Matthew | From Lust to Divorce: The Heart of Covenant Unfaithfulness

We're continuing in Matthew 5 today, so if you have your

Bible, please open to Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

As we come to the passage today, we just remain in the middle of

the Sermon on the Mount. I will be in this for until we

break from Matthew for a little bit and do some songs will be in

the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5 through 7.

But we will get through it. Lord will and before we break

for Psalms. So, but we're here in the heart

of it. Jesus is teaching us what life

and his Kingdom truly looks like in the Sermon on the Mount

right. He's already told us that our

righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees.

In other words, your righteousness must succeed.

The most righteous looking people you see around you, All

right? That's what he's telling his

audience. And so it really shook them to

hear this because they thought those were the most righteous

people around. But what he points to is that a

righteous, our righteousness is not merely what looks right on

the outside, right? It it's righteousness that is

true in the heart, right? It's righteousness that affects

us deep down. And now Jesus is going to press

that truth even deeper over the next few weeks.

And similar to last week, what he's doing this week is he takes

a command that many would have felt very confident about,

right? Or some of those commands, you

read the 10 commandments and you think, man, I might not be

guilty of that one, right? And this one, just on its

surface level, you might feel that way, right?

And the command that Jesus takes today is you shall not commit

adultery. Upon hearing that, you may

think, well, I'm, I'm good, all right.

And what he does is he shows that God has always been

concerned more with with more than outward actions.

It's not just about the act of adultery, all right.

He's concerned with what we think.

He's concerned with what we desire.

He's concerned with what we love, right.

And so as we'll see, what what begins in the heart never stays

in the heart, right? It shapes our lives, it shapes

our relationships, and it even shapes our covenant commitments.

Now, you can make all of those statements as a good statement

or a bad statement, right? What begins in the heart never

stays there if we're talking about good things, right?

Righteousness, holiness, purity, truth, a love for what is good,

all right, that then that becomes a good thing.

We don't want that to just stay in our heart.

We want it to shape our lives. We want it to shape our

relationships and even shape our covenant commitments that we

have, all right. But that can also be a very bad

thing, right? If, if what's in the heart is

ugly, if it's sinful, if it's prideful, if it's bad, we need

to understand it never stays in the heart.

It doesn't only affect us, it shapes our life, it shapes our

relationships, it affects our covenant commitments, right?

So true, good and bad, those are true statements, right?

So I want you to listen carefully as we read the text in

a moment because Jesus is going to expose the heart and he's

going to call us so a deeper, truer righteousness, right?

So if you're able to, would you please stand in honor of the

reading of God's holy word this morning.

I'm going to read Matthew 5. We're going to start verse 27

and go 332 today. 25 I'm sorry, five 27332 Jesus is speaking

here in the sermon of Mount. He says You have heard that it

it was said, you shall not commit adultery.

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with

lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in

his heart. If your right eye causes you to

sin, tear it out and throw it away, for it is better that you

lose one of your members than your whole body be thrown into

hell. And if your right hand causes

you to sin, cut it off and throw it away, for it is better that

you lose one of your members than that your whole body go

into hell. It was also said whoever

divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.

But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife except on

the ground of sexual immorality makes her commit adultery.

And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God, Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word.

By God, we thank you that one of the things that's most important

for us to understand about your word is that it's true, that

it's sufficient for all of life and godliness of God that

searches us. We might search it.

We might scour the Scriptures. We might read them diligently,

but in actuality, we're being read by them.

We're being searched. Or does the psalmist praise

that? Psalm 139?

Search me, O God? Or do you know our inward parts

because you formed them? You know our thoughts because

there's nothing hidden from your sight.

You know our actions and our words and the intents of our

hearts because there's nothing, God, hidden from your sight.

There's nowhere that we can go wait.

We can't descend to the depths of the sea.

We can't ascend to the heights of the sky and somehow be out of

your sight. And so, Father, your word

searches us today. And we ask, Lord, that you would

search US. Lord, we humble ourselves before

Your word, and we ask that you teach us today that you correct

us, that you train us for godliness.

Lord, use the sermon, use Your word today to form holiness,

godliness, to make true disciples today.

Would you do it in us? Would you do it through us?

Would you do it among us? By the power of your spirits?

It's in the name of Christ, I pray.

Amen. Amen.

You may be seated. Well, as I stated a moment ago,

there are certain sins that people feel very confident that

they have avoided right. We can sometimes be like the

rich young ruler who comes to Christ and you know, Christ

tells he's asking what must I do to be your disciple?

As you know, he says follow all of the law and the rich young

verses. I've done it all and he tells

him we'll go and sell all your possessions and follow me.

Sometimes we can think as we look at these things that we've

we've done those things right. We're we're good with God.

We have a clear conscience in this area.

And so if you were to ask the average person, or just ask a

person, have you ever committed adultery, most of them would

quickly say no, right? And, and with that answer, there

comes this quiet sense of relief, even a sense of

righteousness, right? But Jesus will not let us rest

on a simple no answer to this question.

