I invite you to turn in your copy of God's Word to the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 5. We're going to continue looking at the Sermon on the Mount, the most famous sermon in the history of the world. That's chapter 5 through chapter 7, and we are now in the second half of chapter 5. And what have we been seeing so far? Remember that all throughout the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel writer, Matthew himself, has been emphasizing the... Emphasizing, emphasizing. Try that again. Matthew has been emphasizing the kingdom of God. You see, when Jesus came into the world, He didn't just arrive to set an example for us. When Jesus came, He came as the King, bringing a new reality, a new way of living, a new way of being human into a world that is destructive, a world that is beset by sin, a world that is on a downward path. And when Jesus came, He brought in that new reality, which we call the kingdom of God, and He came as its King. And with His arrival, that kingdom has intruded into our present space-time continuum. There's a new reality in our midst with the coming of Jesus Christ. And He calls people into that kingdom, and He brings them into a new way of living. And what He's doing in the Sermon on the Mount, He's saying, all right, if you are in the kingdom, if you're one of my followers, then this is how you are to live. Now, the minute that we say, this is how you are to live, we have another word for that. We can call that law. There is the law of the kingdom. After all, the kingdom has a king, the king has a law, and he's laying it out for us. And one of the things that we've seen so far is that the law of God is not something that you have to obey in order to be brought into the kingdom. In fact, we cannot ever obey it enough to be worthy of being in the kingdom. We are brought, as we saw very early in the Sermon on the Mount in the Beatitudes, we are brought into the kingdom solely through grace. solely because Jesus lived the perfect life that you and I are incapable of living. And Jesus died to death that you and I so richly deserve. And he did that in our place and brings us into the kingdom. So the law now is not about the standard, the entrance, the standard for us to enter into the kingdom, but it is the standard laid out for us on how we are to live once we are in the kingdom. And since we belong to Christ and we belong to his kingdom, he tells us this is how you are to live. And as we've seen over the last few weeks, the law of God was not understood well in the day of Jesus, it's not understood well today. And so he's had to explain what the law truly is. Now last week he began to unpack different commandments and showing us the true meaning of it. Last week we dealt with the sixth commandment, the prohibition against murder, you shall not murder. And this Sunday we're gonna be looking at Jesus's dealing with the next commandment, the seventh commandment, the prohibition against sexual immorality. And so we're gonna see that here in verses 27 through 30. So let's now hear 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. With us far, the reading of God's word, may he bless it to our hearing, especially it's preached to us this morning. and people of God as we deal with what Jesus is talking about right there in verse 27 he recites the seventh commandment you shall not commit adultery this is something that needs to be spoken into our culture and too many Christians are afraid to speak about these things today we live in a society we live in a culture that maybe when I was a young man, 40 years ago, we might have said is moving away. But I don't think we can say that we're moving away. We have moved away from the prohibition against sexual immorality. In fact, we live in a culture that glorifies sexual immorality. We say, look, love is love. As long as there's love, as long as there's a commitment, then it's legitimate, then it's okay. There's no boundaries on how we express ourselves sexually. And there are many Christians who support that. Many Christians say, well, look, the gospel is about love, right? And so, we've seen professing Christians claim that the reason that they left their spouse for another is simply out of love. Well, was that really the reason? Here's the point. This is important for us to hear. We've been saying all throughout the Sermon on the Mount that God is calling us, that Christ calls us to live counter-culturally in a way that is different from the way that our world lives. And this is one of the key ways in which Christians need to be able to show the world that there is a different way of living. And it's not just simply some apologetic, it's not just simply a tool of evangelism, it truly does affect your life. And I want you to hear these things as we go through them today. We have a society that is moving in one direction, away from the seventh commandment, but Jesus very clearly is moving in another. So, as we look at this passage, we're going to see three things. First, we're going to see that we are to be leery of lecherous looking. Okay, I gave you all the alliterations so you can remember. We are to be leery of lecherous looking. want us also to look at the disastrous depth of our immorality. How