The Heart Of Righteousness - Part 2 Adultry and Lust - [Matthew 5:27-30]

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Heaven, Hell and Everything in Between (Part 3)

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God loves preaching. Do you love preaching? Do you like Bible preaching?
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We live in a society that loves to say these words. Don't preach to me.
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And nowhere else is it at an all -time high when people say don't preach to me as when it comes to sexual morality.
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We live in a sex -crazed society. The idol I believe for most unbelievers is sex.
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Spurred on by the clerical garb of freedom of expression, with the mass media and selling everything with its religious paraphernalia, the votive candles of TV, the leaders of Madison Avenue popularizing sexual freedom outside of marriage.
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The world celebrates sexual sin. It applauds sexual sin. Pop songs.
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I was reading some time ago the old Cincinnati Bengals head football coach Sam Weish.
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Remember him? I guess it was a really old, old football coach. He was fined more than $23 ,000 for refusing to allow female reporters access to the team locker room while the men were dressing.
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The playboy philosophy of America is everywhere. Perversion, the salaciousness of it all, and the satisfaction found in lust.
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What does God say about it? Would he address it? Would the maker of the universe address this topic? Would he tell us what to think about when we live in a society that what the only taboo is if you have a taboo against something?
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Two medical doctors, Glenn Wood and John Dietrich, said, quote, a society spends the most time and energy once the basic necessities of life are satisfied, on what it deems important.
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In ancient Hebrew and American Puritan writings, one can hardly read a single paragraph without encountering a reference to God Almighty.
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What items have replaced God in our communications media? Only sex, money, and self -love satisfy the time and energy requirements for what is sacred in our culture.
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These are the gods of the New Age. Well, if you turn your
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Bibles to Matthew chapter 5, let's hear from Jesus Christ, our risen Savior, on what he says about our thoughts regarding his wonderful gift to married couples, sex.
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We want to see what the Bible says and how Jesus directs us and his disciples in Matthew chapter 5 and the
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Sermon on the Mount to this very topic. If you're not familiar with our church, we just pick a book and just work our way through.
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That's one of the great things about preaching. I get to hide behind Jesus's words. Last week, he talked about murder and hatred and this week he talks about sexuality and we just want to preach the whole counsel of God.
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We want to know what to do as a congregation when we are influenced or possibly influenced by our surrounding culture that takes something that's bad, all sex outside of marriage, and turns it into something good and they call it making love.
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Everything's upside down and Jesus comes onto the scene of a legalistic atmosphere where people were thinking wrongly and he wants to make sure people think correctly because we are to worship
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God with our minds and to think properly about these issues. Let's hear today from the designer of marital sex, someone who came up with the idea and knows what's best for his people.
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It all stems from the context. If you look at Matthew 5 17, Jesus said, do not think that I came to abolish the law.
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He certainly didn't come to do that. It was inspired law. It was Moses's law. It anticipated the
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Savior coming. Are the prophets? I did not come to abolish but to fulfill and as the
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Old Testament, Old Covenant looked towards the Messiah, Jesus said, I am that Messiah and I have the authority to tell you my new fulfilled law.
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Is it built on Moses? Yes, but sometimes it has extra things alongside of Moses and it makes what
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Moses talked about very explicit. The first thing he talked about out of these six statements we saw last week, do you remember?
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Matthew 5 21. Let me just read you this first antithetical statement and you'll see the pattern. You have heard it said and Jesus with great authority, but I say to you.
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You have heard it said but I say to you and here's the first one. You have heard that the ancients were told you shall not commit murder and whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court and now he makes what was
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Implicit in the old explicit now in the New Covenant. It's talking about thoughts and hearts and motives but I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court.
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Whoever says to his brother you good -for -nothing raka shall be guilty before the Supreme Court and whoever says you moron you fool shall be guilty enough to go into the
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Fiery hell and then to show just how serious that this is And how anger can get you in a lot of trouble.
