We read from the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 5, and we begin reading at verse 27. It's Jesus who's speaking. 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 again you have heard that it was said to those of old you shall not swear falsely but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn. But I say to you, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is God's throne, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black let what you say be simply yes or no anything more than this comes from evil you have heard that it was said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth but I say to you do not resist the one who is evil but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek turn to him the other also and if anyone would sue you and take your tunic let him have your cloak as well and if anyone forces you to go one mile go with him two miles give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven. for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust for if you love those who love you what reward do you have? do not even the tax collectors do the same? and if you greet only your brothers what are you doing more than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You, therefore, must be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. Now, children, I'd like you to draw a picture for me. I'd like you to draw a picture of a wedding. Maybe your mum and dad's wedding. I know you weren't there, but you've probably seen pictures of it. Or maybe someone else's wedding. You can draw a nice dress. You can maybe draw the ring. You can draw some of the people who were there. You could draw the minister, the Bible, I'll leave it up to you. But I want you to draw a picture of a wedding. Today we're thinking about marriage. About doing marriage God's way. We've been working our way through God's law in Exodus 20. And this morning we come to Exodus 20 verse 14. You shall not commit adultery. I really want to unpack that this morning based on what Jesus says in Matthew 5 verses 27 to 30. It was God who designed marriage. It was God who made human beings male and female and when a couple come together it is God who makes them one flesh Jesus says in Matthew 19 verse 6 Therefore what God has joined together let man not separate God designed marriage And so it's God who knows how marriage works best. The person who designed your washing machine is the person who knows how your washing machine works best. If you want to know how to get your washing machine to work best, you should read the maker's instructions. And it's God who designed marriage, and if we want to know how marriage will work best, you should read the Maker's instructions. And God says, you shall not commit adultery. It seems that adultery is becoming more and more common, doesn't it? And not just among those who aren't Christians. Also among those who profess to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a sin that each one of us needs to guard ourselves against. We're not to think, well, that would never happen to me. If we even find ourselves starting to think that, remind yourself of what God says in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 12. Let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. Pray that God will keep you from committing adultery. Pray that God will keep the other members in this congregation from committing adultery. Pray that God will strengthen and protect our marriages. and take steps to do everything that you can so that you won't commit adultery. Be so careful never to get too close to someone of the opposite sex. How can you tell if you're getting too close? Well one of the ways is if you feel as close to them as you feel to your husband or your wife. You're too close. You need to get out of there. You need to do what Joseph did when he was confronted with Potiphar's wife. You need to flee and run for your life. But as we've seen when we looked at the other commandments in Exodus chapter 20. God isn't just concerned about what we do on the outside. He's concerned about what we're like on the inside as well. You're the same. You're not happy if something just looks good on the outside but is bad on the inside. If you buy some fruit And it looks very good, it looks perfect. It looks ripe, it looks fresh, it looks good. But if you bring it home and cut it open and it's rotten inside, you're not happy. It's the same with God. He's not happy if we do the right things on the outside. But if things are bad on the inside, that whom God himself tells us, man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart. And Jesus picks up on that as he explains this command in Matthew chapter 5. He tells us that this command is talking about more than what we do with our bodies. It's also talking about what goes on in our hearts and in our minds He says, 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 you look at a woman to lust after her Jesus says that you have already committed adultery with her in your heart. Jesus then goes on to tell us how we can stop ourselves committing adultery in our hearts. He says in verse 29 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. If your right eye causes you to sin, if what you look at causes you to lust think back over the past month what things have you seen that have caused you to lust Lamentations 3 verse 40 tells us, let us examine and probe our ways, and let us return to the Lord. So let's now, as you sit here this morning, take time to examine your ways. Prove it. Look into it in depth. Think about your life. Think about the things that you have been doing. What things have you seen in the past month that have caused you to lust? Take out a magnifying glass. Look at your life in detail. Put it under the microscope. Take time to think about it. What do you see? What causes you to see? Pictures? or stories in magazines, in newspapers, in novels, stuff on the internet, on your phone, things on the TV, Things in shops? Women immodestly dressed? What did you see that caused you to lust? Jesus says, if your right eye causes you to sin, take your finger and stick it into your eye socket and gouge it out. Jesus isn't saying that you should injure your body, but he's deliberately using a shocking illustration to tell you to get rid of whatever causes you to sin. If it's magazines, stop reading those magazines. If it's newspapers, stop buying the newspapers. If it's novels, stop reading the novels. If it's looking at things on TV, Don't watch the TV after a certain time at night. Don't flick through the channels. If it's the internet, the phone, stop looking at those things. If it's women immodestly dressed, don't go to places where you're likely to see women immodestly dressed. And you women who are here today, please, please help your brothers and sisters in the Lord in this regard. God has designed men to be stimulated by what they see. Maybe Jesus even hints at that himself in verse 28. He's talking about men looking at women. God has designed men to be attracted