disastrous is it? And last, we're going to look at drastic measures. So we're to be leery of lecherous looking, we're going to look at the disastrous depth of sexual immorality, and then we're going to look at the drastic measures that Jesus calls us to take in order to push back on this sin. So let's look at the first of these, that we are to be leery of lecherous looking. What do I mean by that? Well, let's start by looking at how Jesus opens in verse 27. We've already seen him say this before. You have heard that it was said. That's the contrast. You have heard that it was said, but then in the next verse, but I say to you, we've already seen him doing this. What Jesus is doing is very simple. He's saying, this is what the world says. This is how others try to portray things. But I tell you, and that I, by the way, is emphatic in the original language. He's saying, but I tell you. You see, this is not just another rabbi, another teacher coming through and saying, well, let's try to understand what the law says. This is the maker of the law, the giver of the law. Jesus comes, of course, in many different roles. We see him as our high priest, we see him as our prophet, we see him as our savior and our redeemer. Here, we see him as the teacher, as the Lord, who can come and say, I have the authority to explain what it is that the law of God actually says and actually means. It's not my interpretation, it is the reality. And we, as God's people, would do very well to sit there and listen to where the King is speaking. He has the authority and the right to be able to say, this is what I mean when I say, do not commit adultery. This is what is intended. And what we see is that Jesus is knocking at the fact that some people are quite satisfied to say that, look, this prohibition against committing adultery is simply against the physical act of adultery. Only that physical act is wrong. And Jesus is saying, no, it's not. Just like he did with murder in the previous section, he goes much, much deeper. And he says there's a purity that the law demands that goes much deeper than most of us imagine. What Jesus is doing is He's again affirming the true meaning of the law. He's going behind, underneath that mere prohibition of an outward act. And as always, he's getting to the heart of the matter. And just as we saw last week in the prohibition against murder that included not just the physical act of murder, but included angry thoughts, insulting words, and so on, so he's letting us know that the prohibition of adultery is also against adultery in our hearts, adultery in our minds. Indeed, he goes so far as to say that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Notice he does not say that if you look at a woman with lust, then you're opening yourself up to committing adultery. No, no, no, he's saying you have already committed it in your heart. As Jesus always does, he gets down to the heart of the matter, pardon the pun, but to the cause of what's driving it. And what's driving it is not the actual act. It's that lust that's in the heart. And he's telling us that's the danger. In fact, we're gonna see in just a moment as we look at the last few verses in 29 to 30 that he says it's so dangerous that just the act, just the thought is condemnable. Just the thought is enough to merit hell. And so he's going to tell us it's better to deal with that lust now, to deny yourself now, than it is to face an eternity of suffering and regret. Those are the stakes. This is what Jesus has to say. So we have to deal with what he's putting before us. He's demanding a purity and integrity, not just in our outward behavior, but in our hearts and in our thoughts about other people. That's what he's getting at. It's in line with what he was saying last week in the prohibition against murder. We see him doing the same thing here. Now, there's some thoughts that I want us to think about as we look at what Jesus is warning us about. First of all, we understand that Jesus is not prohibiting the normal attraction that exists between men and women. God is the one who created that attraction. He gave us sex as a gift within the context of marriage. And within that context, it is a good thing, and it's a beautiful thing. Too often, you know, Christians are accused, oh, you guys are just prudes, you guys wanna take away all our fun. God is the one who created that normal attraction between men and women, and there's no prohibition here against it. We read earlier from the Song of Solomon, and we saw the uninhibited delight that the bride and the bridegroom take in one another in their marriage relationship. So this is not a prohibition against that. It is a prohibition against any sexual act that occurs outside of marriage, whether the person committing it is married or unmarried. And it's a prohibition against the lust that fuels those actions. So that's what this is. You'll also notice that it's a prohibition against all forms of sexual immorality, not just simply this idea of men lusting after women. It's also dealing with the fact that women lust after men, and this does happen. It also is dealing with same-sex attraction, all these different things. And it's not just geared towards married people. It's geared towards those who