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He gives two situations that both deal with Someone else who has responded to your anger
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Therefore verse 23 if you are presenting your offering at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you
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Leave your offering before the altar and go remember. This is all before the cross First be reconciled to your brother and then come present your offering
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Drop everything do not pass go be reconciled Then he says in verse 25 make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you're with them on the way on the way to Court so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge and the judge of the officer and you be thrown into prison
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Truly verse 26. I say to you you shall not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent
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Jesus comes up on the scene and he says I'm not only going to give you the fulfillment of the law But I'm also going to correct these scribes and these
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Pharisees who would go around saying it's all external Everything that I'm taught I don't murder with my hands
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Jesus said yes, but it's internally driven as well and it's about hating your heart and now he comes along with another one
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He moves from the sixth commandment don't murder to the seventh commandment Thou shall not commit adultery and he does the same thing here
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For power -packed verses that you will probably never forget Sometimes we forget verses 29 and 30, but they all go together as Jesus now
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Moves from the prohibition of murder to the prohibition of adultery and sins in people's minds
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Let me just read you the text. This is the second antithetical group of statements in Matthew chapter 5
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You see the familiar refrain again, you have heard it said you shall not commit adultery But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has what already?
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committed adultery with her in his heart and In the same context he says if your right eye makes you stumble
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Tear it out and throw it from you For it's better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell
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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 own body
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And for your whole body to go into hell That is an amazing set of passages and let's dissect it a little bit and our outline this morning will be this
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Let me give you four exhortations from this text I'll give you four charges from the text in command form three right from the text and one implied so four exhortations
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So you can understand what Jesus says about this topic more clearly exhortation number one
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You should not commit adultery rather. You should be sexually pure You should be sexually pure.
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You should not commit adultery I think we know that but let's just examine the text some found in verse 27 he's still using the the antithesis you have heard this and I say this but It is still true that we should not commit adultery unlawful intercourse between with our
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Among married persons is forbidden by God It is not to be celebrated as long as the people are in love
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And if you go back a little bit and ask this question, what did God think of adultery in the Old Testament I Mean it could be deadly.
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It was devastating because of its effects upon people the families their lives, but it also showed a
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Picture image and here's the image as God loved Israel our Christ loves the church How that is personified to other people it's destroyed when you make the connection between Christ loving the church
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And us loving our spouse and if there's adultery committed between the husband and the wife
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How does that reflect on the glory of Christ? And it was horrible. I can read you these verses from Ezekiel 16 shocking
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You adulterous wife who takes strangers instead of her husband men give gifts to harlots
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But you give your gifts to your own lovers to bribe them to come to you from every direction for your harlot trees
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Physical and spiritual adultery were horrible in those days and when Joseph ran away from Potiphar's wife.
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What did he say? It would have been a sin against God Genesis 39 says there's no one greater in this house than I and he has withheld nothing from me except you because you were his wife
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How could I do this great evil and sin against God? It's not only whole or horrible for families, but it's against God Before we go any further to see the real context of the passage
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Let me just build on this topic right here that we should be pure and faithful to our spouses.
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And if we're not married We're to abstain from sexual immorality Would you turn with me to first Thessalonians 4 and what
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I'm going to do now is just build on a few texts to strengthen God's call to purity Adultery should be in the rearview mirror of our lives when it comes to Worshiping God Remember the
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Sermon on the Mount is all about righteousness and righteous people who live in righteous kingdom of Christ don't do unrighteous things as a lifestyle and There is a great weight in Scripture to teach us that God is serious about this
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What's God's will for your life by the way people run around? I've got to find God's will it's under every little nook and cranny
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And I've got to open and close door. Well, this one's very easy Sometimes just do a study search in your
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Bible concordance This is God's will and there it is found right in 1st Thessalonians 4 3
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There are many things that God wills for us to do. This one is very very obvious He's writing to the church at Thessalonica and he says to them for this is the will of God that makes me want to listen
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Your sanctification you're to be set apart. How are you to be set apart from all these these other pagans?
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That is that you abstain from Sexual immorality It's a present tense verb
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It means to keep on avoiding to keep on holding yourself from to keep on avoiding it all costs sexual morality pornea
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And he goes on to say in verse 4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in Sanctification and honor that we learn how to do that We're not like the pagans who can't control themselves not in lustful passion verse 5 like the
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Gentiles who do not know God And then like Jesus Paul gives a warning be sexually pure and here's the warning for those who aren't
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I think he got this right from the master a Warning in love. He's not mad at them.
