name. Amen. Turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5. Our text will be our memory verse, you shall not commit murder, Exodus 20 verse 14, but we'll read Matthew chapter 5 verse 27 to 30. Matthew chapter 5 verse 27 to 30. You can find that on page 963. On page 963 of your pew Bible. Matthew chapter 5, verse 27 to 30. This is the word of God. 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." This is the word of God. We come to this commandment. The sixth commandment of all the commandments is obvious. Most clear to us, the Seventh Commandment may be the most rejected. We live in a world that is full, we live in a sex-filled culture, a sex-filled world. It's posted and plastered everywhere. You cannot turn on the TV or watch a movie without being confronted. Phones and computers, it's just a click away if it doesn't just pop up at you. You cannot go through a grocery till without being confronted by it. Driving down the road, billboards loom over us, broadcasting, sex, halftime shows, concerts. Where can you go to get away from it? The effect of the internet, pornography on the internet, by the means of the internet, that effect on our culture has been huge. And do not think for a moment that the church is immune. Pornography affects us here. The statistics are terrifying, and these statistics grow old very quickly. So these statistics that I have may be out of date, but sex-related sites on the internet make up 60% of traffic. In the US, 40% of users visit porn sites at least once a month. And if you go down to males ages 17 to 34, that's 70%. Kids ages 8 to 16, 90% have viewed pornography online. Average age of exposure is 11. Now you may think this is all just in the world, but is it? There has never been a culture to be absolutely overrun and rampant by sexual sin like the one that we live in right now. Never ever. The internet has made that seep into so many aspects of our lives and made it such available. So when we're looking at, you shall not commit adultery, this isn't only pornography, but it also includes the current disregard for marriage, the destruction of the traditional view of marriage, one man, one woman joined exclusively to one another till death do you part, just sex outside of marriage, Homosexuality, transgenderism, and obviously pornography are all included in this commandment. So what on earth do we do with all of this? Well, the seventh commandment is relevant, obviously. It is not to be discarded. It is not to be considered out of date. The theme this evening is adultery is a horrendous mutilation of Christ's, and it is a sin. But there is hope in the very one that we have been unfaithful to, Christ. There is hope in him. In other words, we have forsaken, we've offended, we've left Christ, left our God in our sin, and yet he has not left us. So flee adultery, flee sexual sin and run to him. We're gonna look at adultery and we're gonna look at hope this evening. I'd like to ask two questions. What is adultery? And then where's our hope? So adultery, what is adultery? Adultery is the destroying of marriage or the breaking of a covenant or of a relationship. To realize the importance of marriage is to then understand or maybe feel what adultery is. Simply put, adultery is just breaking vows. If marriage is the union of a man and a woman, the covenant commitment to one another where they both agree to be exclusive to one another, adultery is breaking of this union. Either by bringing in another person into this or by failure to love and to cherish one another. The breaking of this commitment is a big deal. Why? Because it is a public thing. Marriage is a public thing, just by the nature of it. When God created marriage, he made it the core of our society. That is how the human race propagates. That's how the human race stays, is by marriage. A man and a woman joining together and having offspring. This doesn't mean that singles are failing in a certain area, but that's just how God designed the world to be. That's why it's a public event where a man and a woman are joined together in public, so that the world can testify to this and a family can be raised in the best way possible. And this marriage is a declaration to the world, a declaration of a commitment and a promise. And there are two things that really consummate the marriage. At the ceremony there are vows, right? I take you to be my wife. I promise before the people gather to be faithful. I will love you and give you myself. I promise to be true always through poverty, sickness, health, rich, poor, good times, bad times, right? I'll be faithful. I will never forsake you as long as we both shall live. And then the wife would say, I take you to be my husband before all gathered here. I promise to love you, promise to submit to you as Christ, as the church submits to Christ. And I promise to be true to you through everything, good, bad, sickness, health. Thin, fat, old, young, till death do us part. We'll be faithful to one another. Groom and bride, both say, I do. It's a vow, a promise. I will do this. And it's a promise, interesting, that I will love you. A promise to love. And the second thing that consummates a marriage or binds a marriage, makes it sealed, is signified in the ceremony by a kiss. The physical union. This kiss is important. It isn't just to create a photo op, but it is representing what is done later behind closed doors. The vows, the kiss, right? Make the union of a man and a woman sealed. So a marriage is a complete union. Complete union. Body