Mental Pornography

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I want to invite you to take out your Bible and turn with me to Matthew chapter five.
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Today, we're going to be looking at verses 27 through 30.
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If you want to go ahead and take your make your mark there, get ready.
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One of the most interesting stories in all of the Old Testament is the story of Samson and Delilah.
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It has been retold in Sunday school classes, in sermons, and even in film.
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The story captivates the imagination as it gives insight into just how far a man can be deceived when he is being driven by his lusts instead of his common sense and fidelity to God.
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What many find so interesting about the story of Samson is that he is considered to be the strongest man in Hebrew history, at least physically the strongest man in Hebrew history.
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He had the power to overcome the entire Philistine army single handedly.
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His might was without parallel among men.
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Yet, he still fell.
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Not by the sword of a powerful soldier, but rather by the lips of a deceiving woman.
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It was Samson's lust which ultimately led this powerful man of God to his downfall.
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And by that lust induced fall, he became the predecessor of many who would likely take a similar road toward their own failure.
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The lust for the opposite sex has led to the disbarring of judges, the removal of politicians, the defrocking of pastors, and even to the impeachment of a president.
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It is clearly an issue which has been a thorn in the side of many men and has been the impetus for the destruction of many families.
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Today, we continue our study of the Sermon on the Mount.
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So far, we have seen Christ explaining the law of God.
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You have heard it said this, but I tell you this.
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Here is the letter of the law.
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Here is the spirit behind that law.
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And in our text today, Jesus is going to show that simply keeping ourselves pure from the acts of sexual sin is not all that God requires of us.
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He also looks at our heart, which covets ungodly sexual behavior as sinful as well.
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So let's read the text together, standing, of course, as we give due honor and reverence to the Word of God, Matthew chapter 5, verses 27 through 30.
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Jesus is speaking.
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You have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery.
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But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
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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.
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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.
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Our Father and our God, we thank you for this opportunity that we have to study your word.
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And Lord, on such a serious topic as this, I pray that you would give us all sober minds and focus as we go through this text today.
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I pray, Lord, as always, you would keep me from error, that you would prepare me to preach this message appropriately, strongly and graciously in accordance with your will.
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Pray also that you open the hearts of the congregation to hear it.
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And Lord God, that your Holy Spirit would teach us its truths as we study together.
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We thank you, Lord, for all your blessings.
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In Jesus name we pray.
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Amen.
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As I mentioned before, we're in the Sermon on the Mount.
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We've been studying it since the beginning, the beginning of chapter five of Matthew.
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And Jesus is explaining how the popular understandings of his day, the popular understandings of the law of God were misunderstandings of the actual truths.
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They've been misinterpreted by the people.
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As a result, the people were confused about how they were supposed to behave.
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They believe that as long as they kept the external tenets of the law and external adherence to the letter of the law, that what was in their hearts didn't matter.
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But Jesus condemns that teaching.
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And he says that every law has an inherent foundation, a spirit which must be considered.
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And often the spirit of the law changes how we apply the law to our lives.
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Last week, we saw Jesus addressing murder.
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You've heard it said, do not commit murder.
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But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother without cause, he too is guilty.
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The person who uses words against his brother of ugliness, raka and fool, that is guilty as well.
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And we see the letter of the law and the spirit of the law functioning together.
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Well, in our text today, Jesus again addresses the letter of the law and the spirit of the law.
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And the outline of this series that we're in, we look at the letter of the law, the spirit of the law and the application of the law.
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That's how Christ outlines it for us.
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So we simply follow the text and follow his outline.
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He's given it to us.
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So it's easy to do.
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The letter of the law is this.
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You shall not commit adultery.
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The spirit of the law is this.
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Lust is the root of sexual sin and the application of the law.
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We need to remove the things which feed our lusts.
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That's the outline.
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Very simple.
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That's what Christ is saying, encapsulated in just a few short sentences.
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So let's break them down now.
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Let's open them up and see the whole truth.