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He's just telling them the truth You can always tell your friends are the ones who tell you the truth It's telling the men in discipleship this morning in the 1700s.
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We had a paradigm shift with preaching Here was the paradigm shift in the old days.
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You would say this about the sermon It was biblical it was faithful to the text the pastor rightly divided the word
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That's how you would gauge the sermon When people now in the 1700s began to think about God who wasn't quite as exalted and sin wasn't quite as bad
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They analyzed sermons this way He sure seems kind His delivery is very warm Seems like he he's not preaching at us.
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He's he's one of us Friends Sometimes I'm kind and sometimes
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I'm not sometimes I mourn and sometimes I warm. I'm not sometimes I'm just sinful and sometimes I'm not
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But that's never the question of how I preach the question is is there fidelity to the text and do we tell you the truth?
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I love you. I want to tell you the truth. We're just gonna skip over the parts that are uncomfortable Paul didn't do that That's what's so great about preaching all the
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Bible. We get to know everything for us and Here the truth from Paul's heart was this
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Verse 6 and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the context of sexual sin in the matter because of the
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Lord He's the Avenger and all these things Just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you see in love
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For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity but in sanctification with our body sexually is the context
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How could that be? Victorian pure prunery Paul says verse 8
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Consequently he who rejects this Is not rejecting man, but the God who gives his spirit to you
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Let's go to another passage as I'm trying to bolster this idea that we should be sexually pure Ephesians chapter 5
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We were there some time ago if you'll turn to Ephesians chapter 5 if we have been given Christ's Righteousness if we have been made born again if we have been given the divine essence and nature as 2nd
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Peter chapter Set to 2nd Peter chapter 1 says then we should live a life that reflects who we are
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We're able to do we have the Spirit of God. We're forgiven people Ephesians chapter 5 warns us again.
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We are not to act like we used to act we are different but immorality
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Ephesians 5 3 or Any Impurity our greed must not even be this is an amazing thing isn't it look at the passage
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It must not even be named among you as is proper among the Saints Well if you see the first word there, but which referring to something else
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It refers to verses 1 and 2 1 and 2 says be imitators of God as beloved children walk in love just as Christ also loved you
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What does love do God's love agape love and gave himself up for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant?
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aroma When it comes to sexual sin, it's not like agape. It is taking not giving it is not
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Sacrificing it is grabbing it is not self less. It is self centered self indulgent selfish self gratifying
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It's not like God. It's not an offering. It's not a sacrifice, and it doesn't smell sweet to him We're not talking about marital sex we're talking about anything outside of that He says just get rid of it all that sinful sexual activity.
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He says the next word impurity we get the word To make clean or pure a
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Catharizia like a catheter would clean. This is something is impure. It's not clean
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It's filthy and then greed he talks about sexual sin as being greed wanting something more wanting something
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That's not yours lusting for more Paul says just get rid of it all and what does he say?
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He doesn't even say get rid of it. He says this it shouldn't be mentioned among you
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It's odd language to me Herodotus said one may not speak about what one may not do
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I like the Old Testament You know what God used to say about Old Testament fake gods You can't even say their names he'd tell
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Israel Exodus 23 13 now concerning everything which I have said to you be on your guard and do not mention the name of other gods
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Nor let them be heard from your mouth Psalmist said nor shall
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I take the name of false gods on my lips May sexual immorality be so far removed from Bethlehem Bible Church.
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That's not even mentioned. It's not even talked about why what is Paul? Saying Ephesians 5 3 it's not proper.
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It's unbecoming. It's unbecoming of Saints Saints are set apart Saints are pure Saints are holy We don't talk about that You know today in our society if I can just say this
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Here's what we do Like pop singers and Christian culture They say
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I prayed about it and I've got a real piece for me to divorce my spouse and then marry this other one
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We've we're dating we know and we know we shouldn't be physically involved but we've got a real piece about it, and I have to follow my heart and The shrinks on TV say you've got to do what makes you happy because you'd hate to be repressed
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Reminds me of the church secretary who was committing immoral acts with Jim Baker the PTL Club And they asked her why she granted an interview to Playboy magazine and agreed to post topless
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And she said God gave her a quote real piece about it friends
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We can trick ourselves because our heart is an idol factory and it says in Jeremiah 17 the heart is more deceitful than what?