union, right? Wife's body belongs to her husband, her husband's body belongs to his wife. It's a bodily union, but it's also an emotional union, intellectual union, a complete union. Every part of you is given to the other, every single part. Nothing held back, nothing. And how do we break these vows then? Well, we break these vows by holding part of ourselves back, by not giving to your spouse something of you. You can be unfaithful to a spouse by emotionally connecting to another. You can be unfaithful to a spouse by emotionally holding back. You can be unfaithful to a spouse, yes, physically. But you can be unfaithful in confiding with somebody else, enjoying being around someone else more than your spouse. Now, marriage is important because this is the context of adultery, right? A vow and a commitment, a covenant that has been broken. And I wanna follow another pastor's lead in looking at three different passages to inform us what adultery is. Another are likely more unmarried people here than there are married, I would assume with kids and all. If you're not married, can you say, well, I don't have to worry about adultery? No, you cannot say that. Christ calls us to be faithful to him, to withhold from sexual intimacy until we're married. until we are married or forever if we don't get married. So adultery as we will see is for married and for the singles. Three passages. You can turn to Mark chapter seven. Turn to Mark chapter seven verse 20. You can find that on page 1002 of your Pew Bible. Mark chapter 7 verse 20. Jesus is talking about eating unclean things or eating with your hands unwashed. And he's talking to the religious leaders who say that this makes you unclean. And Jesus then says to them in verse 20. Mark chapter 7 verse 20. What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of a man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All of these evil things come from within and they defile a person. Jesus says there are Sexual immorality. And you'll recognize the Greek word used there, even if you don't know Greek. The Greek word is porneia. It's where we get our English word pornography from. Now what does that word mean? Well in Greek literature it refers to any sexual act outside of marriage. Any act. Our Heidelberg Catechism as we read doesn't go crazy in depth, but it mentions all the categories, which includes many, many things, even to thoughts, as we'll get to later. But if you turn in your hymnals, if you have your hymnals, turn to page 958. You probably have never turned to this page before, unless you have Presbyterian leanings. This is the Westminster Larger Catechism. The Westminster Larger Catechism goes in more depth of what adultery, breaking the Seventh Commandment looks like. Page 958, question 139 is asking what is included in breaking the Seventh Commandment. And it says there, I'll read a bunch of it, adultery, fornication, rape, incest, sodomy, and all unnatural lusts, all unclean imaginations, thoughts, purposes, and affections, all corrupt or filthy communications or listening thereunto, wanton looks, impudent or light behavior, immodest apparel, prohibiting of lawful and dispensing with unlawful marriages, allowing, tolerating, keeping of stews, a stew is a brothel, and resenting to them, resorting to them, sorry, entangling vows of single life, undue delay of marriage, having more wives or husbands than one at the same time, unjust divorce or desertion, idleness, gluttony, drunkenness, unchaste company, lascivious songs, books, pictures, dancings, stage plays, and all other provocations to our acts of uncleanness, either in ourselves or others. A little more in-depth than the Heidelberg Catechism, sort of. I mean, it names more things, the Catechism gets at all of those things as well. Now, if you're wondering what we're looking at the Westminster Confession for, we don't hold this in our church, we don't hold this in our denomination, but we have very close relations with those who do. And we would confess this confession as well with our brothers and sisters in the Presbyterian denomination, the OPC and the PCA. Now some of that has to be explained, some of it is, but you get the idea of what that's saying. Pornea is referring to any sexual act outside of marriage and saying that is wrong. The Greek word is broad. Jesus had a very, very broad understanding of what the seventh commandment meant. And there's no justifying sexual sin. If it's outside of marriage, it is wrong. There's no saying, well, but I didn't go so and so far, right? Or, I didn't do that. It's sin. That's the first passage we looked at. Now turn to 1 Timothy 1. 1 Timothy 1, verse 8. 1 Timothy 1 verse 8, page 1177 of your Pew Bible. 