Lust, Adultery, and Divorce

It's so good to worship with you guys.

Sometimes when I worship, on Sunday mornings, I'm just overwhelmed by God's love for me.

! And then as I look around, I'm overwhelmed by God's love for you.

You are so loved by God, and that's reason enough for me to well up with love for you.

And it's a privilege for me to be counted among you, to worship with you,

and to get to now preach God's word to you.

So please turn with me in your Bible to Matthew chapter 5, verse 27 to 32.

Matthew 5:27–32

Let me pray before we read for God's help.

Heavenly Father,

You know all things.

You see all things.

And Your word searches our hearts.

And as we stand before a bracing, searching passage like this, Lord, we feel exposed, ashamed in our sin.

I ask, Father, that the conviction of sin would not lead us to wallow in guilt and shame,

but it would lead to godly grief and sorrow that leads to repentance,

to transformation, to growth, to holiness and purity.

And I ask, Father, that You would reveal more deeply the power of the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ,

so that we walk away from this place assured and rejoicing in the full forgiveness and freedom that is found in Him alone.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

If you are able, please stand as I read from Matthew 5, 27 to 32,

to honor God as we read from His word.

You have heard that it was said,

You shall not commit adultery.

But I say to you,

that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent

has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

If your right eye causes you to sin,

tear it out and throw it away.

For it is better that you lose one of your members

than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to sin,

cut it off and throw it away.

For it is better that you lose one of your members

than that your whole body go into hell.

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.

It's God's holy and authoritative word.

Please be seated.

An estimated 50 to 60% of married men

and 45 to 55% of married women commit adultery.

That means marital infidelity affects nearly half of all couples in the world

or in our country.

Nearly 50% of married couples get divorced

and over 70% of second marriages,

a second try,

and then divorce.

Adultery and divorce are both rampant in our sinful world.

And I don't think it should surprise any of us

that what is often at the heart

and at the root of divorce and adultery

is lust,

which is what Jesus addresses in this passage.

As the redeemed bride of Christ,

we must fight both the adultery of the body

and the adultery of the heart.

That's the main point of Jesus' teaching here.

And we're going to first talk about adultery through lust

in verses 27 to 30,

and then adultery through divorce

in verse 31 and 32.

In his overarching teaching about the Old Testament law

in the preceding passage in verses 17 to 20,

Jesus said,

I have not come to abolish the law,

but to fulfill them.

And for I tell you,

unless your righteousness exceeds

that of the scribes and the Pharisees,

you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Then in the following six passages,

as I mentioned last week,

Jesus gives us a series of six antitheses

or contrasts where he uses the same formula.

You have heard that it was said,

and he will cite some Old Testament scripture

or how the Jews understood and interpreted that scripture,

and he will say,

but I say to you,

offering a contrast,

a better and a fuller exposition

and interpretation of that passage.

Jesus is showing us through this series

what true Christian obedience

and righteousness looks like.

This is the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees,

but your righteousness must exceed that,

and this is what Jesus shows us.

We looked at the first antithesis last week,

and we're looking at the second and third today,

and he begins with that same formula in verse 27.

You have heard that it was said,

you shall not commit adultery.

This time,

Jesus is citing the seventh of the Ten Commandments

from Exodus 20, verse 13,

Exodus 20:13

and Deuteronomy 5, 17.

Adultery specifically refers to

a married person being involved

in some kind of sexual relations

with someone who is not his or her spouse,

or having sexual relations with someone

who is another person's husband or wife.

The Jews of Jesus' day

correctly understood adultery to be sinful,

and they believed that it was forbidden by God's word.

However, they defined adultery so narrowly

and thereby circumscribed and limited this law,

the scope of this law,

that it lost the true force and the heart

and the spirit of the law.

So in verse 28,

Jesus gets to the heart of the seventh commandment

and reveals its full scope when he says,

but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman

with lustful intent

has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

The Greek word for lustful intent

simply means desire or longing.

It's a neutral word that can be used

for desire for good things

as well as desire for bad things.

When it refers to desiring and longing

for something that is forbidden,

something that belongs to another

and is not rightfully yours,

it is often translated in scripture as coveting.

And the Jews should have already known,

based on the Ten Commandments,

that lustful desire is also forbidden,

not just adultery,

because the Tenth Commandment

in the Ten Commandments

is you shall not covet,

and it says specifically,

you shall not covet your neighbor's wife

and vice versa,

your neighbor's husband also.

