Matthew 5 Part 9 Matthew 5:27-32

Matthew 5 Part 9 Matthew 5:27-32

Matthew 5 part 9 • KEY INSIGHT:Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones called the Sermon on the Mount the “Manifesto of the Kingdom of God.” • It is a very fitting title because in it Jesus describes the realities of God’s Kingdom. • There are MANY people who believe that they are Christians ….. that believe they are going to heaven. • Jesus sets the record straight on this subject. • He began His Sermon on the Mount by describing who it is that is in God’s kingdom…. • He began by describing the REAL CHRISTIAN (v.3-14)

KEY INSIGHT: Just as there are many people who THINK that they know what a Christian is, there are a lot of people who think they know what it means to be RIGHTEOUS. • They think that God will let them enter heaven on the basis of how THEY have defined righteousness. • Forget about what YOU think about righteousness, or what someone has said about righteousness. • The REAL question is “What has God said about righteousness?” • KEY POINT: Get away from opinions and read the truth. • (Mat 5:27-28 NKJV) "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' {28} "But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

REMEMBER – The Pharisees defined righteousness in terms of PERFORMING certain ACTIONS • They defined it in terms of EXTERNAL adherence to the Law. • They knew the Commandment ... "You shall not commit adultery.” (Ex.20) • They did NOT for a moment consider that the commandment was addressing anything more than the physical act. • And since the Pharisee would NEVER dream of committing the literal, physical act of adultery, they considered themselves to be righteous before God. • Here in our text Jesus makes it very clear that those ACTIONS that the Pharisees considered as sinful were MERELY the symptoms of a deeper problem. • They, like many religious people today, were FATALLY WRONG in their thinking because they were only concerned with the SYMPTOM, not the DISEASE.

EXAMPLE: Medical science is much more concerned with the DISEASE because it’s the disease that kills, not the symptoms. • To be pre-occupied with SYMPTOMS is a very dangerous approach to living. • We ARE a society preoccupied with fixing symptoms / with appearances. • KEY OBSERVATION: Jesus is telling us that the PHYSICAL ACT of sexual sin is ONLY the SYMPTOM of a deeper moral problem! • Sexual sin begins in the desires of the heart. • According to Jesus, • Lust is the equivalent of adultery • Just as anger is the equivalent of murder.

KEY INSIGHT: The “look” that Jesus mentioned was not a casual glance, but a constant stare with the purpose of lusting. • The man Jesus described looked at the woman forthepurposeoffeedinghisinnersensualappetites as a substitute for the act. • This is not an accidental look; it is planned. • (You ladies know what it is like to have a man look at you in that way.) • HERE’S THE CRUCIAL POINT: The Pharisees rightly believed that sex outside of marriage was sin…. That it made one unrighteous before God. • Because they would never dare to engage in the literal, physical act, they considered themselves righteous before God, worthy of heaven.

But Jesus says – • Forget about what you think about this subject – • I am telling you that sexual sin is MORE than the literal physical act – • To look upon a woman with lust is just as much sexual sin as the physical act. • Now we can understand what Jesus meant when he began this discourse on righteousness by saying unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. • By defining real righteousness as more than the externals of the law, he proved that even the Pharisees did NOT possess the righteousness that God demands.

KEY INSIGHT:In order to get into heaven ….. To live in the presence of the righteous God of the universe…. God DEMANDS perfect righteousness. • The righteousness that God DEMANDS is MORE than just PERFORMING certain ACTIONS, or the EXTERNAL adherence to the Law. • It is a righteousness in the deepest parts of the heart. • In light of how Jesus defines righteousness we can understand the words of Paul when he declared • (Rom 3:10 NKJV) "There is none righteous, no, not one;

(Phil 3:5-9 NKJV) circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; {6} concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. {7} But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. {8} Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ {9} and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; • (Rom 4:24-25 NKJV) It (the righteousness of God) shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, {25} who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification. • (Rom 5:1 NKJV) Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

THAT is the Gospel • THAT is the substance of what we believe. • THAT is the substance of what we proclaim. • THAT is why the ONLY way to heaven is by faith in Jesus Christ. • Because in and of yourself YOU do NOT possess the righteousness that God demands. • THAT righteousness can ONLY be obtained through faith in Jesus Christ. • ONLY at the cross of Christ is you Unrighteousness washed away and the righteousness of Christ applied to your….. Making you acceptable to God!