1 Timothy 1 verse 8. Paul is instructing Timothy here in protecting the church against false doctrine, as Paul does in many of his letters. The church was in need of protecting against false doctrines, false teachers, and Paul warns of false teachers that they stray from God's law. Paul talks about how the law of God is good. He's talking about the Ten Commandments here. And in 1 Timothy 1, verse 8, we read, 1 Timothy 1, verse 8, Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane. Now notice Paul goes over the second table of the law, of the Ten Commandments. If you remember, the second table of the law is how we love our neighbor, right? Beginning with Commandment 5 through 10. And listen to here. as we continue, right? For the unholy and the profane, for those who strike their fathers and their mothers. He summarizes the fifth commandment there. For murderers, commandment six, verse 10. The sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, commandment seven. Enslavers, commandment eight. Liars, purgers, commandment nine. Paul uses two words there, you'll see, as he's going through the second part of the law, he uses two words for the seventh commandment. The first word we looked at was porneia, which we looked at and covered a broad category of sexual sin. The second word is different. When we read men who practice homosexuality, it is actually one word, a word that Paul is believed to make up. He made up this word. We don't find it anywhere else in Greek literature, anywhere else. The word is arsenokoites, arsenokoites. I might have to Brush up my Greek vocabulary reading with Chris as he's studying. But arsenokoites, that's the word that Paul makes up. But the commentators say Paul didn't just make up this word from putting a bunch of letters together. He got this word from Leviticus chapter 20 verse 13. Leviticus chapter 20 verse 13. And what is Leviticus 20 talking about? Well, it's talking about punishment for sexual immorality. And it says, Leviticus 20 verse 13 says, if a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination, they shall surely be put to death. This is speaking about homosexuality, very clearly homosexuality. This is not talking about a common practice in the Roman Empire at this time that involved a man and a boy. Paul condemns that act in 1 Corinthians 6. Now, but Paul made up a word here from this Leviticus chapter 20, if a man lies with a woman as with a, if a man lies with a male as with a woman. And you can hear, listen to Leviticus chapter 20 verse 13 in the Subtuagint. Now the Subtuagint is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. So it's a Greek version of the Old Testament, so we can contrast these two writings very clearly, because they're both in Greek. So it's very likely some of the writers of the New Testament were using a Greek version of the Old Testament. But it's very likely that Paul took this word, or took this saying in Leviticus chapter 20 that's in Greek, and made up a word for the New Testament, made up a word to describe something. So listen to Leviticus chapter 20, verse 13 in Greek. ὀς ἔν κοιμῆθῇ ἀρσανὸς κοιτῆν. ὀς ἔν κοιμῆθῇ ἀρσανὸς κοιτῆν. ὀς ἔν κοιμῆθῇ ἀρσανὸς κοιτῆν. ὀς ἔν κοιμῆθῇ ἀρσανὸς κοιτῆν. ὀς ἔν κοιμῆθῇ ἀρσανὸς κοιτῆν. ὀς ἔν κοιμῆθῇ ἀρσανὸς κοιτῆν. ὀς ἔν κοιμῆθῇ ἀρσανὸς κοιτῆν. ὀς ἔν κοιμῆθ� And it's saying, it is breaking of the seventh commandment. Marriage is one man, one woman. Anything else is adultery. A man cannot marry a man. Likewise, a woman cannot marry a woman. That is adultery. Clearly from scripture. Now many of us probably believe that, but it is good to know that that is what the Bible says. Now we can turn to Matthew chapter five, verse 27, if you read before. Matthew chapter 5 verse 27 we read this as I said before again we have Jesus commentary on this commandment right. 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. Jesus has did the same thing as he did with the commandment of the previous, right? Do not murder. Jesus transforms this commandment. Looks, intent, are enough for condemnation, are enough for judgment, are enough to condemn you as sinful. Feelings, thoughts, are sin. They are serious. Verse 29, Jesus says, if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. That is a serious thing, right? Taking a measure, a serious measure. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if you're right, 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. Devastating. Sexual sin is thoughts, desires, affections. Serious because hell is on the line. Right? Adultery. Is one man, one woman? Not homosexuality. And I mean, homosexuality includes all of the transgenderism where it gets really confusing. But it's not confusing. One man, one woman. So where then is our hope? If we think of this last addition from Jesus in Matthew chapter five, right? of thoughts, of feelings, of desires, affections. Where is our hope from this commandment? By Jesus' standard of the seventh commandment, you have to say that every single adult is guilty. Every one of us is guilty of the seventh commandment, of breaking the seventh commandment. Passing thoughts convict us. Now there is hope. But realize there is no hope without Christ. There is no hope without Christ. So this is a warning to those without Christ. Sexual sin is in our culture. It is among us. There is judgment for sexual sin. Are you fighting sin? Do you hate it? I think there are some of us who maybe are numbed to sexual sin. Maybe you have surrendered to sexual sin. You don't see any point in fighting. You've given in to a culture of selfish sexual pleasure. The Lord says to Cain, sin is crouching at your door. And the Lord says to us, if we are stuck in sexual sin, it is crouching at the door, ready to take you. Be warned that as powerful as sexual sin is, there is judgment for sexual sin. And you might say, yes, pastor, I believe all you said, yet I fight and I fight and I don't win. And I'm not talking to just men here. I'm talking to women as well. Sexual sin attacks humanity. You may be saying, I do feel sin crouching at the door, but where do I turn? Is our hope, as Jesus says, gouge out our eyes, cut off our arms? Maybe you think that's the only solution, right? You think temptation is so powerful that is the only solution. What hope do we have? Sin is everywhere. We can't escape