God has done an amazing work this week. It's as if he has primed the spiritual pump in our families and in our hearts. And it's a good thing too, because this sermon, this text this week is a strong one. It's been wearing me out all week. And my goal is not to wear you out with it of course, but to let the Holy Spirit do His work. And so I begin with a quote from an old English Puritan. The danger I shall give you warning of is the sin of uncleanness, with which I fear too many of the rude and looser sort of semen to file themselves. And possibly the temptations to this sin are advantaged and strengthened upon them more than others by their condition and employments. Let no man be offended that I hear give warning of this evil. I attend to a spurs no man's person or raise up jealousy against any, but would faithfully discharge my duty to all and that in all things. It was the complaint of Salvian many hundred years ago that he could not speak against the vices of men, or one or other with us object. There he meant me, he hit me. And so storm and fret, alas as he replied, it is not we that speak to you, but your own conscience. We speak to the order, but conscience speaks to the person. I shall use no other apology in this case. John Flavall, an English Puritan and preacher who did some of his work on the coast of England. And so he was accustomed to preaching to the pews full of men who worked on ships. It seems he thought that they were particularly susceptible to lust. I think he would be surprised to see that we, though we don't live by the ocean, we are also particularly susceptible to lust. So Flavall's apology is my own. I tend to take us through the second major paragraph in this portion of Jesus' sermon on the Mount. And I will press, but only as the Lord does. Brothers and sisters, this is a grave text that we're about to read. And so I want you to hear and to heed Flavall's exhortation about conscience and conviction. Jesus will bring to us this discussion about adultery and lust and hell. He could not use almost more grave terms. And so at the fountain head of this sermon stands these passages that we would do well to heed. So if you have your Bibles open to Matthew chapter five, the sermon on the Mount, the second part of the sermon, the second major paragraph begins 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, throw it away. For it's 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. Jesus does something in this part of the sermon that he has not yet done. In this sermon, even that has not yet happened up to this point in the Scriptures, he places adultery and lust in two spheres, the outward that which we can see and the heart that which we can't. In an article titled Sexual Sin and the Wider Deeper Battle, David Paulicin, who is a brilliant biblical counselor, he says, quote, sexual sins grab everyone's attention. They haunt the conscience and excite the gossip. They push other sins into the background. They go up on the marquee in red letters 10 feet high. Paulicin, following words like what we read from the sermon on the Mount, goes on to explain how to do battle against sexual sin, and it will serve as kind of a model for us as we move through this text. He writes again, it's a wider war. Consider the struggle with sin in this way. Imagine a multiplex theater screening many movies simultaneously. Sexual sin is the feature film advertised on the marquee, but other significant films are playing in other screening rooms. The war with sin takes place in many places simultaneously. In ministry to people who struggle with sexual sins, you may get the breakthrough in another screening room with a sin that you might not have noticed or might not have considered to be related. A breakthrough with anger or pride or anxiety or laziness may have ripple effects that eventually help disarm the big boogie man that's been hogging all the attention and earnest concern. It's very important to widen the battlefront and not to let the high profile sins blinker us from seeing the whole picture. So Paulicin reminds us of what Jesus introduces here that there is adultery and lust outside and inside. This battle against sexual sin is far wider than just doing battle on the outside. The battle we must and we'll talk about that. But this battle takes place in two spheres. So this morning we will consider four questions. You have them in your sermon notes. Each question will move us progressively deeper into this passage. The first question is this. What is Jesus talking about in this paragraph? Clearly, this is about adultery and about lust and about hell. Now we'll dig into those details. But first I want you to see that this paragraph fits into a larger context, a larger part of the story. The question asks, what is Jesus talking about here? The answer is exceeding righteousness, exceeding righteousness. Jesus says things about adultery that cannot be found in the law that he himself revealed to his people. Though you shall not commit adultery is first found in Exodus chapter 20 verse 14. It's one of the ten commandments. It's part of the moral law of God. We even find an expansion on it in Leviticus chapter 20 verse 10, where it reads, if