The Attitude Behind Adultery

In 1st Samuel 16 7, for God sees not as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. This evening we want to discuss Matthew 5 27 to 30. It reads as follows, you have heard that it was said you should not commit adultery, but I say to you that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you. For it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you. For it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish than for your whole body to go into hell. Our outline is the same for each of the six illustrations that Christ gives in Matthew chapter 5. We will first of all look at the rabbinical tradition, then the biblical teaching, and then your personal transformation.

First of all the rabbinical tradition. Jesus comes and says, you have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery. That's a true statement. That's the seventh commandment recorded in Exodus chapter 20 verse number 14. To break this commandment of course would be what? Death. Leviticus 20 verse number 10, Deuteronomy 22 verse number 22 speaks that if one man commits adultery, he is to be put to death. And so the Jewish tradition for all practical purposes seems to be entirely scriptural. You have heard that it was said do not commit adultery.

Amen. We're not supposed to commit adultery. And these religious leaders would strongly oppose it. The Bible says thou shalt not commit adultery.

To define adultery, you must understand that it's sexual intercourse between a man and a woman when one or both are married. That's how we look at adultery.

But what Jesus says here is very important. Because what Jesus says is while he's specifically dealing with the bonds of marriage and adultery, he speaks of it in a general sense when he records these words in Matthew chapter 5.

But I say to you that everyone, not just one who is married, but everyone who looks on a woman, not just necessarily a married woman, but any woman. So what Christ is doing is going beyond the realm of marriage to address any man, any woman, who at any time is engaged in lustful thinking. In moving the adulterous act back to where it belongs to the attitude of the heart. And so Christ covers a broad spectrum here. The scribal tradition was not wrong. It just didn't go far enough. You see, it focused on the deed.

See that? And it forgot about the desire. That's why it was wrong. So when Jesus comes on a scene, he would quote the seventh commandment. You shall not commit adultery. And the scribes and Pharisees around would try to justify themselves by saying, we don't do that. We don't sleep with other women. But that wasn't the issue. The issue is not the act of adultery. The issue is the attitude in the heart that leads to adultery is what condemns a man, is what condemns a woman. Turn back with me to Job 31.

Job knew this. These Pharisees should know what Job had said in verses 9 to 11. He says, if my heart has been enticed by a woman, or I have lurked at my neighbor's doorway, may my wife grind for another, and let others kneel down over her. For that would be a lustful crime. Moreover, it would be an iniquity punishable by judges. Job knew that infidelity was a matter of the heart. He knew that. These Pharisees and scribes who were to be experts in the law should have known what the Old Testament had said.

But how easily they forgot. How easily they set aside that which would really condemn them. That they might make themselves look righteous. We quoted it last week. We will quote it often. Mark 7 verse number 21. That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within out of the heart of men proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, and adulteries. Christ put his finger on the problem. It's in the heart is where the problem is. So that's the rabbinical tradition.

What's the biblical teaching? That's point number two. Look with me at four points. Number one, let's examine the passage together.

Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5 these words. You have heard that it was said you should not commit adultery but I say to you that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. Now the word looks, blepo, is a present participle which refers to the continuous process of looking. It's not an incidental involuntary glance. It's an intentional repeated gaze. He says for everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her. That's the goal. There's a purpose in the looking and it's to satisfy a desire that's in the heart as to the reason why the individual would begin to intentionally gaze upon that which would cause him to sin.

It's the one who who rents the videos knowing that the video explicitly shows graphic sexual content and rents it because they want to satisfy what's in their heart. It's the individual who buys the magazine knowing that the pictures in the magazine are very descriptive of what will fill their inner soul so they think. It's the one who who purposely goes to the beach and sits there on the beach to gaze and intently look at other women.

It's the one who specifically listens to music or speaks words that will stimulate that individual for the purpose of one thing and that is to be sexually stimulated. But note this. The looking at the woman lustfully does not cause the individual to commit adultery in his thoughts. He already has committed adultery in his heart. It's not the lustful looking that causes a sin in the heart. It's a sin in the heart that causes the lustful looking. Now note Christ is not speaking of unexpected unavoidable exposures to sexual temptation.

