woman of God, he's taught through what we call the metaphors of salt and light. And then, in the last four verses, he did an introduction to what is to be the remainder of this chapter, Because he knows he's going to get a lot of questions about what he's about to preach. But all of verses 21 through 48 are now an exposition of verse 20, where he says, For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. So up until now, all the demands for internal righteousness have been positive, meaning it has been do this, do this, be like this, be like this. But this is the first time we get to the actual section where he starts saying what not to do and what not to be like. And Jesus is not here pointing to the individual sins. There's six issues that he brings up as an illustration. Starts with anger, then he's gonna go to lust, divorce, retaliation, oaths, our very word, loving our enemies. But these are six illustrations, and we have to be very careful to not miss the point. See, when I first came to this section, I thought, okay, this next sermon, naturally, it's gonna be the one on anger, the one on murder. But I realize that's important, and that is what Christ taught that day. He did teach about anger, how it is truly murder, and we are gonna be looking into that, but that's not the main point. The main point, and we can easily lose that if we did one sermon on each one, the main point is about the heart, right? So he's taking all six of these. And so today we're going to be going through the first two. And these are the only two that come directly from the Ten Commandments, from the Decalogue. We're going to unpack them and we're going to look at what Jesus was saying, what he meant for us today, as well as them back then. But I wanna make sure we don't lose heart of the main purpose here, which is the heart. We don't lose sight of the heart, for it is the purpose. It's the reason for the entire Sermon on the Mount is to teach on the heart. So this morning, Jesus gives us six antitheses to teach that true Christian morality must arise from the heart. And as a result of this, no one but God who controls the heart can provide it. So today we're looking at the first two. But again, it's to teach that the true Christian, excuse me, true Christian morality must arise from the heart. And as a result of this, no one but God who controls the heart can provide it. So we'll look now at the first point from verses 21 to 26, where Jesus teaches about murder to illustrate that true Christian morality must arise from the heart. What we have here in these first six verses from verses 21 to 26 is Christ. We can divvy it up into two verses. The first two, middle two, and the last two. The first two is the teaching. That's what Christ proclaimed. The following two sections, the other two, are Christ's illustrations or applications. So again, the first, the actual teaching is You have heard it was said to those of old, you shall not murder. And whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, and then he explains what the true meaning, what the intent of the passage is. Then he uses two illustrations. First, he uses a brother. And next he uses an enemy or an accuser, adversary, from verses 25 to 26. So let's look at this first part in verses 21 and 22. You have heard that it was said. Okay, we're gonna contrast that with what we talked about a couple sermons ago. He's not saying what he usually says when he quotes scripture. When he quoted scripture against the devil in Matthew chapter four, he said, it is written, it is written. He uses entirely different language. different words here to say you have heard it said so again i don't believe christ is here comparing and contrasting the true meaning from the actual ten commandments from the written word of god what he's contrasting is the interpretation this is why he changes to the words you have heard it said this is what's being passed along these are the interpretations next he says whoever murders will be liable to judgment this second part here as you've heard it said you shall not murder we know that's an uh... uh... derived from the ten commandments from the interpretation of the ten commandments but the second part whoever murders will be liable to judgment we're not exactly sure where that came into it uh... most scholars suspect it was in numbers thirty five even though the language is a little different but they kinda lump these two together and as often is the case uh... the pharisees would do that making it easier to just what are the rules uh... the heart doesn't matter we just want to know what do we have to do or not do And so they kind of lump these together. And when Christ says, but I say to you, now he's about to proclaim the true meaning of the law. It's intended meaning. You have made it this, you have thought it was this, this is what you've been taught, but I'm about to proclaim to you now the true meaning. And he continues, everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. And that's what he's teaching. That's his main point here, again, to illustrate that it comes from the heart. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council, and whoever says, you fool, will be liable to the hell of fire. Okay, first we see anger, that leads to judgment. Then we see insults, or raqqa, as they kept the wording in many of the translations, leading to the council. Now raqqa, we don't have an exact translation. It means empty head, And those people, whoever insults and says, Raqqa is led to the council. Some of the translations say Supreme court. What he's talking about there is the Sanhedrin council. And Raqqa being about the head, about a man's intelligence has is basically saying you stupid, you dummy. Whereas the next one fool is speaking of a man's character, not his intelligence, but his character. It's more, instead of saying you stupid, he's now saying you scoundrel. and the fool or the he that says fool says will be that will lead to Gehenna the hell of fire Gehenna was basically what we kind of have at Stoddard Wells except imagine Stoddard Wells is constantly on fire always burning it was their landfill it was their trash dump it was just outside the city and it was a place that stunk it was always burning and it was what Christ would always use to illustrate hell this word Gehenna was just outside of town, and that was the language he used to get his points across here. Now, let's be careful to realize that what he's not doing is he's not saying anger is here, but saying fool is worse than that, I'm sorry, raka is worse than that, and fool is even worse than that. This is not an escalating points of sin and punishment. What he's doing is just driving the point home using three illustrations here. Now, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law regarded certain oral traditions to be equal with the scriptures. They said, well, what's the difference? Oral traditions is the same exact thing as the word of God. But here, Jesus shatters the illusion that they have never murdered. They may not have physically taken someone's life, but he's teaching them, you have murdered. It has to do with the heart. For out of the heart comes evil thoughts. This is Matthew 15, 19. Out of the heart comes evil thoughts. Murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. This is where it starts. And look at the order that it's placed. The order he writes is, for out of the heart come evil thoughts. It starts with the thoughts. Then murder, adultery, sexual immorality. See, Christ is teaching here that it's not sufficient for his followers to refrain from the act of murder. They must do more. They must go to the source and root out all the anger. They must grub it out by the very root for what is the very beginning of murder, always in its incipient stage, it is anger. And they thought that they'd been obeying this. They thought this was an easy one for them. Well, apparently not, as Christ is teaching. He later tells the scribes and the Pharisees in John 8, you are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning. So we now see that anger has been put on the same level as murder, and it's important for us to understand that. And so let's see what the Bible says about murder even. Let's look at murder from God's view. Okay, we know the first murder, the first killing, the taking life of another human being occurs in Acts chapter, I'm sorry, Genesis chapter four, with Cain taking the life of Abel. Verse five tells us, that Cain grew angry. That was the first step. Cain grew angry. God sees his anger and he warns him. Why are you angry? And why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, listen to this, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. Couple verses later, verse eight, Cain kills Abel. But realize in verse five, anger is what took root first. We move up five chapters to Genesis chapter nine, and we see after the flood, it tells us, God will require a reckoning from every man and beast that sheds the blood of man. For God made man in his own image. Okay, this is why the taking of life is precious to God. It's because God created man in his own image. Now, A few things about anger here. And again, as I've said, by placing now the sins of anger and harsh words on the same level, on the same plane as murder, as far as punishment goes, we're being taught that it's not just human shortcomings. These little anger issues, it's not just something that we need to, small, that we need to work on when we have time. But we see that they are grievous sins that are to be exercised and removed at all costs. They need to be handled. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 1 John 3.15. Now, does that mean all anger? There's absolutely no place for anger, and no, that's not true. We read that there was times that Jesus was angry. There was times that Paul was angry, but there's a difference. See, the anger of Jesus was not a personal, ego-driven anger. What he's condemning here is the personal animosity, the personal offense. And see, church, we should actually feel a sense of anger when we view sin. The holier we become, the closer to God we become, the angrier we should become with sin. The more that we understand what sin truly is, and the more that we understand the supremacy of God, the more we should see the exceedingly sinfulness of sin. But beware of that anger. There's many of us, again, we can fall off on