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Let's look first at the letter of the law.
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You shall not commit adultery.
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Matthew 5, 27.
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You have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery.
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The Greek word which is translated adultery here means essentially the same thing in English.
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There's no big difference.
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Sometimes it says, well, the Greek means this.
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Well, the Greek means adultery.
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That's what it means.
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It's nothing fancy.
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It's just simply adultery.
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It comes from the root word moikos, which is the same root word for the word apostate.
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Now, if you've ever heard me use the word apostasy before, apostate is a person who proclaims faith in Christ and then turns his back on Christ, his commitment to Christ, and goes out into the world.
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That's an apostate, a person who leaves the faith.
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You can see how that relates to adultery.
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A person has made a commitment.
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A person has made a verbal vow to another human being.
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They've committed their life till death.
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Do us part.
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And then they have jettisoned those vows and gone back out into the world.
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That's what adultery is.
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The person who commits adultery is a relational apostate.
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They're an apostate in the marriage relationship.
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Now, why is this sin so bad? Why is this one of the Ten Commandments to say thou shall not commit adultery? Well, quite frankly, because it is so destructive and so pervasive among people.
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It is destructive because it is built on deception, creating barriers in relationships, heartache and trust issues and opening doors for all kinds of damage personally, emotionally and even physically.
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It's dangerous.
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It's destructive.
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It's just that way and it's bad in all kinds of ways from a physical and emotional point of view.
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But it's also pervasive because it is unfortunately very common.
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As destructive as it is, as dangerous as it is, and everybody knows how bad it is, people still do it.
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It is a highly volatile sin, yet is a sin which affects many.
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It is certain, and I say this not having done any type of scientific survey, but simply looking at the history of man, that it is certain that the loss of sexual integrity has been the cause of many, if not the majority of instances of apostasy in the church.
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I imagine we all know someone, if not many people, who have abandoned their fidelity in Christ to pursue some type of fleshly lust.
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In fact, sexual indiscretion is so pervasive among people that the epistles are literally riddled with concern that they're just written all through it.
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It's all through the epistles about the issue of sexual sin, sexual misconduct.
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Ephesians 5, verse 3, but sexual immorality and all impurity or covenants must not be named among you as is proper among the saints.
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Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.
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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 of God.
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It's so clear.
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1 Thessalonians 4, verse 3, for this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.
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This is God's will for you.
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People always say, what do you think God's will is for me? Your sanctification.
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It's right there.
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Said it.
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It's the answer.
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That's his will, that you be sanctified, that you be conformed to the image of Christ.
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That's his will.
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1 Corinthians 6, verse 13, food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy both one and the other.
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The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord.
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And the Lord for the body.
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And God raised the Lord and will raise us up by his power.
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Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the member of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never.
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Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is written, the two will become one flesh.
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But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
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Flee from sexual immorality.
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Every other sin a person commences outside the body, but sexual immorality, the person sins against his own body.
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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.
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You were bought with a price.
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So glorify God in your body.
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It's a serious issue.
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This is an issue that the the the again, the epistles are just they're just through and through, filled with exhortations to concern ourselves with this issue.
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In fact, at the earliest church council that we know of.
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Acts 15, the first Jerusalem council.
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What was the abstain from sexual immorality? They were having trouble determining what laws of the Old Testament were most important.
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You know, should we should we worry about circumcision? Should we not? And they said, no, circumcision is not what makes a person right with God.
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These issues, you know, you can't keep a person from being a Christian because of circumcision.
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That was the big issue of the day because the Jews, of course, circumcision was a big part of what they did.
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But what did the council end up saying? Don't eat food that's been sacrificed to idols because that's going to cause a problem with their understanding of worship.
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And don't be sexually immoral.
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That's a big deal, such a big deal that it was part of the first council of the church.
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This is so huge and yet so pervasive.
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As we've seen, the New Testament is replete with exhortations to guard ourselves from sexual sin and the Old Testament equally as exhortative.
