Well, let's continue in our study on the Sermon on the Mount today. Last week really marked, we could say, a change in the Sermon on the Mount. It was in last week's lesson that we saw the beginning of six corrective illustrations of true morality. Each of these corrective illustrations begins with the phrase, you have heard that it was said to those of old. Each one of those begins with that phrase. Well, last week we looked at Matthew 5, 21 to 26, which dealt with the topic of anger. We saw the danger of anger and slander, and we saw how anger was, in fact, murder. The point that Jesus is continuing to drive home in this Sermon on the Mount is that true, genuine, internal righteousness matters more than the outward false righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Well, today we're going to look at the second, third, and fourth illustrations found in Matthew 5, 27 to 37. So if you have your Bibles, turn there, Matthew 5, beginning in verse 27. 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 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 grounds of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Again, you have heard it said, to those of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn. But I say to you, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply yes or no. Anything more than this comes from evil." Well, today we're going to look at this under three headings. The first is the dangers of lust, which we'll spend a bit more time on than the other two. That's found in verses 27 to 30. Secondly, the warning against sexual immorality or divorce in verses 31 to 32. And then thirdly, the importance of keeping your vows, keeping your oaths found in verses 33 to 37. But first of all, note that Jesus says in verse 27, you shall not commit adultery. Remember the context, Sermon on the Mount, at the Sea of Galilee, newly chosen disciples, scribes and Pharisees are there, others are there. Scribes and Pharisees would have heard this, you shall not commit adultery. And much like we said last week when Jesus said, you shall not commit murder, they've been like, yeah, I'm good with that, right? I haven't committed murder, but as we saw last week, it's anger. That is murder. They would have said, seeing this, you shall not commit adultery and been like, well, I haven't done that. For in their minds, adultery occurred when a married person committed a physical act of sexual intercourse with another person other than his or her spouse. So again, the whole idea with the scribes and Pharisees was focusing on the outward and not on the inward. The Sixth Commandment promotes human life, but the Seventh Commandment promotes the sanctity of marriage. To be sure, these two topics, that one last week, anger, and today, lust, are probably two of the most powerful influences on mankind. Every person who has been angry has been guilty of murder and thus breaking the sixth commandment. And as we will see today, every person who has lusted is guilty of adultery, thus breaking the seventh commandment. Well, sexual temptation, I don't have to tell you all, is all around us, right? It's everywhere. It's on billboards, it's in commercials, it's in ads that pop up on the computer screen. Sex sells and the marketing executives know this. However, this is not really new to our generation. This philosophy of secular and sexual hedonism was common in New Testament days as well. Paul dealt with this with the Corinthian people. In that culture, many of them argued, like many modern-day hedonists, that sex is simply a biological or physical act and is no different than eating, sleeping, or drinking. So he writes to counter that in 1 Corinthians 6.13, food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And then he goes on to say in verses 19 through 20 of 1 Corinthians 6, or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God? You're not your own, you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body. So what's Paul saying to the Corinthians there and to us? Your physical body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. You can't equate the physical act of sex with food and drinking. It's totally different. Well, throughout history, some Christians have taken a rather extreme view, we could say, against sexual temptations. There was the Victorian view, which was a philosophy that was prevalent before Queen Victoria that basically said all sex is bad, and so avoid it altogether. Origen, who was one of the church's founding fathers, lived from 185 to 254 AD. He actually was so convicted of his own sinfulness by this passage in Matthew 5 that he had himself castrated. Others have gone into seclusion or isolation imbibing in what we would call monasticism. They thought if they got away from people and they lived in isolation up on a mountain peak somewhere or up in a tower by themselves, they would not sin, they would not lust, they would not be angry. What's the problem with that view? They couldn't get away from themselves. And so they found themselves continuing to sin because they were sinful. Well, Jesus goes on to say in verse 28, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her. in his heart. This would have surely shaken up the scribes and the Pharisees, for they thought, again, that adultery was merely outward. Job understand this very clearly. It's written in Job 31, 9 through 11, if my heart has been enticed toward a woman and I have lain in wait at my neighbor's door, then let my wife grind for another, and let others bow down on her, for that would be a heinous crime. That would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges." What's Job saying there? He recognizes that physical infidelity actually begins in the heart, and to lust is just as sinful in God's eyes as to commit physical adultery. Well, in verse 28, the term Jesus uses for look denotes a continual process, a continual