Because what if the standard is not merely what you have done,

but what you have desired? And that's the standard that

Christ lays out. What if sin is not only measured

by your actions, but it's also measured at the heart level?

All right, the things you desire.

What if you can outwardly clean yourself up, but inwardly be

guilty before God? Well, that's exactly what Jesus

confronts in this passage, right?

He, he, he. But he doesn't stop at revealing

the heart. He shows us also where unchecked

sin can lead, right? What?

What starts as lust within eventually causes destruction in

life, even breaking covenant relationships.

So So here's the main point of our passage this morning.

Kingdom righteousness demands covenant faithfulness from the

hearts, and it warns us that unchecked lust leads to

devastating relational sin. Kingdom righteousness demands

covenant faithfulness from the heart and warns that unchecked

lust leads to devastating relational sin.

Now we will see this unfold in three ways.

First, we're going to see God's law demands purity of hearts,

not just external obedience. Second, we'll see that God's

grace demands war against sin, a radical war against sin.

We cannot tolerate what God condemns.

Third, God's design demands covenant faithfulness, because

what is tolerated in the heart will eventually break

relationships. So let's walk through this

together. Number one, God's law demands

purity of heart. Look at verses 27 and 28 again.

You have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery.

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with

lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in

his heart. Now Jesus begins where his

listeners are most comfortable, with a command that they believe

they have kept. So you shall not commit

adultery. Now the command is clear.

The command seems to be external, the command is

measurable. And like the Pharisees, many

would have heard that command and thought, well, I've obeyed

this one, I'm clean, all right. But the Jesus does what he's

been doing throughout the section.

He exposes the true depth of God's law.

And so he goes on. But I say to you that everyone

who looks at a woman with lustful intent, so you might, if

you write in your Bible, you may write, you may underline that

everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already

committed adultery with her in his heart.

In other words, the command was never merely about the ACT.

It was always about the heart. It was always about what is the

heart dwelling on? What does the heart worship?

What does it praise right? What does it desire?

And so that little phrase there with lustful intent informs the

whole thing. It points to something

deliberate. All right.

I can't hear the word deliberate without thinking of a great

theologian and dear friend, Mike Bradshaw.

Mike often says he did it deliberate.

All right. Well, that's what we're talking

about here. He, the, the man who gazes at a

woman with lustful intent did it deliberate?

All right? He, he did it deliberately.

This is not the passing recognition of beauty, right?

This is not the unavoidable moment of temptation.

This is the intentional gaze. This is the cultivated desire in

the heart. It's the dwelling on.

It's the thinking on. It's the choice to entertain and

pursue sin with the mind, right? It's a choice.

And Jesus says plainly that is adultery.

Not metaphorically, not lightly. This is not something, brothers

or sisters, we want to excuse. He's saying that is adultery

actually before God, guilty of adultery in the heart.

Now, this is consistent with the whole testimony of Scripture.

This is not some random thought that Christ has uttered, as if

we thought Christ uttered anything randomly right now.

He speaks with authority. He speaks only that which is

true. Exodus 2017.

The command not to covet there presses into desire.

Paul will later reveal that that command not to covet and

oppressing into desire is what helped him see that he was

guilty as a coveter before God. Right.

Mark 721 through 23. We see there that sin flows from

within. It's what comes out of us.

It's coming from the heart. James 114 through 15, we see

that the inward desires that we have, those sinful desires that

we carry, those selfish desires that we hang on to, that those

things give birth to sin. All right, So everything begins

inwardly. It begins with lust of the

heart, our desires of the heart. So the problem is not merely

what we do, right? The actions themselves can be,

are often sinful. But we got to understand that if

we want to change our actions, right, we want to become a

different kind of person, then we must have our inward desires

transformed, right? We must be transformed from

within. So it's not merely about what we

do. It's a matter of what.

What do we want, right? What are we desiring?

Martin Lee Jones writes this. He said our Lord is not

concerned about actions only. He's concerned about the heart.

It is the heart that matters. The heart is the seat of sin.

That's the seat of sin. But this verse also presses one

step further. Now the language here can carry

the idea not only of looking in order to lust right, but the

language also suggests that Eve suggests even looking in a way

that stirs lust right. And so the broader teaching of

Scripture confirms this as well. Sexual sin is not only committed

by indulging lust, but can also be encouraged by provoking it in

others. Right.

So we see this principle elsewhere.

Romans 1314 make no provision for the flesh.

First Timothy 29 encourages women to be modest and self

controlled in their dress. So the command reaches both

directions, right On one hand, we must not entertain lust, must

not entertain it. We must seek to destroy it,

which we'll talk about soon. And on the other hand, we must

not encourage lust. All right.

So this is where modesty and conduct come into view.

And I don't mean this in a legalistic sense at all.

I mean it as a love for neighbor, like a man and a woman

should have a desire to love their neighbor and to be holy

before God all. Right.

One commentary insightfully noted this It isn't sinful.