all different sides on this path, but beware of calling something that's not righteous anger, righteous anger. Don't trust yourself, okay? Paul and Jesus were different than us. They can have perfect holy anger. Beware of convincing yourself that, no, this is about, I'm protecting the scriptures here and this is why I'm angry. I would really caution us and warn us to be careful in thinking that whatever is burning in your heart is just something that is of God and that you're His great warrior. And that could be the case, but pray and pray and pray and seek counsel and make sure it's not of you and that it's not personal offense. Now the rest of this passage, the remaining four verses of this main section is to illustrate his main point that anger is the root, that anger is the same as murder in his eyes. So now we're going to look at four steps that Christ teaches us here on how to overcome anger. The first step is recognition. must recognize anger as it's coming when it comes look at verse 23 he says so if you are offering your gift at the altar and there you remember there remember that your brother has something against you okay we're incredibly good at covering up our sin and calling it other things we have other titles for it we refuse to acknowledge our sin But Jesus taught that we're to acknowledge it first and foremost, that we are to admit our anger, acknowledging our guilt. And this is the first step towards the antidote, the fix. This is clear in verse 22. I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. That is his teaching. The second step is correction. Correct the injustice. versus twenty three we continue so if you are offering your gift at the alter and they remember that your brother has something against you leave your gift there before the alter and go first be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift he's not saying which way he's not saying this is only if you're the offended party or if this is your you're the offend or it's either one but he's saying first go and be reconciled listen to what samuel tells king saul after his first Great disobedience. Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. Okay, we are to confess and make things right as far as we are able to do so. The third step, notice this happens immediately. Okay, we see a sense of urgency here. This is clear in these two verses. This is not teaching that God is our adversary. Some teach this, that God is our adversary and we could lose our salvation through this. But what he's actually saying is that, no, these sins have consequences. And if you want to avoid the consequences of these sins, you must make it right as soon as possible. As Paul says in Ephesians 4.26, do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil. And finally, the last step in overcoming our anger is renewing. We must ask God to do this. We must ask God to change our hearts because only God can do it. We must be transformed, and that's the point of the entire New Testament. We must be made new. That's the only way, and we can give it to God, and it's only then that we are now able to deal with these things. And well, if all this is the criteria, and if unrighteous anger is murder, then there was nobody there and nobody here today who can honestly say that you've never committed murder in your hearts. We're all murderers, and that's the point. Guilty. This is Christ again holding up a mirror and saying, scribes, Pharisees, teachers of the law, church, regardless of what you have thought by following the external rules, You may be innocent according to your interpretation by the letter of the law, but when compared to the spirit of the law, you're guilty. And he continues this with his next antitheses, which is another one of the Ten Commandments. As we transition, we move from Christ's exposition of the Sixth Commandment to the Seventh Commandment, excuse me. We move from the prohibition against murder to the prohibition against adultery. And in the second point, Jesus teaches about adultery to illustrate that true Christian morality must arise from the heart. He uses the same formula that he did the first time. He has the teaching, what he's contrasting with their interpretation, which is basically that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery in her heart. Those are his words. And then he has two illustrations. He gives you an application on how to handle the eyes and the hand in the following two verses. Well, in verses 27 through 28, just as anger is the equivalent to murder, so lust is the equivalent to adultery. He is again destroying the illusion. This time the illusion is that they have never committed adultery. He is destroying this illusion that they've never committed adultery, and he's once again letting them know that it is the heart that he is concerned with, that they may not have committed the physical act of adultery, but they have in their hearts. So I don't need to go over again the purpose behind this. We already spoke about that. It's the heart of what Christ is doing here. But now he's using another commandment to say, you thought you were doing great because you did not really understand the true meaning of what's in the Hebrew