Wed Study | March 12, 2025 | Sermon on the Mount | Session #7
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Good evening.
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I'm so glad that you're here tonight. Let's have a word of prayer before we dig into the word. Father, I thank you so much for the men and women in this room tonight. I thank you, father, that we have the opportunity to open the Bible and to study the Bible. And I pray tonight, Lord, that you would speak to our hearts, and you would shape our lives so that we could live for your glory.
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Lord, we love you. We thank you for all the great things you've done in our lives. And I pray tonight, Lord, when we walk out of this room, we will have grown spiritually and you would be pleased. As we studied and received the Word of God. We love you in Jesus name. Amen. Well, tonight, one of the hazards of being an expository preacher is you can't skip anything.
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And so we're in the sermon on the Mount, and we come to a passage, verses 27 to 30 tonight. And before we dive off into that study, it's entitled Winning the Battle Against Lust. Wow.
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I want us to make sure that we've got something straight in our mind and heart tonight. Every person in this room is a sinner by nature and by choice. There's not a person in this room who's bad at a thousand who can stand before God and say, Lord, I've lived a perfect life, right? Am I right? And we have all had failures in our lives of one kind or another.
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Amen. Amen. And so we have no right to sit in judgment, of of others, because we ourselves have failed ourselves. I saw on Facebook a while ago where, a young man got killed and a pastor got on Facebook and said, well, he shouldn't have been where he was. And I thought to myself, do you really have to say that?
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That's very judgmental.
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Listen, we're going to talk about what Jesus taught about judgment later on. And Jesus didn't say, we're not to judge. Let me just make that clear. You are to judge, but you're to judge in a righteous way. You should judge whether somebody is telling you the truth or telling you a life from the pulpit. Your judge that you ought to judge, whether you're your child, is walking the way he wants to walk or not walk it the way you want to walk.
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So I just want to make sure we get all of that as background here. For those of you who are saved. And I look out and probably everybody in this room is saved. If you're not, I hope and pray you be saved before the night's over. But everybody that saved in this room, you need to remember that you were saved by the grace of God.
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There's not a single person who will ever go to heaven that is saved because they earned their way to heaven by their own righteousness, by their own good works, or their by their own religious accomplishments. Nobody. Jesus died on the cross to redeem you and me from our sins. And he was raised from the dead so that we could be justified before the father.
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Your salvation is eternally secure. Nothing can ever change that. God does not promise you that he's going to give you eternal life. And then because you have, a glitch in your life and you commit a sin, he takes it away from you. That's not the way it works. God keeps his promises. Amen. Couple of weeks ago, I preached the sermon out of out of, Jeremiah 17.
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I talked about. You're just going to trust, man. Are you going to trust God? And I said, the Bible says in Psalm 118, it's better to trust in God then to trust in man. Why? Because God's trustworthy. He's trustworthy. You can depend on him. So tonight we're going to talk about a battle. A battle of for purity, for righteousness and holiness.
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When you are saved, you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit's ministry, and the gift and the the heart and life of a believer is to conform you to the image of Jesus, to make you more like Jesus. As the days, weeks, months and years pass by, it's a battle. It's a battle. This sanctification is a battle.
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Let me read these verses to you, Galatians five and 16 to 24. Look at it. But I say, walk by the spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. Now there you have the two opposing forces at work in every one of our lives. Your flesh, your humanity. You were when you were saved. God did not take away your humanity.
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You still got your humanity. So you got what the Bible calls flesh, and then you got the Holy Spirit. So you got the flesh and the Holy Spirit at work in your life. 24 seven for the flesh look at verse 17, for the flesh sets its desire against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.
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Do you see what I'm talking about? This battle, this war? Verse 18. But if you are led by the spirit, you're not under the law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident with your immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, deceitfulness, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I for warned you that those who practice underline the word practice, those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
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Now the word practice means it's a it's, a settled part of your life. It's something you do all the time, okay? It's not a blip on the radar. It's. It's there all the time. Okay. It's a pattern in your life. Now, look at this. Verse 22. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
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Against this thing, there is no law. Now, those who belong to Christ Jesus, look at this, have crucified the flesh, that humanity, that part that wants you to to to be angry, that wants you to be at odds with somebody. The stuff that he talks about, the deeds of the flesh up there. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and desire, not understand this for you to walk in victory.