process of looking. The idea here is not just a glance that may be involuntary or incidental, but rather it's a perpetual repeated or prolonged gaze. It's taking, as I heard from one pastor years ago, it's taking that second look. that can lead to problems. Well, this is the man who intentionally looks or looks longer to satisfy his inward desires. Impure thoughts come from inappropriate looking, thinking, and dreaming. This man or woman will stream a movie that's not appropriate, view pornography, even read a sexually explicit article or book. or go to a nude beach. John MacArthur writes helpfully, looking at a woman lustfully does not cause a man to commit adultery in his thoughts. He has already committed adultery in his heart. It is not lustful looking that causes the sin in the heart, but the sin in the heart that causes lustful looking. The lustful looking is but the expression of a heart that is already immoral and adulterous. The heart is the soil where the seeds of sin are embedded and begin to grow. And of course, that last statement about the heart and the seeds that are being sown in the heart, that can apply to any sin, right? But speaking specifically to the sin of lust, so, so very true. Let me ask you a question. In the Old Testament, was David sinning when he saw Bathsheba? Talking about when he just saw her first glance, was that a sin? No, he was out on the palace roof and he saw her. He couldn't help what he saw. Likewise, we can't help what we see just as we're walking about, maybe in the mall, maybe we're driving, maybe we're on the beach. However, it's what David did after that. And it's what we do if we continue the glance that is wrong. For David didn't just see her, but then he dwelled upon her, inquired about her, brought her to himself, and succumbed willingly to temptation. He could have looked the other way, as we should, but he chose not to, and it led to devastating, devastating consequences. Well, a popular proverb says, sow a thought and reap an act. Sow an act and reap a habit. Sow a habit and reap a character. Sow a character and reap a destiny. This illustrates Jesus' intent in this passage that sin is not just outward, which is, again, what the scribes and Pharisees believed. No, sin is inward. As such, sin begins when evil thoughts are sown in the mind and heart. and then begins to lead to poor decisions, actions, and then finally, immoral character, which then leads to a rippling effect, which damages one's character and hurts everybody in the person's wake. Well, A.W. Pink writes very helpfully, it's very poignantly though, listen to this quote, if lustful thinking is so grievous a sin, than those who dress and expose themselves with the desire to be looked at and lusted after are not less than, but perhaps more guilty. And this manner is not too often the case that men sin, but women tempt them to do so. How great then must be the guilt of the great majority of modern missus who deliberately seek to arouse the sexual passions of young men. And how much greater still is the guilt of most of their mothers, and I will add fathers, for allowing them to become lascivious temptresses." Wow, what a statement. Is he right or is he wrong? I think he's right. Now, he's not writing this to excuse or justify men's lust. He's just saying that women have a responsibility here. Adult women, this is a call for you to dress in a way that brings glory to your Father in heaven. rather than draw attention from the opposite sex. This does not mean that you have to wear shabby skirts and dresses that go down to your ankles that are unkempt. It does not mean that at all. But it means that you need to think about others before you leave the house. For those parents who have daughters in the home, this is a call for us as parents to carefully monitor the things that our children are wearing, particularly our daughters. What they wear out of the home needs to pass your inspection before they leave the home. You don't want your daughters to cause their male brothers in Christ to stumble and fall into temptation. So this means, you know, we need to be careful with the length of their skirts, the length of their dresses, the length of their shorts, their shirts. Are they revealing or are they not? We have to be careful with those things. Why? Because we don't want our daughters to be a stumbling block or a temptation to other men and brothers in Christ. And fathers, I will say to you, as I say it to myself, this falls upon you. You are, we as men, are familiar with the nature of male temptation. And so use this knowledge to caution your daughters in how they dress. Why would you ever want the possibility of another boy or man to lust after your own daughter? Our girls should never be the object of temptation. And we have to draw a hard line on this. It's an important matter to consider. So what do we do? What do we do if we struggle with lust and sexual temptation? Well, Jesus writes in figurative language in verses 29 through 30 about tearing your eye out and cutting your hand off. What's he getting at? Well, we need to get rid of harmful influences. This may mean getting rid of the television, at least for a time. It may mean putting monitoring software on computers and cell phones. It may mean distancing yourself from those that you may have temptations toward. Joseph, of course, knew this full well when he fled from Potiphar's wife. We see that, don't we, in Genesis 39, 11 through 12. And we need to be willing to do the same. Take measures, pray for the Lord's help that we would not be a lustful people. Well, we've seen thus far that lusting is adultery. We also see in this next section of verses that adultery is what can lead to divorce. Jesus said, 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. Well, it's a well-known fact that almost half of all marriages in America end in divorce. The top five reasons for