It is sinful not only to indulge lustful thoughts, but also to

act or present oneself in a way that invites lustful thoughts.

All right, this applies to all of us then.

But it is especially important in our culture today to stay

clearly and thoughtfully what the Scripture says.

Women are called to adorn themselves in a way that

reflects godliness, not sensuality.

Women are called to present themselves in a way that

reflects a high character before God, and not a desire to draw

attention to the way God created them.

So I'll read the broader passage in First Timothy 28 through 10

where Paul writes. I desire then that in every

place that women should adorn themselves in respectable

apparel with modesty and self-control, with what is

proper for women who profess godliness with good works.

So we have a command here on both ends of the spectrum, those

who have lustful intents of the heart, and those have an intent

to draw an intent in the heart, to draw lust towards themselves.

Men are called, I don't want to. Men are called to take full

responsibility for their own hearts, all right?

They're never to shift blame. They're never to excuse sin.

All right, We, we ought to be like Job, who made a covenant

with the Lord. He, he said I've made a covenant

with my eyes to not look on a woman with lust.

Paul encourages a young Timothy, who's a minister in Ephesus, to

treat other older women with respect and to regard younger

women as his sisters in Christ. But that's saying something

about how a man ought to relate to other women who are not his

wife and who are sisters in the Lord.

So the point is not blame, right?

The point is not to start pointing blame at all these

different people. No, the the point is holiness in

every direction, a concern for holiness and godliness from both

the man of God and the woman of God.

Because God's law demands purity.

It demands purity in what we think.

It demands purity in how we look.

It demands purity even in how we present ourselves to others.

You may think of a fire, right? A fire needs fuel to keep

burning. If you keep feeding it logs and

paper and kindling, well, the fire just grows stronger and

hotter. Well, lust works the same way.

When the heart feeds on certain images or thoughts or desires,

lust grows. And when a culture or a person

constantly adds fuel through what is worn, what is watched,

what is celebrated, then it becomes a wildfire.

Proverbs is wise. It warns This.

It says can a man carry fire next to his chest and not be

burned? Brothers, how many of us walk

around like this? Jesus is saying the problem

isn't just the flame, you see, it's the fuel you're feeding and

even the fuel that you might be providing for someone else.

So. So we need to honestly examine

ourselves. Am I allowing lust to take root

in my heart? Am I keeping it there as a pet?

All right. Do I enjoy it just enough that I

won't be radical about slaying it?

Am I feeding it through what I watch?

Am I feeding it through what I dwell on in my mind or what I

pursue? Am I presenting myself in a way

that promotes purity, or am I presenting myself in a way that

might stir temptation in someone else?

Now this isn't about shame. Again, this is about the pursuit

of holiness. We want to be good disciples of

our Lord Jesus Christ. We want to live a life that

walks and in a way that we show that we're worthy of the gospel

that we've received. We want to be holy as God is

holy. Jesus said blessed are the pure

in heart, for they shall see God.

You have to understand God cares not only about what is visible

to others, but also cares about the condition of the heart.

He cares about the influence of our lives and his standard is

nothing less than purity in those things.

So once Jesus exposes the depth of the problem, the heart, he

doesn't leave us wondering what to do next, does he?

If sin is this serious, if it reaches this deep to within me,

then it cannot be treated lightly.

It must be dealt with decisively.

Which leads us to the second truth that we encounter in the

passage today. God's grace demands war against

sin. God's grace demands war against

sin. Look at 29 and 30 again.

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 your whole body be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw

it away, for it is better that you lose one of your members

than your whole body to go into hell, or than your whole body go

into hell. So after exposing the heart,

Jesus now presses the response right and his language is

intentionally shocking. If your right eye causes you to

sin, tear it out. If your right hand causes you to

sin, cut it off. Now I do want you to know before

you take out your knives brothers, Jesus is not

commanding self mutilation here. Scripture never calls us to harm

the body in that way. The issue is not the hot, the

eye, or the hand themselves. It's the sin and the heart that

uses those things right? Romans 6 again.

When we've been buried with Christ and baptism, we are then

raised to walk. We've experienced a death like

His and now we're raised to walk in a life like His.

It says that we're raised to walk in newness of life.

And one of the encouragements there that the whole point of

the passage is, do we go on sinning so that grace may

abound? And he says by no means right.

You've been buried with Christ. You've been raised to walk in

the newness of life. Therefore walk by the Spirit of

God. Do not present your members

right. Same word that Christ uses here

upset your hands and your eyes, your feet, your tongue.

Do not present your members for the sake of unrighteousness or

for the cause of unrighteousness any longer.

Present your members to God for the cause or for the sake of

righteousness, right? Paul, the later in Romans 12/1

encourage us to, to, to, to bring a sacrifice of praise to

God, right? He says to present your bodies a

living sacrifice to God and to be transformed in the renewing

of your mind by the spirits, so that you might come to know what

is the acceptable, pleasing, good, perfect will of God.

That's we need to be transformed.

So Jesus is using severe imagery to communicate a deep spiritual

reality. Sin is so dangerous, it's so

destructive. He uses the word hell here.