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You have to crucify the flesh every day and sometimes multiple times a day. You have to crucify sinfully. You have to say no. There's certain things you have to say no to, and there's certain things you have to say yes to. Right now. Look at Romans 611 to 14. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to what church sin?
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Consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey its lust, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. But present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteous to God for sin.
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Look at this now. Verse 14 is very important, for sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. The Christian life is a battle you were designed to win. You were designed to win this battle. When Jesus saved you and he gave you the gift of the Holy Spirit, he equipped you to win this battle over whatever your faith.
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All right. Now, remember, in the sermon on the Mount, we've already discovered in verses 13 to 16, in Matthew chapter five that Jesus called us to be salt and light of the world. We are a city set on a hill, intended to shine so that everybody can see the glory of God because of our good works. Remember verse 16 of chapter five.
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Look at it. Chapter five, verse 16. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven. The number one listen. The number one privilege we have in our lives as born again believers is that we get to glorify God. Now we can only glorify God if we allow the Holy Spirit to seal that victory that God has made available to us.
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And there is good works that flows out of our lives, and people see it and they glorify God. Okay. Does that make sense to everybody? All right. Now, there are two recurring themes in the sermon on the Mount, and they're summarized by these two statements here. I've got in in bold and underlined. Jesus said, I have not come to abolish the law or the prophets.
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Look at verse 17. Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish, to fulfill. Jesus did not come to eradicate the Old Testament. He came to fulfill the law and the prophets. Now, when, when, there's a reference to the law and the prophets, he's talking about the whole Old Testament.
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Okay. Jesus came to fulfill the Old Testament, the Old Testament prophecies. And then he says in verses 22, 28, 32, 34, and 44 of Matthew chapter five. But I say to you, in other words, it's been said, look at verse, verse 28, just a minute. But I say to you, oh, excuse me. Verse 27, you have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery.
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But I say to you, I say to you. Now he says that in verse 22, 28, 32, 34 and 44 so on the one hand, Jesus is preserving and fulfilling what God had promised and previously promised in the Old Testament and on the other hand, he's extracting the true meaning of Old Testament law by initiating a break with the Jewish rabbinical teaching of his day.
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Now remember the scribes and the Pharisees. Jesus always had a battle with the scribes and Pharisees. Did he not? And the scribes and Pharisees wanted to make everything external. Okay. They believed that you could earn your way to heaven by keeping the law, by being religious, by flaunting, their, their prayer life and all that kind of stuff, by flaunting their, their giving of offerings.
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And they believed that that would get them to heaven. They truly believe that. And Jesus came. And what he's doing here now, you got to understand it. He is he's saying and teaching this kingdom principle that it's not the externals that God's looking for. God's looking for the internal. The only way that. Look at verse 20 for I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
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There are a lot of people who get sidetracked by that. And they say, but aren't they the most religious people in Israel during Jesus day? No they weren't. No, they were not. They were. They were focused on externals, externals, not internal. What is God most concerned for in your life? Is your heart? Remember Sunday I was preaching out of Philippians chapter four and in, second Corinthians, the Bible says that the the Macedonians of which the Philippians were part of Macedonia.
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He said, the Macedonians or Philippians first gave themselves to the Lord, and then they gave their offering. They gave their heart to the Lord. Then they gave their offering. God was more interested in their heart than what they could drop in the offering plate. God is interested in internal righteousness, not external righteousness. Now here's the thing. Anybody who focuses on internal righteousness has is more righteous in the scribes and the Pharisees.
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Okay, listen, you are more righteous in scribes and Pharisees. You know how I know that? Because the Bible says in Second Corinthians chapter five that Jesus was made sin for you, and he died on the cross for your sin, so that you may be made the righteousness of God in him. Do you realize that every born again believer in this right?