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Anything else and so Jesus through Paul? Says be pure Yes, I know
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Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount is after motives in our hearts But I want to make it clear first that even regular adultery it should be gone
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I Almost hated to type this in the internet Google search this week But I did anyway I typed in sexual addiction and the definition was the essence of all addiction is the addicts experience of the powerlessness over a compulsive behavior
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Resulting in the lives their lives becoming unmanageable Friends if we've been given the
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Spirit of God we have power over sin because we are believers in the risen Christ We can't blame what we do on our sexual addiction
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We can't blame what we do because Everyone else is doing it The verses that should rock our world rocked
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Augustine's world when he got saved in their Romans 13 Let us behave properly as in the day not in carousing and drunkenness not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality
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Not in strife and jealousy put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in regards to its lusts
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Peter would say this for the time already is past sufficient for you to have carried out the desires of the
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Gentiles Having pursued a course of many things which includes sensuality and lusts
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Friends if you are involved in adultery are getting close if you are involved in fornication or getting close run
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What does the Bible say in 1st Corinthians 6 flee? run Now of course positively
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God endorses marital love We did four -week series on Song of Solomon. Yes God designed it
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God created it and as the Bible teaches we are to run from one thing We are run to run unto another
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We were to put off this and to put on that we put off sexual sin and we put on the right thing I'm not condemning marital love
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Song of Solomon 1 2 says may he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for your sexual love is better than wine
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Obviously God made men and women to it be attracted to each other, but it's to be manifest in marriage alone
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Exhortation number two not only have we seen let's go back to Matthew 5, please Not only should we have we seen that we shouldn't commit adultery
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But let's turn it up a notch and that's really the point that Jesus makes here The Pharisees could say well,
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I haven't committed adultery But what did they do with their minds and God wants you to use your mind to worship him and here?
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He says in Matthew 5 28 The second exhortation you shouldn't even lust in your heart for anyone
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You shouldn't even lust in your heart for anyone Verse 28, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with this with lust for her has already committed adultery with Her in his heart this society is devastated by lust by pornography
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God has made men and women with sex drives With hormones, but because of the fall and Adam is our representative.
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We have sinful desires and sinful bents and Jesus wants to make sure we don't have that attitude where if we look and just don't touch that's okay
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You'll never forget the story of dr. Iams who was living In an iron lung because he had polio
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Wasting away year after year Arms and legs skin and bones couldn't feed himself couldn't read a book
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Somebody came up to him one day and said, you know What's your hardest thing that you have to go through every single day?
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And he responded the temptation of the lust of the flesh Jesus is after our mind and this kind of condemnation
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Jesus says is to the person that looks You see the text there who looks at a woman. This is an ongoing look.
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This is looking and looking and looking This is not you just look at a woman and then therefore it's sinful every time you see a woman you have to look the
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Other way because you can't look at a woman Women over here men over here.
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I just preach over here. I should someday shouldn't I for you men's sake?
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This is a continued looking Kind of going through the processes in the mind with the intention to I would if I could with the purpose of stimulation delighting in Mental gymnastics thinking about the whole thing
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Cherishing it holding on to it Scholar a B Bruce said the look is not casual but persistent the desire not involuntary are momentary but cherished
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Someone looks pretty they look pretty That's not what Jesus is after someone looks handsome.
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They look handsome But that person that you're looking at is somebody else's wife and Jesus says what if you look at somebody and you keep looking with your eyes
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It's gonna lead to adultery. Is that what Jesus said? He didn't say that at all.
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That's true It could lead to adultery, but Jesus doesn't say if you do it could lead to Jesus says if you do it what?
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it is in God's eyes Aristotle said the pleasure of the eye is the beginning of love
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Hermas said when I saw her beauty I reflected in my heart and said I should be happy if I had a wife of such beauty and character
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This was my only thought and no other no Jesus comes preaching and he knows out of the heart are the issues of life and Jesus is after the heart the person and When we look at someone and kind of mentally contemplate and cogitate and think through It's lustful and sinful.
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It shows what's in our heart true or false
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God has given us imagination What a great gift imagination is isn't it?