are unmarried. It's not just geared towards younger people. You know, we say, well, people in their teens and their 20s, they're the ones who are tempted towards sexual sin because it's all new and they want to try things. It's also geared towards the 30 and 40 year olds. who have gotten tired and are looking for something fresh and new. It's against the 50 and 60-year-olds who long to recapture something of their lost youth. It's against 70-year-olds and older who have been so wrapped up in the pursuit of pleasure that even as they come to the end of their lives, still can't see past these things. This prohibition is against all these different forms of sexual immorality. So, this is what Jesus is warning us against. In short, what He's doing is He's saying that even looking lustfully at another person means that you are in fact committing adultery in your heart. And that's where He wants us to see that the sin does not begin with the actual act. It already begins in here. And I'm gonna go so far as to say that heart adultery really is a result of eye adultery. What do I mean by that? My father used to say that the problem is not the first look, it's the second. We can't help that first look. Hey, she's attractive. Oh, he's a hunk or whatever else. It's where your mind goes after that, where that second look takes you. That's what we have to watch out for. John R. W. Stott once wrote that the deeds of shame are preceded by fantasies of shame. We have to understand that if we're going to fight and resist this temptation, it doesn't start with the actual action. It starts in our hearts, in our imaginations, in our hearts. That's where it really is at. Those are the things that ultimately lead to the physical act. And what Jesus is telling us is the physical act is unnecessary because just the thought in your imagination is condemnable. It's already immoral. Now, just to be sure, just like God gave us attraction between men and women and it's a good gift, so our imagination is a good thing. It is a gift of God. When we look at the arts, when we look at literature, when we look at inventions, when we look at scientific breakthroughs, none of those things would have been possible without imagination. Imagination in and of itself is not a bad thing. But like all of God's gifts, it has to be used responsibly. And it's important for us to recognize that what Jesus is saying is that every sexually immoral act begins in the imagination. It begins in our heart with our eyes, may lead to a physical act or may not, but still is dangerous and condemnable. So that's why I say we are to be leery of lecherous looking. And that actually leads me to my second point, the disastrous depth of immorality, because what I want us to see is just how dangerous it really is to engage even in the act of looking in a lustful way. See, a lot of people sit there and say, you know, I hear what Jesus is saying, but how much harm? I mean, you hear our society all the time says that as long as it's between consensual adults or whatever of that nature, that this is a victimless crime or doesn't hurt anyone, it's not a sin that really has consequences. And you've even heard people will say, look, what's the problem? I'm just looking. I get that maybe going out and cheating on my spouse, that can create problems, but looking doesn't hurt anyone, right? You hear stuff like that. I remember when I was very young and somebody told me, in church, Just because you're on a diet doesn't mean that you can't look at the menu. Right? Have you ever heard stuff like that? And what I want to do is push back against that today and show you why it is that Jesus is being so radical, if you want to put it that way. Because what we learn is that when we lust in our hearts, in our imagination, it's just as dangerous and it's just as damaging as the physical act. And let me see if I can bring that home so that we can truly appreciate, like I said in the point, the title of the point, the disastrous depth of that immorality, the danger that it presents. First of all, we have to understand that lust, whether it be physical or in the heart, is a violation not just of the seventh commandment, but against a number of other commandments. Listen to what Paul says in Ephesians 5 verse 3. He says, sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. What Paul is saying is sexual immorality is not just a violation of the Seventh Commandment, do not commit adultery, but it's also a violation of the Tenth Commandment because you are coveting what is not yours. It's also a violation of the Eighth Commandment because adultery, even heart adultery, is a type of theft. You are stealing something from someone else. And so we need to be able to see the depth of the sin is not just limited to that one commandment, it's much broader. But I'll go so far as to say that it's not just a violation of the seventh commandment, the eighth commandment, and the tenth commandment. Very often we find it's also a violation of the ninth commandment against lying because people fall into all sorts of deceptions in order to maintain their sexual morality. But ultimately, it's a violation of the first commandment. You are to have no other God before me. Well, that doesn't mean, yes, because when we disobey in this area, we are attacking God himself. Listen to these words. If you want, you can turn with me to 1 Corinthians 6, verse 13. Listen to what Paul is saying. These are some of the most powerful words in Scripture. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 13, right in the middle of that verse, Paul says, the body is not meant for sexual immorality. Notice he does not say the body is not meant for sexual activity. It is, God designed it that way. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 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. 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. Therefore, flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body. But the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 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. Do you hear what Paul is saying here? He's reflecting the words of Jesus. He's telling us there in 1 Corinthians 6, verses 13 through 15, that because we are saved by Christ, we are in union with him. We're united with him. We learn, as it goes on also in verses 16 through 17, we learn elsewhere in scripture, and here he says that that union that we have with Christ is reflected in marriage. In the same way that we are created in the image of God, and so we reflect who he is, so the marriage relationship between a husband and a wife reflects the union that Christ has with his bride, the church, with you and with me. And then he tells us, That sexual immorality is unlike every other sin because it is a sin against your own body. But since your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Then when you engage with someone else outside of marriage, you are sinning against the body, you are sinning against that temple, you are indeed sinning against God. He uses that language. Are you gonna join then with a prostitute, you who have been united with the Lord? You're supposed to be one flesh in your marriage, reflecting that greater union, and when you break that union, in an earthly sense, you are mocking that divine union that we have with our Lord. And so Paul ends in verses 19 through 20 with a radical statement where he goes much further than many in our culture would want us to go. He says, your body is not yours to do with as you please. Now what's the one mantra you hear all the time? My body, my choice. And Jesus comes into us and says, no, that's not the case. It's not your body, it's mine. He said that right at the very beginning of that passage there in 1 Corinthians 6, 13. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And then He makes it clear in verse 19, you are not your own, for you were bought with a price. He's telling us you're not free to engage in sexual immorality because this is the body for which I lived for and I died for. Jesus did not just die for your soul. He died for your body. He died for the whole of who you are. And so you belong to him. And that's why Paul ends by saying, so glorify God in your body. So what do we see, people of God? We see then that the sin of adultery, of all sorts of sexual immorality, in the end is getting at what? It's getting at idolatry. It's getting at covetousness. It's getting at us mocking the fact that we have been united to Christ. It's something that when we deal with, when we really hear, we realize the real depth of what it is that we're doing, and we see the damage of what's involved. Look, the actual deed of adultery, it shatters lives. It disrupts families, and it despises God. There are few things in this world that bring more pain to more people today than actual adultery. But Jesus is telling us that heart adultery is no better. Because it too is an assault. It's an assault on the person who is the object of your lust. And it violates all these commandments because you see, that person has also been created in the image of God. But you reduce that person. You reduce him, you reduce her to a mere object of your lust. And that lust consumes that person, it devours that person. In your imagination, you are attacking that person. I'm going to go so far to say that you are, in essence, raping that person. You might say, oh, no, that's not at all what's going on. I'm just having a little fun. The person doesn't even have to know what's going on in my mind, right? But let's remember, as we see all throughout Scripture, that sexual relations are meant for the intimacy of a committed relationship and marriage. Jesus is gonna address that next week, and we're gonna look at that next week. But anything outside of that relationship, I will say, is even rape. You might say, well, what does that mean? Well, would the person that you are fantasizing about approve of the thoughts that you're having about that person? And if the answer is no, then you see that's mental sexual assault. That is mental rape, as it were. You might say, well, perhaps, Pastor John, that's a bridge too far, but I want us to feel the weight of what it is, that these are not victimless thoughts and actions. Listen to what Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 4. Each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen who do not know God. He's saying, You do know God. You ought to have control of your body, not like those