It is sinful to sleep

with your neighbor's wife or husband,

it's also sinful to desire

or long for your neighbor's wife or husband.

True obedience to God

is not only external,

but internal.

It entails not only keeping our bodies pure,

but keeping our hearts and minds pure,

because out of the heart,

Jesus says in Matthew 15, 19,

out of the heart comes evil thoughts,

adultery, sexual immorality.

They originate in the human heart.

Our sinful world appeals to this lust

in innumerable ways.

Sex appeal is a major selling point,

remains so to this day in advertising and media,

especially in fashion, lifestyle,

and entertainment industries.

Many influencers on social media

are not shy about selling their product

with visual appeal to get more clicks.

Dating apps pander to instant gratification,

and they promise casual encounters.

The global porn industry,

which some estimate to be worth

up to $287 billion,

which is more than Hollywood and NFL combined,

inflames people's lusts every day

to the tune of hundreds of millions

of daily visits to porn sites

and billions of visits per month.

Studies say that 78% of men

and 44% of women watch porn.

This is not a male-only problem.

It doesn't matter that it is

pornified cartoons or manga or anime

or a video game.

It has the same adulterating effect

on the human heart

and the same deadly consequences

in our lives.

It's a pernicious lie,

in fact, that porn is harmless.

It objectifies women primarily,

but also some men.

It promotes sexual degradation,

exploitation, and trafficking.

It distorts real-life intimacy

and relationships,

creates unrealistic expectations,

and makes it increasingly difficult

for people to have real intimacy

and real relationships.

It erodes trust.

It impairs people's capacity

for genuine sexual intimacy as well.

A study published in the journal

Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity

found that 70% of wives of sex addicts

could be diagnosed

with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Another study reports

that 56% of divorce cases

involved one party

having an obsessive interest

in pornographic materials.

In fact, when pornography

is involved in a marriage,

couples are twice as likely to divorce.

Jesus was right.

Lust is far from harmless.

And don't think that lust

always involves the eyes only.

Sometimes it takes place

entirely in the mind

and in the imagination.

Last year,

a New York Times article claimed

that a certain novel

which talks about

a middle-aged woman

committing adultery

and experimenting with open marriage

is the, quote,

talk of every group text

composed of women over 40.

I was a little skeptical.

So this week,

when I was preparing for this sermon,

I checked the Cambridge Public Library

for this book.

I did not check it out.

Don't worry.

Even if I don't want to,

I don't want anything to do with it.

But even if I wanted to check it out,

I couldn't check it out

because the library

has 260 hard copies.

260!

This is Cambridge Public Library,

not Boston Public Library.

Cambridge Public Library,

260 copies all checked out

with 349 people on the wait list.

This is our city.

There are 286 e-book copies

of this book all checked out.

957 people on that wait list.

157 audiobook copies of this book

all checked out.

501 people on that wait list.

And that's just in Cambridge,

a tiny city.

Also last year,

a popular collection

of female sexual fantasies

was published by an actress.

That kind of literature

that capitalizes on people's sinful lust

is on the rise.

Once again,

Jesus is here exposing

the pitfalls of legalism.

Legalism is concerned

with the letter of the law

and not with the spirit

or the heart of the law.

Both Jews and Romans

actually denounced adultery

because they saw it

as a violation

of man's property rights

and because they saw it

as a threat

to legitimate paternal lineage

because it might raise questions

about whether someone

is a true heir or not.

So they both opposed adultery.

However,

here's the catch.

A married man

was considered

to be adulterous

only if his female partner

was a free woman.

If he slept

with a slave woman,

a concubine,

or with a prostitute,

then there were no problems,

no legal ramifications.

He could do it

as many times

as he wanted.

Fourth century B.C.

Greek politician Demosthenes

famously captures this reality

in his saying.

He says,

we keep prostitutes

for pleasure.

We keep mistresses

for the day-to-day needs

of the body.

We keep wives

for the begetting of children

and for the faithful

guardianship of our homes.

The Jewish position

was unfortunately

not too dissimilar

at the time.

Do you see

how evil this is?

to justify

all manner

of sexual sin

and saying,

well,

it's not adultery.

I haven't really

crossed the line.

Related to this,

there was also

a gross double standard

at play.

While husbands

could sleep

with any many concubines

and prostitutes

as they want,

the wives could not

because of the fear

that they'll be impregnated.

For example,

in 1 Corinthians 6,

12-19,

Paul rebukes

reputedly Christian men

for sleeping

with prostitutes.