a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulterer shall surely be put to death. If you keep reading on in Leviticus, you'll see that there's just more of the expansion of these kinds of details. But it will not yield what we see in our text, nothing about the heart. The heart and adultery, that connection, is first found here in this passage. It's in three other places in the New Testament. Matthew 5, 19, says, for out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder adultery. Mark 7, 21 to 23, is the parallel passage, says the same thing. The last place is in second Peter where Peter writes, they have eyes full of adultery. They have hearts trained in greed. Adultery and lust and the heart. The key to understanding what Jesus is doing here in this passage comes from understanding this part of the sermon more broadly. He is doing something new. Look at verse 20. I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. In six paragraphs, afterwards, you probably have the marked in your Bibles with the little headings. Six paragraphs. Jesus digs deeper and goes farther in explaining what it means to live in the kingdom. What does this mean, exceeding righteousness? Jesus, you can see where he makes these expansions when we read. You have heard it said, but I say. Jesus explains the different nature of this kingdom. The kingdom of God is different than the kingdom of the world. Of course we know that. But Jesus is saying it's different than we even know. Look at verse 48. Because verse 20 and verse 48, bracket, this part of the sermon. We read there, you, therefore, must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. So what is Jesus talking about throughout these whole six paragraphs, exceeding righteousness, kingdom righteousness, the father's perfection? Of course, do you know what that means? We think about the two spheres, the external and the internal. Exceeding righteousness, kingdom righteousness is foreign righteousness. It's the father's perfection. Who has that? The Pharisees? The scribes? No. And Jesus says so. Exceeding righteousness. Folks, it's out there. It's not in here first. The exceeding righteousness that Jesus is explaining in these paragraphs comes to us from outside. And it changes our hearts and then it comes back out in kingdom living. This is the context for this passage. We have got to get used to fighting, anger, and lust. Not just out there but in here. The externalism or the formalism or the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the scribes, the stuff that we get all worked up about. It's not what Jesus is talking about. He's talking about kingdom righteousness, the father's perfection. So six chances he gives us in this part of the sermon. If last week you didn't get that the standard for anger, the strength and the means to not be angry is out there, not in here. It comes from the father. Then today you have another chance to get that the way that we fight lust and adultery is not in here first. It's out there. It comes to us in the father's righteousness. If you want to succeed and not being angry, not being full of lust, then it's not just about where you go or where you don't go, what you watch and what you don't watch. We'll talk about the place for those things. But it's about tapping in again to the perfection of the father, calling out again that he would give you the strength to not be angry, to not be full of lust. Because I'm telling you, the stakes are high. It's in your text. How many times did Jesus mention the word hell in this paragraph twice? And last week did he mention hell? He did. And so the stakes are high. So Jesus is talking about kingdom righteousness. Before we move on to talk about the details of our text, now having kind of put this in a broader picture, the first, maybe the heaviest implication of this, brothers and sisters, is that Jesus says a lifestyle of lust will lead you to hell. That's what he says. We'll come back to this. But how can he say this? Well, it's because this is his kingdom. These are his rules. Maybe you walked in here this morning with your own rules about your sexuality, what you watch on TV, what you put on your computer, what's on your smartphone, what photos you've got in your phone. I don't know how many hundreds of people that are here today. Maybe there's a thousand different rule books for sexual sexuality. But you and I, if we're going to live in this kingdom, we have one rule book to follow. Jesus says, life styles of lust lead to hell. He is the king with the authority to say that. So this is grave and it's serious, but there's hope because what does he provide? But he provides us not just the instruction on how to live, but the strength to do that. So the answer to the first question, what's Jesus talking about? He's talking about exceeding righteousness, kingdom righteousness, foreign righteousness. So the second question is, what does this mean? What does, what do these words? What does this paragraph really mean? Let's look at the words. Let's look at the structure. First, there's a rule here. There's a comment and there's an application. Rule, comment, application. Look at verse 27. You have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery. This is the rule. No