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It's difficult sometimes reading the Proverbs with your children, especially when you have small children, you read the Proverbs to them.
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They start talking about, you know, going after the whore, going after the prostitute, going, you know, talking about these things in your five year old says, what's that? But it's there because it's such an important issue.
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My son, be attentive to my wisdom, incline your ear to my understanding that you may keep discretion and that you may guard your that your lips may guard knowledge for the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil.
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But in the end, she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two edged sword.
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Her feet go down to death.
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Her steps follow the path of Sheol.
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She does not ponder the path of life.
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Her ways wander and she does not know it.
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This is what we see throughout the Bible, the danger of a lack of sexual integrity.
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But there's a problem.
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All of Jesus's critics would have agreed with that statement.
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Verse 27, all of Jesus's critics would have said, we agree with you.
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Jesus is bad.
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Sexual sin is bad.
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I mean, you know, they didn't like the prostitutes, all the scribes and the Pharisee.
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Remember the woman who came in and washed Jesus's feet with her tears and dried them with her hair? She was a known woman of sin, likely a prostitute.
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And what did they say? Oh, I can't believe he's even letting her touch him.
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If he was a real prophet, he would know how sinful she was.
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So at least one thing is clear.
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They all agreed with Jesus's verse 27 statement.
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You've heard it said you shall not commit adultery.
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OK, no problem, Jesus.
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We're with you.
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We agree with you.
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You are 100 percent correct.
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We would not dare for a second deny that truth.
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But then Jesus hits him right where it hurts, because he tells them in verse 28 that it is not an external adherence to the law.
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That's enough.
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An external adherence to this commandment is not enough to maintain purity before God.
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So Jesus tells them there's a spirit behind the law.
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There's something else here.
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Sure.
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Don't commit adultery.
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Sure.
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Don't commit sexual sin.
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Yes, we agree.
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Hey, we'll keep our hands off.
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We won't we won't touch.
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We won't do bad.
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We won't do anything.
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All right.
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Then in verse 28.
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But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in her in his heart.
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Now, I want to say something about this passage before I move forward.
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Some people think that this is a radical addition to the law that Jesus has just made.
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Jesus just made he just made the law impossible.
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He just made the law.
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Absolutely.
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He just made it.
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The bar is way too high.
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Empire State Building high.
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No way.
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But the truth is, folks, Jesus said nothing that wasn't already in the Old Testament.
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What he just said is not new.
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It simply had been overlooked or purposely ignored.
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It wasn't new.
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Lust is condemned in the Old Testament.
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It's just called something else.
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It's called covetousness.
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What does the 10th Commandment say? Exodus chapter 20 and verse 17.
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You shall not covet thy neighbor's house.
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You shall not covet your neighbor's wife.
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Wife.
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What does it mean to covet the wife of another? Lust.
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It's exactly what it means.
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It means to want her for yourself, to want to have the relationship of marriage for yourself.
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That commandment Jesus gives this spirit of the law.
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It's not new.
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Lust is in the Old Testament seen as a sin.
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Jeremiah chapter 5 and verse 7.
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Jeremiah is talking about the reason why Israel is facing judgment from God.
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And this is what he says in verse 7.
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He says, how can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me and have sworn by those who are no gods.
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When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery and trooped to the houses of whores.
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They were well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for his neighbor's wife.
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Shall I not punish them for these things, declares the Lord? And shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this? Neighing for each other's wife.
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That's an interesting term.
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So the horse sound that they make.
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He said that's what they're doing.
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They're lusting after inappropriate sexual relationships.
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That's what they're doing.
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So Jesus, this idea of lust being a sin is not something Jesus came up with out of whole cloth.
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This is not new revelation.
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This is simply explaining revelation, which has already been codified within the word of God at this time for thousands of years.
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But the question becomes this going back to Matthew 5.
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What does lustful intent mean? What does it mean to look with lustful intent? Well, I am going to break down the original language for you because I do think this will help.
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Look, the Greek word is blepon, it is the present participle and it denotes a continued look.