So-called Christians

were justifying

sleeping with prostitutes

saying,

food is meant

for the stomach

and stomach for food.

Likewise,

what they were implying

was the body

is meant for sex

and sex for the body

and that's what I'm doing.

I'm using what the body

was made for.

That's what God

created the body for.

There's nothing wrong

with that.

That's the kind

of promiscuous culture

into which Jesus

is speaking into.

And in John 8,

do you remember

the story in verses

1-11?

The scribes

and the Pharisees,

they catch somehow

a woman in the act

of adultery.

This woman is caught

in the act of adultery

and they bring her in

and then they say this

to trap Jesus.

They say,

now in the law of Moses,

Moses commanded us

to stone such woman.

What do you say?

If Jesus says,

stone her,

then they can get him

in trouble with the

Romans who did not

give the Jews

the right to capital

punishment.

But if he said,

no, don't stone her,

then they could paint him

as someone who abolishes

and nullifies the law

of God as a law breaker.

So they're just trying

to trap him.

But when you read

that story,

have you ever wondered,

where is the man?

Because it takes two

people to commit adultery.

And she was caught

in the act.

The man must have

been right there.

You only bring

the woman

to charge

before Jesus.

Rampant

promiscuity,

adultery,

a double standard

at work.

That's the problem

with legalism.

You can be

a legalistic Christian

that obeys

God's law

in all of its

outward forms,

yet without ever

having love

for God

in your heart.

Legalism is concerned

with legality

out of

self-preservation,

out of self-interest.

In contrast,

true Christian obedience

is concerned

with pleasing God.

What is God's will?

What tends

to God's glory?

Legalism is concerned

with the limits

and the lines

of obedience,

of God's commands.

True obedience

is concerned

with the heart

and the spirit

of God's commands.

Once again,

when it comes

to sexual immorality,

too many Christians

ask,

where are the lines?

Where are the limits

of God's commands?

So that I can

edge as close

as I can

to that line

without crossing it.

how physically

intimate

can I get

with my boyfriend

or girlfriend

without crossing

the line?

Is kissing okay?

Is petting okay?

Can I cuddle

and sleep next to them

as long as we're

not having intercourse?

Can I cohabit

with them

as long as we have

separate rooms?

Why would you

invite temptation

into your life?

Why would you

inflame the lusts

that are already

strong enough

in your life?

How many times

have people

said this kind of things,

these kinds of things

to themselves?

Well, I've been

exchanging suggestive texts

with my co-worker,

but we haven't actually

done anything.

I haven't committed adultery.

I've been exchanging

long glances

and flirting

with this woman

at the gym,

but nothing ever

really happened.

Adultery of the heart

happened,

Jesus says.

Have you ever

scrolled through

suggestive photos

and videos

on Instagram

and TikTok

skirting

on the edges

of propriety

without going

into full-blown porn

and then

justifying yourself

saying,

well,

it's not porn.

The idolatry,

the adultery

of the heart

has already

taken place

in your heart

when you look

at others

with lustful

longing.

love.

If coveting

is sin,

if lustful

desire

is sin

in and of

itself,

I'm about to say

something

controversial here,

but I wouldn't say it

if I weren't fully

convinced that this is

exactly what God's

Word teaches.

If lustful desire

is sinful

in and of itself,

then that means

homosexual desire

and all kinds

of other

deviant sexual

desires

are also sinful.

I singled this out

because I have noticed

a misguided tendency

among Christian leaders

and Christian authors

to separate

homosexual acts

from homosexual

desires

and to justify

the desires

as long as

they are not

acted on.

That's a grave

mistake.

Sure,

is there a difference

between temptation

and sin?

Of course,

there's a difference

between temptation

and sin.

We can be tempted

from the outside in.

It's not your fault

that you're driving by

and there's a billboard

with a naked woman

on it.

In that case,

that outside in

temptation,

Martin Luther's

proverb applies,

you cannot prevent

the birds

from flying in the air

over your head

but you can certainly

prevent them

from building a nest

in your hair.

When you're tempted

from the outside in,

don't linger

on that temptation.

Don't let that

temptation take

residence in your heart.

Flee.

But that's not

the only kind

of temptation.

There is another

kind of temptation.

temptation that is

from the inside out.

James 1, 14-16

says,

but each person

is tempted

when he is lured

and enticed

by his own desire.

Then,

desire,

when it has conceived,

gives birth to sin

and sin,

when it's fully grown,

brings forth death.