divorce are too much conflict or arguing, a lack of commitment, infidelity, a lack of emotional and or physical intimacy, And the fifth one is communication problems. Now, certainly not all of these would qualify for biblical divorce. According to these verses that we just read in Matthew 5, who is permissible to divorce? What's that qualifying factor? If there's sexual immorality. And yet, we know from Scripture that God also hates divorce. Therefore, I would say even in cases of sexual immorality, It would be ideal for the one that is at fault to repent of his heinousness of his sin before his wife and before God and for the two to be reconciled and reunited again. That's not always what happens, unfortunately. And so, in cases where there is a hardness of heart and there's not a repentant spirit with the one that's at fault, then the spouse may divorce. Again, divorce is never mandated, but there are allowances for it, and this is certainly one of them. Well, are there any other instances where divorce may be granted? Westminster Divines included one more. In the Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 24, section 6, it reads, although the corruption of man may be such as is apt to study arguments unduly to put asunder those whom God hath joined together in marriage, Yet nothing but adultery or such willful desertion as can no way be remedied by the church or civil magistrate is cost sufficient of dissolving the bond of marriage." Notice the language, willful desertion as can no way be remedied by the church. Now, there's been a lot of spilled ink over the years on this phrase and what it means. But let me say, if there's been willful desertion by one spouse and he or she repents and is restored and reconciled, again, that is cause for celebration and for a reuniting of the couple, for them to stay married. However, if the spouse has willfully and intentionally deserted the spouse, maybe he or she has moved out of the house, that would be willful desertion. There's other cases where the husband or wife is perhaps neglecting clear biblical duties in the home, and again, is not repenting of those things. And there's, again, a hardness of the heart that can't be remedied by the church, then there could be a case there for divorce as well. But by the time Jesus speaks these words in Matthew 5, divorce had become so easy to attain by the Jewish people. All a man had to do was to write up a certificate, and he did so. And he literally did so for reasons like the wife overcooking his food. Honey, my food's burnt. Here's what's a big fit of a divorce, right? It happened much. It could have happened from a woman embarrassing a man in front of his friends. So that's the culture and the context that Jesus is speaking in. He's saying, no, no, no, no, no. You don't get divorced for frivolous, meaningless reasons. sexual immorality, and then as the divines would state as well, willful desertion. James Montgomery Boyce writes, there is hardly a matter, it's so true, there's hardly a matter in the Christian church today that is treated with more laxity than divorce and remarriage. As a result, it's always easy to get our standards from what other people do or say, from what we should be like, rather than what the Bible says we should do. We must not do that. He says, we must be people of the book and we must live according to its standards and not lower its standards. What is he saying here? Well, part of what he's saying is that as Christians, we're to be different than the world. And so in how we operate and how we think and how we live and who we live unto, we don't take our cues from an ever-changing world. We take our cues from a never-changing God. and from His Word, as clearly outlined in Scripture. Well, marriage, as we've seen in previous classes, was the first institution to be created by God, and He takes it very seriously. It's to be between one man and one woman. It's to be lasting. It's a mirror of that relationship between Christ and His church. Thus, a Christian woman should marry a Christian man, and vice versa. If you're a single Christian, you have no right marrying a non-Christian. It will cause problems. Marriage is a joining together of man and woman physically, spiritually, and emotionally. Sexual intimacy within the bounds of marriage is a rich blessing for both husband and wife. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 7, 3, the husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights and likewise the wife to her husband. He goes on in verse 5 to say, do not deprive one another except perhaps by agreement for a limited time that you may devote yourselves to prayer, but then come together again. Why? So that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. You see, having a godly marriage in which sexual intimacy is held in high regard helps prevent adultery. We should only deprive one another for a short period of time, and I will say as long as both husband and wife are in agreement. And what would the purpose be? To pray. Whatever that matter may be, but to pray, but for a short period of time. Do not let it linger. Why is that? Because it gives the devil a foothold. Boyce writes, the quickest way, the quickest way for the marriage to end up in trouble is for the wife to have a headache every night and go to sleep early to avoid the sex act, or for the husband to lose interest in his wife romantically and to spend his nights elsewhere or with the boys. Sex must be a regular expression of the relationship. It's true. Chapter 4, section 2 in the Westminster Confession of Faith says that sex within marriage was ordained first for the mutual help of husband and wife, second for the increase of mankind, and third for the church to have a holy seed. The Puritans had initially the first goal was procreation. The Westminster Divines reversed that and said, no, it's actually first and foremost for