Okay, this is part three. We're going through the Ten Commandments. This is the seventh commandment, part three of the seventh commandment. The seventh commandment is, you shall not commit adultery. You shall not commit adultery. I want to give a little bit of a review here. The seventh commandment is about sexual immorality. But what we saw last time, and we talked a little bit about, was that sex is not immorality. There's a difference between sexual immorality and believing that sex itself is immoral. What's forbidden is sex outside of the covenant of marriage. We must be careful not to fall into the trap of thinking that it is evil in itself. It is a gift of God, it is from God, and it's a blessing of God. We are only warned in Scripture about sexual immorality, not the immorality of sex. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 4 says, Let marriage be held in honor among all. Let marriage be held in honor among all. And let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. That's Hebrews 13 verse 4. Marriage needs to be held up in a place of honor. It's not a bad thing. Celibacy is not the holiest state that you can be in. The marriage bed and marriage is to be held in honor. It's given by God. It's a glorious thing. Covenantally, the marriage covenant. Marriage should be held and honored up. The answer to sexual immorality is not celibacy, it's covenant. It's not celibacy, it's covenant, marriage covenant. We looked at Matthew 5, verse 27-30, that's the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus preached and expounded on mainly the sixth commandment and the seventh commandment. And Matthew 5, verse 27 says this, ìYou have heard that it was said, ìYou shall not commit adultery.î 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." Strong words from Jesus and serious words that we need to take serious. God's law goes straight towards our heart. It goes right for the heart. It's not just external obedience that God was after. It was heart obedience. God always looked at the heart. Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. He looks at why we do what we do. And that was the true intent of His law. It was to go for our heart. Everyone can become so easily proud that they've never committed adultery. They can be prideful. be arrogant about the fact that they haven't committed the external act of adultery, but at the same time they can have their eyes full of adultery, according to 2 Peter 2.14. You can be outwardly clean and confident, while inwardly you are corrupt and culpable. Jesus taught his disciples that mere abstinence from the physical act wasn't enough. Just abstinence from that act wasn't enough. There must be an inward purity, an inward righteousness. You can be faithful on the outside and unfaithful on the inside. That's just the way Jesus made it clear. And Jesus made it clear that we all have broken this commandment. This is not something that we can just pass on by and think that we're obedient because he goes right for the heart. He says even looking with lust is committing actual adultery. Like we said last time, we're not only a bunch of—we saw in the Sixth Commandment we're a bunch of mass murderers, right? We've all murdered. We murdered in our heart. We murdered in our words, in our intentions. But we're also a bunch of perverted adulterers, according to Christ. He doesn't let anyone go. Everyone is caught under the righteousness of God. Jesus leaves no room for self-righteousness or pious pride. There's no room for that because he goes and gets us all by getting right to the heart of the matter. So when it comes to sexual immorality, it's not just the action, it's the attention. It's not just the doing, it's the dreaming. It's not just the deed, it's the desire. That's what we see over and over again in Scripture. God judges more than your mask and more than your motions. He judges your motivation and your mind. He looks at your heart. Lust is just pornography of the mind. The Bible calls it adultery of the heart. Jesus said, everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery. Everyone who looks with lustful intent has already done the act. They've already committed adultery with her in his heart. So looking at pornography is adultery. Jesus made that very clear. Looking at women, lusting after women, is adultery of the heart. God's law portrays adultery as one of the most despicable and heinous of sins. It's punishable by death. The adultery is a death deserved criminal act. It's a death penalty sin. It's a serious sin. Galatians 5, 19-21 says that those who commit sexual immorality, and the Greek word for sexual immorality is pornea, where we get the word pornography. That's the word for sexual immorality. It says those who commit sexual immorality will not inherit the kingdom of God. We looked at this quote by John MacArthur last time. He said this, looking at a woman lustfully does not cause a man to commit adultery in his thoughts. Looking at a woman lustfully does not cause a man to commit adultery in his thoughts. He already has committed adultery in his heart. It is not lustful looking that causes the sin in the heart, but the sin in the heart that causes the lustful looking. The lustful looking is but the expression of a heart that is already immoral and adulterous. The heart is the soil where the seeds of sin are embedded and begin to grow. That's John MacArthur. So we also talked about, we mentioned at the end about the ladies too. It takes two to tango when