When we are

sexually tempted

from the inside out,

the old theologians

used to call that

concupiscence,

it betrays

our sin nature.

It reveals

that our desires

themselves

are not aligned

with God's will.

These desires

incubate

and ultimately

give birth to sin

which eventually

when fully grown

leads to death.

If that's the case,

should we not resist

these desires?

Should we not fight

these desires

instead of coming

to terms with it?

Why do people,

why do some Christians

call themselves

gay Christians

or same-sex attracted

Christians,

SSA Christians?

The fact that

so many Christians

in the world

consider that to be okay

shows just how much

homosexuality has become

normalized

and how worldly

the Christians have become.

I've never met Christians

who identify themselves

as adultery-attracted

Christians

or fornication-attracted

Christians

or BDSM-attracted

Christians

or zoophilic

Christians

or pedophilic

Christians

who would identify

with such things.

Why would we

identify ourselves

with something

that is something

that is disordered

and displeasing

to God?

Because humanity

is fallen

and depraved,

we have all kinds

of ungodly desires

that rise

from within our hearts

and these desires

can feel

very natural

but that does not mean

that they are

right.

when we're tempted

by those desires

we need to struggle

against them

fight against them

not accept them

and make peace

with them

and declare proudly

that that's a part

of who we are.

Making sexual orientation

or preference

a part of your identity

is Sigmund Freud's idea.

It's not a biblical idea.

Lustful desires

not only lustful acts

are sin.

D. Marlon Jones

is helpful here.

He says in his book

studies in the Sermon

on the Mount

but let me say a word

about the subtlety of sin.

Sin is this terrible thing

which so deludes

and fools us

as to make us feel

quite happy

and contented

so long as we have

not committed the act.

Yes, I say

I was tempted

but thank God

I did not fall.

That is all right

up to a point

so long as I am not

too content with that.

If I am merely satisfied

with the fact

that I did not do the thing

I am all wrong.

I ought to go on

and ask

but why did I

want to do it?

legalists are always

trying to circumscribe

and limit God's word

so that they can claim

I have kept it

I did not cross the line

I did not do the thing

but that betrays

the minimal obedience

mindset that I have

been talking about

rather than the

maximal obedience

mindset.

It betrays the fact

that they do not

actually see God

is good and benevolent

and that he has

their good interest

in mind

rather they see God

is stingy and begrudging

always trying to

stifle them

and deprive them

of the good things

that the world offers.

I have used this

illustration before

but if we see

God's word

and his commands

as a straight jacket

intended to stifle us

and restrict us

then we are

going to try

to wiggle out of it

as much as we can

and to push

the boundaries

as much as we can

and sneak out of it

as often as we can

because we don't see

God's word

as good.

But if you see

God's word

and God's command

as a life jacket

I'm clasping

all the straps

keeping it tight

keeping it right

at the center

fitting snugly

into God's plan

and God's will

because I know

it's for my good

because I know

it's for my salvation

because I know

it's to preserve me.

So instead of flirting

with sin

and skirting

the edges

of God's will

I want to encourage you

and exhort you

to seek to live

at the center

of God's will.

for those of us

who do want

to strive

for that maximal

purity and obedience

Jesus gets very practical

in verse 29 and 30.

If your right eye

causes you to sin

tear it out

and throw it away

for it is better

that you lose

one of your members

and that your whole body

be thrown into hell

and if your right hand

causes you to sin

cut it off

and throw it away

for it is better

that you lose

one of your members

and that your whole body

go into hell.

The word

causes you to sin

is a translation

of a word

that literally means

to cause someone

to stumble

which is a recurring word

in the gospel of Matthew.

In this context

it means to make someone

stumble

into sin

in such a way

that they fall

into perdition

into hell

fall away from

the saving purposes

of God.

Jesus says

it's better for you

to lose

one of your members

of your body

than for your whole body

to be thrown into hell.

The word for hell

is not the word

for Hades

or that shadowy

realm of death

that is sometimes

mistranslated

as hell

in the New Testament.

This is the word

Gehenna

which is referring

to the valley

of Hinnom

which comes from

the valley of Hinnom

the word from

Gehenna

because that was

the area

where sacrifices

human sacrifices

to Molech

the idol

of the Old Testament.

And because it was

such a desecrated area

tradition says

that people

in Jerusalem

went outside

to the valley

of Hinnom

and burned

all their garbage

there.

