WWUTT 1943 It Was Said, ”You Shall Not Commit Adultery” (Matthew 5:27-30)

In Matthew 5 .27 Jesus said, You've heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, if you've even looked for somebody with lust in your heart, you've committed adultery in your heart.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you Becky. I want to preface this by saying the material

I'm covering today will be for a mature audience. Though I'm reading from Matthew 5 in the

Sermon on the Mount, the commentary that I'm going to add, you may want to listen to first before you have younger ears tune in.

Let me begin by reading from Matthew 5 verses 27 to 30 out of the

Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. You have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery.

But I say to you, that everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

But if your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you, for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you, for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

Now keep in mind, Jesus is going through the law and he's showing his disciples that they may not have a right understanding of the law or they were not taught the law correctly or they think of themselves more highly than they ought to think, thinking that they're more righteous than they really are.

After all, just consider the commandment that we looked at yesterday, you shall not murder. How many people would have been walking around going, look how righteous

I am. I've never killed anybody before. But Jesus says, if you've even called a person names, you are guilty of the fires of hell.

It's as if you have murdered that person in your heart. The commandment we look at today, verse 27, you have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery.

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Again, you may think, hey, I've never slept with another man's wife. But if you've thought about it, if you've undressed her with your eyes, that sin has already been committed in your heart.

You fantasize about it. You've desired it. You have looked at another human being that is made in the image of God with contempt or as an object, as someone to please your desires, not as a fellow human, not as somebody who reflects the image of God, but as someone who is in your way, preventing you from getting what it is that you want.

See, that's what these two commandments have in common. Jesus doesn't go through all of the Ten Commandments, but he does talk about murder and he does talk about adultery.

In both of those circumstances, you're talking about a person who's an image bearer. And the murderer looks at the image bearer and hates it and wants to destroy it.

The lustful person looks at the image bearer and thinks, well, I want that to gratify my own selfish, sinful desires.

In either circumstance, it is a wrong, wicked view of a person who has been made in the image of God.

Now, when it comes to judging these two sins, we can only judge by what a person has actually done.

So just because a person has a hateful thought in their heart, we can't try them for murder.

They haven't played out that fantasy or that desire in their mind to destroy another person.

And until they do, we can't really put that person on the stand and then try them for murder and convict them and whatever penalties come along with that.

Not every state has the death penalty, but you understand what I mean. Then you have the sin of committing adultery.

That one really doesn't have as thick of consequences to it, at least in our culture today, as murdering somebody.

Nonetheless, we can't really pass judgment on another person based just on their thoughts. We don't know their thoughts.

We don't know their heart. We can only judge what it is that we've seen them do. But God knows the heart.

He knows the hearts and thoughts of every single person. Whether you have contempt for another human being, or whether you have lustful thoughts for somebody else.

And if you've done these things, it's as if you've murdered in your heart or you've committed adultery in your heart. Lawlessness begins in the heart.

It doesn't begin with what you've done on the outside. It begins with what you've thought on the inside.

And the law exposes the unrighteousness of man. As I had mentioned to you earlier from Romans 3, that the law stops the mouth of every man from them being able to proclaim their own righteousness so that everyone may be held accountable before God.

Jesus said in Revelation 3, I will render to each person according to their works. I am the one who judges mind and heart.

And so none of us can declare before God that we are more righteous than we really are.

Even the desire for sin is sin. That's what both of these two laws that we've looked at between yesterday and today demonstrate, that even the desire for sin is sin.

Colossians 3, 5 says, Put to death what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming. You know what all of those have in mind? Or, sorry, you know what all of those have in common?

They all have in common that they are desires of the heart. Sexual immorality. Well, you might see that one first on the list and you're thinking to yourself, well, that's any kind of sex outside of marriage.

No, it's even the thought or the desire for it because look at the next sins that come after that. Impurity, passion, which is of the heart, evil desire, which is of the heart, and covetousness, which is of the heart.

All of these things are tied up in heart issues. And even the desire that you have within your heart, the wrath of God is coming against.

So put it to death. If you even desire, that which

God does not desire for you, it's sin. Lest anyone want to think that they can have the thought and it's really not that bad as long as I don't play it out.

Even the desire for it is sin. You will hear people say today that they can have a certain orientation, right?