adultery. As in all the six paragraphs of this portion of the sermon, Jesus begins with a quotation of either the law or kind of a rabbinic interpretation of the law, something a little bigger. This, however, is a verbatim quote of Exodus 2014. He quotes it favorably. So the one thing that we can't walk out of here thinking is that adultery is okay. It's not. Men and women cannot have sexual relations with men and women who are not their wives. And that's a definition of adultery. Relations, sexual relations by a married person with a partner other than his or her spouse. Jesus is going after a core created aspect of who we are, our sexuality. Our sexuality is always been highly regulated by the Scripture. We talk about the regulated principle of worship in here that informs what we do on a Sunday morning. There is a regulated principle of sex. And it's also in here. So right off the bat, this rule is clear. Adultery is what happens when a man has sexual relations with a woman that's not his wife. A married man and vice versa, a married woman. These aren't affairs. They're not flings. It's not a midlife crisis. One night's standard or a hookup. Euphemisms, folks. You know what that is. A good way to call something bad. Not so bad. Adultery is what this is. Sinful, law-breaking violations of God's clear and long-term standard. It's always been the case that I'm supposed to be a one woman man. And that my wife is a one man woman. It's the way it's always been. That's the rule. The comments. Look at 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. But I say. This phrase has led many commentators like Sinclair Ferguson to argue that in each of these paragraphs, Jesus isn't just contrasting what's being said, but who's saying it? So this idea that Jesus is the rulemaker in his kingdom is one of the sub-themes here. But in our particular text, it doesn't really look as if Jesus is making a correction on what was said. He does something here that he does nowhere else. What does it mean? Everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent. Let's look at this. There is a who in here and a what in this? Who? Everyone. In the rule in verse 27, it looked like Jesus was talking and the rule itself is talking to married men and women. And of course, that's true. But he's not so specific here, Izzy. He says everyone, or even more literally all those who, everyone. And this other word, woman, these are general words. Of course, this comment is designed to further constrain me as a married man. But it's much more than that. Jesus took something that was very, very specific. He didn't change it. He just broadened it. Because he's not just talking about out there, our behavior, our conduct. What we do, he's talking about in here, what's going on in my heart. In the kingdom, we are the sun's bride. You wonder why he says everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent. Why broadened it? Well, in this kingdom, we are all the bride of Christ. I am a bride. You are a bride if you trust in Jesus Christ alone. The last paragraph that Chris preached last week, we saw Jesus discuss relations between brothers. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. Whoever says you fool, presumably to his brother, will be liable to the hell of fire. The dynamic just changed a little bit. Jesus is now talking to men and women. That means for a man to look with lust after a woman who is not his wife, he's actually lusting after Christ's wife because we are the bride of Christ. When we lust after someone who is not our own bride, we are lusting after Christ's bride and committing adultery in our hearts. We lust, we attempt to take and use what explicitly belongs to God himself. That's the who, the who is you and me, married or not. What about the what? Lustful looking. Look at the verse. Who looks at a woman with lustful intent. ESP does a good job translating this. It literally reads all who are looking at a woman for the purpose of lust. There is an intentional and continuous character to this looking. It's like if I just went like this. Not just scanning, I'm looking. That's where this verse is headed. There's an intentionality here. A continuous character to this man's looking. It's not just a passing glance. Lustful intent means it's more than just looking. One commentator writes, The New Testament does not equate temptation with sin. Hear me on this. The New Testament does not equate temptation with sin. Sin begins at the point of consent. Not with the temptation itself. And not first in the overt act. You see that? Adultery doesn't begin when adultery begins. It begins in my heart with consent. There's two ways to look at this phrase. First William Hendrickson looks at it this way as well. He says, The man is looking at a woman for the purpose of lust. The man is looking for a target. Looking, looking, looking for a target. Not just looking. Lust is looking plus intent. Desire. A target. Do you know what this looks like? This could be the man behind the sunglasses at the local swimming pool. This could be the man doing a Google search on words that would otherwise be harmless like legs or tank tops or princess. This could be the man who is bouncing from porn site to