who give in to that lust because they do not know God. And he goes on to say, not impassioned at lust like the heathen who do not know God, and that in this matter, no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. What an interesting line. But what he's saying is when we behave in these ways, we are indeed wronging other people. We are wronging that brother. We are wronging that sister. Even when it's in our thoughts. That's how serious this sin really is. It's an assault on God Himself. It's an assault on those who are the image bearers of God. It's a much more serious sin than our society would have us to think. And it's something that as believers we need to be honest with and to deal with. So then, how do we escape it? How do we move forward? And that's our last point, drastic measures. Jesus understands the pull and the power of our sinful hearts towards this sin. And so he calls us to take these drastic measures because, look, let's face it, we live in a society where we are, can I say, drenched, you know, immersed completely in a call to sexual intermorality. It's all around us. We see it in books. We see it in magazines. We see it on TV. We watch it on movies. It's online. And it's all in your face. It's not subtle. and it's getting more and more in your face with every passing year. And of course, you know, you listen to music. Most music today talks about relationships, but they're not godly relationships. The vast majority of them are focused on sex and sex outside of marriage without any mention of the sanctity of marriage. And all these things are in our face and they're available, and it's no longer like when I was a kid and you had to go on 42nd Street in Times Square in New York to go to the peep shows. Now it's online. And in the privacy, and dare I say, the secrecy of your home, all this stuff is there. So it's a real danger. It's not just something that we have to worry about for our kids, like I was saying earlier, it's for all of us. And it's into this society that is steeped in immorality and glorifies that immorality that Jesus speaks these piercing words. Everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. People of God, let me just be honest, when we hear that, who here, when we understand Jesus' way of looking at things, who here is not that guilty of adultery? I am, and you are too. Every one of us is. So we need to hear Jesus' prohibition, but also then hear these drastic measures that he calls us to. And so I'm asking you, look at these things and say, am I playing around with this sin? Am I flirting with it? Am I, as Don Carson put it, nibbling around the edges, trying to keep one foot in the world and one foot in the King of God? And the problem is you can't do that. sexual immorality of all kinds hardens the heart and sears the conscience and makes it increasingly difficult to see the danger that we are in. It affects the believer's entire walk. And as a minister of over 30 years, I could tell you that I have seen this again and again and again. It leads to deception, to lies upon lies. It leads to a constant hunger for more, and it destroys that person's walk with the Lord and their relationship with those around us. Some people will say, well, look, this prohibition is robbing us of all our fun and excitement. And here's what I really want you to understand, what Jesus understands. He knows that the reality is that it is sexual immorality that is the true thief that robs us of true joy. What you have in sexual immorality, and I'm not gonna lie to you, There is pleasure in that. I'm not gonna tell you, oh, it's not, or whatever. There's pleasure in that, but it's a pleasure that is fleeting. It's a pleasure that leaves you always needing more. In the end, it never satisfies. And it's like eating common candy, and there's nothing there, and for just a moment, ooh, a little burst of flavor, but it's not there. It's not what you really need. That's why you're constantly hungering for more. And Jesus understands that that kind of behavior is the true thief. That's what really is robbing you of eternal joy, of permanent joy, of constant joy. Some of you know this in your marriages, but some of you are wrestling to find that and wrestling to get that sexual, that purity, or rather that true joy that comes from sexual purity. It's a true joy that is wrapped up in resurrection joy. The fact that because we have been united with our Lord, we've been raised with our Lord to a newness of life, a new way of living, and that includes a new joy in our lives. But in order for us to enjoy that, we first have to share in the death of our Lord. And that's what the ancients used to call the mortification of the flesh. What is that? It's a big word. Mortification of the flesh just means putting to death your flesh, putting to death your sinful desires. And that's what Jesus is getting at in verses 29 through 30. Those are some of the most controversial passages in all of Scripture. Jesus says, 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 and 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. Notice what Jesus is dealing with here. He's dealing both with the action and with the thought. He's dealing with the action when he talks about what you do with your