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If we were to stack up righteousness and compare your righteousness to the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees in Jesus day, you would blow them away. You know why? Because you have the righteousness of Jesus. And ladies and gentlemen, that's perfect righteousness. You listen. You are positionally holy. When God looks at you, he doesn't see all your failures.
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He sees the righteousness of His son, and that's perfect righteousness. That's what he sees. So it's very important that we just make sure that we we're settled. And we understand that in the entire sermon on the Mount, Jesus is focused on internal righteousness. Okay. Not external righteousness. Now, Jesus illustrated this internal righteousness by focusing on six practical issues in the rest of chapter five.
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The first issue we dealt with the last time we were here, and it was the issue, the prohibition against murder in verses 21 to 26. Now remember how how Jesus did this. Look at verse 21. You have heard that the ancients were told, you shall not commit murder. And that's one of the Ten Commandments, right? You shall not commit murder, and whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.
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But I say to you now, when every time Jesus says, but I say to you, I want you to know he's speaking with authority, the authority of our King. It's a kingdom statement. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court. So. So Jesus takes the idea of murder in the physical aspect, and he reduces it down or lifts it up to say, even if you're angry with your brother, you committed murder in your heart.
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So it's the heart that counts. And I hope and pray that that you were here for verses 21 to 26 when we went through that. If if you weren't here and you want the notes, Kathy keeps the notes from all of these lessons, and you can ask her and she'll give you a copy. Of, of that, that teaching from that week.
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But tonight we're going to deal with the second issue and the issue of sexual immorality. Notice verse 27 to third, let me read all of these verses, and I'll come back and come in on. Jesus said, you have heard that it was said again in all six of these issues, Jesus begins the same way you have heard that it was said, and he goes back to the Old Testament, goes back to the Old Testament law, the moral law.
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You say that you should not commit murder. Now he says, you have said, you have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. And that's one of the Ten Commandments, right? You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you again, he's speaking with the authority of the king who is laying down the kingdom. Principles of those who are a part of his kingdom.
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But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has committed adultery with her in his heart. If you're right, I makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it out from you, for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
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If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from me, for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. I'm sure you've looked at that before and you scratch your head. What does that mean? Well, you don't find out tonight.
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Okay? All right, so he's dealing with the subject of adultery or sexual immorality. Again, he's focusing on the internals, not the externals. Now, the scribes and Pharisees, when they looked at the old covenant, ten commandments and they say, thou shalt not commit adultery. They took that literally. It's the action of a married man cheating on his wife with another woman.
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Okay. That's what that that's what they looked at. But Jesus said, there's a lot more than that. It's a lot more than that. In fact, look at verse 27. You have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. Now, so I've divided the the teaching tonight down into basically three words. First word is commandment. Verse 27.
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Now don't miss is God's design for sex was established at the point of creation. Excuse me.
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I've got it. I've got it in here. Yes.
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Thank you. Mandy. Okay. So if you go back to Adam and Eve, go back. Go back to Genesis chapter two. Genesis chapter one and two. Do you realize that God created sex? He did. He created. In fact, look at this.
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In verse 27, chapter one, God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him, male and female, who he created. I'm telling you, you can solve so many of our culture problems if you just read the Bible and understand the Bible. God created man his own image in the image of God. He created him male and female.
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He created them. God bless them and said to them, be fruitful and multiply. Okay. Well, how is a man and woman? How are they fruitful and multiply? God created. Listen. God created sex before that was ever seen in the world. Before Adam and Eve ever fell into sin. God created this beautiful act of a husband and wife coming together in an intimate way and producing children.
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It's right there in the Bible. Now, you may get mad at me tonight for for for teaching it, but it's right here in the Bible. I'm teaching you the Bible. Okay. So God created man his own image in the image of God. He created him, male and female created. Then God bless him, said, then be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
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Look at verse 24 of chapter two. For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed. All of this happened before Adam and Eve fell into sin. It's good. It's created by God.