scriptures, of what the expectation is. Now, let's not make the same mistake that the scribes and Pharisees made. Let's not read this with such a literal, wooden interpretation that we miss the point and do the same exact thing that they did. This is speaking of any and all sexual relations or thoughts that are outside the sanctity of marriage. That means premarital, prior to marriage, or during a marriage, anything outside the marriage. It's not only speaking of that specific lust of looking and lusting. Speaking of all of it, it is anything that takes the beautiful gift God has given for the married couple and distorts it into a sinful fulfillment of the flesh. And praise God for books such as Song of Solomon that teach us the uninhibited delight that the Lord has planned for the bride and the bridegroom. Now also, it's not to take this as something that only men can do. Okay, women can fall into this just as easily. Nobody is saved from the sins of sexual immorality. What about romance novels? What about coveting? I don't struggle with that one. What about, I should say never have, but what about coveting the way that another husband is? or lusting after a relationship that you don't have, lusting after someone else's relationship. Again, it's not the literal interpretation. What is important here is to grasp the connection between the eye and the heart. This is what Christ is teaching. that committing this in your heart is the same as the very act itself. It's not saying that the consequences are the same. We know that. There's different consequences for lust and there's different consequences for the physical act of adultery. But it's speaking of the seriousness of the sin. Again, I didn't get arrested for hanging out on my roof and fantasizing that I could go and steal video games and TV sets. But the ones that actually committed that did, so there are different consequences. But it's speaking to the severity, the seriousness of how Christ views this sin. Look at verse 29, the eye. See, the eye is chosen because it is the object that has looked and lusted. Job knew that it starts with the eyes. This is why he says in Job 31, I have made a covenant with my eyes. The hand is chosen because adultery, even mental adultery, is a kind of theft. It's taking something that's not yours. And this was apparently a favorite saying of Christ, to tear out your eye, to cut off your hand, and to cast them out, because he gets into that again in chapter 18 of the same book and says the same exact things. Now, some have mistakenly taken this language literally. Origen, in the third century, castrated himself so that he would not be tempted, but that misses the point entirely of what Christ is teaching, and he did exactly what he's saying not to do, that it's not about external acts. It's the heart, and this is how serious I view it. We know it did not mean literally, for if I gouge out my right eye, as the scriptures say, I still have my left eye, and if I gouge out both, The mind is sufficient to commit these sins. So what is Jesus saying? Why is he using such graphic language here? And what he's saying is, don't miss this church, what he's saying is that we are to deal drastically with sin. Notice, it's not enough to even just, he doesn't end with just tear it out and cut off your hand. He says, cast it from you. It's still too close. We must not pamper it. Flirt with it. Enjoy nibbling a little bit around the edges of this sin. See how close we can get without actually sinning. See, we're to hate it, we're to crush it, we're to dig it out. Paul says, put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. And then Paul adds, on account of these, the wrath of God is coming. It's in Colossians chapter three, verses five through six. What they didn't understand and what many don't understand today is the weight of sin. It is heavy and serious because at the other end of the spectrum, at the other end of sin is God. That's who we have offended. That's who we have transgressed. And to take either of those lightly, we missed the point. And it is to him that these sins are committed. That's what's not understood. Revelation 22 verse 15. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. Church, this can easily seem like, what's the big deal, really? I mean, who gets hurt? Let's say even just specifically, just the lusting part, just sitting in your car looking. Who gets hurt? Nobody even finds out about it. I'm just looking. Now, we can't understand that many times. My daughter, Lily, gets upset because I didn't let her play with the electrical outlet this week. I know the seriousness of that. I know how dangerous that is. She can't understand it. She's convinced I'm keeping her from a good time. I don't even know. Part of me was just wondering what she wanted to do with it. I'll just leave that to my imagination, but she thinks I don't want her to have fun. I know that that will hurt her. And that is us with our finite minds sitting there thinking, who gets hurt? This is no big deal. We don't get it. Our small little human brains, God gets it and he's protecting us from something great there. Now, Paul says, okay, let's see what Paul has to say about this. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 18. Paul says, flee from sexual immorality. Run at first sight. Don't trust yourself to make a better decision later on. Run while there is time. This sin, the sin of sexual immorality, is a different beast. I'm convinced that many sins have their own characteristics and personalities, and this is a different beast entirely. It has its own character, it has its own personality, it has its own demons and ghosts, and I'll explain some of that here further. Joseph fled when he got the chance. With Potiphar's wife, she's trying to get him to sleep with her. Joseph fled. David did not. Think of how David's sin of adultery began in 2 Samuel 11. How did it even begin? First of all, David was not doing what he was supposed to be doing. The Bible tells us that this is the time of year when the kings were out at war and in battle, and David was hanging out at his place. So he wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing. But then the text says, this was It says David remained at Jerusalem, he wasn't out battling. And then verse two, it happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch and he was walking on the roof of the king's house that he saw from the roof a woman bathing. And he turned and ran and started praying and started meditating on the word, but we know it doesn't say that. That's not what David did. What it really says is he saw from the roof a woman bathing and the woman was beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And I'm convinced that that was the only time that David had to react was that first initial glimpse. That was the only time when he saw her bathing that he could have turned away. That was the only time that he could have fled. He could have turned the other way. He could have closed his eyes. He could have prayed. He could have meditated. That's not what he did. And we all realize that this is a man after God's own heart. We've been told that ahead of time. This is a believer. And had he turned at that moment, many things would have been done different. And most of you are familiar with the story. For after that, he sends for her. She comes up, her husband's at war, fighting the battle, his own battle. And he brings her up and sleeps with her, sends her back to her house. She gets pregnant and sends word, lets him know, I'm pregnant. He has her husband brought back from the battle, Uriah. As David's thinking, oh, OK, I can fix this. I just bring her husband home, and he'll think it's his job. Well, Uriah comes home, and David says, hey, how are things going? Tell Joab I said hi. Everything's cool. OK, hey, go back to your house and enjoy yourself for the weekend. Head back out Monday. Uriah thinks some, heads down, sleeps at the steps of the king's house. Won't go near his home. David says, hey, how come you haven't gone home? He says, how can I go home when the Ark of the Covenant is over there? When my men are dying and fighting over there, there's no way I'm going to go home and spend time with my wife when my men are over there dying. So David goes to plan B or C at this point. He gets him drunk that night. He thinks, OK, I'm going to get him drunk, send him home. He got drunk, still would not sleep with his wife. still would not do it. So David's answer, he writes a letter to Joab, sends it with Uriah in the man's own hand, his own death sentence, and says, hey, send him to the hardest, the most difficult, most violent part of the battle, send him in and then pull everybody else back. And that's how David dealt with this. And the Bible tells us, because sin oftentimes is not just contained, many others died there. In order to kill Uriah, other servants of David fighting his battle died at that battle. So again, let's rewind and see how this even started. Do you see how small a thing and how simple it looked and how much damage it led to the lies, the adultery, the murder? It was such a small thing. Falling into sexual sin for the believer always starts with something as small as just looking, an appearance. No believer wakes up in the morning and says, this is the day I'm gonna commit murder, or I'm gonna commit adultery today. This type of sin, there are some sins that go that way. Stealing, whatever, stealing for your family, whatever. There are some sins that people do wake up and feel that way. But as I said, this one has its own personality. This is its own deal entirely. This type of sin operates separately from reason. This is why we are told to flee. You see, some sins you can actually kind of reason with yourself and talk yourself out of with the help of the Holy Spirit. You can be sitting in your office about to commit tax fraud and steal from the government and think, no, okay, you end up talking yourself out of it, you repent for even what you were thinking. but not with sexual immorality. There has never been an unmarried couple that sat in their apartment alone and had a discussion first about the pros and cons about having sexual relations, and then decided to either act upon it or not because of their intelligent conversation. That has never happened, I'm convinced. That is why Paul says, flee. That is why Jesus says, tear out your eyeballs. It was a drastic