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In our modern vernacular, we might say to stare.
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It is not just a glance.
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It is not just a passing notice of beauty, but rather it is focused attention on that which someone wants.
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To look at a woman with lustful intent indicates to stare, to want, to drink her in with the eyes.
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Is the idea.
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The word woman is the Greek word gunei and it can refer to women in general or specifically to a wife.
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There is no Greek word that's specific to a wife.
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Gunei is woman.
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That's the word that's used here.
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And as such, some have limited it to wives only.
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They've said, well, what Jesus is saying here is that if you look with lustful intent at another man's wife, then you're doing wrong.
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But hey, if you look with lustful intent at a woman who's not married, hey, no problem.
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Slow down.
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Is that certainly not the case? Because to look at a woman who's unmarried with lustful intent, now your desire is fornication, not adultery.
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It's still the desire for sin.
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So be careful when you start trying to make it fit into some paradigm where what you're doing ain't what Jesus is talking about.
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Well, she's not married.
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It's OK.
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Slow down.
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Think about it for a minute.
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Lustful intent.
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Lustful intent means to set the heart upon something, to long for it, to covet it, to desire it.
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And the important part about this word lustful intent is that some people say, and it has been argued, that what Jesus is talking about here is only people who intend to carry out the act.
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So if I look at a woman to lust after her, but if I don't really ever intend to go after that, then it's OK.
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That's not what Jesus is referring to here.
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He's not simply saying, as long as you don't really intend to go through with it, it's OK.
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Do you really think that's what Jesus is saying? Do you really? Is that the argument you're going to bring is that it's OK as long as you don't really intend to go through with it? Certainly not.
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But that's what some have.
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Again, people who know that this sin is an issue try many ways to circle around it, circumvent it, make it fit their particular issue rather than just accepting the fact that they're dealing with a sin.
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I think the best definition of lustful intent that I have ever heard came from Ray Comfort.
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Ray Comfort is an evangelist, does a lot of work with Kirk Cameron.
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And I think the best definition, better than anything I've ever read in any concordance or lexicon or anything else, simply came from Ray Comfort.
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And he said this, he said, lustful intent is mental pornography.
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Lustful intent is mental pornography.
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And you can think what that means.
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You're playing out the role in your mind.
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You're playing out the sinful thing in your mind.
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You're living that sin in your mind.
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I want to deal with something else while we're here.
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And I want to deal with what is not in view, because there are some who read this and they do misread it and they do misunderstand it.
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And I want to share with you what lustful intent does not mean, because I think that's just as important.
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Because I think verses like this can be used to destroy men for things that shouldn't be destroyed about.
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For instance, Jesus is not condemning thinking someone is pretty.
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Jesus is not condemning considering someone to be beautiful, considering someone to be attractive.
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That is a natural part of man and woman relationships.
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We see women.
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She is attractive.
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She's beautiful.
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And here's the reason why I know that.
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I'm certain that Jesus himself could see beauty in people.
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And yet he never lusted.
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So the idea that this simply means I can never, ever think anyone's pretty.
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No, no.
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We're going to think people are pretty.
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We're going to think people are beautiful.
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The issue is, where do we go from there? Does it become lustful intent? Does it become mental pornography? Does it become something we play over our mind? Are we excited to see her every day at work because she gets us excited in our mind? And we're excited to stand next to the water cooler with her because for those few moments, I feel different about my relationship with my wife.
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I feel different about my relationship in these situations.
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I'm excited.
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And when she misses work, I'm sad because I'm sad she's not there to make me feel better that day.
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That's lustful intent.
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Neither is Christ condemning a natural sexual desire.
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He's not condemning that because the natural sexual drive, desire that we have is what God has given us to allow us to fulfill the command to go and fill the earth, to be fruitful and multiply.
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That's part of what it is.
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A man should have a healthy desire for his wife and so to the wife for her husband.
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The Bible says this.