So there was always

stink and fire

and smoke

rising up from the place

which made it

an apt picture

of the eternal

destruction

and the eternal

fires of hell

that await

the devil

and his minions

and those humans

who follow him.

So this is meant

to be a shocking

statement.

Jesus is talking

about lust

right?

So many of you

in accountability groups

have confessed

the sin of lust.

Jesus is saying

if you don't fight

this tooth and nail

your whole body

is going to be

thrown into hell.

Are you catching

the drama

of what Jesus

is saying?

Too many Christians

think that

the fight against sin

is a friendly

risk-free

wrestling match

between friends

or something like that.

They think that

there are no

real consequences.

Sure,

sin might hurt me

and affect my life

here and there

but I'm saved

and I'm eternally secure.

sin, however,

is under no such

delusion.

Sin knows

that it's in a

death match

with you.

It's trying to

choke you to death

when sin gets

a stranglehold

on the so-called

Christian

and then the

Christian starts

to wonder,

oh, ouch, ouch,

that actually

really hurts.

That's a little

overaggressive,

don't you think?

I mean,

it's a friendly

wrestling match

and then

eventually,

eventually,

your very life

breath is ebbing

out of you.

17th century

English pastor

John Owen

famously said,

be killing sin

or sin

will be killing you.

If you make

peace with sin,

you're no longer

repenting of sin,

you're no longer

resisting sin.

The final result

is not

less sanctification,

it's eternal

damnation.

Why?

Not because

true Christians

can lose their

salvation,

but because all

true Christians

persevere in faith

and obedience

until the end.

That's how we know

they are true

Christians.

You know them

by their fruit

because the fight

for holiness

is the fight

for faith

because if you

really believe

God's promises

and God's word

that it is true

and good

and beautiful,

then it's going

to show in your

life.

Pastor John

Piper wrote

about this in his

book,

Future Grace.

He says,

A few years ago,

I spoke to a high

school student body

on how to fight

lust.

One of my points

was called,

Ponder the eternal

danger of lust.

I quoted the words

of Jesus that it's

better to go to heaven

with one eye than

to hell with two

and said to the

students that their

eternal destiny was

at stake in what

they did with their

eyes and with the

thoughts of their

imagination.

After my message,

one of the students

asked,

Are you saying then

that a person can

lose his salvation?

This is exactly the

same response I got

a few years ago

when I confronted a

man about the

adultery he was

living in.

I pled with him to

return to his wife.

Then I said,

You know,

Jesus says that if

you don't fight this

sin with the kind of

seriousness that is

willing to gouge out

your own eye,

you will go to hell.

As a professing

Christian,

he looked at me in

utter disbelief as

though he had never

heard anything like

this in his life and

said,

You mean you think

a person can lose

his salvation?

So I have learned

again and again

from first-hand

experience that there

are many professing

Christians who have

a view of salvation

that disconnects it

from real life and

that nullifies the

threats of the

Bible and puts the

sinning person who

claims to be a

Christian beyond the

reach of biblical

warnings.

I believe this view

of the Christian life

is comforting thousands

who are on the broad

way that leads to

destruction.

The main concern of

this book is to show

that the battle against

sin is a battle

against unbelief or

the fight for purity

is a fight for faith

in future grace.

the great error that I

am trying to explode is

the error that says

faith in God is one

thing and the fight for

holiness is another

thing.

The battle for obedience

is optional because only

faith is necessary for

final salvation.

Jesus is being totally

serious in verse 29 and

30.

He's not being literal

but he nevertheless is

totally serious.

It's better to enter

heaven with one eye than

hell with two.

It's better to enter

heaven a cripple than

hell with two whole

legs.

How do we know Jesus is

not being literal here

because some people in

church history have

actually interpreted this

literally and have

carried out these

commands?

Yeah, do you think you're

serious about following

Jesus?

Jesus?

We know it's not

literal because in verse

28 Jesus told us that

he's concerned about

what's going on in our

hearts, not just what we

do with our bodies, with

lustful desires and not

merely with lustful acts.

We can't physically remove

lust from our hearts, can

we?

I wish we could.

I wish they had

surgeons for that.

I'd be the first to line

up.

Literally gouging out our

eyes will not stop us

from lusting.

I've used the example of

Ray Charles before, the

famous soul musician from

the 20th century.

He was blind, but he was

famous, famously a

womanizer.

He had no eyes to gouge

out, but he was full of

lust.

Married and divorced twice,

many affairs, fathered a

total of 12 children by 10

women, 10 different

women.