And that's not wrong. It's not sinful so long as I don't play it out. A man can be sexually attracted to other men.

But as long as he's not committing sodomy or doing something homosexual, then it's okay, right?

As long as he's not playing it out. He can be attracted. He just doesn't play it out. No, Jesus said, if you've lusted, then it's as if you have committed adultery in your heart.

Colossians 3, 5 again, against such things the wrath of God is coming. Even the desires for sexual immorality that you have,

God is coming against this. Sexual immorality is a very, very serious thing.

And we should not take it lightly. Because again, as said in Colossians 3, 6,

God's wrath is coming against even the desire for it. 1

Corinthians 6, 18, flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

So yes, sexual immorality is unique. There is something about it that is different from every other kind of sin.

Now, what is sexual immorality? I guess it would be a good idea to define that. What do we mean by sexual immorality?

Sexual immorality is any kind of sex that is outside the bond of marriage. Because God created sex and he created it for marriage.

So any kind of sex outside of marriage is therefore immoral. Sexually immoral.

Sexual immorality. Where you see that statement made in the scriptures, it is the

Greek word porneia, and has been translated in many translations as sexual immorality or sexually immoral.

It is a sin that will condemn a person to hell if they do not repent.

Hebrews 13, 4. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Yes, sex is a good thing. God created sex and he created it to be good, but to be enjoyed between a husband and a wife in marriage.

1 Thessalonians 4, 3 -5. 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 pagans who do not know

God. Ephesians 5, 3. But sexual immorality and all impurity and covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among the saints.

There you have it, coupled again with the desire of the heart. Sexual immorality, impurity, and covetousness.

That which is desired from your mind, from your heart. Even against this, the judgment of God is coming.

1 Corinthians 7 -2. But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

Sex in marriage is good. That's what God made it for. But anything outside of the marriage bond is immoral, and therefore the wrath of God is coming against it.

Ephesians 5, 5. So I read verse 3 earlier. Here's what it says in verse 5. 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.

Recognize that about sexual immorality. That it is labeled as idolatry.

It is bowing to a false god. And it's of no coincidence that paganism is filled with sexual immorality.

A lot of the pagan worship involved human sacrifice and sexual immorality.

Like if two people in a pagan culture wanted to go out and worship the wind, you know, it wasn't just, oh, we give homage to thee, oh, wind.

It was they go out and have sex with one another on a pagan altar and then sacrifice a baby.

Such immorality was rampant in Corinth. And to the Corinthians, the apostle

Paul said the following. 1 Corinthians 6, 9, and 10. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters, and again, there you have it tied together, sexual immorality and idolatry, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor the effeminate, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Now, in John Gill's commentary, he points out that the effeminate there was probably a reference to the masturbators, men that pleasure themselves.

That's a subject that we often just kind of breeze by, and we think, well, masturbation isn't even mentioned in the

Bible. Well, just consider what Jesus has said here in this particular passage. I think it's quite relevant, what he ties into lust from the heart.

Let me read again Matthew 5, 27. You have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery.

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

What do you think is tied into that, that lustful desire that a person has in the heart? Do they just enjoy the thought?

How do they play it out? More often than not, a person that is addicted to their lust, they love their lust, they love having the thought, where does that end up going most of the time?

Pleasuring oneself. Consider what Jesus says next in verses 29 and 30.

But if your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you, for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you, for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

What are the two parts that are described there? The eye, because that's where the lust begins.

Well, it begins in the heart, sure, but a person sees, a person identifies another person that they desire or want sexually, and lust for them.

Well, if that's what your eye is going to cause you to do, then tear it out and throw it away. What's the next part right after that?

If your right hand makes you stumble, because after you've seen, what do you do next?

Either you grab, either you go get the thing that your eyes have seen and your heart desires lust for, or you're going to use that hand to pleasure yourself.

One way or the other, that's how this plays out. That's why Jesus uses the symbolism the way that he does.

It starts in the heart, it begins in the heart, that's verse 28. It goes next to seeing, that's verse 29.

And then it goes next to wanting to have it, possess it, and bring it to yourself, that's verse 30.

So whether that's the other person, or whether you use the hands to pleasure yourself, one way or the other, the desire has led to the sin.