it comes to lust, when it comes to adultery. This is not just a man's sin. For the most part, with women, And men, both are involved in the lust just from different sides. Men love to lust. They like it. That's just something they like to do. They lust. Women love to be lusted after. They like to be lusted after by men. So both ways are a sin. It's on both sides. A.W. Pink put it this way. If lustful looking is so grievous a sin, then those who dress and expose themselves with a desire to be looked at and lusted after are not less, but perhaps more guilty. In this matter, it is not only too often the case that men sin, but women tempt them to do so. How great then must be the guilt of the great majority of modern missus who deliberately seek to arouse the sexual passions of young men, and how much greater still is the guilt of most of their mothers for allowing them to become lascivious temptresses." That's A.W. Pink. I didn't read this quote last time, but C.S. Lewis wrote this. He said, the idea of female beauty is the erotic stimulus for women as well as men. A lascivious man thinks about women's bodies. A lascivious woman thinks about her own. What a world we live in, he said. I want to talk now a little bit about masculinity. I want to talk about masculine, what it means to be a man, be masculine, because there's a little confusion when it comes to this commandment, when it comes to this sin in the area of masculinity. A lot of guys think that to lust is just a manly thing to do. It's just, you know, that's where I'm a man. I lust. I lust. I'm a man. That's just the manly, masculine thing that we do. John Milton in Paradise Lost talks about those men who were seduced by the daughters of men. When shown the future seduction of these men, these descendants of his, Adam tries to blame the women involved. In that book he says, man's woe holds on the same from woman to begin. Then the angel explains that it's just the opposite. He says, from man's effeminate slackness it begins. from man's effeminate slackness, it begins. I think that's a good phrase. That's the problem. It's effeminate. It's effeminate slackness. A lot of guys try to flatter themselves thinking that because they are so easily seduced, they are somehow more masculine. It's just the opposite. It's effeminate to be seduced in that way. It's just the opposite. Masculinity has to do with the possession of authority and taking initiative. That's part of what it means to be masculine. You have authority and you are the initiator. You take initiative. God is the great initiator and he gave man his, he gave man dominion and so we are to take that initiative. The word seduction, part of the word in seduction comes from the Latin word duco. The word duco is in the word seduction. It's a Latin phrase and it means I lead. The word I lead is in the word seduction. And that's what seduction is. When a man is seduced, he is being led. And when a woman seduces, she's actually leading. She's leading the man. The man is being led. So it doesn't matter if it's a living woman or a pornographic woman. When a man is seduced, he is surrendering and relinquishing his God-ordained role as a man. That's effeminate slackness. Even though he's performing a male action, he is no longer masculine in the relationship. He might be biologically male, but he's not covenantally masculine. He might be biologically male, but not covenantally masculine. Being easily seduced is effeminate slackness. The Bible also makes this very clear. The mother of King Lemuel warns him clearly about this in Proverbs 31, verse 3. She says, do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings. Do not give your strength to women and your way to those who destroy kings. Proverbs 31 verse 3. A king might think he's extremely manly because he has easy access to so many women. That might make him think he's more of a man. The truth is that he is not being kingly or manly at all. He is wasting away his strength. He's giving his strength to women. Within the context of a covenantal marriage, sex strengthens a man, but promiscuity and pornography will drain it away. It drains away. You give away your strength. A man who gives in to an immoral woman is nothing more than an enfeebled, debilitated weakling. That's what he is. He's lost his manliness. He's lost his masculinity. He becomes a weakling, an effeminate. He doesn't grow in manhood, he just plays the fool. He ends up giving away his honor, his time, his money, his work, his health, giving it all away to this seduction. Pretty soon there's nothing left. Proverbs 5 verse 8-14 describes this. Proverbs 5 verse 8-14 it says, Keep your way from her and do not go near the door of her house. lest you give your honor to others and your ears to the merciless, lest strangers take their fill of your strength and your labors go to the house of a foreigner. And at the end of your life you groan when your flesh and body are consumed and you say, how I hated discipline and my heart despised reproof. I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ears to my instructors. I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation." That's just the life of giving it all up, losing it all to that sin. A man who is obedient and faithful lives under God's blessings and learns to exercise dominion, first of himself, of his family, and then it goes out into the culture. Dominion always begins in the home with your family. If a man is being unfaithful to his wife, God can use an immoral woman