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It says, in fact, that we should not deprive one another of those natural feelings that we have for one another, because if so, we might encourage sin in the heart of our partner, that we should actually fulfill those desires and those needs.
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So, yes, that's not a problem.
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Those things aren't wrong.
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In fact, it's most beautifully described for us in Scripture.
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Read the Song of Solomon.
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It's about that natural drive that a man and a woman have for one another within the bonds of marriage.
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It's very positive.
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It's not negative.
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The problem is our culture does not feed the positive virtue of fidelity and marriage.
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Our culture tries every way it can to feed the lust of the flesh, the lustful intent, and to create in our hearts and in our minds mental pornography.
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And hey, they've gone past the middle.
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They just give it to you any way you want to see it.
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Brian Swartley says this, and I really like this quote.
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He says, our culture has degenerated to the point where this sin is celebrated in songs and movies.
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There are whole industries devoted to feeding this sin, including the multi-billion dollar pornography industry.
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Unlawful sexual stimulation is used to sell everything from soup to beer to cars to shaving cream.
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Modern bathing suits are so skimpy and provocative that Christian men cannot go to the public beach or pool without immediately be confronted with many sexually stimulating sights.
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Many young women today dress indecently for the very purpose of causing men to lust after them.
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For men in particular, this is one of the most common and soul-snaring sins around.
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It is.
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It's one of the most ensnaring, one of the most common.
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It exists.
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It's true.
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It's out there.
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And we deal with it every day.
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Billboards and television commercials and on and on and on.
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It feeds the lust.
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So we know that lust is sin.
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And yet opportunities for lust abound.
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So what do we do? Give up? No.
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We come to verse 29 and Jesus gives us an application for the law.
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And this application is pretty heavy duty.
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He says in verse 29, If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.
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For it is better that you lose one of your members than your whole body be thrown into hell.
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And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.
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For it is better that you lose one of your members than your whole body go into hell.
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Now, I want to quickly make sure that we do not misunderstand what Jesus is saying here.
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If there's a passage in the Bible that atheists love to attack, this is one of them.
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Because they find this so foolish.
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But like many of the things that atheists have problems with, it's that they're finding foolishness where there is no foolishness.
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It's just a foolishness in their own understanding.
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Certainly, Jesus is saying that something drastic must be done about how we deal with sin, particularly sexual sin.
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But he is not advocating self mutilation.
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Now, I admit there have been some in church history who have taken it that way.
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They have taken it crassly, literally.
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And some in the early church even sought castration to avoid inappropriate sexual desires.
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And though their level of commitment is amazing, I think their understanding was misguided for this very purpose.
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I can at least prove beyond my shadow of a doubt, hopefully beyond your shadow of a doubt, that Jesus is not advocating self mutilation.
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It's very simple.
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Because a man with one eye can still lust.
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A blind man can still lust.
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A man with one hand can still use his other hand to sin.
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And a man with no hands could sin with his feet.
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He'll find a way.
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We are the most creative sinners in the world.
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We find a way.
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The sin he is addressing is not a sin of the flesh.
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Thus, the sin he is addressing is not a sin which will be fixed by cutting off of the flesh.
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It's a sin of the heart.
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He's dealing with an internal issue.
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Cutting out an eye or cutting off a hand will not solve the internal issue.
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What he is saying is that we need to identify the things in our life that feed our urge to lust and jettison them.
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Get rid of them.
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Cut them off.
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If you can't handle going to the beach full of bathing suits, don't go to the beach.
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If you can't handle having cable without engaging in television shows, which encourage your sexual lust, don't have cable.
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If you can't have the internet without engaging in some kind of sinful activity on the internet, don't have the internet or have your spouse set up some type of accountability software.
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Do cut it off.
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That's the admonition.
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It's very clear to me.
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It's without doubt.
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Man with no arms, no legs, no eyes still has a brain.
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He still has an ability to lust in his heart.
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We have to cut off our sources of lust.
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This is what Paul said.
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Paul reiterates this for us in Romans 13.