hand, and he's dealing with the thought when he says, What do you do with your eye? It's the seeing and then the doing. And he's addressing both. Is he literally calling us to gouge out our eyes and to cut off our hands? No, he's not. It is a dramatic figure of speech. It's not mutilation that he's shooting for, but it is mortification, putting to death those sinful desires, a denial of those desires in your life. And he's saying it's important to do so because look at the cost. The cost is it leads you to hell. And so he calls us to die to ourself, to put these sinful practices to death and to be radical in doing it. That's why he uses the metaphor, you know, cut off that hand, gouge out that eye, remove that thing which is leading you to this sin. Later on, he'll tell us that we are to take up our cross and follow him. And when people hear that, take up your cross, what does that mean? I've often heard stuff like, well, the cross that I bear is my trick knee from when I was injured playing ball in college or something like that. It's an inconvenience, something that's hurting us in life. Some people say other people are their cross. Oh, that old ball and chain I've got to carry around, she's my cross to bear, that kind of thing. No, no, no, when Jesus says take up your cross and follow me, what he's saying, What happens when you take your cross? You go to the hill and there you are crucified, you die. What Jesus is saying, if you wanna follow me, you have to die to yourself. You have to give up those desires that are wrong and evil. And that's what he's calling us to do here. There are several things that we need to deal with as we look at this passage. He's telling us to stop looking at those things. that cause our imagination to go in different directions. He's telling us to stop doing those things which are actually wrong. And what I see when I look at this passage is several things pop out to me. One is you have to realize the consequence of yielding to sexual lust is hell. I know we live in a day and age in which many people deny the existence of hell or many pastors downplay it, but it's right here in the text. And Jesus is making it very clear that those are the consequences for this behavior. Paul says in Ephesians 5.5, you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. You have to hear that those are the words that are being said. 1 Thessalonians 4, 6. Paul also says, the Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit. So you need to first feel the weight when we hear how drastically he's calling us to reject sexual sin. Feel the weight of the consequences if you don't. And also in calling us to do these drastic measures, he's telling us to deal with the root of our sin, that lust that drives it. And it's amazing how often I've seen people try to skirt around these things. Jesus says, look, if your eye is causing you to sin, if you're seeing things that you ought not to see, don't look at those things. Put measures into place to stop you from seeing them. There's all sorts of things that you can do. I remember, of course, nowadays it may not be the case anymore, But when I was younger, you know, I would not go shopping in the supermarket and go down those grocery aisles when you used to have people who paid, who did your checkout for you. You get in these grocery aisles, they would put on all these magazines. And there would be Cosmo there with these women who were, you know, dressed less than what they should be. Don't even go through that aisle. For some people, that's no big deal, but for others, that alone might be the trigger. And Jesus is telling you, stop looking at those things, take those steps. You don't have to go down that road, right? A person says, well, I have to go down that road and cross that shop or cross that store or cross that theater on the way home. No, you don't, you can go around it. Don't do it, don't look at those things and even get it, get the mind going and don't do those things. But too often what I see is that people don't wanna deal with the root of the sin, that lustful imagination. So they try to make up for it. They try to keep, again, one foot in the world so they can hang on to their lust and another foot in the kingdom so they'll read their Bible more or they'll begin attending a home fellowship group or they'll volunteer more or they'll give more. They'll do anything but give up that favorite lust. Jesus is saying, no, you need to deal with the root of the sin and you need to do it decisively. You need to do it immediately. You can't pamper your sin. You can't flirt with it. As I read earlier from Don Carson, you can't enjoy nibbling a little around the edges, which is so often what we do. As the Ephesians 5.3 says, among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality. We have to come to hate that sin, to crush it, to dig it out. And that's a painful process. That's a painful process. It's just like if you had gouged out your eye. It's just as if you had cut off your hand. So when he says if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away, he's telling you behave as if you had removed your eyes and now you're blind and unable to see what you had previously seen that caused you to sin. And when he says if your right