to punish him. That's a biblical concept. We mentioned this verse last time, but if a man is being unfaithful, God sometimes uses an immoral woman to actually punish the man. Proverbs 22 verse 14 says, The mouth of a forbidden woman is a deep pit. He with whom the Lord is angry will fall into it. The mouth of a forbidden woman is a deep pit, but he who with the Lord is angry will fall into that pit. That's a way that God punishes unfaithfulness. A man who is being seduced is the complete opposite of a man who is walking in his God-given masculine calling. So instead of being the federal head, the covenant head of the household, a seduced man becomes nothing more than a dumb animal. So turn to Proverbs chapter 7. There's a lot in Proverbs on this, but Proverbs chapter 7, starting in verse 6. Proverbs 7, verse 6. It says, For at the window of my house I have looked out through my lattice, and I have seen among the simple, I have perceived among the youths a young man lacking sense. Interesting, huh? A young man lacking sense. passing along the street and near her corner, taking the road to her house, in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness. And behold, a woman meets him, dressed as a prostitute, wildly of heart." Notice that the woman is dressed as a prostitute. That means what you wear matters. That means women can dress like prostitutes. There's a difference between how someone who's not a prostitute dresses and someone who is a prostitute dresses. So we're going to get to that more next week probably on modesty and that type of thing. But that's a biblical concept. That's a biblical concept. You can dress like a whore. And that's this lady who he's making sure he goes by her house. Okay. Dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart. She is loud and wayward. Her feet do not stay at home. Interesting. She's loud and her feet don't want to stay at home. She's not a home person. She's on the loose. And she's loud, loose and loud. 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 the 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." That's effeminate slackness. That's being led like an ox to the slaughter, like a bird into a snare. It's not a man. That's not manhood. That's not masculinity. That's being led. That's giving your strength to a woman. That's being caught, being snared, not being a man. Notice it's the woman here who's taking the initiative. She goes out to him. She's calling him in. She's the one initiating things. He follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter. He may feel manly, but he is being led on a leash by a woman. That's what it is. It's being led. It's the opposite of masculinity. G.K. Chesterton wrote this. He said, Free love is the direct enemy of freedom. It is the most obvious of all the bribes that can be offered by slavery. That's what it is, it's slavery and you get trapped by that, you become enslaved to it. A man might feel free in his sin, but he is nothing but a weak and effeminate prisoner. Immorality deceives a man into thinking that he is a real man, but he is really only a picture of effeminate slackness. Our deceitful hearts, remember our heart is deceitfully wicked, our heart is deceitful, it tricks us into thinking that We're manly when we're doing the opposite of being manly. We're being led as an ox to a slaughter. We're being ensnared, imprisoned, entangled. Our heart completely deceives us into thinking that it's just the opposite of what it really is. In his forward to Robert Lewis's book, Raising a Modern Day Knight, Stu Weber wrote the forward. He wrote this, Our culture is in deep trouble. And at the heart of its trouble is its loss of a vision for manhood. If it's difficult for you and me, as adult males, to maintain our masculine balance in this gender-neutral culture, imagine what it must be like for our sons who are growing up in an increasingly feminized world. I mean, just think about that. Our world is becoming more and more effeminate, more and more effeminized, and our children are going to have to even fight this stronger, so we have to We have to call ourselves up to a higher standard. We have to lead. We have to initiate. We have to be men. Al Mohler gives 13 principles that illustrate the marks of manhood. It's a long article he has. I just wrote down the 13 principles without explaining them, but I thought they were pretty good, so I just wanted to share them with you. Number one, spiritual maturity. These are marks of manhood, marks of Biblical manhood. The first one is spiritual maturity, sufficient to lead a wife and children. So that's one of the marks. It's spiritual maturity, sufficient to lead a wife and children. Second, personal maturity, sufficient to be a responsible husband and father. Third is economic maturity, sufficient to hold an adult job and handle money. Four is physical maturity, sufficient to work and protect a family. Five is sexual maturity, sufficient to marry and fulfill God's purposes. Six is moral maturity, sufficient to lead as an example of righteousness. Then ethical maturity, sufficient to make responsible decisions. Worldview maturity, sufficient to understand what is really important. Relational maturity, sufficient to understand and respect others. Social maturity, sufficient to make a contribution to society. Verbal maturity, sufficient to communicate and articulate as a man. Character maturity, sufficient to demonstrate courage under fire. And biblical maturity, sufficient to lead at some