So we might say it's so damning that it must be dealt with

radically. The phrase here, if your right

eye or your right hand causes you to sin, that phrase carries

the idea of something that trips you up right?

It ensnares you. It leads you into ruin.

If those things are leading you into ruin, cut them off.

Jesus says whatever that is, what's your hand or your eye?

Remove it, right Meant don't manage it.

Don't tolerate it. Don't keep it at a safe distance

thinking, oh, I've got this under control.

If I can just keep it that far away.

Oh, that's, that's, that's a fool's errand.

He says remove it, cut it off. Why He answers that for it is

better that you lose one of your members, then your whole body be

thrown into hell. Brothers and sisters, do you

recognize what Christ is saying here?

He's saying if we go on sinning and we are not vigilance, we are

not seeking to put to death the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit

of God. That's alive in US.

Romans 813 Then we are in danger of hell.

And so he's saying, cut those things off.

It's better that you lose one of your members than your whole

body be thrown into hell. We ought to make this verse a

point of meditation real briefly.

When we talk about meditation, we're not talking about the kind

of meditation where you just empty your mind of all thoughts.

That's worldly meditation. And when we talk about

meditation Scripture, we're talking about filling our minds

with the upward thoughts of God, the upward call, the upward

commands, the upper doctrines of God.

Fill your minds with those things.

That's how you'll receive transformation of heart.

That's to be renewed in the mind.

Right. Here Jesus brings eternity into

view when he talks about your final destiny.

He's saying this isn't about the struggle.

It's not merely about the struggle that you find yourself

in. It's about where are you headed

for eternity? The one who continually indulges

sin without repentance reveals a heart that is not submitted to

God. Just plain and simple, the the

Puritan, John Owen, famously, it's on all kinds of bookmarks

and mugs and you can do it on your backgrounds, for your

phones and computers. You can get T-shirts.

He famously said, be killing sin or sin will be killing you.

So true. So true.

And Lloyd Jones echoes the same urgency when he writes we are

not meant to control sin. We are meant to destroy sin.

How many of us, I'm guilty of this, how many of us just want

to try to control and manage the sin that's in our lives?

I just need to get it under control.

No, I need to take a sword to that thing and destroy it, He

goes on. He says there must be no

compromise, no quarter, no truce with sin of this is what true

grace produces. Grace does not make peace with

sin, right? We've received grace because

Christ did not try to make peace with sin.

He destroyed sin in the death of His own flesh.

He incurred the wrath of God for our sin on Himself, so that

death might be destroyed, so that the power of sin might be

broken. Right Grace then trains us.

As we receive grace, we're being trained, as Titus 2 says, to

renounce ungodliness and worldly passions.

This is the fruit of a new life in Christ.

That's what's being described here.

If lust is a hard issue, then the fight must be the fight must

be right. We can just stop the sentence

there. We must be fighting, but it must

be intentional, it must be aggressive, it must be ongoing.

We don't stop fighting sin. We get stronger in the way that

we fight sin. We we double down and fight and

fight and we have all the tools at our disposal.

We have the grace of the Lord Jesus.

We have the mercy of Christ. We have the power of the Spirit

which raised Christ from the dead alive in us.

We've been raised to new life. We've been given new desires to

serve the Lord to put the old man to death.

So you see, Christ is not commanding you to do something

here that He's all not also in the same breath equipping you by

the power of the Spirit to accomplish.

So when I say you must fight, I'm not saying you're fighting

alone. You're fighting with the God of

heaven and earth on your side. You're fighting with the God of

heaven and earth alive in you. Do you understand then how we

are able to actually defeat our sins?

We would not say that Christ did not defeat sin.

We wouldn't say that Christ was able, not able, sorry, to

overcome every temptation and to be without sin.

No, the scriptures tell us otherwise.

The same Christ that did those things is alive in you by the

Spirit. Now the issue is we have a flesh

that desires to go on sinning. We have inward desires, selfish

motives if we're honest, and I'm not sure that we can be

sometimes, but if we're honest, we enjoy indulging the flesh.

We enjoy giving ourselves to these things.

I want you to understand when Christ issues a command and He

says not to do something, He's protecting you from fleeting

moments of pleasure that result in guilt before God, and He's

empowering you to eternal moments of pleasure, long

standing moments of pleasure that results in pleasing God.

You see, sexual desire is not a sin.

Sexual desire placed on things that God forbids is a sin.

It's good and right for a husband to desire his wife.

It's good and right right for a wife to desire her husband.

Those things are not sinful, so we must be intentional and

aggressive. We must fight in an ongoing

manner because sin that's left unchecked does not weaken.

We like to think it'll weaken. No, it doesn't weaken, it grows.

Imagine with me for a moment. You know, a man who's been

diagnosed with a life threatening disease in his arm.

The doctor tells him very plainly, if we do not remove

this arm, that disease is going to spread and it will kill you.

Now imagine that man responding. Well, I understand doctor, but I

don't want to be too extreme here.