porn site looking for a place to stop. This could be the man who buys a data plan on his phone when he clearly doesn't need it. This could be the teen who asks his girlfriend about phone sex. This is a sex tour. Yeah? Sex tour? People who text each other. Blogged photos. They can't get involved. They are, you know, they are not listening. This is it. They are, you know, they are listening because they are looking for a target. It's looking plus desire. Not just looking but looking for a target. Here is the question. Are you willing to give your laptops over to your wives her what you want to hide from her. But are you willing to sit down and walk her through it? Will you hand her your smartphone and let her read your texts and your photos? Will you do that? Parents, are you willing to go to your teenager and say, let me see your phone? Show me your pictures. Let's look at your texting history. Looking plus intent. Now remember, we'll get there in a moment. But what's at the end of this passage? It's hell. Lifestyles of lust lead to hell. And so men and brothers, parents and teens, are you willing to put some things at risk in order to avoid hell? There's another way of looking at this. This construction, this phrase. Everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent can mean that a man is looking for a woman to tempt her to lust after him. It literally reads, either way. So ladies, here's a question. Have you been receiving any special attention from men? You're not quite sure why? Are you willing ladies, sisters, to sit down with your husband and talk about the attention that you've been getting from people at work to let him help you see if you are being targeted by a man of lustful intent? The second piece of this, what is about the speedy and natural result of the one who does this? He has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Now, one note before we move on here. The next paragraph in this sermon that Michael preached on next week makes it clear that actual physical adultery is the only condition upon which a believer can divorce another. Heart-based adultery does not constitute divorce a bull adultery. This is clear. But what is clear is that divorce a bull adultery always begins as heart adultery. So what is the result for the one who is looking to desire a woman who is not his own wife? Jesus says he has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Even before the actual acts of adultery, just after looking plus desire has happened, adultery has happened. This is the new covenant. This is the new kingdom. It is about our external life and how we live, but it is about what's going on inside in our hearts. Jesus is taking aim. It's not just do not commit adultery. That's like the baseline. It's more than that. This kingdom of exceeding righteousness or the Father's perfection is not just tithe. That's the baseline. It's more than that. We don't serve a God who is a God of the minimums, do we? He hasn't just given us barely what we need. It's like a paint by numbers exercise. I don't even know if those are around anymore. You know what I'm talking about? They got the numbers and they got the colors. And let's say there's five numbers. You're supposed to use five colors. Well, you pick one color and you paint all those numbers of that one color and you hand it back and you say, I've painted the picture. Well, that's true, but you haven't really painted the picture. Now, apply this standard that Jesus applies to us back to him. He has one bride, one bride, and all his affection is for us. It is outrageous for us to think that he is being faithful simply because he doesn't commit adultery to us. He doesn't treat us according to these minimums. What if he happened to ignore us but just didn't cast us away? What if he just fed us but didn't disciple us? Is this love? Is this marriage? No. Can it be said about the husband who is trolling around looking for a woman to desire? That he loves his wife, like Christ loves the church? Absolutely not. Adultery is a violation of several commandments, its own, coveting your neighbor's wife, and failure to worship God by doing what we want rather than his will. All of the terrible effects that come with and after adultery
are waiting in the wings for the man who looks upon a woman with lustful intent. Lust promises what adultery delivers. It is absolutely right that no man should commit any sexual relations with a woman to whom he's not married. Adultery is a sin. Jesus reminds us of words that Solomon wrote, Proverbs chapter 4. My son be attentive to my words and climb your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape your sight. Keep them within your heart. For their life to those who find them and healing to all their flesh, keep your heart with all vigilance for from it flow the springs of life. Our hearts, they're the source of all that we do. Our bodies, our home life, our education, our culture, they press us, these things. They influence us, but the scripture says only our hearts steer us and cause us to act. If in our hearts we are adulterers regularly, then the tools of the heart, the eyes and the hands and the body will follow in short order. If in your heart you live as if adultery is okay, you look for and lust after women using images on your computers or your phones, TV, it will only be a matter of time and opportunity before what has been in your heart will be a part of what is in your life. We live from the inside out folks. We commit anger and adultery from the inside out people who look to others with lustful intent have already committed the first steps of physical adultery, the necessary steps in their minds. Why does this matter? The third question, well Jesus is kind to us and he gives us a reason, he doesn't have to. He is king after all, but he tells us, look at verses 29 and 30. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away, for it's better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body will be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away, for it's better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body will go into hell. Now we'll deal with the how to in a moment, but let's dwell on this why. Hell awaits, unrepentant lust,
hell awaits the unrepentant lustful. These two sentences share many things in common. The one very important thing they share is that lifestyles of lust lead to hell. Jesus is very clear. Lust is not the unpartable sin. Jesus explains that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is over in Matthew chapter 12, but a commentator commenting on that verse says this, listeners steeped in the Old Testament would call to mind the laws that labeled particularly defiant sin as blasphemy and seemingly unforgivable. The flagrant willful and persistent rejection of God and his commands. Can't repeated lifestyles of lust isn't that defiant, flagrant, willful rejection of God?
Many sins mark the pathway to hell. Men and women who are not in the kingdom of God though they might look and act like Christians like the scribes and the Pharisees did. Sin in myriad ways, but Jesus told us in the last paragraph that insults and abusive speech and anger and here lust and adultery, these things certainly pave the pathway to hell. The actions that Jesus prescribes here are radical, they're also metaphorical. The whole body will be cast either into heaven and hell and so Jesus says, wouldn't you rather go with missing pieces into heaven than into hell with your whole body? In his application, these pieces most clearly represent adultery, need to go. The eye is clear since Jesus told us in the previous verse that the eye is what's trolling around looking for a lust target. The hand is the piece that lays hold of the forbidden flesh and perpetrates adultery, it needs to go. But the rest of scripture that shows us that this is metaphorical tells us that these things are tools of the heart. We are embodied souls, inner and outer. My hands, my eyes, they do what my heart tells them. Lifestyles of lust are incompatible with exceeding righteousness. The foreign holiness of God is not mingled with the hell bound unholiness of lust. Why does Jesus treat lust with such gravity? It violates both the two great commandments. First, a lustful heart attacks the commandment that says you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Looking at a woman with lustful intent like adultery is not being satisfied with what God has given you, life's stage, or your relationships. People who lust first speak to God in defiance
and they say, you know, my wife is okay, but I need more than what you've given me. God, you're holding out on me and so I'm gonna go get what I deserve. Is this all you have for me, God? Lust reads Romans 8, 32, which says he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he also with him not freely give us all things and says, God, that's not good enough. That's why so many commentators in the early church looking at the Jewish audience of this particular passage would think that those people would think of coveting, stealing, taking, but lust isn't just about getting some sensual satisfaction. Lust is a bold statement to God about what he has done or what he hasn't done in your opinion. And in mind, lust is about you and me and God before anything else, but it does also violate the second great commandment. Looking at a woman with lustful intent like adultery is treating what doesn't belong to you as something that should belong to you. It's like saying to another man who's married to a woman that's become your target, what you have there that needs to be mine, give it to me. In fact, I'm just gonna take it. Or it says, I don't care if she's your wife. Or I don't care if you're married to him. Lust starts with defiance onto God and it leads to destruction, one to another. So what do we do? The last question, lust in the notes there, I talk about the carpet or the furniture. Let me explain what I mean. We have a dog in our house now. Besides me, it's a big dog and she's a pup. Her name is Millie. We also have carpet in our house. You all know what happens when you take a dog and you mix it with carpet. Dogs like carpet a lot. What if, and she hasn't done this yet, thank the Lord? But what if Millie returned to a particular spot in the carpet over and over and over and over again? It would leave an indelible mark. Now, what do I do then? What can I do? Well, I've got furniture in