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What would we be without imagination, but that too has a sinful propensity We have to be careful that we don't go too far
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I mean it happened to David a man after God's own heart this sin wasn't after God's heart
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But David was a godly man. And what does he do? Let me just read you the passage in 2nd. Samuel Now an evening came
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David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king's house and from the roof he saw
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A woman bathing is any he probably could maybe couldn't even notice Any different he'd have to notice there's a woman there bathing dressed or undressed.
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He saw that that's not the sin looking But it's the lusting and The woman was very beautiful in appearance.
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The Hebrew is the woman was beautiful in appearance Very it's not a sin if you're tempted and you resist
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David was not faulted for looking at Bathsheba But it was all the rest after that Maybe I just give you a few practical comments
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And if you look at our passage in Matthew 5, it's directed towards the men certainly women You should not have lustful thoughts in your heart, but I think men are more built looking at With the visual it's for men and women certainly
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But if I could just make a couple quick comments men Have you renewed this job like vow to God when
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Job said in 30 chapter 31? I've made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze at a virgin?
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If my step is turned from the way or my heart followed my eyes. Do you see that heart following eyes? If any spot is stuck into my hands, let me sow and another eat and let my crops be uprooted
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It's a good covenant. I think to make God would you keep my eyes pure? God would you keep my eyes with blinders on men when you look at a woman don't let your eyes go anywhere else besides her eyes
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You just look at her eyes and you just block everything else out. Don't look down. Don't look anywhere else.
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Just look at her eyes The flipside ladies, would you please dress in an appropriate way so the guys don't have to stumble
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Now we want to let everybody come to church and I'm not going to check your clothing at the door Because when you're immature you dress immaturely when you're mature you dress maturely
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But I can't believe I live in such a society when I do a wedding or we have special music or any other time
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I have to say ladies, you know, nothing too low -cut It's like Jezebel painted her face and tired her head tilted her head and looked out the window
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Man, you need to just look straight ahead Man, you need to not do the double take you see somebody pretty and you should say she is made in God's image and likeness
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She's probably my sister in Christ. She looks beautiful today And then that's it not this kind of double take and you look again and you look again and you look again
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Job wanted to guard himself Made a covenant with his eyes What would
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Bunyan say in the holy war guard the what gates the eye gates
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To what degree would you go to stop lusting in your heart?
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I've counseled a lot of people and Dealt with those who were into internet pornography and I'm changing all my counseling because of the next two verses
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I've been too easy on these people. I want to be merciful and compassionate And I don't struggle with internet pornography, but I could easily stumble because Galatians 6 says that I'm a
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Person and I could stumble just like anyone else could But I'm not as hard as I am on people when it comes to sexual lust as I should be
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Translation, what would Jesus say to people who are struggling with lust in their eyes? Let's find out let's find out the third exhortation from the text number one.
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We've seen you shouldn't commit adultery Number two, you should not lust in your heart for anyone
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Number three, you should be willing to do anything to stop it. You should be willing to do anything to stop it anything anything
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Here is the practical instruction from Jesus to maintain sexual purity.
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Here's what he says If your right eye makes you stumble
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Tear it out and throw it from you For it's better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than the whole body be thrown into hell if your right
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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 then for your whole body to go into hell.
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It is shocking what he says He's talking about mortification. He's talking about well, you know, let's just kind of let's just kind of just be sweet and understanding and I Understand you're human.
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You're in Adam and you've fallen I'm understand that you know Let's just kind of take baby steps and we don't want to go too far
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Jesus comes right out and says at the top of the gun. Here's what you should do He doesn't say we'll get an internet blocker and stay at your job.