level in the church. That's biblical manhood. That's what manhood is all about. It's not giving up your strength. It's not being led, being seduced, being brought to a piece of bread. That's the opposite of what manhood is all about. Sexual immorality is nothing but a feminine weakness. Biblical morality is what being a man is all about. Men must be men. We need to be what we're called to be. We must lead and not be led. We must serve and not be enslaved. That's what manhood is. It's serving and not being a slave. Pornography is a huge industry today. I mean, all you know that. It's big. It's growing and growing. Some say it's a $10 billion industry, and that doesn't include all the other stuff. It's a little bit lower than that. It can break into any home through the internet and it's softer forms. It saturates the movies, the novels, the television shows, advertising. It's everywhere. We really have a battle. There's really a battle for the hearts of men. And we have to see it as a battle, as a war. Kurt Swindoll estimated that one of every two church members is a consumer of pornography. One of every two. That was his estimate. That estimate, he explained, is based on data from sources taken by polls from Esquire magazine, today's Christian Women, Promise Keepers, MSNBC, all the major newspapers like the LA Times and New York Daily News. He took all that, and that's what the estimate was. It's such a problem today. It's everywhere, and even in the church, it's a huge problem. He said this. He said, the amazing thing is that 50% of the people are admitting to this. There must be some who are looking at porn and not admitting it, so all these numbers are probably on the low side. You know, that's just the people that are admitting it according to the numbers. Citing a daily ABC News report, pornography's $10 billion tab makes it a bigger business than the NFL, the NBA, and the Major League Baseball combined. That's how big it is. It's a bigger industry than all those three things combined. It's a huge problem, and it's going to take men to be men, for it to change, for it to stop. Internet pornography is the fastest growing addiction in America. It's just the biggest addiction, the fastest growing addiction in America today. Men are willingly being seduced, they're being led, they're being enslaved instead of being men, instead of leading, instead of serving. But biblical standard is very clear. Married men are to be completely faithful both physically and mentally. Married men are to be faithful both physically and mentally, and single men are to be chaste both physically and mentally. That's the biblical standard. It's very clear in the Bible. Jesus said, 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. Like we saw last week, the problem is not outside ourselves in the trashy magazines or the X-rated movies or the filth on the internet or the girl next door who's, you know, out in the backyard dressed promiscuously. The problem is not outside of ourselves. It's within ourselves where the problem is. The problem is within us, even with us believers. That's the problem. It's not the pornography. It's the heart. The problem with pornography is not pornography. The problem we have with keeping the standard is not outside of ourselves. It's inside. It's in our lust and in our hearts. The porn industry only makes money when weak men fail to lead and they give in. If men were strong and refused to relinquish their authority, there would be no industry. We can't blame that stuff out there. We have to put the blame where it is, on the heart, on the intents of the heart. That's why there needs to be redemption. That's why we need a new heart. That's why we as Christians, our heart needs to be sanctified. Colossians 3.5 says, put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. We have to kill these evil desires. It says put them to death. Put those things to death. They are not natural or morally neutral. Paul does not say to just control the desires. You know, there's a difference. He doesn't say just to handle them, to control them, to keep them at bay. He says, put them to death, kill them. We need to kill these internal desires and walk away from their corpses. We must intentionally battle these desires and kill them. Paul also said this in Romans 6, 12. Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Don't let sin reign in your mortal body. Men, even Christian men, are trapped by sin when they listen to their mortal body. That's being enslaved to their mortal body. The mortal body says, check her out. The mortal body says, look at that. When men listen to that, they become enslaved to it. And Paul says, let not that sin reign in your body to make you obey its passion. Sin reigns when a Christian listens to his mortal body. You can't be a servant of Christ and a servant of your mortal body. There's one or the other. Peter said it like this in 1 Peter 1, verse 13-15. He said, Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct." As Christians, Peter says, to avoid following the patterns of lust, the patterns of our former way of life. We've got to avoid following that pattern of lust. It is Christians that he's telling to stop doing what they are doing, and that's obviously because they're capable of doing those things. Peter, a few verses later, warns Christians to abstain from their lust. 1 Peter 2.11 says, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. The passions of the flesh wage war against our soul. These lusts