1 John 2 .16, All that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, and the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not from the

Father, but it is from the world. Consider also from James 1 .14,

Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust is conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.

It's just a downward spiral. It begins with the heart, you see with the eyes, you desire with the body, and it brings forth death, if you don't repent.

One of the things that we recognize plainly from what Jesus is saying here in this particular passage, one of the applications we can make, let me put it that way, one of the applications we can make from this is that porn is sin.

Porn is wicked. Porn is every bit as bad as adultery. Now I wouldn't put a porn addiction as being the same as going to bed with somebody.

Maybe that's a discussion for another time. That's still like, it just continues to devolve and get worse. But it is still the very sin that Jesus is confronting here.

It is a lust of the heart. It is a desire for another human being to gratify sexual pleasures.

Everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her. What else do you do when you're looking at porn but that?

And my friends, we can't even be involved with watching movies and TV shows that have nudity and sex scenes in them.

As much as you want to be able to say that it doesn't affect you, well it should.

It absolutely should affect you when you see things like that. Either it's going to cause you to lust, or it should cause you to respond in disgust.

Lust or disgust. One of those two. And if you just claim to be morally neutral on it,

I don't really feel one way or the other. That's really bad. How much of that wicked sin would you have to see before you're finally disgusted by it?

How can you claim to desire holiness, but you see two people doing that, which is akin to prostitution.

Because they're getting paid to do that with each other, and it's actually their real bodies that they're doing that with one another there on a screen, for their pleasure and for yours.

I mean, you're being entertained by it. You can say that you're not aroused by it. You're still being entertained by it.

How can you call yourself holy? That the desires of your heart are for holiness, if you're not disgusted by that kind of a thing.

And you would prefer to be entertained by it. My friends, that is friendship with the world.

And as James will go on to say, you adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

So again, quoting from 1 Corinthians 6, flee from sexual immorality.

Ephesians 5, sexual immorality must not even be named among you, as is proper among the saints.

In both of these two commands that we've read between yesterday and today, do not murder, do not commit adultery.

In both instances, Jesus confronts the desire of the heart, the hatred that a person would have for another person, the lust that a person would have for another person.

And in both instances too, what does he say the penalty is? Hell. If you have hatred, if you have even called your brother names, it is the same as if you have murdered him in your heart and you are guilty of the fires of hell.

If you have lusted after another person and you've not mastered this, tear your right eye out, cut your hand off, for it's better to go into heaven mutilated than it is for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

Now, of course, this is hyperbolic. Jesus is not literally saying, cut your eye out or cut your hand off.

You could do those things and you still haven't solved the heart problem because you still desire the other person and then you still act it out to gratify your sexual desires.

What Jesus is saying is whatever you have got to cut out of your life to keep you from going down that road, which leads to hell, get it out of your life.

And my friends, it's serious. It is deadly serious. These are not things to be shrugged at or treated glibly just because we have such a sexually charged, sexually crazed culture.

Don't just shrug at this stuff. Hate it. Hate the sin that defiles the flesh and turn to the

Lord Jesus Christ to be cleansed. For as Paul goes on with the Corinthians in 1

Corinthians 6 .10, such were some of you, but you've been washed. You've been justified.

You've been sanctified by the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God. And as 1

John 1 .9 says, if we are faithful to ask forgiveness for our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Romans 12 .2, do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

And then you will see God's will for you, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. In Psalm 51,

David praying, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

My friends, flee from sexual immorality, be renewed in Christ.

Heavenly Father, as we wrap this up today, I pray that what we've read here in the word of Christ, in Matthew 5 .27

-30, is a strong warning to flee from sexual immorality for even the desire, even the lust that is in our hearts, the desire for another person, is worthy of eternal judgment.

We want to have hearts that are filled with righteousness and that can only happen by the powerful change that comes upon us through Jesus Christ, through the spirit that is poured into our hearts that ransacks this idle factory that is the human heart and cleanses us out and gives us a new heart that desires

Christ and wants to worship God, not just from the heart, but even with our whole bodies, presenting ourselves as living sacrifices unto the

Lord, holy and acceptable to you. This is our spiritual act of worship, as said in Romans 12 .1. Teach us to walk in these ways today, not going after the sinful desires of the heart, but may the desires of our heart be righteousness.

It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.