But let's just monitor it for a while.

But let's manage it well. Let's keep an eye on it.

Well, you and I would say rightfully, I think that's

insanity. Don't, don't do that.

Have it removed, right, But because the danger is too great

to tolerate halfway measures. Well, that's exactly how Jesus

is speaking about sin. Sin is not a minor irritation.

It is not something to be trimmed back occasionally.

It is a deadly infection of the soul.

And the only wise response is decisive action.

So we must ask ourselves plainly, what in my life is

feeding my sin? How am I keeping that thing fed?

How is it that I water it each day?

What am I tolerating that God calls me to remove from my life?

Where have I grown comfortable instead of serious about this?

For a lot of us, this does mean things that often sound very

legalistic. But they're not.

Again, it's about the pursuit of holiness in your life, right?

You might need to change what you watch, what you indulge in.

You might need to remove access to certain devices or apps from

yourself. You may need to establish

accountability in like a very real tangible way, not just

simply saying, hey brother, I kind of wrestled with this,

could you pray for me? You might need to think about

restructuring your patterns and your habits of life, but not

because these things save you. You're not saved by outward

works, but they do help you fight what would seek to destroy

you. That we, we cannot claim to hate

sin while continuing to make provisions for it in our life.

That's an oxymoron. And this extends especially to

parents, right? Let's let me just offer a brief

pastoral word to parents. God has given parents the

responsibility. We just talked about it earlier

in child dedications. And praise God for the greatest

church growth metric ever, right?

Babies being born. Keep up the good work, brothers

and sisters. God has given parents the

responsibility not just to provide for their children, to

make sure they have food and clothing and shelter.

No, He's given you the responsibility for something far

deeper. You're called to shepherd the

hearts and guard their purity honestly, that's why we give

away the two resources we do. We give away a storybook Bible

and then we give away Ted Shripps Shepherding Your Child's

heart. It's the greatest children's

book on parenting ever written in my humble estimation.

You're called to shepherd their hearts regard to guard their

purity. Scripture calls us to raise our

children in the with the discipline and instruction of

the Lord, Ephesians 64 which means we cannot take a passive

approach to what is shaping them right.

We must ask what are they watching?

What are they scrolling? What what is the cycling their

desires? Who, who are they interacting

with? Because if we're not

intentional, then the world will gladly step in and do that work

for you. You have to understand that.

So, so we must let Scripture, not the culture, set the

standard for what is acceptable in our homes.

We don't go by what is popular. We don't go by what everyone

else is doing. All right.

Have you heard it before? As a parent?

Oh, mom, oh, dad, everybody else gets to do this.

You just offer a polite So what? We're not everybody else.

Here's the standard of our home. You know, this is the standard

of our home. And here's the things we're

going to do to abide by those standards.

Doesn't make everyone else evil. That's not what we're teaching

our kids. It just means.

We're after a different. Pursuit in our home, all right.

We want what promotes. Purity.

We want those things that promote holiness and a right

view of God's design. Right loving our children's

mean. Loving our children means not

giving them freedom. At times, but it also.

Means protecting them from what would harm their souls.

But parents, you have to hear this part as well.

You cannot lead where you don't go, and you cannot teach what

you don't know. The pursuit of purity, the

pursuit of holiness has to start in your heart.

If we want to be of any real help.

To our children and their pursuit of holiness.

And here's why it matters so much.

Because if sin. Is not dealt with at the level.

Of the heart, if it's not fought with seriousness and urgency, it

will not remain hidden. Christ says what's done in

secret will be. Shouted from the rooftops.

Right, it will eventually surface in.

Life, and often in ways that cause serious, lasting damage.

Which leads us to the. 3rd Truth God.

'S design demands covenant faithfulness.

Look at verses 31 and 32. It was also.

Said whoever divorces. His wife let him get her, give

her a certificate of divorce. But I say to you that.

Everyone who divorces. His wife, except on the ground

of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery.

And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

So. Jesus now moves from the root.

Of sin which was in the heart to the fruit of sin in life, right

it was also. Said whoever divorces his.

Wife let him give her a certificate of divorce.

Now that comes from Deuteronomy chapter 24 verse one where Moses

Deuteronomy 24 · chapter mention

is regulating divorce in Israel. That verse.

That. Regulation was never meant to

encourage divorce. It was actually meant to

restrain divorce. It was meant to protect the

vulnerable, especially women, from being cast aside without

provision or dignity. But by.

Jesus Day, the scribes. And the Pharisees had twisted

this concession into a justification, right?

As long as you gave the certificate, as long as you

follow the procedure, you could dissolve a marriage for almost

any reason. And so we have the first sign of

no. Fault divorces in Scripture.

So once again they reduced. Righteousness to external

compliance. Obey the letter of the law and

you're good to go. And.

Jesus says. No.

No, he says. But I say to you that everyone.

Who divorces his wife except on the ground of sexual immorality,

makes her commit adultery in other.

Words you can obey. The letter of the law and still

violate the heart of the law, right?