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He says, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to satisfy its lusts or to gratify its desires.
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Don't make provisions for the flesh.
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You know what you deal with.
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You know what your issue is.
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Cut it off.
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You know what you have to fight.
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You know the battles you're in.
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You know what you deal with.
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Cut it off.
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Put the computer in the living room where everybody can see.
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I'm serious.
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These are, I mean, I'm trying to be real with you guys.
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I know we have people of different ages in here, but we've got teenagers here.
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We've got young people here and they are experiencing a onslaught to their eyes and into their hearts that has never been understood in the history of man.
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It takes three to four clicks and you're in a world of depravity.
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So that's what Jesus tells us.
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Cut it off.
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Do what you have to do.
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Cut it off.
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Now, I want to use today to bring all this together.
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I want to use a biblical illustration to just encapsulate all that I've said.
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Hopefully, this will put something in your mind that you can take with you and let it really steep within your minds this week and in your hearts.
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Turn with me to 2 Samuel 11.
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And this is what we'll finish today.
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2 Samuel chapter 11.
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And this is a common story.
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Most of us are familiar with it.
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The story of King David.
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Verse one.
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In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabah.
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But David remained at Jerusalem.
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It happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house that he saw from the roof a woman bathing.
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And the woman was very beautiful.
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And David sent and inquired about the woman.
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And one said, is this is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? So David sent messengers and took her and she came to him and he lay with her.
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Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.
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Then she returned to her house.
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This is one of the most infamous accounts of the physical act of adultery in the Bible.
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It results in a child being conceived and a plot unfolded to try to hide the conception.
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David tries to have Bathsheba's husband believe that the child is his by orchestrating a time for him and Uriah, for her and Uriah to have a relation.
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But Uriah's love for his king and his fellow soldiers kept him from having the comfort of his wife during a time of war.
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As a result, David has Uriah killed in battle to hide the sin.
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Uriah goes out into battle.
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All the other men pull back and leaves him out by himself.
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And he looks around and is by himself and is left to die.
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And it is interesting that when you read about Bathsheba throughout the Bible, she is never called the wife of David.
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She is always called the wife of Uriah.
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And most of us are familiar with this story.
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It's one of the ones that encourage us regarding the truth of Scripture because the Bible doesn't hide it.
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This would be one of those things that would have been, you know, if we were trying to hide truths, this would have been one of the ones to sweep under the rug.
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David failed in a very big way.
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He stole a man's wife and worse, it was a man who loved him very much.
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But the thing that's important and what I wanted to point out to you today, especially in regard to this subject, was what started the chain of events.
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David didn't wake up one morning.
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I don't believe he woke up one morning and said, Today I plan to steal a man's wife and send him to his death.
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I really don't believe that that was his intent waking up that morning.
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I don't think that's what he thought about when he rose and had his kingly breakfast and he was he was preparing for the day.
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I don't think that was on his heart or on his mind.
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Such devilishness was not akin to David's natural demeanor.
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In fact, he probably would have said such behavior is repugnant.
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And had he heard someone else had done it, he probably would have repudiated.
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However, when he saw Bathsheba, his heart was filled with lust for her.
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And that lust took control and he was led away by it.
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The man who the Bible says was a man after God's own heart, had his own heart stolen away by the temptation of fleshly lust.
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Beloved, lust can lead us into areas that we never thought we would go.
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What begins as a sinful activity in the eyes and a sinful activity in the heart can become so much worse because it then becomes the desire for the sin of the flesh.
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Had David simply seen Bathsheba and immediately turned his eyes and immediately turned away from that situation, perhaps the scene would be different.
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Yet because of his unwillingness to cut off the sin at its root, he found himself eventually under a mountain.
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Beloved, this teaching, like all the teachings on the Sermon on the Mount, should cause us to realize our absolute dependency upon Christ.
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Though most of us could probably say that we have never formally committed an act of adultery physically.
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It is without a doubt, it is without a doubt, that all people, in particular men, have been disobedient in this area.