Satan is going to bring those things into your life all the time. But there is no sin when one is tempted and that temptation is resisted. That's not sin. It's when you succumb to the temptation is when sin takes fruit. But you need to understand that the only result of sin is death. The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life. Jesus is trying to help these people to understand in Matthew chapter 5 that it's not the lustful looking that's the problem. It's what causes the lustful looking.

A defiled, debased heart that seeks to gratify its sexual appetite. Let's explain the process to you. How does that happen? Turn back with me to 2nd Samuel chapter 11. But 2nd Samuel chapter 11 explains the process on how everything begins to happen. You say you know what? I'm not gonna do that. How many times we say that? I'm not gonna do that sin. Don't ever say you're not gonna do that sin. Whatever that sin is. Don't ever say you're not gonna do it. All right? To him who thinks he stands take heed.

What? Yeah you know the verse. Okay so we're on the same track here. But here's something very important. Over in 2nd Samuel chapter 5 verse number 13 it says something very interesting. Meanwhile David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem after he came from Hebron and more sons and daughters were born to David. It's almost as if the Lord just kind of goes through that in the list of all that's happening about David being king over Israel. Meanwhile David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem.

Interesting. Note this. That whenever you refuse to obey the Word of the Lord, whenever you forget the Word of the Lord you're going to have a problem when it comes to sin. Because if you read Deuteronomy chapter 17 there were three things the king could not do. And one of the three things says that the king could not take for himself many wives. No king of Israel could do that. Now David was a man after God's own heart. David was a man who knew his God probably better and more intimately than any of us will ever get to know God.

But David decided one day to take for himself many wives. So either he forgot what the Word of the Lord said or he just decided not to do what the Word of the Lord said. And whenever you don't do what the Lord says we become desensitized to the spirits working in our life. That is step number one.

Desensitization. We desensitize ourselves to the spiritual things, to the things that that are very sinful that God says in His Word.

To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is sin. Quote yourself that verse every day and you will redo 95% of what you do. To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is sin. David became desensitized to the scriptures. That's step number one.

When you go to 2nd Samuel chapter 11 it says in verse number one, then it happened in the spring at the time when kings do what?

Go to battle. It's springtime. What do kings do in the springtime? They go to battle. That's what the text says. That David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed where? At Jerusalem. Time out David. It's springtime. What do kings do in the springtime David? They go to battle. David you're not going to battle. Whenever you become desensitized to scripture you begin to become very relaxed in your obedience. Which they just in the first number, number two.

Now when evening came David arose from his bed, walked around on the roof of the king's house. For the roof he saw a woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. Step number three is fixation.

Whenever you become desensitized to the things of God and be relaxed in your work for God, the things outside of God's realm you begin to fixate on. See? And David saw this woman Bathsheba and she looked good. He should have went back in and went to bed. But he saw that she was beautiful. Which leads us to point number four. So David said and inquired about the woman and one said is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? Yeah she's spoken for David. Oh yeah? But I'm the king.

Step number four is rationalization. You know when you get involved in this lustful looking kind of thing you begin to rationalize things the way don't you? And it's so easy for us to rationalize our sinful behavior. Which leads us to step number five, verse number four. And David sent messengers and took her. When she came to him he lay with her. And when she had purified herself from her uncleanness she returned to her house and the woman conceived. And she sent and told David and said I'm pregnant.

From desensitization comes relaxation. Which leads to fixation, which leads to rationalization, which leads to degeneration. David dove headfirst into sin. Which leads us to step number six, ramifications. The consequences of sin. That's the process explained. The popular proverb, so I thought, and reap an act. So an act and reap a habit. So a habit and reap a character. So a character and reap a destiny. David reaped destiny that evening in his chambers. That totally altered his life, his family, his wives, the kingdom of Israel.

Let it be said that no nation will ever be any better than its leadership. When the president stands before the state of the union and says our country is the best it's ever been, that's not a true statement. Because as the leaders go so go the people. That's a biblical principle. Hosea chapter 4 teaches us that. So here was the king of Israel who reaped a destiny. Because when he looked he was drawn away by his own lusts and he was enticed. The bait was set. If he'd been doing what God told him to do, he'd never been there.

He'd have been doing the kingly thing. Instead he reaped a destiny. No matter where it ends, sin always begins when an evil thought is sown in the mind and the heart. That's the process. Let's expose a problem. Go back to Matthew chapter 5. In verses 29 to 30 it says this, and if your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you. For it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you.