are actually at war with our soul. We have to understand that. It is a war. It is a battle. It must be fought. As men, we must fight it. We must not become effeminate weaklings who give in to the passions of the flesh. We have to be men who wage war because it's a war for our soul. It's a war for the soul, he says. Our souls are at stake. I read that letter from Michael Pearl last time, there's an article he wrote dealing with pornography. I think it was called The Road to Hell or something like that. But I didn't read all of it. There's a lot more. I just want to read a little bit more of it. I think I read this first paragraph last time. Then I'm going to read a little bit further because I didn't finish. So I just want to read a little bit more of that to you this time again because it's such a good article. He said this, the lust you have created is never satisfied. It is an itch with no scratch, only more itch. Pornographic satisfaction is like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, always just out of reach. The lust of pornography draws a man ever deeper into the dark tunnel of promise until he discovers he has missed life and love. Pornography destroys your ability to make love and replaces it with the cunning wit to use and abuse. You stink of self. You do not deserve a woman. That's what I read last time. And he continues, you have nothing to be proud of. You are not a bull, you are a dog. There are millions just like you. Most are not as hypocritical as you. Some of them hang around bars, night spots, and porno shops. But take note, you feed on the same diet. Your soul is a receptacle of the same putrefaction. You may yet join them, sharing not only the same books and videos, but also the same dirty motel rooms in their indigenous occupants. Then he quotes Proverbs 9, 17 and 18, stolen waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there and that her guests are in the depths of hell. And he continues, so your wife is frigid. Don't tell me that pornography is a substitute for a good woman. You might convince yourself that you are forced to your actions by an unresponsive wife, but I don't buy it. I have known of porno freaks that got married to good women, but found that they like to be alone better than sharing. We have talked to women who are willing and ready, but their husbands prefer their own company. Pornography and a wife are not alternate ways to fulfill the same drive. The drive for a wife is a natural drive, whereas the drive for pornography is a cultivated, perverted passion that has nothing to do with love and marriage. Your secret world is revolting to real men who know how to love one woman and dedicate the rest of their energies to creative living. I have done you a service by increasing your guilt, by bringing the law down on you like it will in the day of judgment. Your conscience will not be satisfied by anything less than your exposure and punishment. The good news is that Jesus Christ took upon Himself the shame of your sin. God laid on Him your iniquity. God made Jesus to be the sin in your place. He was treated as He was the pornographer, the guilty sinner. He died the death you should die. Your sin has been paid for in the sufferings of Christ. If you repent toward God, God will forget your sin as if it had never happened. He will put away your sin and remember it no more. He will remove the guilt and free you from your sin's power. Isn't that good? I mean, God took on that sin, that corrupt, that stinking, filthy sin. He took it all on Him to the point where God had to turn His head from His Son, where He had to bear the guilt, the crushing guilt of His Father's wrath on our behalf. He took that all on for us. And so there is hope in that battle. It is a battle. It is a war. And it's a battle for your soul. It's a battle for our souls. Don't let God's enemies win the battle for your soul. Don't give in and give up so easy. As Jesus put it, if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better to 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 your whole body go into hell. Matthew 5, 29-30. So Jesus here points the way to deliverance from heart sin. At first, his advice seems almost like it doesn't fit with everything else he was saying, because it seems like he's talking about how it's all heart problems. So why would he say cut your hand or your eye off in order to stop it? The problem is in the heart. So, what good is plucking out your eye or cutting off your hand? If you lose your right eye, your left would probably continue to look lustfully because it's in your heart. If you lose your right hand, your left hand would continue to sin because it's a matter of the heart. So, obviously, Jesus is speaking figuratively to those things, physical or otherwise, that cause us to be tempted or make us more vulnerable to temptation. In the Biblical times, the right eye and the right hand represented a person's best, most precious faculties. That was the right eye and the right hand. That's what it represented. The right eye represented one's best vision and the right hand one's best skills. So Jesus is saying that we should be willing to give up whatever is necessary, even the most cherished things we possess, if doing that will help protect us from this evil, from this sin. He's just making a very strong point about it. Nothing is so valuable to be worth protecting at the expense of righteousness. So this is a strong message. This message is obviously not to be interpreted in a