All that to say, Jesus is

not telling us to mutilate

our flesh literally.

He's being figurative, but

his command is no less

real and bracing.

He's telling us to remove

decisively the things that

cause us to fall, the

sources of temptations in

our lives.

Don't read things or scroll

through things or watch

things that you know will

inflame your lusts.

Well, but everybody's

watching that and talking

about that.

Everyone who is cultured

and educated reads and

watches that.

Well, then be content to be

considered ignorant and

uncultured and uneducated.

Be content to be excluded and

left out of those

conversations.

That's the hot topic and

trending for everybody else.

Be content to be not in the

know.

It's better for you to lose

one part of your body than

for your whole body to be

thrown into hell.

If your smartphone causes you

to sin, get a dumb phone.

If you're working from home is

ripe for temptations, go to a

co-working space or to a

public library.

If your boyfriend or

girlfriend is causing you to

sin, break up with that

person.

Seek counsel from a pastor.

If there's a flirty co-worker

that is tempting you, ask me

move to a different

department or quit the job and

move to a new job.

Well, that's kind of drastic.

No, that's so inconvenient.

Of course it's inconvenient.

Losing your eye and your hand is

also inconvenient.

That's exactly Jesus' point.

Why does he specifically say

right hand?

Because the right hand is, for

most people, the dominant

hand.

It's the more useful, more

needful hand.

And right eye, I think, is

just paralleling that.

He says, even if it's your

right hand, the thing that you

need the most to get around and

to do the things you need to

do, even if it's one of those

most important things in your

life, dear things in your life,

precious things in your life,

get rid of it if it's leading

you to sin.

Because isn't our eternal

well-being more important than

our temporal well-being?

What good is it for a man to

gain the whole world yet forfeit

his soul?

In 2019, a Nebraskan farmer

named Kurt Kaser was working on

his farm when he accidentally

stepped into a running machine.

I think it was a cornhopper.

I don't know exactly how that

works, but it was sucking him in

slowly, and the machine was

running, and he was stuck, and he

had no family around.

He knew it would be a while

before anybody came to the farm,

and he knew that not before

long he would die.

So he made a quick decision.

He took the pocket knife out,

and he amputated his own leg and

freed himself from the machine.

Do you think that's crazy?

That is the only sensible thing to

do in that situation.

Why?

Because he wanted to live.

Do you want to live?

Do you want to live forever?

Do you want to have eternal life?

Do you want to be in the kingdom

of heaven and have eternal

fellowship with God?

Gouge out that eye.

Cut off that hand.

1 Corinthians 6, 9-10 says,

Do you not know that the

unrighteous will not inherit the

kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived.

Neither the sexually immoral,

nor idolaters, nor adulterers,

nor men who practice homosexuality,

nor thieves, nor the greedy,

nor drunkard, nor redeemed,

revilers, nor swindlers will inherit

the kingdom of God.

If you have come to terms with

your sexual immorality,

if you have reached a ceasefire,

and you're not fighting sin

anywhere in your life,

you're not killing sin,

you're no longer repenting of your sin,

if you have troves of porn

downloaded on your hard drive,

if you know that you are in sexual sin,

but you're not willing to change

anything about it,

you're staying in it,

then you will not inherit

the kingdom of God.

Put to death, therefore,

what is earthly in you,

sexual immorality, impurity,

passion, evil, desire,

covetousness, which is idolatry,

Colossians 3, 5.

Cut it off.

Before I move on to the next point,

I want to share a potential objection

that some people might raise.

D. Martin Lloyd-Jones

is insightful on this point again.

He says,

but someone may ask at this point,

are you not teaching

a kind of morbid scrupulosity?

Is not life going to be

rather wretched and miserable?

Well, there are people

who become morbid,

but if you want to know

the difference between them

and what I am teaching,

think of it in this way.

Morbid scrupulosity

is always concerned about itself,

its state and condition,

and its own achievements.

True holiness,

on the other end,

is always concerned

about pleasing God,

glorifying Him,

and ministering to the glory

of Jesus Christ.

If you and I keep that

ever in the foreground

of our minds,

we need not be very worried

about becoming morbid.

All that will be at once avoided

if we do it for His sake

instead of spending

the whole of our time

feeling our spiritual pulse

and taking our spiritual temperature.

You guys understand?

It's very wise counsel

from the doctor.

If you have an overactive conscience,

and you suffer from scrupulosity,

get your mind off of yourself

and onto Christ

and onto God.

That's the key.