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Now. In Proverbs chapter five, verse 15 to 20, I don't have time to read all this. You can go back and read it at your your leisure. You can read the whole Song of Solomon is about the beauty of, of an intimate relationship between a husband and wife. In first Corinthians chapter seven, one through six again deals with the same issue.
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It's an amazing how much the Bible speaks to the issue of what has infected the whole culture with corruption. If we would just listen to God and align our lives and our attitudes with the Word of God. It's all so many problems. Adultery is a sin against self. I love what Doctor Rogers said. He said there is no sin that will do you more spiritual, psychological and physical damage than immorality.
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It's a sin against family. Listen, if you've ever if you've ever been a part of, of a family that has experienced this, you know, it just ripped to shred a family rips them to shreds. It's a sin against the church. Listen, I want to make a statement to you. Don't. Don't hit me with anything, okay?
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You should be concerned about my sex life. And I should be concerned about your sex life. You know why? Because it affects the body of Christ. It affects the kingdom of God. I'll give you an example. We have seen multiple pastors fall into immorality in the last five years. Guys, I never thought it would fall into immorality. Some that I did suspect didn't didn't one surprised when they fell and immorality.
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And what is it done? It's given the seeing the end and the the, the the liberal media a chance to absolutely crucify the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought to be concerned about that. You know, I've prayed this before, and I mean it. I've asked the Lord. I said, Lord, if you see I'm about to do something that would bring shame or reproach upon your name, please take my life before I do it.
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I'm serious, a hard day. I would rather die than to bring shame or reproach upon the name of my dear Lord and his church.
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It's a sin against the church. Is sin against families, sin against. It's a sin against America. It tears the moral fabric of a nation. I look, I look at where our our nation is today. Compared went to when I was growing up. You know what I've discovered? America has forgotten how to blush.
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They really have.
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Everything is legitimate now.
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And then it's a sin against God. You remember David committed adultery, didn't he? And multiple wives. But the thing that really got David was his sin with Bathsheba. You remember that story? David was a man after God's own heart. You know what that tells me? No. No matter how close you are to the Lord, you need to be on your guard 24 seven.
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You need to be vigilant. 24 over seven. You say, pastor, I'm too old to worry about that. Don't ever. Don't ever think you're not a candidate for the enemy to do something stupid in your life. Okay. You got to be vigilant. You got to be on your guard 24 seven. And, David, the Bible says at a time when kings go out to war.
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He stayed behind. And I guess David was feeling good about himself. His kingdom man. He was used in a mighty way by God. Israel was flourishing. And he was up on his rooftop. He looks out over the precipice, and he sees a beautiful woman bathing down below. And you know what happened? Lust. The seed of lust crept into his heart, and it absolutely inflamed his heart.
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Now she was married to one of his soldiers, one of the 30 mighty men of David. Uriah the Hittite. David sent for her, and David committed adultery with her. He remember she got pregnant. Long story short. David blew it big time. And you read Psalm 51, and you read Psalm 32. And those psalms deal with David's broken heart over his sinfulness.
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And David, in those Psalms, he said this to God. He said, against you, and you only have I sinned.
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Against you, and you only have sinned. So adultery or sexual immorality, let's just lump it in with sexual immorality is a sin against self. It's a sin against family. It's a sin against church. Sin against America. It's a sin against God. So that's the commandment. Now look at the clarification. I want you to notice how Jesus clarified this.
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Remember verse 27. You have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. And Jesus did not undo that. He just took it to a different level. He took it from an external to an internal. Verse 28 but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
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Now, is Jesus really saying what it sounds like? He's saying? It's he's saying that even a little fantasizing is off limits. Is he really saying that staring at a woman without touching her is a sin against God? Is he really saying that? What's so bad about watching a risque movie? What's so bad about glancing at a pornographic image on the phone?