God's design for marriage has always been clear.

Genesis 224 One man, one woman, 1 flesh for life.

Divorce is not. Part of the design for marriage,

it's a. Concession because of.

Sin Matthew 19/8, which we'll get to and I don't know when.

All right, we'll get there. But Jesus does give an

exception. Except for sexual immorality.

Now the word sexual immorality is the word porneia.

You might recognize the root word there and pronea just.

Describes all. Kinds of sexual immorality.

But adultery is like the highest.

The the highest level of sexual immorality because sexual

unfaithfulness breaks the covenant itself, but.

But apart from that. To pursue divorce casually is to

participate in covenant breaking and even to lead others into

further sin, one commentary noted.

This unjust divorce does not stay isolated.

It multiplies sin. It leads to further adultery.

It destabilizes lives. It spreads relational

destruction. And so here's the connection

that you don't want to. Miss right, adultery in the

heart. Often becomes adultery in life.

And it ultimately leads to broken covenants.

Ryan the girl is the author of How Can I Overcome Lust?

A great little resource and he. Offered this insight in that.

Book he says pursuing godliness in this area cannot be

reconciled with permitting lust to fester in the hearts any more

than it can be reconciled with pursuing unlawful divorce right

the two belong together lust is not a private sin no matter what

we might convince ourselves all. Right.

I've talked to many brothers I've experienced.

This myself. You know, in seasons of just

untethered lust, you, you grow aggressive, you get angry.

Why? Because you're dealing with

guilt and shame and everything else.

So what are you doing then? You're lashing out at your wife

or your children, right? You're hard to get along with at

work, right? It leads to other sins as well.

It damages relationships. Lust is not a private sin,

right? It's the beginning of a path

that, if left unchecked, leads to real damage in real

relationships. Lloyd Jones says you cannot

separate. These things, the thought, leads

to the act and the ACT leads to the consequences, and Jesus is

showing us that progression here very clearly.

Now we need to understand exactly what he means when.

He says everyone who divorces his wife except on the ground of

sexual immorality makes her commit adultery.

One thing I want to know is Jesus is not.

Providing A comprehensive teaching on every situation

involving divorce and remarriage in just one sentence.

Scripture discusses this more broadly in passages like Matthew

19 and 1st Corinthians 7, but here.

Jesus is addressing. Something very specific.

In his time, men were casually and selfishly divorcing,

divorcing their wives for almost any reason.

Now in. Our day.

We've upped the ante. Men and women are casually

divorcing their spouse for any reason.

And as long as they follow the legal.

Process just by providing the certificate they believed.

Genuinely, that they. Were acting righteously.

That was what was being taught. But you have to.

Understand when a man cast off. His wife simply because he wants

another. When he uses the law to justify

his own unfaithfulness, Jesus is.

Saying here he. Is not a righteous man, he's

saying. That he is guilty.

Of sin, and not only guilty of his own sin, but he's going to

be. Guilty for the.

Damage that he causes in the lives of others.

Often times you have. I mean, you always have a woman

who's left behind in that scenario, but you often have

children left behind in that scenario.

What's happening here is that in.

Leaving her, he puts her in a place where she is going to go

and commit adultery, meaning he places her in a situation where

the covenant has been wrongly broken.

She's. Left single.

And is probably going to go remarry, but that remarriage is

not honored in God's view. Well, this is what sin does it.

Compounds doesn't. It it never stays contained.

It always spreads. I understand this is a very

difficult passage, so. So let me just offer a word here

because I I do know that this touches real lives in this room.

Some of you have walked through divorce, some of you are

remarried now and that this. Is not meant to crush.

You under the weight of the past.

Right, if there has been sin. And you have brought your sin to

Christ. Then I want you to understand

there is real forgiveness, there is real cleansing.

Christ has paid for that sin in full on the cross.

And there is no second class standing in the Kingdom of God.

But if you have been. Wronged in a divorce that was

unlawful? A divorce you didn't want?

Then then I want to offer to you.

That Christ is sufficient, he he can comfort.

You. He can heal your wounds, He can

bring you strength, or you feel there can be no strength you you

can. Trust in him.

Deeply he'll bond up the broken hearted, a bruised Reed, a

smoking flax. He does not quench, he does not

throw away. You can come to him in all your

pain, your suffering, and find rest for your soul.

So why teach a passage like this when you know?

That it's going to affect so many different.

People in so many different ways.

Why not just skip it? One our conviction won't let us

We're going to preach every verse.

But at the same time, Jesus. Will not allow us to treat

marriage lightly just because we've got sin in our past or

we've got hurt in our past. Right, he he calls.

Us to see marriage. Rightly, he's going to really

get into it. In Matthew 19, he calls us to

see it. As a covenant before.

God, not a contract of convenience.

It's not me. It's not like me and my

streaming. Services right that I'll cut off

when I don't want to watch them anymore and then I might add a

few months later when they add something I want to watch all

right that that's not how marriage works so so we hold as

disciples of Christ as members of new Life Community Church, as

elders, as people who will have. To answer to God one.