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It's okay. I mean it is Devastating because it shows what's in the heart I'm shocked by this
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I had to I'm trying to figure out how do I how do I make the shocking point to the congregation? Yell, well,
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I already yell when I preach so that doesn't work. So I just had to hit that so sorry I don't do it every week It's that Southern Baptist school
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I went to I don't know it's rubbing off. I Mean what does he say? It is amazing what he says if you're struggling with lust in your heart
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It shows that you're not manifesting righteousness that Jesus wants in his righteous kingdom
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And now let me just get straight to the point before we look at the text If you are not willing to do anything to stop this sin
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Then your heart is not showing what a righteous heart should show in the kingdom When you hear advice from someone and you're struggling with lust and they give you some advice and if you ever say to yourself
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That's too hard. That's too excessive. That's too much. That's too costly then you're not thinking about this in the realm of Matthew 5
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On the flip side when you hear counsel from the Word of God or from other wise men and women and they give you dramatic
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Drastic counsel and your heart even though you don't really want to but your heart moved by the
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Spirit of God says I'm willing for the sake of Christ and for his kingdom to do it. That's what
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Jesus is after right here Now there is different literature styles in the
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Bible. This is not literal let me say that first of all origin took it as literal and castrated himself and Still lusted in his heart
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William Tyndale's Bible came out the New Testament and one of the reasons why the Church said don't have this
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Bible in English in England because we're going to have people running around with no hands and no eyes
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He's talking about the drastic nature of this the radical danger of this sin
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And he's talking about be willing to kill the sin no matter what No negotiation.
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You don't call James Baker in to kind of mediate He's using hyperbole.
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It's a rhetorical device and you say well this couldn't be in the Bible because Jesus never say anything like that Oh, really?
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He likes this saying and he says it all the time Matthew 18 if your eye caused you to stumble pluck it out and throw it for you far from you
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For it is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be cast in the fiery hell Mark chapter 9 if your hand caused you to stumble cut it off It's better for you to enter life crippled than having your two hands or go into hell into the unquenchable fire
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Where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched If your foot caused you to stumble cut it off It's better for you to enter life lame
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Than having your two feet to be cast into hell where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched If your eye caused you to stumble throw it out
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It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes and be cast into hell Where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched
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Let's be talking about the right eye in the right hand He's basically saying this
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Take something that's the most prized possession that you have and be willing to lose it for the sake of righteousness
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Right hands today were no big deal because we can type with our left hand and do other things But if you live in an agricultural aggregarian society this right hand was important by the way
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If you wanted to get rid of soldiers from the other Country who were attacking you one of the best things you could do is cut off their right hand
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Whatever is the best for best vision best skills Nothing should be so valuable that you would preserve it at the expense of sexual sin in your heart
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Josephus speaks of a king who put out the right eye of subjective warriors quote since the left eye was covered by the shield
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Thus rendering them utterly Unserviceable instead of being utterly unserviceable be willing to deal with it.
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He's not saying if you're saved you can lose your salvation He's using a rhetorical device here to say this is big
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If it comes to an eye ectomy or a hand ectomy just get rid of it Anything that will make you stumble that word stumble there if you look at your text is from a word that is called
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Scandal on what does that sound like it's an offense the
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AV says something that ensnares or controls Halfway measures will never do when it comes to lust
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Jesus says Middle of the road lukewarm, maybe tomorrow When I talk to people and I've talked to several and they'll say well
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And I'll tell them you know what you need to get rid of your internet. I can't get rid of my internet Well, you're not manifesting a heart
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That says I'm willing to do anything. I think we live for a long time without the Internet You need to get a new job that won't allow you the porthole to get into the
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Internet or you need to get a new Job, so that person that you're tempted to be with physically that you can just run from I can't get a new job
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Friends that attitude reflects not what Jesus is after it is dramatic It is drastic and if you had a cancerous arm you would not hesitate to cut it off Would you to save your body da
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Carson said we are to deal drastically with sin We are not to pamper it flirt with it enjoy nibbling a little of it around the edges
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We are to hate it crush it dig it out our Generation treats sin lightly sin in our society is better thought of as an aberration or an illness
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It is to be treated not condemned and repented of and it must not be suppressed for fear of psychological damage.
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I Am painfully aware how sex sin ensnares and entangles and produces pathetic victims
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But the victims are not passive victims in Jesus teaching sin leads to hell and that is the ultimate reason why sin must be taken seriously
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No footsie with sex in no patty cake death Does this sound familiar in Paul's own words
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Colossians 3 therefore consider the members of your earthly body as Dead to immorality impurity passion evil desire and greed which amounts to Idolatry and then he gives a warning again in love for it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sins of sons of disobedience
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The most precious precious precious possession you have be willing to get rid of it How about this popular proverb?