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The deeper we understand the requirements of the law, the more we understand the necessity of Christ because only He has fulfilled the law.
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He never looked at any woman with lustful intent, ever.
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Thirty-three years on this earth as a man and every thought he ever had regarding a woman was a thought of pure and holy love.
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But not lust.
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He fulfilled the letter of the law and the spirit of the law in every aspect of life.
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And thankfully, that obedience is the obedience that the Christian relies upon, not upon his own.
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That doesn't license us to sin.
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It should encourage us not to.
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But the reason why I bring this up is this.
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I know, I know where my heart is.
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I know the things that I have dealt with in my life as a man.
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And if you're a man today and you've come here today and you've dealt with these same things, I don't want you to think all is lost.
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I don't want you to think this is it.
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You're condemned to hell because of this sin.
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Brother, I'm praying for you.
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I'm praying for me.
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I'm praying for all of us and sisters as well.
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Christ saves.
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This is an issue.
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It is a sin.
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We shouldn't call it anything but what it is.
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But we should never think that there's any sin that is beyond the grace of God.
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These things have I written to you so that you may not sin.
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But if anyone does sin, he has an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
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That's what we proclaim today.
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That's what we remember today.
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That when we look at the law of God, the Sermon on the Mount is not intended to save.
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It is intended to express the Christian ethic to us so that we understand that our sin deserves hell.
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And we are all guilty of it.
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But yet Christ has fulfilled the law.
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He is the perfect one.
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Beloved, I've asked many men, do you believe you're going to heaven? And they'll say, yes, I believe I'm going to heaven.
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Why do you believe you're going to heaven? Because I'm a good person.
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And I say, do you really believe that you're a good person? The first thing they will say, yes, I believe I'm a good person.
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I do my best.
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And I'll say, have you ever looked at a woman with lust in your heart? I've only had one man ever say no.
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And then I said, are you gay? I literally, that's Nathan was with me.
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That's exactly what I asked him.
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I said, are you gay? And he stopped, looked at me and said, what does lust mean? I said, it means you've looked at a woman's desire.
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Oh, yeah, definitely.
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He didn't know what it meant.
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He's the only person ever said no.
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He didn't know what lust was.
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Christ is the only salvation.
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We are all sinners.
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We're not only all sinners.
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We're all desperate sinners.
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We have all desperately committed sin against God.
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And Christ shows us this in his Sermon on the Mount.
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And this sin in particular is one that has been the fall of many men.
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There's a book called Every Man's Battle.
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And in which the authors of that book spend time dealing with the fact that this is a sin that in some way, in some fashion has been in the minds of all men at some point.
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How do we deal with it? Christ, if you're relying on your righteousness to go to heaven, if you're relying on your goodness to go to heaven, I appeal to you, read the Sermon on the Mount again and then tell me how righteous you are.
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Because we are not.
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Christ is our righteousness.
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He doesn't give us a license to sin.
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But his blood covers all our sins that we might be righteous before God in him.
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Let's pray.
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Our Father and our God, we thank you.
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We thank you for this opportunity to study this very serious issue in your word.
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I pray, God, for all of the young people that are here.
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I pray for their parents, because I'm sure that this sermon is going to encourage questions.
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I pray that the parents would have the words of comfort for their children and words of encouragement and even words of conviction where they're needed.
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I pray for every man in this room, Lord, who has dealt with lust.
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And I pray that you would give us strength to walk as Christ.
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I pray for every woman in this room, Lord, that Lord, I know that lust is not something that's specific only to men, but Lord, that women deal with it as well.
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And I pray for them, God, that you would in your mercy and grace.
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Encourage our hearts towards that Christian ethic, that it's not only the abstaining of sexual sin physically, but that we must keep our minds and hearts, take every thought captive, as the Apostle Paul says, so that we would seek to be holy as you are holy.
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This is our prayer in Jesus name and for his sake.
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Amen.
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Let's stand and sing.
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If you have a need for prayer, please come.