Day we We hold both a high view of marriage and a high view of

grace in sin. But I do want you to remember,

brothers and sisters. Sin is not a pet that you can

manage. It's a predator.

That you are feeding, right? And if you feed.

It long enough. It will eventually turn on you

and destroy your life. It'll destroy everything else,

including covenant relationships.

So we must take both sides of this passage seriously.

One, we should guard our heart against lust.

And two, we should honor our commitments in life.

We should honor those covenants. And so for those who are married

currently, I'll just say to you, cultivate contentment and

faithfulness in your marriage. Cultivate it.

Here's how you cultivate it. Scriptures don't leave this

unanswered for us in Ephesians. 5 husbands are told to love.

Your wife as Christ loved the church, and He gave Himself up

for her. He nourishes and cherishes her

as if she's a wounded part on His own body, right?

He cares intimately and deeply for her.

Proverbs 5 tells you to be intoxicated always with her

love. And to wives we have commands

as. Well, wives, submit to your

husband as the church submits to Christ.

Cultivate. Godliness in.

Your life. Cultivate godliness in the way

that you present yourself. Be devoted.

Taught us to be devoted to your husband and children above all

else. All right, we know how to

cultivate contentment and faithfulness.

We've not been left without those things.

So strive to do that. Strive to cultivate those

things. I ask the Lord, how can I

cultivate these things in my life?

Ask the Spirit to lead you. Maybe there's things to give up.

Maybe there's things to pursue. All right, I can't answer that

question for you in one sermon. That's where you and God come

together in prayer and study of His Word.

Another. Way to cultivate this is to see.

Your spouse as God's gift to you.

I don't care what the. Issues are.

I don't care how problematic marriage might be at times, you

have to see your spouse as a gift from God to you.

In Matthew 19, Jesus says what? God therefore joined together.

Let not man separate. He puts marriage on the doctrine

of Providence. What?

God joined together all right. You have to see that.

Protect your marriage at the level of your heart, not just

your behavior. Don't think just about, well, I

probably shouldn't say that, or maybe I should say this, or I'll

think just about how frustrated I get by all the things that my

spouse does. No, think about where does my

heart need to be sanctified by the Spirit of God?

So often our frustrations, so often our difficulties in

marriage are revealing something about our own hearts and we're

not wise enough to see it. We just think it's an issue in

my spouse. But so often.

God is going to use marriage. It's probably the one

relationship he will use most frequently to sanctify you.

It's what makes marriage so beautiful, so lovely, so

amazing. I love.

The gift of marriage. I can't.

Believe God gave it to us. If you're not married.

Young. Old.

Whatever pursue. Purity.

Now cultivate purity in your life.

What what you practice? In your heart.

Today, young men, young women, what you practice in your heart

and in your life today will shape your faithfulness

tomorrow, all. Right.

I, I, we tell. I hope he's not embarrassed by

this, Wells. I never mean to embarrass,

right? But what we often tell Wells,

who's almost 14. Buddy, I get what friends are.

Doing and pursuing relationships.

Totally understand it. I did it myself, but right now

at. 14 almost. You have nothing to offer a

woman of any value. You're only.

Going to break a heart or? You're going to have yours

broken or you're going worse, you're going to sin.

You're going to cause major issues.

So cultivate godliness now, my son, so that when the time is

right, you're the right kind of man for the right kind of woman.

I don't care about boyfriends and girlfriends.

I don't. Care how many my sons have,

other than it better be 0 right until the time's right.

I should be careful how I word things.

What I love about Wells and Bear and Haddon is they're all in on

that. We don't fight over it.

They're. All in on it.

So it can be done and it should be done because I'm called to

protect his purity. I'm called to protect his life.

I'm called to protect his emotions and his strength of

character. I'm called to help cultivate

those things, right? So we're going to do things that

the world's not doing and we're going to be OK with it and we

should be. I would love for a new life

Community Church to be that way as we think about our teenagers

and dating like just no, not right now.

You're not ready for that. Cultivate godliness, become the

right kind of man or woman, and then the Lord will bless that

mightily one day Mightily. And for all of us.

Refuse to treat covenants lightly.

Whether it's the covenant of marriage, the covenant of

brothers and sisters together in the Lord, or ultimately your

covenant with Christ, refuse to treat covenant lightly.

Understand the depth of covenants.

Remember this faithfulness is not formed and a moment of

crisis faithfulness. Is built.

Through the daily habits of the heart.

As we come to the end of this. Passage Jesus has taken a

command many thought they had kept, and he's shown us that

God's standard goes far deeper than we imagined.

It's not just our actions, it's our desires.

It's not just outward behavior. It's our heart and He's shown us

where sin leads to. If it goes unchecked, it becomes

devastating. What begins?

As lust in the heart. Becomes destruction in our

lives. And so Kingdom righteousness

demands covenant faithfulness from the heart.