move meant to express the drasticness of what the severity of what he's saying. And he's saying, do this while you have that small window of clarity, while you have that small window where something can be done. See, this type of sin does not occur as somebody in rebellion shaking their fist at God and hating God and deciding they're gonna transgress God at this point. No, what happens is God is just the furthest thing from their mind. The Bible and things of God are just forgotten. Church, there's nothing wrong or evil about the human body. There's nothing evil, inherently evil about our eyes. There's nothing inherently evil with television and computers in and of themselves. There's nothing evil about these things. Okay. It's when it all comes together. It's when man or woman is brought in. And the desire gives birth to sin. It's the intentions, it's the heart when all these things come together and become evil. Because in and of themselves, they're not evil. Even the desire itself, in and of itself, is not evil. God has provided a proper way for this desire to be fulfilled. And it's the consummation of marriage between a man and a woman. So as I said, the sin comes in when human desire enters and is not controlled. It is in the heart. It starts as just a desire, and then it grows from there, and it is the wrong fulfillment of that desire. Listen to James 3, verses 14 and 15. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then, here's the important part, desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is fully grown, brings death. See, it's like a wildfire, and this is something I do happen to know a lot about, wildfire. It can be caught when it starts out, when it's small, it needs to be stamped out, but we must be quick about it. This is an uphill battle that we're facing today. Okay, 50 years ago, at least you had society on your side. At least out in public, people would say, yeah, this stuff is wrong. But now, TV, magazines, movies, billboards, everything around us. Our children are being, just have this onslaught of where all this is being brought before them to the sickening point now where teenagers are actually thought outcasts. The ones that are trying to stay pure are the weird ones, are the outcasts, are the ones that are being made fun of. That's upside down. There's parents that are no longer worried about this and are actually encouraging sexual immorality. I'm told by our own youth today that there's kids at their schools that say things such as, well, what's the point of staying pure? What's the point of staying a virgin if more than likely I'm not going to marry a virgin? And in doing so, it becomes a self-fulfilled prophecy. Everyone's thinking that way. So yeah, it's going to come true. It has never been easier in the history of humanity. I realize there's nothing new under the sun. I realized the heart was sinful back then, but there has never been an easier time in all human history to commit this type of sin. Even just 20, 30, 40 years ago, somebody had to drive and buy something or a magazine, something, they had to go somewhere and go out in society. But now, just simply in someone's own house with the touch of a button, they can sin in this manner. So, what can we do about it? First, same as before, it's recognition. Realizing that you might struggle, that you might be weak in these areas. So it's to see it coming and to notice it as soon as possible. Second, flee. This has a sense of urgency. It's to take captive of your thoughts. Meditate, recite verses, start praying, run as Joseph did and David did not. Next, We set up hedges. We need hedges. We are fickle. We need hedges. What are hedges? Hedges are systems that you put into place ahead of time while you are thinking clearly. This includes accountability, knowing that you're gonna be asked by a brother or sister in Christ about how your week was and if you've fallen in any way. There's programs that our church uses called Covenant Eyes that can go on computers and protect the families in that way. I had a guy from our church, knowing he was gonna be in a situation that he was gonna be uncomfortable with, just in case, he said, hey, I'm going to meet, I'm gonna call you right after. I want you to ask me. how everything went. That was awesome. Knowing the entire time that he's going to be talking to me, his pastor on the phone, and that I will be asking. Those are hedges. Those are setting things up. Come talk to me. Talk to some of the leaders. We can set up accountability. We'll even pay for this software. We have it. Another form of hedges, rules. Set up rules while you're thinking clearly. Never allow yourself to be in a room or a house together alone if you're not married. Realize that, and here's why. This is what I explained in counseling to someone. There is the point of the sin, the actual transgression. When the line is crossed, God is sinned against, that happens here. With this type of sin, however, it might have become a sure thing here. At this point, when they came home, when that couple came home and there was nobody there, and they were all by themselves, and they put music on, this sin that's in the future became a sure thing here. And it was done back