my house as well and so I can just move some furniture on top of the mark and no one will know but me and Kim and the kids. I can do that. Or I can take the furniture out of the room and I can rip the carpet up and rip the padding up and start over, including training the dog. See, she knows that's what I should do in the kingdom. When it comes to anger, when it comes to lust, we can't be content just to move furniture around in our lives, covering up the bad spots, hoping that no one will see because the mark is still there. And so we do what Jesus said we need to do. We need a radical transformation, a radical commitment, move furniture out of a room and rip it up carpet and put a new carpet down for the sake of a spot is radical. That's exactly what Jesus presents us. We can deal with the furniture, the circumstances, thinking that by internet filters and no data plans and accountability groups and different routes to work or even different locations to work that that would be sufficient. But the mark is still there. There was one church father, his name was origin, who took Jesus, not metaphorically. He mutilated himself. But I imagine that when it was all said and done the moment that lust came back, the profound disappointment and sadness. And so we'll talk about the place for all of those things because they're good, but the problem is the heart. You lust because of your heart, not because of your co-workers, not because of what your wife will or won't do or husband will or won't do. You lust because of your heart. That's what Jesus says. So lust and adultery is a heart problem. Lust is the seed. So I'm going to go back to John Flavall, a little book called Lust. It's a pocket Puritan, they call it. I'd highly recommend them. In here, he has seven directions, seven applications. Let's talk about these. Ways that we deal with the fact that lust is a heart problem. Number one, and I'm going to quote him. The fight against lust is a kingdom fight. Outside the kingdom, there is no fight. If you are perfectly content with lust, that is incompatible with the kingdom of God. That is not exceeding righteousness. And so, beg of God for a clean heart. Maybe you're going to say, maybe a new heart for the first time. But certainly, beg him to clean the heart. So students naked images, topless photos, and sexting are the tools of lust and sin. Employ you, students, fathers, mothers, a sense of openness to remove the secrecy because hell awaits those who live lifestyles of lust. Second direction, walk, quote, walk in the fear of God all the day long and in the sense of his omniscient eye that is ever upon you. We think that the omniscience of God Psalm 139, search me and know me. We think that the presence of God, the ever-watchful eye of God, is a bad thing. Only because we love our sin. But he walks next to you. He sits beside you as you got your phone out when you're bang on your laptop, when you're watching TV or at the pool, he sits right there whispering, apart from me, you can do nothing. Abide in me. He sits right there. And so Flavile encourages us to long for spiritual eyes that would see the Savior, our Redeemer, our husband who's with us to strengthen us so that we don't once again choose to sin. Direction number three, quote, avoid food company and the society of unclean persons, they are but pandurers for lust. Evil communication corrupts good manners. He goes on to say the tongues of sinners do cast fireballs into the hearts of each other, which the corruption within is easily kindled and inflamed by. If your friends or your family or your co-workers make lust a sport, then you need to find somewhere else to play. Are you willing to lose a few friends, lose some popularity, stay on the outside of family reunions? If it means that you walk with your whole body into the heavenly gates, I hope so. Because the choices you play as a lifestyle, this sport of lust, it will lead to other things that will lead to is hell. Direction number four, quote, exercise yourself in your calling diligently. It will be an excellent means of preventing sin. You think about David and his sin with Bathsheba. Why was he even there? Why wasn't he out fighting the war? And so, flavor reminds us that our level of inactivity is our level of susceptibility and danger to lust. Now, many of you are unemployed or under-employed. As have I, I've been there as well. And I know the temptations. I'm on the internet, honey. I'm submitting my resume through monster and whatever else they have these days. And you might be, but when it's done, it needs to be done. We have to find some way. God might not have you as a breadwinner, but that doesn't mean that he's revoked your calling in other areas of your life. Father, mother, brother, sister, church member, exercise yourself in your calling diligently. Number five, put a restraint upon your appetite. Feed not to excess. He quotes Jeremiah, where Jeremiah writes, they are like fed horses, everyone naying after his neighbor's wife. When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery. Flavile is telling us, God has given us many blessings. He's given us texting. We've turned it into sexting. He's given us the internet. We've turned it into a repository