The Gospel is NOT - as many would say - just about the example and words of Jesus - “love your enemies…. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you….. • KEY OBSERVATION: We live in a messed up world, where SEX is THE sin! • It may have been materialism with our parents and grandparents, but that has taken a back seat to sexual everything! • EVERY medium known to our society plays to the lust of the flesh. • QUOTE: Switchfoot song - Sex is industry - she sells cars - she sells magazines • KEY INSIGHT: HEDONISM is the philosophy that makes pleasure the chief goal in life.

KEY INSIGHT: The recording industry, movies and television are NOT the ROOT of the sexual immorality in America. • KEY The entertainment industry is getting RICH on our hedonism. • They know what’s in our hearts and on our minds, and they are feeding it! • That is why we legislation can only regulate OUTWARD behavior. • Can you see now why Jesus said - You must be born again!!! • He didn’t say it because He sat around thinking - I have to come up with a really catchy slogan to market this new religion • How about “wwid”…. Nah, to commercial. • Wait, I’ve got it - “You must be born again”

KEY POINT: Again, the sensual and morally polluted products that Americans buy are only the SYMPTOM of our problem. • The DISEASE is in the heart of Americans. • C.S. Lewis wrote with common sense in Mere Christianity: • “The biological purpose of sex is children, just as the biological purpose of eating is to repair the body ... You can get a large audience together for a strip-tease act - that is, to watch a girl undress on the stage. Now suppose you came to a country where you could fill a theater by simply bringing a covered plate to the stage and then slowly lifting the cover so as to let everyone see, just before the lights went out, that the plate contained a pork chop or a bit of bacon would you not think that in that country something had gone wrong with the appetite for food? And would not anyone who had grown up in a different world think there was something equally queer about the state of the sex instinct among us?”

QUOTE: WarrenWeirsbe – “Appetite leads to action.” • KEY POINT: America has an UNHEALTHY appetite for sex, thus we find such UNHEALTHY actions. • KEY QUESTION: How do we keep our hearts RIGHT? • How can we get victory? • KEY APPLICATION: Practically, there are things we can, and should do, to keep lust from giving birth to the act. • Remember this yesterday’s Bible Bus reading from James 1

(Mat 5:29-30 NKJV) "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. {30} "And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell • KEY OBSERVATION: We get victory by • 1.) purifying the desires of the heart and 2.) disciplining the actions of the body. • KEY INSIGHT: Obviously, our Lord is not talking about literal surgery BECAUSE this would not solve the problem in the heart.

He is making the point that the eye and the hand - SIGHT and TOUCH - are usually the two “culprits” when it comes to sexual sins, so they must be disciplined. • KEY INSIGHT: The hand and the eye are also two of the most precious things we possess. • HERE’S WHAT JESUS IS SAYING - If the most precious thing you have is the cause of sin, get rid of it, throw it away.... • Such is the importance of holiness, and the exceeding sinfulness of sin!!! • PERSONAL APPLICATION: Maybe the most valuable thing you have is your great big TV and all of your movie channels…. And THAT is where you fall into sexual sin • PERSONAL APPLICATION: Maybe the most valuable thing you have is your computer and your time on the internet, and THAT is where you fall into sexual sin.

PERSONAL APPLICATION: Maybe it’s your Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. • PERSONAL APPLICATION: Maybe it’s your Abercrombie and Fitch Catalog. • CRUCIAL POINT: If we are going to live as God’s children in this world, there are times when we are simply going to have to run away from the temptation! • I don’t believe this is the whole answer • But it is Paul’s advice to those he led to Christ: • (1 Cor 6:18 NKJV) Flee sexual immorality. • (2 Tim 2:22 NKJV) Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

KEY QUESTION: What will motivate us to RUN from sexual sin (like Joseph)? • REMEMBER - This young guy named Joseph was running FROM the very thing every other guy his age was running TO! • CRUCIAL INSIGHT:IF we are to have a clean and pure heart, a heart that is free from lust - • We need to have a right view of sin always before us!!! • How can I do this great evil against God! • We need to have a right view of the nature of sin (it kills - it killed Jesus) and it’s consequences. • We need to know the importance of our souls and the destiny attached. • We need to hate sin, and do all we can to destroy it AT ALL COSTS.

QUOTE:Warren Wiersbe • “Deal immediately and decisively with sin! Don’t taper off—cut off!” • (Rom 8:13 NKJV) For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. • (Mat 16:24-26 NKJV) Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. {25} "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. {26} "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? • ILLUSTRATION: Philippine Monkey / American Muskrat • For the handful of rice lost his head / rather have three paws and be free than have four paws and be fur.

Matthew 5 Part 9 Matthew 5:27-32