at this point. So we need to have these rules. We need to set these things up and say, nope, no door closing. If people are in the house, don't be at the house alone. We've had many couples, as they've been approaching marriage and getting ready to get married, come to our house and just hang out. And we leave them alone. They're just in the living room, in plain sight of everybody. They're sitting there talking. It's like they're, you know, I walk by every now and then, just kind of give them a little wave, see if they want some water. But they're just hanging out, and it's great. It's awesome. It's something that we get to bless them with, and the parents know that they're there if they're young people. But these are the sort of things, because we've got to know that we can't trust ourselves in these certain situations. Now, some people will say, wait a minute. That's moralism. Moralism isn't dealing with the heart. You're just fixing the external act. And yes, that's true. That is moralism. Ripping out your eyeball would be moralism also. Okay? Think about that. There's a second half to this. It's moralism is not the true answer. But cutting off your hand, tearing out your eye, that's also moralism. Protect yourself, protect your family, protect your future husband or wife. It's not the ultimate fix, but it keeps you from further sin and it keeps you from the consequences of sin. Okay? Don't even get close to sin. Many people play this game and want to know how in control I am, even a test of how much of a warrior of the Lord I am, and I want to see how close I can get without actually committing sin. Now, it's possible to get a rattlesnake, to figure out how big it is, and how it's coiled up, and to know the striking distance. If I had this rattlesnake and I could prove to you scientifically that this rattlesnake, his striking distance is 18 inches, would you feel safe going up to 19 inches and putting your hand out? We shouldn't be anywhere near that rattlesnake. So yes, I agree, moralism is not the final answer. But it is unanswered. For the final answer, step four in this process, it's Jesus. It is God working in you. It is transformation. This is one of the sins that we're never in this lifetime gonna have completely killed. Okay, realize that. You're never closer to committing this sin than when you think you have it completely licked. Paul says in Romans 13, 14, let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. Singles, young or old, protect your future marriage, protect your future husband or wife, I have counseled with young people about this, with unmarried people. And it has the appearance of so innocent. Who cares? And we're going to be married. No one gets hurt. And that's one of the reasons that this sin is so damaging. It carries its ghosts with it into the marriage bedroom. The memories Even from childhood, the memories of this sin linger and stay around for decades and get brought into what's supposed to be perfect and holy and awesome, something between a husband and wife. Intimacy is a gift that God has given for a certain purpose and it is the most wonderful gift and it is degraded and it is raked through the mud and made into an idolatry of satisfying the flesh as its only purpose. Now it is obvious that Jesus takes a very serious view to the nature of lusting, as this is the gateway to much more. And His advice seems extreme. And it is extreme because He sees and He knows the severity of it. He knows the heaviness and the weight of sin as He is preaching this message. He knew what He was here to do. He knew that His path was gonna take Him to the cross. And there he would experience the full weight of sin, something that we have no idea what that's like. He will experience the full weight of sin there. He gives no signs in the scriptures of ever taking sin lightly, for he does understand its terrible price. Jesus did not say, just walk away or be careful, this could lead to trouble. No, he said something extreme, and he said it to get his point across and to implicate his audience in something that they thought they had no problem with. Oh, we don't struggle with this, I've never murdered, I've never committed adultery. Wrong. You see, these are the very roots, okay? Anger and lust are the roots of the full fruit of murder, of adultery. The very roots must be grubbed out from the heart. We must treat this small, incipient sins, the little ones, with the same severity that Jesus is showing us here. Paul tells us in Romans 8.13, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. God showed grace upon me when I was 15 years old, and he let me understand this concept as an unregenerate sinner. I praise him for understanding that concept. I didn't understand sin or his supremacy, and I still don't. I'm still trying to get that as best as I can. But he showed grace upon me that day, And I learned about the heart and that it's not about external acts. For I knew I was just as guilty as the guy stealing TV sets during the riots. And I knew I was more guilty than the guy that was doing this to feed his family. We often think that the little sins are cute and just no big deal. We think sin has to be malicious, that it has to be bad, something