wooden literal sense. He's not actually promoting self mutilation and that type of thing because that's not going to cleanse the heart. The intent of these words are to call for dramatic severing of the sinful impulses in us which push us toward evil action. The word for causes you to sin, you know, whatever your hand or your eye causes you to sin, the word is scandalizo in the Greek. And it basically means to cause to fall. And it was used many times of the bait stick that springs the trap when an animal touches it. I mean, that's the word it's used. You're being caught in a trap. You're being baited by the enemy. You're being caught by and being trapped by them. You're becoming enslaved because of your effeminate slackness. Anything that morally or spiritually traps us, that causes us to fall into the sin or to stay in the sin should be eliminated quickly and completely. We need to handle it quickly and take it serious. A married person's falling in love with someone else besides his or her spouse is completely wrong. The relationship may be mutually enjoyable for a moment, for a time, and considered rewarding, but it's completely sinful and should be severed. It should be immediately severed and cut off. The message of this language that Jesus is using here is dealing with sin in a radical way. in 1 Corinthians 9, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. We have to keep our body under control. We have to discipline ourselves. We have to be men. If we do not consciously or purposely control what is around us, where we go, what we do, what we watch, what we read, the company we keep, and the conversations we have, then those things will control us. We have to purposely fight this battle. We have to get rid of anything that would bring us into that trap. So, Jesus has basically shown us that the high standard of His righteousness and His holiness, He's shown us how high His standard really is, how high His holiness and His righteousness and His standard for us really is. Just like the outward act of adultery reflects a heart that is already adulterous, The outward act of forsaking whatever is destructive reflects a heart that hungers and thirsts for righteousness. So, when we have a heart full of adultery, we're going to seek it out. We're going to go towards it. If we have a heart that hungers and thirsts for righteousness, we're going to seek out, we're going to remove anything that hinders that. That's just the way God designed it and set it up. Jesus is basically giving us a clear picture of his holiness and how we need to meet it Psalms 101 verse 3 says, I will set nothing wicked before my eyes. I will set nothing wicked before my eyes. We have to have that resolve. We have to have that commitment. Job 31 verse 1, we read this last time, but it says, I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust upon a young woman, women. We have to make that covenant with our eyes. We have to be resolved. Martin Luther said, you can keep a bird from flying over your head, but you can't keep a bird from flying over your head. But you can keep them from building a nest in your hair, right? So you're going to have temptations. It's not wrong to be tempted, it's wrong to give in to the temptation. Hebrews 13 verse 4 through 5 says this. Well, we read this earlier, but I'll just read it again. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for He has said, I will never leave you or forsake you. This sin, one of the keys to fighting this sin is contentment, to be content, to be content with what God has given you. We need to be satisfied with the gifts God has given us, with the wife he has given us. Proverbs chapter 5 verse 15, this deals again with contentment. Proverbs 5 verse 15, it says, ìDrink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets, let them be for yourself alone and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely dear, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight. Be intoxicated always in her love. Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress? For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders all his paths." A man has to be content. A man has to be content with his wife and with her body. Not some porn star's body. That's not being content. And that's one of the keys to this sin. We, even Christian men, must be fully satisfied with our own wives. It says, let her breasts satisfy you. Satisfaction is in another is complete disobedience and sin against God to be satisfied with someone else other than your covenantally, your marriage bride, your wife. You must be satisfied and content because God sees your eyes. He sees your mind. He sees your heart. God ponders all a man's paths. He ponders your path to the magazine rack. He ponders your path to the video store. He ponders your path to the computer. When you're alone, God sees your remote control. When you're alone, God sees your keyboard. God ponders your path. He sees what you're doing. He knows the sin that you're in. So the problem is that lust demands from a finite thing what can only be found in an infinite God. It's never satisfied. It's never fulfilled in these sexual pleasures that are outside of marriage. Proverbs 27.20 says, Hell and destruction are never satisfied, and never satisfied are the eyes of man. Hell and destruction are never satisfied. There always has to be more. There always has to be something else, because you're never satisfied. And so that's what happens. It gets more and more perverted. It gets more and more a downward spiral towards hell and destruction, because man is never satisfied with things outside of marriage, outside of God. Hell and destruction are never satisfied, and never satisfied are the eyes of man. sexual sin and lust is an itch that can never be scratched. Okay, let's turn to Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1 verse 24. We can see this pattern, how God judges men. Romans 1 verse 24, it says, ìTherefore God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forevermore. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations that are contrary to nature. And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women, and were consumed with passions for one another, men committing shameless acts with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error." This is how God judges men. He gives you over to your passions, your evil desires. Burning lust and indulgence is not a matter of men getting away from God, it's God's wrath catching them. He gives you over to those desires as a punishment. So, I think we just have to understand that it's God's doing. The natural use of women is replaced with the pursuit of the unnatural. Homosexuality is a direct result of heterosexual sin. In other words, men not being men, it leads to a continual downward spiral of perversion and sin, and it starts right from the heart of man, giving in and being effeminate in that way. And that's the spiral it takes. Okay, 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 2. It says, May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us to His precious and very great promises so that through them you may become a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ." We as Christians have escaped the corruption, but it's not complete. Our escape is not complete. We still battle. There's still sanctification happening. When we receive our resurrected bodies, then our battle with lust will be over. But until then, we have that battle to fight. We must expect the battle within on a daily basis. And through God's grace, we must expect victory in conquering it. We have to expect victory in it. When it comes to sexual sins, we become kings of justification. We love to justify sin. We're so good at it. We're so good at justifying our sin. I want to go back to Paul's letter to the Church of Corinth before we close here. And remember that Corinthians were full of sin. The Corinthians were a very corrupt, sexual sin was all over the town of Corinth. Remember the term Corinthianized meant to corrupt. When you were Corinthianized, that means you were corrupted. So even among the Greek pagan cultures, Corinth stood out among all these other pagan cultures as a very corrupt culture. So that's what Paul was dealing with when he wrote the letter of Corinthians. The temple of Aphrodite, or Venus, was in Corinth. She was the goddess of sexual love. Her temple was filled with a thousand priestesses who were basically temple prostitutes. I mean, it was really bad. They were holy whores, I guess you could say. All of them, they had their heads shaved, which kind of ties into why Paul wrote on the head coverings. That's all kind of related to that. But let's look at it real quickly, 1 Corinthians chapter 6. When he wrote to them, this is a good passage, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, starting in verse 9. It says, ìDo you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God." So, fornicators do not inherit the kingdom of God. I mean, he's very clear about this. This is a serious sin. And Jesus made it clear that adultery and fornication is not just the outward act, it's a matter of the heart. Any form of fooling around disqualifies you for the Canaan. Then verse 11, it says, And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. There's a lot of hope in that verse. It says, Of such were some of you. That long list of dirty sins, he says, many of the church in Corinth had those sins in their past, including fornication and homosexuality. He says, of such were some of you, but you were sanctified. You were sanctified by the grace of God. We love to rail against homosexuality. It's kind of funny. We can be real strong on that and then ignore our own lust and our own fornication, our own adultery of the heart. We need to have that anger that we have for sins that don't apply to us on our own sins that do affect us. in so many ways. Deliverance from fornication is a definite possibility according to this passage. He says, As such, for some of you there is hope. Verse 12 says, All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything. Paul says that everything is lawful, but it's not all helpful. Of course, he means that all things that are not expressly prohibited by the Word of God are lawful for him. That's what he's talking about. Even those things that are lawful, he does not want to become a slave to them. So you can become a slave to things that are, in fact, lawful. Then in verse 13 he goes on. Food is meant for the stomach, and stomach for the food, and God will destroy both, one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. It seems that they had a philosophical argument for their sexual sin in Corinth. They had an argument saying food is for the body, sex is for the body. It's just the same thing. It's just satisfying that desire. That's kind of their rationalization. It's a necessity of the body, so it's just like food. It's just fulfilling that need, that physical urge. What was