Now to my second point,

adultery through divorce.

This is a shorter point.

The topic of divorce

and remarriage

is more fully addressed

later on in Matthew 19,

so I'll reserve detailed treatment

until that point.

However,

I do want to note

the connections

between verse 31 and 32

and verses 27 to 30.

Technically,

they are separate passages.

They're distinct

and tip that cease.

However,

they're related.

Follow along with me

in verse 31 and 32.

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.

Jesus is here

alluding to Deuteronomy 24,

1 to 4,

which talks about

writing a certificate

of divorce

for the woman

in the event

that the husband

is divorcing her.

But Jesus presents

a contrast,

an antithesis.

He says,

but I say to you

that everyone

who divorces his wife,

except on the ground

of sexual immorality,

makes her commit adultery.

To simplify it,

read that verse

without the exception clause.

Cover up the exception clause

with your finger

and try reading it.

Everyone who divorces his wife

makes her commit adultery.

And whoever marries

a divorced woman

commits adultery.

How is that so?

Usually we only call it adultery

if someone who is still married

is involved.

When a divorced person

marries another partner,

we call it remarriage.

But Jesus says

that this is tantamount

to adultery.

Why?

The assumption is

that the first marriage

is still binding

because it's a covenant

that God has brought together.

Jesus' teaching

is consistent elsewhere.

For example,

in Luke 16, 18,

everyone who divorces his wife

and marries another

commits adultery.

And he who marries a woman

divorced from her husband

commits adultery.

Almost identical formulation

in Mark 10, 11.

Jesus is essentially

forbidding divorce.

Why?

Once again,

it gets to the heart

of God's law.

Rather than merely observing

the letter of God's law,

in those days,

men often divorced

their wives

for frivolous reasons.

One prominent

Jewish school of thought

associated with

Rabbi Hillel

taught that a man

may justly divorce

his wife

for something as trivial

as spoiling a meal.

I'm divorcing you today

because you burnt my toast.

Legitimate.

That's what they said.

Josephus,

first century Jewish historian,

writes in a cavalier manner

about his divorce.

He says,

at this time of my life,

I sent away my wife

being displeased

with her behavior

and then I took a wife,

a woman from Crete.

What often underlies

such casual divorces

and remarriages?

Lust.

Men in those days

and both men and women

nowadays

game the system

by marrying,

divorcing,

remarrying,

divorcing,

remarrying,

divorcing,

remarrying

as often as their

fantasies

and fascinations

change,

thereby fulfilling

the lust of their hearts

without ever getting

into legal trouble.

But Jesus here

exposes the evil of that.

Why then did Moses

allow people to divorce?

Jesus answers

that exact question

in Matthew 19.8.

He says,

because of your

hardness of heart,

Moses allowed you

to divorce your wives,

but from the beginning

it was not so.

Divorce was intended

to be

a temporary provision

for a broken

and fallen world.

It was a concession

to the hardness

of the human heart,

intended to mitigate

human failure

and not to establish

the divine ideal

or standard.

If you have

a neighborhood

full of drug addicts

and because you

don't want them

to die from

contaminated syringes,

you put some

clean syringes

over there for people,

can those people say,

like,

oh, I'm following the law

because I use

clean syringes

every single time?

No,

you're doing

illegal drugs.

It's intended

to mitigate

human failure.

That's what divorce is.

Not the actual standard

that you're supposed

to keep.

What's the actual standard?

Jesus says,

he quotes Genesis 2,

24 in Matthew 19,

5 to 6.

Therefore a man

shall leave his father

and mother

and hold fast

to his wife

and the two

shall become one flesh.

So they are no longer

two but one flesh.

What therefore

God has joined together,

let not man separate.

God is the one

who joins a man

and woman together

in a covenant of marriage

and is not for man

to break it apart.

That still leaves

the exception clause

to make sense of.

But I say to you

that everyone

who divorces his wife

except on the ground

of sexual morality

makes her commit adultery.

The exception clause,

I think,

according to my best

interpretation at this point,

is there to

exempt the husband

from the guilt

of making his wife

commit adultery.

In this culture,

in this part

of the ancient world,

divorced women

would usually have

no recourse for survival.

They would be forced

to remarry

so that they could

be provided for.

And so when a husband

unjustly divorces her,

he would be guilty

of making her

commit adultery

because he forced her

into that.

But if the husband

divorced his wife

due to her own infidelity,

then he does not

bear that guilt

of making her

commit adultery

because she was

already one.