horrible. Well, let me ask you something, okay? Think about this. Think about the very first sin. What did it look like? The very first sin, the sin that doomed mankind was biting into a fruit. Okay, picture that. That was the first sin. This is why we can compromise ourselves so easily. Do we take God's will lightly, what he tells us in his word? Do we think we can kind of explain it away and give ourselves reasons as to why this one just kind of doesn't apply to us right now? See, we think the scribes and the Pharisees are people from 2,000 years ago and that they're gone and they don't exist anymore. But do we make the same mistakes as the scribes and Pharisees and we think we're being okay because we're not falling into the bigger sins, the ones that we think are important. Does God tell you in his word not to slander and spread gossip and yet you do? Well, I'm sharing this for prayer, I need some counsel with my brother that I always come to about these things. Does God tell you to honor your father and mother and you don't? Well, he didn't mean my parents. You don't know my parents. They're a whole different set of parents. Does God say to give him your first fruits? To give him, to give to his church, and you don't. Well, things are just really tight. It'd be hard, I can't do that. Don't you think God thought of that already? Does God tell you not to laugh at coarse humor? And we do. Well, that one was just really funny. Does God say and tell you who that you should be hanging out with? Somebody that's bringing you closer to Christ. But you just want to hang out with your friends anyways. Does God tell you not to look upon anyone in lust? And you do. You put yourself in situations and you go places you shouldn't be going. And He says to cast out your eyes, to rip them out and throw them. Don't you think He thought of all these things first? He knows us. The human heart can make us think anything. Don't ever trust it. We need to trust truth. We need to trust the word. We need to trust what is real. The word of God does not change depending on our mood, or how we're feeling, or how much we slept, or how much we ate the night before, or if we have a headache, or if our kids have been nagging and bugging us all day. It's about disobedience. And it comes from the heart, okay? All Adam and Eve did that day was bite into a fruit, that's it. And they broke the entire human race and they sank it. And there was no blood, there was no screaming, there was no violence, and as far as they could see, there wasn't even a victim. Just bit into a fruit. But it was no small act, church. This was disobedience to the God of the universe. This was rebellion against God. This was violence of the worst kind, and it killed an entire human race, and we have all been born dead in our transgression since. So how do we avoid these sins, for we must? Matthew 5.20, for I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. The very last verse in this chapter, you therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. Peter tells us to be holy. How can we possibly do that? We can't be perfect. Matthew 19, 25 to 26, when the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished saying, who then can be saved? But Jesus looked at them and said, with man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. We cannot do this. We cannot overcome any sin. But He did. He lived a righteous, sinless life of perfection for us. And He took our place on the cross. The wrath that we deserved, that we still deserve, He took our place and died for those little sins, the big sins. And now, were able to obey Him through the gift of His grace upon us and the Holy Spirit that lives in us, it is now possible to obey. That, loved ones, is where the answer lies, in Him, with Him, only in our union with Him as we have died and been buried with Him, as we have been raised with Him, as we can now walk in the newness of life with Him. Jesus did not want your good deeds. or your good works, not even on your best day. He wants it all. He wants your everything. He wants your very heart. So what can we say? What can we do but offer this heart, oh God, completely to you? And if you are his, then he has earned it. He has earned your heart. May the Lamb of God receive the reward of his suffering. Amen. Lord, Father, sin is no small matter, and yet, Lord, I know that we can barely grasp it, Father. Lord, teach us of sin, teach us of your supremacy, teach us of you. Make Yourself known to us, Father, that we can understand the weight of sin and the weight of Your supremacy, Father. Just teach us these things, not for condemnation, Lord, but just so we can know and not treat them lightly, Lord, as we can now obey. Father, thank You for the cross. Thank You, Lord, for saving us. You didn't have to do that. We thank You so much. for our salvation. Lord Jesus, thank you for dying for us, for paying the price for the great sins, the little sins, they are all paid for, and thank you for that. Lord, we love you, and ask that you use us now, Father, for again, Lord, what can we say, what can we do, Father, but just offer this heart completely to you, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Father. Amen.