And it warns that unchecked lust leads to devastating relational

sin, and that. Leaves us with this question,

what will we do with this? Because this is not about

someone. Else it's not about the sins.

Of another it's not. About the problems of another?

No, this is about your heart before your Lord.

So here's three things you can do.

First you need. To be honest, you need to.

Be honest, we. Cannot hide behind outward

obedience God sees the. Heart and.

Apart from His grace, every one of us is guilty when God looks

at the heart first. John 15.

This is the message we have heard from Christ, and we

proclaim to you that God is light, and in Him there is no

darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship

with God while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not

practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as

He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and

the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin if we

say we. Have no sin.

We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us if we confess

our sins. This is the be honest.

If we confess our sins. He is faithful and just to

forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all

unrighteousness. Praise God.

But then the apostle John writes further.

He says. If we say we have not sinned, we

make God a liar and his word is not in US.

We're all sinners. We need to be.

Honest about where we. Fall where we fail, where we

struggle, where we need help from the Spirit of God to

overcome the flesh. Secondly.

We need to take sin. Seriously, you cannot manage

sin. You cannot excuse your sin.

You must wage war against your sin.

You must crush your sin by the Spirit of God.

You must guard your heart, as Proverbs 4 says, with all

diligence, Vigilance. Sorry, I don't know what a

diligence is. I guess it's a group of people

somewhere. But vigilance, whatever needs to

be cut off, cut it off. Is it really?

Worth having that? App on your phone where you

might get news but you also get porn.

No, no it's not. Is it really worth keeping

things trying to carry fire close to your chest and expect

not to get burned? No it's not.

Cut it off. 3rd and most importantly of all, run to

Christ the preachers. Of old would say.

Flee to Christ. But because where we have been.

Unfaithful Christ has been perfectly faithful where you and

I have been. Impure and.

We've fallen short. Christ has been perfectly pure,

and He didn't come only to expose sin.

He came to forgive sin, to cleanse it, and to give us new

hearts so that we might. Truly.

Walk in holiness with him. So turn to him.

Trust in Christ and then by His grace, fight for purity in your

heart and faithfulness in your life.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you

today for. Your word.

It's difficult. Father, we thank you that you

say the the hard things as a loving Father ought to, that you

guide us in righteousness, that you reveal the depths of our own

hearts, the ugliness of our sin, that the disease that it is.

And you encourage us. To cut it away, to fight against

it, to slay it by the spirits. And Lord, you equip us.

To do that, you equip us to walk holy before you.

We're not going to be perfect. Christ is the only perfect.

But you have called. Us to live.

A life worthy of the gospel we've received to to live all

the life that honors our Lord Jesus.

And so, Lord, would you help us to cultivate a holiness in our

hearts? Made us the seat of sin.

In US become the seat of righteous desires.

Would you cleanse us of our sins?

Would you purify us, create in us a new heart?

Father, we thank you that you love us so much that you care so

deeply about the whole man. And that this life in.

Christ, this discipleship that we've been invited into by your

spirit, it's not just merely about fire insurance.

It's about living a meaningful life that honors the Lord, that

transforms other lives, that creates real change and lasting

impact, and ultimately brings glory to your great name.

The Lord help us. I'm.

Going to give you a moment now to.

Seek the Lord on your own. They're in your seats to pray,

to seek forgiveness, to confess sin.

To seek purity of heart and. Life to seek godliness, trust.

That when you confess your sin. That Christ.

That God through Christ is faithful.

And just to forgive us our sins. Heavenly Father, we're thankful.

For the throne of grace, when we can come boldly before our

sympathetic High Priest in prayer, we can declare our need

for grace, we can declare our need for help, and we can find

not a stiff arm. But open arms that welcome us

to. Himself, that we might find

mercy and grace in our time of need.

Lord, I pray that all those who are seeking.

You now in prayer with hearts that are focused upward and

onward into the things that you've called us to I, I pray

that you would show them much mercy and grace now.

You would heal their sins that. You would heal their wounds,

that you would bond up the broken hearted, that you would

take all their tears and hold them in a bottle.

That you would show that you're immense.

Care for them. God, we thank you that you are

near to us. That you'd never leave us.

You never forsake us. It's often.

True that when you feel. Distant.

It's us that's moved off the spot, not you.

So, Lord, we thank you that you. Call us home.

That you you bring us back on the.

Right path. And you help us continue the

journey. As a sojourner on our way to

heaven, Lord, would you sanctify us?

Lord, would you save sinners today?

Save those who do not know you? Would you grant them new life in

Christ this morning? Would you help them to?

Call on the name of the Lord. As they see their sins and see

their lack of righteousness and their need for a Savior, would

you draw them to yourself? May nothing hinder them from

coming. Father, you are steadfast in

love. You're always faithful.

You you are good to every generation.

And we stand alongside brothers. And sisters, several generations

removed from the most words were written, and we declare the same

things about you. Thank you for your faithfulness.

Thank you for. Your love, Thank you for your

goodness toward us. It's in the name of Christ I

pray. Amen.