REVIEW
FLIP CHART: SOM’S KEY VERSE, GOAL, MOTTO
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness ….” (Mt. 6:33a).
The law sends us to Christ for justification; Christ sends us back to the law for sanctification.
FLIP CHART: Show new “Perfect Righteousness” chart explaining steps to coming to Christ (As a worm, mourning, meek, spiritual hunger/thirst with the result of legal righteousness). Explain moral righteousness, immediate moral change at conversion, gradual change through life’s challenges and speeding up moral change via CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection and Confession/Thanksgiving). Repeat the verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Heb. 10:14) HAVE SOMEONE COME FORWARD AND EXPLAIN THE CHART.)
FLIP CHART: Go over John Stott’s outline of SOM. Show that 5:17-20 was an introduction to a Christian’s righteousness.
INTRODUCTION:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.” But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell (Mt. 5:27-30).
“In 1953 Kinsey’s famous report revealed that by age twenty-one, 23 percent of the female population had lost their virginity. In 1971 the figure was more than 46 percent.” (Hughes, 106).
“Someone has said that less than six percent of the sexual acts portrayed in the media take place between husbands and wives.” (Gary Vanderet)
Our generation is a generation saturated in sex. Advertisers tell us that a certain toothpaste will “give your mouth sex appeal” whereas shaving cream advertisements say “take it off; take it all off.”
A Christianity Today survey said that 33 percent of the clergy and 36 percent of the laity admit to having purposely visited sexually explicit web sites. … these are the subscribers to Christianity Today. And this is not just about men. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of women hooked on pornography.
If those statistics are correct, a third of us in this class have purposely visited a pornographic website.
Some estimate that one-third of all wives and one-half of all husbands commit adultery.
And adultery has affected pastors too. Charles Swindoll is quoted as saying, “If I hear of one more pastor who has fallen, I think I’m going to get sick.” (Hughes, 105).
So this problem of lust is HUGE. We need to talk about it, wrestle with it and trust God to show us how to deal with it and overcome lust in our sex-crazed world.
OUTLINE FOR TODAY:
1. The Bible on Adultery
2. Adultery in the heart, the Inner Self
3. Why Looking Lustfully Breaks Two Commandments
4. Form and Content in the Second Anti-Thesis
WHAT’S IN YOUR HEART, WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?
I. THE BIBLE ON ADULTERY
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.”
Jesus is quoting the Seventh Commandment, exactly as it is in the Septuagint.
He takes on the Pharisees at their two strongest points – Murder and Adultery and shows them that are guilty of both.
Adultery was a serious offense in the Old Testament: If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife — with the wife of his neighbor — both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death (Leviticus 20:10).
Jews and Christians were not the only ones who thought adultery was wrong in the ancient world. “The classical moralist Aristotle, who lived four centuries before Jesus, also held that adultery was simply wrong. There is no such thing, he says, as ‘committing adultery with the right woman, at the right time, and in the right way, for it is . . . simply wrong.’ And until the mid-twentieth century it was generally assumed that this was the correct view.” (Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, Page 162.
“A call for fidelity is like a solitary voice crying in today’s sexual wilderness. What was once labeled adultery and carried a stigma of guilt and embarrassment now is an affair – – a nice-sounding, almost inviting word wrapped in mystery, fascination, and excitement, a relationship, not sin. What was once behind the scenes – – a secret closely guarded – – is not in the headlines, a TV theme, a best seller, as common as a cold.” (J. Allen Peterson, The Myth of the Greener Grass)
“It is amazing how much people are willing to pay for adultery. Long-standing relationships of love and trust are shattered. Kids lose their parents and are scarred by sorrow and guilt. People surrender their careers, their reputations, their homes, their savings, their friends and their relationship with God – – all in the pursuit of happiness – – happiness that vanished with an ever-diminishing half-life.”
ILL: California doctor caught in a sting operation that had him coming to visit a 13 year old girl and filmed on “Dateline” saying to himself, “How stupid could I be.”
This is the debt I pay,
Just for one riotous day.
Years of regret and grief,
Sorrow without relief.
Slight was the thing I bought,
Small was the debt I thought,
Poor was the loan at best –
Oh! But the interest!!
II. ADULTERY IN THE HEART
But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Mt. 5:28)
GROUP QUESTION: Write a definition of between 10-20 words defining the Biblical idea of “heart” in this verse as you see it.
Heart stands for man’s entire mental and moral activity, both the rational and the emotional elements. In other words, the heart is used figuratively for the hidden springs, the fountain of the personal life. The heart is, the inner man, the inner self, where we think, imagine, grieve, will, purpose, perceive, believe, love.
The heart has eyes. Paul prays for the Ephesians, “that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.” (Eph. 1:18)
Imagination is one of the abilities of our heart, the inner self. It one of our faculties which distinguish us from animals and is a precious gift from God. None of the world’s art (fairy tales, poetry, novels) and little of man’s noblest achievement would have been possible without imagination’ (Stott, 88).