done with or to the body didn't matter to them. Food was food, the stomach was the stomach, and sex was sex. Sex was just a biological function like eating to be used as food was used to satisfy their appetites. And that's kind of like people argue today. It's the same mentality. It's just me being a man, you know, that type of thing. So, like many people today, the Corinthian Christian rationalized their sinful thinking and their habits. They were good at coming up with seemingly good arguments, you know, food for the body, body for sex, it's all good. So, the fact that sexual immorality seems natural to us just shows how fallen we really are, that it is the same thing as what God intended through marriage. So, let's read on, verse 14. It says, And God raised the Lord, and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never. So, in the resurrection, our bodies will not need a temporary satisfaction of food and all that. But fornication is completely different. It's not even a temporary blessing to the body. God designed the human body for himself. In his grace, he's covenantally united us to Christ. And this is the seriousness of the sin. We've been united to Christ as members of Christ's body, as members of his church. We are part of the body of Christ. We're the temple of the Holy Spirit. So sexual sin was so common that Paul had to warn this church about this because the body was designed by God to be united to Christ. What the body did with harlots was a very real desecration of the temple of God. The Bible says, he says it here, he says, you become members of a prostitute. He says, shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? The problem is the act of sexual sin joins you in a type of oneness. The two shall become one flesh, but it also works outside of the marriage too. There's still a joining together. And that's what makes this sin so bad when you're part of the body of Christ. You're joining a harlot to the body of Christ. This is a sin that is outside of the body and that affects the body. And I think it's talking about the corporate body of Christ. when it's warning us about this here. So, all other sins are outside of your body. This sin actually affects the body of Christ. The bodies of believers are designed by God for much more than biological functions. The body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. Paul had a better proverb in mind with this statement. The body is to be the instrument of the Lord for His use and His glory. So, let's just read a little bit further here. Verse 15, it says, again, it says, Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For as it is written, the two will become one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. That's profound. That's serious. It shows how serious this sin is. Because a believer is united with Christ, if he engages in behavior that unites him with a whore, he is involving Christ in his sin. He's involving the body of Christ in his sin. One flesh union happens, it seems here, whether or not there's a marriage covenant. You will, in one sense, unite a whore to Christ when you yourself unite with her. That's what he's saying here. And then he continues in verse 18. He says, flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. In the next verse, Paul says that we are bodies of the temple of the Holy Spirit. A lot of times we think that's a warning against eating sugar or smoking cigars, bodies of the temple of the Holy Spirit. This is talking about sexual sin here. We're members of the body of Christ, so when you join to a harlot, you're joining a harlot to the body of Christ. That's a sin to the body. That's an actual joining, a sin against the body of Christ. Does that make sense? That's why Paul says, flee fornication. He says, run away from it. Get away from it, because this sin affects, this is a sin like no other. It actually joins a harlot to the very body of Christ. Then verse 19 says, Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body. That's the bottom line. God has purchased us with his own blood. How can we, being part of that body, bought by the blood of Christ, then purchase a whore and join that whore to the body of Christ. It's a serious sin like no other sin. So adultery in all its forms is a serious crime against the living God, especially when we as Christians are members of his body, covenantally joined to God through Christ, and then we join a whore or a harlot to that very body that we've been added to as members of Christ. That's why it's such a serious sin. That's why it's such a serious crime against our great God. Well, let's just close in prayer and we'll close it up. Heavenly Father, we thank you, God, for your many blessings. We know that you have bought us with your blood. We know that you have joined us as members of your body. We are all one with you. And we ask that you forgive us for our sins, for our lusts, and for any sin that we have committed. We thank you for your forgiveness. We thank you for your grace. We thank you for your mercy. And we ask that we can be pure like you are pure. That we can be faithful as you are faithful. And that we can be holy as you are holy. We just look to you for strength. We look to you for life. And we look to you for purity. And we thank you, God, that you have purified us by your blood, that you have made us clean, and that you have joined us to you in covenant. And we praise you and honor you now in your Son's blood, we pray in His name, Jesus Christ. Amen.