So sexual immorality

or infidelity

does become

a sort of

grounds for divorce,

though nowhere

in the Bible

does Jesus ever

command divorce

in such situations,

and there can still

be forgiveness

and reconciliation

even after sins

as deeply damaging

as adultery.

Let me add one

slight qualification here

because I have met

some Christian therapists

in the past

who have counseled

Christians to divorce

their Christian spouses

because of their

sins of lust

and pornography.

And they would cite

this passage

and say,

well, adultery

is lust

and looking at pornography,

lust of the heart

is adultery of the heart,

and here it says

adultery is grounds

for divorce,

therefore you should

divorce your wife,

divorce your husband.

And I've seen therapists

use this logic

and reasoning before,

but that's a specious claim.

In that case,

should we also institute

the death penalty

for sinful anger?

Because in the

preceding passage,

Jesus said,

if you're angry

with your brother,

then you have committed

murder in your heart.

Does that make any sense?

No, it doesn't.

Is there a single man

in the world

who can claim

that he has never,

not once,

looked at a woman

lustfully?

According to

that interpretation,

every Christian woman

in the world

should divorce

their husbands

because they're

all adulterous.

This is misguided

application of the passage.

Jesus is not

legislating civil laws

that should be enforced

by the courts

or the governing authorities.

He is teaching

a personal ethic.

Jesus is not

lowering the bar

for divorce.

He's just raising

the bar for purity

and obedience.

Are you guys with me?

What are we as Christians

to do with such

a high bar?

Only the most

naively optimistic

person,

Christian,

can read a passage

like this

and think,

okay,

pretty reasonable,

doable,

yeah, sure,

let me create

a checklist.

That's the point.

When you understand

God's holiness

and God's word

in its right place,

then you realize

you can never

be holy enough.

You can never

be pure enough.

You can never

be righteous enough.

This is not

meant to

put a hurdle

in front of you

and say,

okay,

this is doable,

now do it,

jump over.

No,

it's meant

to be so high

that you despair

of any chance

of you

clearing that hurdle

on your own

and instead

you turn to Jesus

and cling to him

for salvation.

salvation.

Maybe right now,

and I know

this is the case

because of the statistics

and because of many

of you that I've talked to,

I know there's dozens

of you,

if not scores of you,

who have sinned

in these ways,

who struggle

with these sins

and you mourn it

and you grieve it

and you want to change

and you're having

a hard time change.

And maybe you feel

like that person

in Lauren's prophecy,

you feel like

you're in this bathtub

and you feel black

and stained

and you keep trying

to wash yourself

to the point

of scraping your skin off

and you still cannot

get the stain off.

That is the reality

for all sinners

in the world

apart from Christ.

You will never

get it off.

We're like a

prostitute,

a whore

who is trying

to come to a wedding.

The hair is disheveled,

the face,

the makeup's

all smeared

and the clothings

are all soiled

and tatter

from her harlotry.

How's she gonna

get married?

Who's gonna take her?

That's the church,

the bride of Christ.

And then we read

in Ephesians 5

that Jesus

loved the church

and gave himself

up for her

that he might

sanctify her

having cleansed her

by the washing

of water

with the word

so that he might

present the church

to himself

in splendor

without spot

or wrinkle

or any such thing

that she might be

holy

and without

blemish.

in the beautiful

picture of

the wedding supper

of the Lamb

and the bride

that's gonna be

married to Jesus,

the bridegroom.

What does it say

here

about the saints?

How does it

describe them

in Revelation 7, 14?

These are the ones

coming out

of the great tribulation.

They have washed

their robes

and made them white

in the blood

of the Lamb.

Did you guys

catch that

Psalm 51

that Lauren

shared from?

Cleanse me

with hyssop

and I will be

clean.

That's the Psalm

that David wrote

after he committed

adultery

with Bathsheba

and Nathan the prophet

came and confronted him

and saying,

you are the man

and he's broken

and heartbroken

and that's what he writes

because he knows

that his only hope

of cleansing

is not in his

righteousness

but the blood

of Jesus Christ

and if you forsake

your own righteousness

and you go to Jesus

and say,

with your blood

I can be made clean

and your blood

I can be washed

as white as snow

then Jesus

puts that white

beautiful wedding gown

on you

and you get to

hold your head up high

and go to the wedding

supper of the Lamb

to be the bride

of Christ forever.

That's the good news

and it's only people

who believe

and get that good news

who want to

be pure

in every way

who pursue

utmost purity