hand caused you to sin, cut it off and throw it away, he's telling you behave as if you had cut off your hands and now we're crippled and unable to do those things that previously caused you to sin. You need to take those measures, whatever those are. You need to find those triggers, those things that get you going. You know what they are, and you need to put a stop to them. I used to tell my boys, you need to set up barriers in your mind. that you have to break through every one of those barriers before you get to the actual sin. And you learn what those things are that are your triggers and you set up barriers for them. We used to have an elder here, a wonderful elder who used to, newcomers class, ask the question, who's tempted more by a pretty girl, Bill Clinton or Billy Graham? And of course people say, well, Bill Clinton, right? But the reality is no. Bill Clinton is hardly tempted at all because the moment he sees, he immediately gives in to that temptation. None of those barriers have been set up. He's got a line straight from the eye and the thought straight to the action. You see, whereas Billy Graham, the temptation has to be more severe because there's so many blocks that are put in place. We need to develop those blocks. We need to deny the flesh, we need to mortify it, and it is painful. It's like an amputation, not a real one, And that's one of the challenges that we have, because when you do give it up, you'll feel withdrawal, just as real as if you had been taking in some kind of substance, and now you're no longer doing that. And that withdrawal, after your quote-unquote amputation, you might begin to believe, I can't live without this. But what Jesus is calling us to do is to not compromise with sin. As F.D. Bruner, the German theologian, put it, it's better to go limping into heaven than leaping into hell. But that leads me to the very last thing I want to say about this. And this is really where we find the power for dealing with this. Because we're being called to deal with it, to put it to death, to be drastic in these measures, to understand that we can't play around with it. And the problem is that we have. So where do we find the solution for it? Well, just like everything else we've been saying in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is not just the one presenting it, but He's the one who makes it happen. He's the answer in all these cases. Jesus is the one who enables us to be able to resist. There's a passage in Ephesians chapter 5. You may want to turn there with me. It's a wonderful passage, Ephesians chapter 5, verse 25. It's the kind of passage you see people referencing when they're going to do premarital counseling and things of that nature, but really it applies so much more broadly than that. And let's read what Jesus says in verse 25. Listen to these words, he says, husbands, Love your wives. Well, actually, you know what? We're going to start in verse 22 because there he talks about wives, and you'll see the point we're getting at. He's got these two different admonitions or things that he wants husbands and wives to do. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. That as to the Lord is what I want to focus on. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Why? That he might sanctify her. Sanctify means to make holy. That he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish. What an amazing thing. Jesus has given himself up for us. We come as those who are blemished by our sin, including our sexual sin. And the answer is if you've engaged in sexual sin, as we all have when we look at Jesus, understanding that it starts in our minds, even if we've not engaged in it outwardly, then we find forgiveness in Christ because he lived that perfect life, that life of perfect purity that you and I have not lived. And on the cross, he took upon himself the wrath of God that you and I deserve, that hell that he's talking about in the Sermon on the Mount that we deserve, he took it upon himself on the cross for our sin. But He doesn't just stop there. He doesn't just deliver us from the guilt of sin, but then He goes to act and work in us to cover us as a good husband should do, always caring for his wife and always making up for her and always trying to protect her. He then works in our life to deliver us from the power of this sin. And He works in us to make us holy. This is where you find your strength in the one who alone is pure. Let me just tell you that sexual sin, like all sins, ultimately is an act of unfaithfulness. And what do I mean by that? When you commit sexual sin, as with all other sins, what you're basically saying is, Lord, I don't really have faith. I don't really believe you. God says, that in marriage, sex is enough, and it'll satisfy you, and it's what you need. And this speaks then not only to those who are married, but to those who are unmarried. Because you might say, well, none of this applies to me, I'm not married, so I can do whatever I want. All this seems to only apply to married people, but no. The question is, where do you find your ultimate satisfaction? And when you are married, and you look at someone else, and you say, Lord, you tell me that I am to find satisfaction in my marriage relationship, but