it. Well, first we have to distinguish something here. We have to distinguish that temptation and we have to distinguish that from sin. James 1 verse 14 says, but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. The Bible does not tell us temptation is sin. To see a beautiful woman, to see a handsome man is not sin. But the second look, the third look, The thoughts that run through our heads are sin. On a computer, a post, something that pops up that is not sin. But the next click can be sin. The thoughts in our head planning out the day can be sin. To be tempted is not to sin. 1 Corinthians 10 verse 12 gives us hope in temptation. You might say, yeah, I know being tempted is not sin, but it's so powerful. Well, 1 Corinthians 10, verse 12 says, therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Brothers, sisters, Believers, a God is faithful. He will provide you with a way out. Are you willing to take it? Are you seeking that way out? Jesus says gouge out your eyes. That is not a literal command. That we have to gouge out our eyes. But it does mean do something. It means do something drastic. Don't just take a baby step. Do something drastic. What are you willing to give up? What are you willing to do? What are you willing to sacrifice? Pride, reputation, comfort, privacy? Go without a smartphone, be as drastic as telling somebody. That is hard. Maybe the hardest thing. Are you willing to talk to someone? Friends, sexual sins requires friends. Sexual addictions require friends. You cannot fight on your own. Literally, you cannot win alone. Where is our hope? Our hope is that God is faithful, that he won't give us more than we can handle. And he's given us the church. He's given us brothers and sisters in Christ. Where's our hope? We can look at another passage here. Matthew 5 verse 8 says, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. I'm gonna ask you a question. Do you want to see God? What are your desires? We have to fight desire with desire. What does that mean? That we have to fight desire with desire? Well, we can say I'm not tempted. I'm speaking personally here, I'm not tempted. to gorge myself on green beans, right? Because I really don't desire them that much. I doubt many of you would really be tempted to gorge yourself on green beans, but maybe there are some. But on the other hand, if there was steak, if there was ice cream, or Starbursts, or lollipops, or something like that, maybe, then it can be tempting. Or Thanksgiving's coming up, right? Turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, stuffing. Is your desire for sexual pleasure? We have to fight desire with desire. We have to find something that we desire more. Kevin DeYoung asks a probing question, a very revealing question. He says, do you believe that a glimpse of God is better than a glimpse of skin? What are your desires? The fight against sexual sin is a fight of faith. It's a fight for belief, right? Do you have faith in Jesus when he says that God's steadfast love is better than life in Psalm 63 verse 3? That to be a gatekeeper at God's house is more pleasurable than anything that this world has to offer. Do you believe God when he says that? Fight the fight of faith to believe, to believe that God offers more than sexual pleasure, better than sexual pleasure. And how do we work on that? How do we work on that? I think by not dwelling, not thinking of sin. This means maybe not going into the power and the destructiveness of sin. Sometimes when we're caught in sexual sin, we're caught in a cycle of just thinking how powerful it is and how we can't avoid it. And in a sense, you're giving power to sin that way. Turn your eyes to Christ and how powerful He is, how majestic, how beautiful He is, how awesome He is. To think of sin lower than Christ, desire God more than sin. We can get caught up in the power of temptation and forget God, who is powerful, much more powerful. Don't dwell on sin. How do we direct ourselves to have a greater desire? Another passage we can look at is Ephesians 1 verse 18. Paul says that you may know what is the hope in which he has called you. What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. Jesus can do far more than you can imagine. Far more than you can measure. Jesus has an inheritance that is glorious and by his power he's taking you there. The greatness of sexual sin, sexual desire, is nothing compared to the immeasurable greatness of God, who raised himself from the dead and sits at God's right hand. He has called you to this. He has called you as an heir to inherit his glorious presence, to be with him. Do you want to see Christ? Now, if you're listening to this sermon and you've been thinking, I want to change. I want to be free from sexual sin. Maybe you see a glimmer of hope in some of these verses. Maybe you sense the greatness of Jesus toward you. Do something drastic then. Ask for help from someone in this room here today. And you will find hope. Why? Because I said adultery is the breaking of a commitment. It's the breaking of a vow. And the Bible presents us with Christ and his bride, right? Christ and his church. And we as his church have been unfaithful to him. That has been displayed for us in many places in scripture. of how we have been unfaithful to Him. We have broken the relationship, we have broken the commitment to Him time and again. We are unfaithful to Him, but God will not leave us. 2 Timothy 2 verse 13 says, if we are faithless, He remains faithful. That is our hope, that He remains faithful to us.