The problem is that the imagination of the inner man can be wrongly used. It is not wrong to imagine and/or be attracted to a beautiful scene, a handsome man, a beautiful woman, a fine athlete, a skilled musician. All these are gifts from God which should cause our hearts to rejoice. Seeing a beautiful scene in nature causes us to praise God. Seeing a beautiful woman or a handsome man should do the same.
The problem is that we have evil hearts, that can quickly move from appreciation to lust. Thus the writer of Proverbs said: Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life (Proverbs 4:23).
The eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His” (II Chron. 16:9). “All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight but the Lord weighs the motives.”
The bottom line is that God is concerned how we use the imagination, one of the gifts He has given us.
“Looks” in our text means a leering, staring, locking on look…a look that is focused on wishing for an adulterous affair, a look that undresses. It is what the Apostle John referred to as the “lust of the eyes” and what the Apostle Peter was referring to when he said their “eyes are full of adultery.” It is a look that “imagines” adultery.
“Lust isn’t noticing that a woman or man is sexually attractive. Lust is born when we turn a simple awareness into a preoccupied fantasy. When we invite sexual thoughts into our minds and nurture them, we have passed from simple awareness into lust.”
( R.C. Sproul)
The root word for “lust” here is the same word Paul uses to describe his desire to go to heaven. The object of the desire determines the sin, not the desire. If you desire another person’s mate then you are having an “Affair of the Mind.”
Jesus is saying, “… those who look upon a woman for the purpose of lusting after her — using her visual presence as a means of savoring the fantasized act — has thereby committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt. 5:28 / Dallas Willard).
You can read a romance novel and desire a relationship with the hero or heroine and you are having an affair of the mind or heart. Or you can have a “cyber affair.” Even though you have never met the individual you are “looking lustfully.”
If this verse teaches anything it teaches that we are not judged just by our deeds but by our desires.
III. WHY LOOKING LUSTFULLY BREAKS THE COMMANDMENTS
But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Mt. 5:28)
QUESTION: What Old Testament law gives solid support to the idea of mental adultery?
The Pharisees focused on the Seventh Commandment, ““You shall not commit adultery. . . . But by-passed the Tenth Commandment. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife …” (Ex 20:14, 17).
They felt they kept the commandment forbidding adultery just as they thought they kept the commandment forbidding murder. But Jesus showed them that a murderous angry heart and a lustful heart meant that they were guilty of these two sins, murder and adultery. There it was angry words that Jesus condemned; here it is lustful thoughts.
The word translated “covet” means to delight in, to desire.” Thus lust is related closely to coveting.
It was the Tenth Commandment that brought Paul to despair, “For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. …” (Romans 7:7-8)
Jesus said to the Pharisees, “Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts …” (Luke 16:15).
“‘Religion is that which a man does with his own solitude.’ In other words, if you want to know what you really are, you can find the answer when you are alone with your thoughts and desires and imaginations. It is what you say to yourself that matters. How careful we are in what we say to others but what do we say to ourselves? What a man does with his own solitude is what ultimately counts. The things that are within, which we hide from the outside world because we are ashamed of them, these proclaim finally what we really are.” (MLJ, 204)
The person referred to in this verse is similar to a thief who would not steal if he thought he might get caught, but given the right circumstances would steal. Given the right circumstance, the person who looks lustfully would commit the act of adultery.
But do not think that mental adultery is not as bad as physical adultery. Mental adultery does not defile two people. It does not produce illegitimate children. It does destroy a marriage.
CONCLUSION:
1) The realization that God looks at our hearts and knows exactly where our minds have wandered over the years should keep us from being judgmental toward those who have fallen into adultery.
2) This should make us realize that we are spiritually bankrupt and cause us to be amazed at God’s love for us.
3) It should also remind us that sexual sins start with sensual fantasies.
IV. THE SIXTH ANTI-THESIS & FORM OVER CONTENT
The Pharisees had a narrow definition of sexual sin (no physical adultery) and a wide definition of sexual purity (mental adultery – coveting another person’s spouse – was not a problem). Are we like them???
The Pharisees were focusing on external righteousness (form) while Jesus was focusing on internal righteousness (content).
In 5:20 Jesus said that the righteousness of his disciples would have to exceed that of the Pharisees. This is a major paradigm shift. He is turning the world on its head. How can this be done? By focusing on internal and not external righteousness.
Basically Jesus is making us look at our hearts, the fountain and spring of our being, our inner self – the inner man, the inner woman.
In the first anti-thesis he forces us to look beyond the outward act of murder to the inner attitude of anger laced with contempt. Here He is forcing us to look beyond the outward act of adultery to mental adultery, affairs of the mind and heart.
Thus: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.” But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
SO WHAT???
1. Physical adultery is always wrong, no matter what our culture says.
2. Looking at a person with the wish or desire to commit the sexual act is also an act of adultery.
3. The Christian must always guard his/her heart, realizing that it is the fountain and wellspring of life.
4. We must never be satisfied with mere external righteousness. For our righteousness to surpass that of the Pharisees, we need to cultivate a true internal righteousness of the heart.