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Have you heard it? So a thought reap and act So an act reap a habit So a habit reap a character so a character and reap a destiny
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What does it a prophet a man if he gains the whole world and what? loses his soul
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You say you know what? If you tell me when I go to the beach and I stumble all the time not to go to the beach anymore
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That's legalism You couldn't be farther away from the truth of Jesus that says each man has his own desires and propensities
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Each one stumbles in his own way And if you can't go to the beach because you lust in your heart too much then don't go to the beach
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I used to go to Gold's Gym in California. I was a new Christian and I invited this other Christian there
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I would study Greek words and all this stuff and people walk around, you know Like they have nothing on and I'm trying to study and I took a guy there one time and I said well
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You're ready to go back. I got you like this 10 -day pass. He said I can't go back to Gold's Gym You can't go back to Gold's Gym, you know a bench press too much for you or what?
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It was obviously not that He said because I can't control my mind and my thoughts when
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I'm in there and I Sinfully think about things when I look at the girls, you know, and I thought
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I thought you're weak. I Didn't say it out loud. I said, oh, that's fine. I Don't think that's weakness anymore.
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I Think that is taking whatever drastic measures might there be to get rid of this lust in the heart that festers and Putrefies and leads to worse things
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It's not legalism as God said to Cain when it come came to hateful thinking you must master this
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And Paul says in Ephesians 5 for this, you know a certainty that no immoral or impure person Our covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God We know that Paul goes on to say
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Many things about sex sin You can pray the sinner's prayer all you want. And if you have a lifestyle that's sexually immoral, you're not going to heaven
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Well, there's something else that I want to give and that's implication and that's hope for the fourth exhortation as our time is zooming by For exhortations this morning the first one you should not commit adultery with your body
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Second of all, you should not commit adultery in your heart Thirdly you should be willing to do anything to stop it and number four these
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Exhortations found in Matthew 5 should drive you back to Jesus Should drive you back to the cross either believer or unbeliever.
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I loved it when Navigators writer Jerry Bridges wrote you need to preach the gospel to yourself every day.
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I mean when we look at this who isn't condemned You want to have a good testimony last week?
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We learned we were all murderers this week. We learned we're all what? adulterers because who hasn't This is one of those things where Jesus just levels everything out and you can no longer say well, you know
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My grandmother's good and she goes to mass every other year and and she's good to other people and everything else
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She is a murderer and she is an adulterer in her mind and she needs a Savior And it's good for us as Christians because if you'll turn to first Corinthians 6
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For those of you that have committed adultery with your body or have committed adultery with your mind
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There is forgiveness for you We have a Savior that have paid that has paid for sexual sins at Calvary if we're
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Christians We need to be reminded We need to look at other people who we know who have committed adultery with not so judgmental of attitude
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Because we stand condemned as well For those who struggle with lust in their heart for pornography.
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Yes, we we give them drastic measures But we come alongside and say yes, we know
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Because we are sinful too and For the cross we have a Savior that will not let people live the way they used to live
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He will save you and your old life is gone and he loves you enough to make you like Christ who was pure and never
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Sinned sexually never thought about it. Never did it was tempted all the time.
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Surely We have our great stead here who's in our place and first Corinthians 6 9 it says
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Or do you not know that the unrighteous by lifestyle should not inherit the kingdom of God You're gonna think they will you're gonna have a grandpa or a son or a daughter or a friend or a neighbor or an aunt?
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But you need to make sure your mind submits to Scripture not your own whims and loves Do not be deceived as Lifestyles neither fornicators a dial idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor homosexuals nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor Revilers nor swindlers the list could go on and on in the vice list shall inherit the kingdom of God But then praise be to God does not the text go further
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Does not the text say that you we used to be some of those people and what does that mean? We're not those people anymore because God has saved us.
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He's redeemed us Ephesians 1 says in him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses.
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God forgives us of all our trespasses except lust Is that right all of it gone?
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Redemption, can you believe it Calvary Jesus stood in your place and when it came to physical adultery fornication immoral thoughts lusts and the wrath of God that must have been furrowed out on such a blasphemy
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Destroying God's image and likeness wrecking the mirror showing Jesus loving the church and Jesus stands in our stead and he absorbed
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God's wrath For every one of our sex sins and he dismissed them.