For it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to go into hell. Now wait a minute. Jesus just said that it's the heart that's the problem. And now he comes and says we've got to cut off these things if they're causing us to sin. How does cutting off that which is the external deal with that which is internal? I'm glad you asked that question, because I'm sure many people that day would ask that question. You see you have to understand that in Jewish culture the right hand, the right arm, the right leg, the right eye was symbolic of the most precious possession that they owned.

And so what Jesus is saying is that there should be nothing in your life that is so precious that you are willing to hold on to, that it might cost you your eternal destiny. You see here's the problem. It's the most prized possession. Is there something more valuable to you than God? Is there an individual that you prize more about being with than God? The Lord says get rid of it. Cut it off. It should not be that precious to you, because it just leads to sin and separation from me. Read Proverbs 1 verses 10 to 19.

It talks about parting company with friends who influence you to do evil. Young people you gotta understand that. You hang around people at school that influence you to do evil? The Lord says get rid of them. Don't hang around anybody that will influence you to do that which is not obeying to God. But I'm trying to win into the Lord. Get rid of them. You should have a greater influence on them than they on you. Bad company always corrupts good morals. Point number D, executing the pact. You gotta do that.

It says over in Job 31 verse number 1 these words, I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze at a virgin? Maybe your translation says that I have made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully upon a woman. You made that pact? You need to execute it. As we close turn with me to our third point, your personal transformation.

We have a few minutes left. We'll go through this quickly. I want to give you just five words that hopefully will help transform your life. Number one is deliverance.

And the only one who can deliver you from your sin is God. And if you hear this evening and say, wait a minute man there's no way I can do that. Well you're on the right path. And so we know that God can take the adulterer and deliver him from his sin. We know that God can take the fornicator and deliver him or her from their sin. Why? Because God is powerful enough to do that. Do you want that? That's the bottom line. Do you want to be delivered from your sin? It was John White who said that we have a choice to make when we come to God about our sin.

Either we justify ourselves or else we justify God. We cannot do both. If I am right then God is wrong. If I say you would be wrong to condemn me altogether because I cannot really be held responsible and so forth, I am challenging the righteous judgments of God. Whether I realize it or not I am putting God in the wrong. We need deliverance. Once you've been delivered you need discernment. That's point number two.

You need discernment. Turn with me over to the book of Ephesians chapter 5. It says in 1 Peter 2 verse number 11 that we are to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Folks we need to be discerning people here. We're in a battle for our soul. And those fleshly lusts war against our soul. And we have got to be discerning. What we watch, what we read, what we look upon as we drive, what we allow our ears to listen to. We have got to be discerning. And folks I'll be the first to tell you that most people just are not discerning.

They let their kids watch and do whatever they want to do. As if they have no control over their kids. And we as parents have got to help them learn discernment. It says over in Ephesians 5 verse number 3 these words. But do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you as is proper among saints. And there must be no filthiness and silly talk or coarse jesting which are not fitting but rather giving thanks. Why? For this you know with certainty that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God.

May God give us the wisdom to know what is right and what is wrong. Thirdly, discipline. There's got to be discipline my friends. Paul will talk about in the first Timothy 4 verses 7 and 8 how we've got to discipline ourselves to godliness.

Discipline. It'd be far better for you to discipline your life to live godly than for Jesus Christ to have to take up a whip and discipline you because you refuse to live a godly life. Number four, dependency. You can't do it without God. You can't do it. Can't muster up enough strength. It just can't be done. Oswald Chambers wrote, if Jesus Christ cannot deliver us from sin, if He cannot adjust us perfectly to God as He says He can, if He cannot fill us with the Holy Ghost until there is nothing that can ever appeal again in sin, or the world, or the flesh, then He has misled us." We need God.

We can't do it without Him. We need Him to save us. We need Him to sanctify us. And we need Him to separate us from every single sin that comes down the pike. And we've got to throw ourselves at His mercy. And lastly there's got to be a dedication. A dedication. Number one, to the Word of God.

And men, number two, to the wife from God. God has given you His Word. You must be dedicated to that. But God has given you a wife. If He has this evening, you've got to be dedicated to her. Go back and read 1 Corinthians 7 verses 2, 3, and 5. And understand that that woman that God gave to you is the woman that is to satisfy you.