the mutual help of husband and wife. I think that's true. There's a true companionship that happens in marriage even through sexual intimacy. So first and foremost, sex is for the mutual help in marriage. To deny that help by either man or wife is really to deny the need, the help that we need for a strong marriage, able to protect against divorce. Now, of course, there's many, many other, we could say, divorce-preventing measures. But in terms of the context today, I'll stop there. It's important to say that there are also God's standards here outlined. These are God's standards for His people. But it's very, very difficult to meet these standards apart from the grace and the help of the Holy Spirit. There are unbelievers that may marry, for example, and begin to grow apart and end up divorcing. And later on, they become Christians and remarrying. Boyce writes regarding that particular matter, we must never forget that their previous conduct along with all their past is wiped clean. by their conversion to Jesus Christ and that they therefore have the right to marry for the first time as Christians. Clearly, when a new creature in Christ meets another new creature in Christ and God leads them together, they have a right to marry and establish a Christian home regardless of their previous history. Doesn't He do that for us as well in other matters? Wipes the slate clean. Right? We're new creatures in Christ. Well, certainly one of the vows or oaths that God intends for Christians to keep is that of marriage. Jesus speaks directly to the crowd again about the importance of keeping oath. We see this in verses 33 to 37. And so here is the fourth of Jesus' illustrations. Jesus speaks of keeping your oath, which leads us to the question, what is an oath? Well, biblically speaking, it's the rendering of two different Hebrew words that means an appeal to God, an attestation of the truth of a statement or a sworn covenant. There's many examples throughout Scripture of God initiating covenant, God initiating oaths with His people. We see that that he would never destroy the earth again by flood, Genesis 9, to send a redeemer, Luke 1, to raise his son from the dead, Psalm 1610, and to preserve and bless Israel. We see that in Isaiah 49. Well, according to Old Testament law, oaths were only to be made. in God's name. Deuteronomy 6.13, it is the Lord your God you shall fear, Him you shall serve, and by His name, by His name you shall swear. You see, during Jesus' time in Palestine, men would make oaths for all kinds of different things. William Barclay called one such oaths that were taken as frivolous swearing. This involved taking an oath when it was neither necessary or proper. Others would use what he would call evasive swearing in making oaths. In other words, they were afraid to swear by the name of the Lord because they were not telling the truth. Isn't that crazy? So they would say, okay, I know I'm getting ready to make an oath and I'm not being totally honest and transparent here, so I'm going to swear by my health or by my hair or by something else, but I'm not going to swear by Jesus' name. Well, what were they ignoring there? Well, first of all, they were being dishonest, right? But they were also ignoring the fact that God is sovereign. over all those things. Remember it says back in this section of verses in verse 35, do not take an oath at all either by heaven for it's the throne of God, or by the earth for it's his footstool, or by Jerusalem for it's the city of the great king. What's he saying? God's sovereign over all. So if you're going to take an oath or a vow before God and before man, you do it in God's name. When do we take oaths today? Or we take an oath when we marry. We take an oath when we baptize a child. We take an oath when we are ordained for office. There's other examples of oaths. The point is that when you make an oath and a vow, it's a serious thing. God instituted vows and oaths, and He keeps them. we tend to not keep them for various and sundry reasons. When we take a vow or oath, we are taking them before man, before God. You know, think about even in marriage, when you take the vows to be a godly husband to that woman who's sitting next to you, standing next to you, you're vowing before God, I will promise to do these things. And you're also promising before man to do these things. In a sense, we're saying, hold me accountable, people that are hearing this. Hold me accountable, Lord, if for some reason I break my promise, but help me by the help of the Holy Spirit to honor what I've said. Make my yes. This should be in all of our endeavors. Make your yes a yes. Follow through on what you have said that your Christian character, that your Christian testimony may not be hindered." Well, let's consider this briefly. Let me just end on this. Outlined in this section of verses today are characteristics for the godly man and the godly woman. Let us not be a lustful, adulterous people. Let us, if we are married, hold fast to our spouse. living in a God-honoring way and according to His Word. And let us be trustworthy toward others as we communicate them, as we take vows, as we take oaths, as we sign contracts. Let us follow through on what we've said. Let's pray. God in heaven, we thank You, Lord, for Your Word. There's some sections of it that are more difficult than others sometimes to read through and to hear. Father, it's all Your Word, it's all of You. So help us, Father, as we think through these verses, even in the coming week. Father, help us with our eyes, Lord, to not gaze upon that which we should not. Help us to hold fast to our wife or our husband, Lord, that we might honor You in our homes. And help us to honor You and the intentions that we have in making agreements with others. Father, help us to be a faithful testimony of your work in our lives. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.