of pornography. He's given us cable TV, which still blows me away, but a proliferation of adult channels. We must be wise in how we engage the blessings of God, because the devil is skilled at praying upon you and me and taking those things, attaching them to the weaknesses of our hearts. And the next thing you know, we're walking on the pathway of sin. Turning your Bible is not a 1 Corinthians chapter seven. Direction number six. First Corinthians chapter seven. Here's what Flavile writes. I love this wording. Make choice of a meat yoke fellow and delight in her you have chosen. So you know what he's saying? He's saying, if you've got a wife or if you've got a husband, as we'll see in a moment, then you've got a really good thing. If you're inclined, a single person, if you believe the Lord might be calling you in that direction, then get a spouse. You can't force things like that. I realize but Flavile's point is that God has, for many of us, given us a gift, a shield bearer. Let's read first Corinthians chapter seven briefly. Now concerning the matters about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman. He wrote from something they wrote to him. He replies, but because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights and likewise the wife to the husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. The husband does not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time that you may devote yourselves to prayer, but then come together again so that Satan may not tempt you because you lack self control. Spouses are shield bearers. The flaming darts of the enemy often take sexual form. I mean, sex sells, right? It's like an axiom in our culture. You can't watch the soccer match without having to put up with some of that. I know I'm watching something I shouldn't be when my son goes, ugh! Thank God for his sensitivity. Spouses are shield bearers. God fights those flaming darts first by giving you the Holy Spirit. Second, for many of you, by giving you a spouse. Wives, did you know that God made you, your husband's shield bear, sexual ally, number two in the fight against lust? Did you know that? Husbands, do you know the same as true with your wife? Many of us have in our very homes the means to fight lust. God gives spouses to each other in part to keep each other out of sexual sin. Interestingly, do you know that the only sex rulemaker is God? We talked about that earlier, and he says, in this passage, not to abstain or what? Satan may come and tempt you. It just echoes of what Jesus said about lust and the heart and hell. Satan is prowling around our homes, looking for husbands and wives who are stubborn and sinful and isolated so that he can get in there and provoke weakness, temptation, lust, adultery, and then hell is a wife to blame for husband's sexual sin. Of course not. Nor is a husband to blame for a wife's sin. We can try to cast blame on cold wives and absent husbands all we want. But the Bible tells us that we each do what we want to do. So the question is, wives and husbands, are you doing everything you can to protect your spouse from sexual sin? The last direction that flavor gives, quote, take heed of running on in a course of sin, especially superstition and idolatry, in which cases and as a punishment of which evils, God often gives up men to these vile affections. Flavor writes, no punishment in the world is like this, when God punishes sin with sin. There is a way out of sexual sin. There's hope for the man or the woman who lives with lust. Many of these directions are useful in our hands. The greatest hope that we have is that we are in the Kingdom of God with the righteousness of the Father. The Holy Spirit is yours. He stands ready to assist you to overcome the temptations that are before you. This is all at our disposal and for the disposal of all of those who believe in Jesus Christ. Rampant lust in the church has crippled our witness. Our marriages are falling apart. Our ministers are found guilty. Our message has been tainted, even destroyed. All of this need not be. We have the exceeding righteousness, the perfect and foreign righteousness of Jesus Christ Himself by faith. And so we have to remember what Jesus said at the very beginning of his ministry, repent and believe the gospel. It is good news unto salvation. It is good news unto all of us who fight anger and lust and sin. Let us pray. Lord, you are faithful. You've promised us that you will abide with us and in us. You've promised us that no temptation will overtake us, except that which is common, but you are faithful to give us a way out. You've told us that we must guard our hearts the well springs of life. Lord, all of this we do not in our own strength. So we ask that you would encourage us with the hope of the gospel that says we are new creatures in Christ. We live lives now in the Son of God by faith. That means victory over lust, victory over anger for your honor and glory. Lord, we bless your name and pray that you would challenge, encourage and exhort us to live as becomes brothers and sisters, children of God. I'm so thankful, Lord, that you're more committed to that than we are. We thank you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.