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As long as we're not physically breaking our commitment to our spouse. I tell you what we're doing. We're committing a sin in our heart. We're sinning against a holy God. Look at me. Listen very carefully. We studied the book of, of Hebrews and in the book of Hebrews it said, pursue holiness, without which no one will see God.
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You listen as a born again believer. We are called to live a holy life. You can't, you can't. You can't escape that. We are called to live a holy life.
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Now look at that word lust for just a moment. If you. Do a quick survey through the Bible, you'll find out this problem has been around since the beginning of time. It's nothing new.
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You remember when Joseph was in, Egypt? He was a slave in Potiphar's house. And Joseph was a young man. A masculine young man. And he was a good looking young man and Potiphar's wife made a play for him multiple times, not just one time, multiple times. And Joseph refused her and refused her and refused her.
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And then one day, nobody was in the house except Joseph and part of his wife. And she made a play for him, and he ran out the door. Remember, the Bible says in first Timothy 222, flee youthful lust, flee youthful lust. And he ran out the door.
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And you remember what she did? She grabbed his coat as he was leaving, or his clothes or whatever. I don't know what it was. And and she made up a story and said that, that he tried to abuse her, which was a total lie in the fabrication. That's the scary thing today. The scary thing today is somebody can tell a bald faced lie about you, and people will believe them.
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That's scary. But you know what? If somebody were to tell a bald faced lie about you, as long as you can get on your knees at night and know that you've not done anything to shame or bring reproach on the name of Jesus, it's okay. Not okay. But I can live with that. So. Let's look at this for just a moment.
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You got David and Bathsheba got Josephine, Potiphar's wife. They got Samson. Judah, Amnon. There's so many illustrations in the Bible of sexual immorality. Have you ever ask yourself, why did God put this in the Bible so much? Because it's such a big problem. And it does so much damage to the individual, to the family, to the church, to the nation.
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Today. The problem of lust had degenerated into a big time business. Do you not realize that the business of pornography is one of the most moneymaking businesses in the world today?
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There are people. That we're ministering to right now. Who are addicted? I've got a a young man that I used to coach. And he contacted me. He drove up here.
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And he told me, he said, coach. I'm addicted to porn.
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And I've been staying, and I've got I've got a whole list of people who have addictions that I pray for on a regular basis. He's on that list. Every once for all, he'll call me, say, coach, I'm doing good. I said, keep it up, man. Keep it up.
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So the problem of lust has seeped into our lives and our culture. Like a raw sewage from a busted sewer line. And I remember one time my daddy worked for the Natchez Trace, and they sent him to Arizona for a training thing basically all summer. And I remember we had a we had a little house. We had a septic tank.
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And that thing got stopped up and I had to dig it up. I was a teenager. I had to dig it up. And I had to unclog it.
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And it it stunk. It stunk to high heaven. But you realize that's basically what's happening in our culture today. It's like a raw sewage line has been opened in America. And the smell is putrid and it's destroying lives. I would dare say that nearly everybody in this church knows somebody who has been hurt by immorality at some level.
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At some level. Okay. You know, I wish that I could do something to heal all of the hurts of all the people who have been damaged. I wish I could, but I know somebody who can. Here's what I've discovered. Jesus has the power. To heal wounded and broken hearts. But we have to give him all the pieces. And here's what a lot of people do.
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They don't give him all the pieces. They give him some of the pieces. But they don't give him all the pieces. And you know what it comes down to? It's like I preached a few weeks ago out of Jeremiah seven that comes comes down to, to to will we trust him or not? Do we really trust God? I tell you, he he can he can heal anything in our lives.
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Now let's look at this verse. Break it down. Verse 28 but I say to you, the word I is emphatic. Jesus is asserting his authority, basically saying, I, even I.
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He was dead serious about dealing with this issue. That's why I can stand behind this pulpit and teach this section of Scripture, not because Jesus were dead serious about it.
00;42;03;26 - 00;42;35;19
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Look at this verse. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman now, the the verb looks is a present participle. It's not talking about a glance and then you look away. It's talk about a continuous look who looks and continues to look. That's basically what he's saying. Everyone who looks and continues to look at a woman with lust.