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He released them. He pardoned them. He canceled them We have no obligation for punishment our guilt
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And that is an amazing thing when Nahum 1 3 says and God will by no means leave the guilty unpunished
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So what does he do? He's supposed to punish me and he punishes Jesus instead. I only have one thought for that Hallelujah, what a
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Savior I deserve hell if you knew what was in this mind if you know what
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I think about and have thought about and we'll think about and Here the lover of our soul comes along and says
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I love my glory So much that I can manifest my glory this way
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Take the trash of the world the rotten defaced Sinners in Adam and Redeem them and make them more like me and present them back to my father who will say my son
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I am well pleased in what you've done Who is a god like thee who pardons iniquity
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Micah says? We have forgiveness and we as believers since we now have the
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Spirit of God who dwells in us can say no to sexual sin Should say no to sexual sin, but even
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Christians have sexual sin and we are forgiven people And we should be willing to do anything we should get that comes across our way in wisdom to say no to that We're different in such were some of you you were washed and you were sanctified you were justified in the name of the
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Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God and For unbelievers who might be here.
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You need to know about the cross too because the cross should show you this That you don't have to pay for your sins if you'll come to Christ You are a sinner and you can look at your friends and you can think you're better and you're at least not
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Pole -pot and Osama bin Laden and any of these other people but you can say to yourself not any longer
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Bath past a day that my heart is pure your heart lusts and you therefore you need someone to wash it
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May you leave from this place today knowing that there is hope for all those who call upon the name of Jesus Christ Who snow that they're a sinner and say
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God I deserve your your punishment, but I'm gonna throw myself at your mercy God be merciful upon me.
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I'm an adulterer and God is pleased to save those kind of people He's proved it by having his son die on the cross and be raised from the dead
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I'll never forget this story about a Civil War lady Time of the
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Civil War and she was young beautiful and began to be a prostitute 22 years old
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She had no friends. She was broken. She was dying in Cincinnati In a hospital just before she died on a cold winter day.
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She wrote this poem about her life It was published in a newspaper the next day Fainting freezing dying alone
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Too wicked for prayer Too weak for a moan to be heard in the streets of the crazy town
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Gone mad in the joy To lie and to die in my terrible woe with a bed and a shroud on the beautiful snow
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But for Christians and those who are willing to look to the cross and live Someone added a verse sometime later
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Helpless and frail as a trampled snow sinner despair not Christ stoopeth low
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To rescue the soul that is lost in its sin and to raise it to life and enjoyment again
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Groaning bleeding dying for thee the crucified hung made a curse on the tree
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His accents of mercy fall soft on thine ear. Is there mercy for me?
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Will he heed my prayer? Oh God in the stream that for sinners does flow wash me and I shall be whiter than snow
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Thou with me please in prayer Lord when we think of your holiness
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We are all relegated to sin and the sinners yet Lord your holiness is beautiful for those
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Who have been wrapped in the perfect robe of Christ's righteousness? Lord for those who have seen their sin and have hated it and repented of it and by your grace have had the faith in Christ Jesus the risen
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Savior they we Are now given the command to be holy as you're holy and we can show some of the holiness that you placed in us
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Lord we all stand condemned under this exhortation by Jesus today, and we would ask for those
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Christians this morning Who have committed adultery? With their hearts or their minds that you would grant them forgiveness
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Lord we would claim even the promise of first John that it is Going back to your character that you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins when we confess
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Father we would pray that you'd protect our church from adultery and from sexual sin That it might not even be mentioned among this place
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Father would you help the men and maybe even women in the church who struggle with pornography that they would be willing to do anything
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By your spirits power in their hearts to stop that Father would you protect our eyes this week father?
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Would you give us those who are married? Enjoyment physically with our spouse and Satisfaction and contentment with our spouses alone father would you give those who want to be married a spouse?
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Would you help them to marry and Lord for those who are unbelievers today?
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I pray that they would see finally that compared to you. They're sinful and need a Savior Compared to us.
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They're probably better, but compared to you Lord They need mercy and we'd ask that you'd open their hearts so that they might call out for your grace