I don't really believe you. Therefore, I'm going to look outside. The same thing with an unmarried person. where they're told in scripture that you will not find joy in sexual relations outside of marriage. And when you engage in that, you're basically saying, Lord, I heard what you said, but I don't really believe you. And so I'm going to engage in sex outside of marriage. In both cases, we're saying we don't believe Christ, we don't believe God's prohibition, we don't believe that you are really looking out for our best interests. It's really the same sin as in the garden, don't you see? where they looked and they said, we have the whole world, except we're not to do this one thing, and we don't really believe you that that's for our best, we will take matters into our own hands. And see, what you're really doing is you're saying, I'm substituting this one joy, because I don't really believe that there's true joy found in you, but people of God, what I want you to urge you to see is, when we look at this passage, for example, in Ephesians 5, We see that Jesus is the one who not only saves us, forgives us for our sin, but empowers us to resist it. And then he says something more in Ephesians 5. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies, he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ did the church, because we are members of his body. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. And then here's the kicker, Paul says, this mystery is profound. And I am saying that refers to Christ in the church. You see what he's saying? He's saying it's not that the marriage relationship is primary and our relationship with Christ reflects it, it's the other way around. The marriage relationship, union between one man and woman, is a reflection of that relationship we have with Christ. And what he's telling us here is when we are united to Christ, we find our satisfaction in him. He's not just the one who gives us satisfaction. Our satisfaction is found in Christ. So whether you are married or unmarried, the solution is the same. When you go outside of marriage, you're basically saying, I don't believe that there's enough in you, Christ, to satisfy me. When you are unmarried and you engage in these behaviors before marriage, you're saying, I don't believe, I don't have faith that you're sufficient. But when we do believe and when we do trust and we turn to Christ, we find not only that he empowers us to resist this sin, but he actually gives us that satisfaction that we were longing for all along. That satisfaction which is eternal, that satisfaction which is permanent, that it does not go away like the satisfaction that you get from sexual immorality that lasts only for a moment and then dissipates. There's your true satisfaction. There is that lasting need, lasting satisfaction that meets that deepest need of your heart. And so I call us, people of God, to look to Christ and find in Him. If you find yourself engaged in these behaviors, and I know, again, over years of dealing with this, that it can sometimes be very hard to let go. Come, talk with me. Talk with the elders. We'll be happy to sit down with you and help you to learn to really trust that obeying Christ really is where true and permanent satisfaction is at. I would warn young people to not even start. I will tell you that once you begin these kinds of behaviors, what I invariably find is by the time that you hit 40, it becomes so very hard to shake it. I'm not saying you can't. And if you're over 40, whatever, let's talk. You know, we got to deal with this kind of thing. But once you start it, you don't just get to stop it, because it grabs a hold. It's the only sin, as we read, that's not on the outside, but it's in your own body, and you carry it with you in every way and in every part of your life. So I implore you, people of God, to find your satisfaction in Christ. You will learn that he is enough. And for those of you who are not followers of Jesus and are wondering, why are these people so crazy, always telling us, oh, taking away all our fun, we're not. We're trying to give you maximum enjoyment, maximum pleasure, maximum satisfaction that comes only through Jesus Christ. It is Him who you need, whom we all need. It is in Him that we alone will find fulfilling joy. Let's pray. Father in heaven, how difficult it is in our culture, a culture that is filled with constant, not just reminders, but attempts to get us to engage in behavior that is immoral. And yet you call us to a new way of living, to a different way of living. Father, we pray that we would hear this, and if we have been involved in these things, as all of us have to some extent, that we would learn to find our satisfaction in Christ, this true, permanent, fulfilling joy that comes only from Him. Father, we pray for those whose lives have been destroyed, whose marriages have been wrecked because of sexual immorality. And we pray that both the perpetrators and the victims would find healing in Jesus. Help us to come alongside those folks. Help us to love them. Help us to point them to a better way. And help us ourselves, Father, to be able to resist through the empowering of the Holy Spirit. And help us to find that in Jesus, He is truly enough for us.