to women's bodies. So for the sake of your brothers in the Lord, keep your bodies modestly covered. Be so careful not to put any temptation in their way. And remember your body still need to be modestly covered. When you're sitting down and when you're stooping down and when you're chasing children. As well as when you're standing properly. If you think anything might be too tight or too short or too low. It probably is. If you're in any doubt, wives, ask your husbands. Is this a suitable thing to wear? Girls, ask your fathers. Jesus tells us, if our eye causes us to sin, we need to tear it out. We need to remove the thing that causes us to sin. And I think those of us who are parents have a role here as well in helping our children. In helping to remove things that will cause them to sin. In helping to stop them seeing anything that is improper. Maybe that will mean supervising their TV viewing. Maybe it means setting up the parental controls on the internet, on their phone. Maybe it means being aware of the magazines they're reading. Parents have a responsibility to help their children in this regard, as in every other regard. Jesus says, if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. He deliberately picks a gruesome figure of speech. His point is that you must be willing to take drastic action. You must be willing to do whatever it takes to avoid sin. You must do that even if it is painful. Sticking your finger in your eye is going to be very painful. Maybe there's good stuff in the magazines that you read as well. Maybe you'd really miss that good stuff. But Jesus says get rid of it. Your physical eye sees good things as well as bad things. But Jesus still tells you to tear it out. Tearing out. Jesus says we need to do whatever is necessary to avoid sin. Even if it's inconvenient. Even if it makes you less efficient. Tearing out your eyes is inconvenient. It's going to make you less efficient. Living the Christian life has always been inconvenient in a non-Christian world. Maybe living without the internet is inconvenient. Maybe living without a smartphone is inconvenient. But if that's what is necessary for you, that's what Jesus tells you to do. He tells you to do whatever it takes, no matter how painful, no matter how inconvenient, in order that you won't sin. You can live without an eye. You can live without your phone. You can live without your computer if need be. You can live without your TV if that's what it takes to stop you sinning. You can take another route home from work if that's what it takes to stop you going into a certain place, a certain shop. So what do you need to change? What do you need to do? What do you need to get rid of? Books? Magazines? Do you need to stop buying the newspaper that you buy? Examine and probe your ways. Take Jesus' words seriously. What do you need to change? Jesus says, if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out. But he doesn't stop there. What does he tell you to do after you've torn out your eye? Look at what he says. Throw it away. He doesn't want you changing your mind. He doesn't want you trying to pop your eye back into your socket. He wants you to make it impossible for you to go back to where you have been. When you get rid of the temptation in your life, don't put it in a box and store it in the garage. Do what Jesus says. Throw it away. Get rid of it. Get rid of it permanently. Do whatever is needed to make it irreversible. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. Why does Jesus tell us to do that? When he gives us the lesion in the rest of the verse, for it is better that you lose one of your members then let your whole body be thrown into hell. Jesus is saying you need to be serious about sin. You need to destroy sin. Because if you don't destroy sin Sin will destroy you. If you don't put sin to death, you will be punished for that sin in hell. When a person trusts in Jesus, Jesus saves us. But He doesn't save us and leave us the same as we were. He saves us and He changes us. He starts working in us to put sin to death in our lives. That is always the case. Once Jesus saves someone, He starts changing them. That doesn't happen all at once. Maybe it's small steps at the start. But if Jesus isn't changing you, He hasn't saved you. Is Jesus changing you? As you examine your life, can you see a change from what you used to be like? I'm not asking you if you're perfect, or if you're all that you want to be. None of us are, none of us ever will be in this life. But if there's no change, if you can't see a change in your life, you need to come to Christ. You need to ask Him to forgive you, to save you, and to change you. Jesus is saying here, that if we don't deal with sin in the way he tells us to, we've never been converted at all. If you want to assure yourself that God has saved you from hell, set to work at killing your sin, And then Jesus says in verse 30, 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. Very similar to verse 29, but this time it's about your hand rather than your eye. Your hand speaks about what you do, what you touch. And again, Jesus isn't telling us to physically take a saw and hack off our hand. He's using that to illustrate how determined we need to be, the drastic measure that we need to take in order to avoid sin. If what you do causes you to sin, change what you do. If what you touch causes you to sin, change what you touch. God has designed us to be stimulated by touch. And so we need to be very very careful who we touch and how we touch them. If it causes you to sin in your thoughts, cut it off and throw it away. Stop doing it and never do it again. Jesus speaks of your eye and your hand. Those are surely two of the most useful parts of the body. What Jesus is saying is, no matter how important it is to you, if it causes you to sin, get rid of it. You shall not commit adultery. Don't do it. Don't even think about doing it. Do whatever it takes to make sure you won't think about it. And that you'll never be able to think about it again. That's Jesus teaching on this commandment. You shall not commit adultery. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for how the Lord Jesus Christ contacts this commandment and explains what you want to teach us through it. Father, as we examine our lives, we confess that we fall short so often. So often we let ourselves look at things that we know will tempt us. We let ourselves do things that we know will tempt us. Father, forgive us for this. Help each one of us to take whatever steps are necessary to stop us sinning. And Father, we acknowledge that we cannot do this in our own strength. We know that we need the help of your Holy Spirit to enable us to take the smallest step towards what you want us to do. So we pray that he would put it in our hearts to change what we do. That he would give us the determination to change what we do. That he would enable us to continue to do this day by day. And Father we pray that you would work in our hearts. That you would be glorified in our lives. In Jesus name. Amen.