00;42;35;21 - 00;43;03;24
Unknown
It's repeated gazing, intentional, repeated gazing to lust for her. The word lust speaks of a strong desire. Now, that word, do you realize that God gave us the ability when he created us to have strong desires for good things and strong desires for bad things? If we don't follow God? Take your Bible. Look at Psalm 42. Just a minute.
00;43;03;26 - 00;43;14;19
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Psalm 42.
00;43;14;22 - 00;43;23;13
Unknown
Is definitely quiet in here tonight.
00;43;23;15 - 00;43;51;15
Unknown
Look at this. As the deer pants for the water brooks. My soul pants for you. You see that? My soul pant me. My soul longs for you. It's the same idea as lust in a bad way. But lust for a good thing, right? So.
00;43;51;18 - 00;44;27;08
Unknown
He says here in verse 28, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman remember its present tense, who continues to look at a woman with lust for her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Now. Jesus, when he says to lust for her with repeated emphasis. Here he's referring to a man who intentionally goes to a pornographic website or intentionally stares down a woman for the purpose of arousing himself.
00;44;27;10 - 00;44;50;11
Unknown
That's basically what he's saying. But here's here's something going to shock you. Do you realize what's happening in our culture? Do you realize one of the most remarkable things has happened in the last few years is that more and more women are going to pornographic sites?
00;44;50;14 - 00;45;25;00
Unknown
That's something brand new. See, when you start moving away from God and you start spiraling down, it's like there's no end. There's no no bottom to it. And we're seeing that happen in our culture. It could affect your grandparent, your grandkids. It could affect your kids. It could affect your friends.
00;45;25;02 - 00;45;49;06
Unknown
But look at Jesus evaluation. If you look on a woman to lust for her, you have already know it already. You've already committed adult three in your heart. I got a quote here from Arthur Pink.
00;45;49;09 - 00;46;07;05
Unknown
To ladies, he said, if lustful looking looking is so grievous a sin, then those who dress and expose himself with a desire to be looked at and lusted after are not, are not less, but perhaps more guilty.
00;46;07;08 - 00;46;41;12
Unknown
I'm leaving that one alone. Ladies and gentlemen, one thing that we dare not do tonight is pass these words off. That Jesus is teaching as overkill. It's not overkill. It's serious, serious business. Now look at this adult. He begins with a seed in your heart. As a seed in your heart. A seed of lust in your heart. Look at Matthew 1518 through 20.
00;46;41;13 - 00;47;16;02
Unknown
This proves it right here, but the same. These are the words of Jesus, okay? But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, that come from the heart. And those defile the man. For out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which to follow the man.
00;47;16;02 - 00;47;48;09
Unknown
But to eat with unwashed hands does not defilement. There's a Pharisees and Sadducees for you are Pharisees and scribes. For they were getting on to Jesus and his disciples, because they didn't. They didn't wash their hands in the prescribed way that the Pharisees prescribed people to wash their hands. And in chapter 23, Jesus call them hypocrites. He called the Pharisees and scribes hypocrites, whitewashed tombs.
00;47;48;09 - 00;48;30;02
Unknown
He called them. That really endeared Jesus to that group. But all of this stuff, sexual immorality, starts as a seed of lust in our hearts. And that's the thing. Jesus is driving home in the sermon on the Mount. It's the heart that counts. If you don't address the heart, you don't address the problem. Now remember in a Jewish mindset, the heart not talking about the organ heart here he the heart included the intellects.
00;48;30;02 - 00;48;56;13
Unknown
You're thinking it's your emotions and your will. That's the idea that the Jews had of the heart. And you got to deal with the thinking, the emotions and the will. If you're going to deal with the problem of immorality in this seed of love. Now let's look at the correction. How do we correct this? We've looked at the commandment.
00;48;56;15 - 00;49;24;14
Unknown
We've looked at the clarification. Now the the correction. How do you correct. Well, look at verses 29 and 30. If you're right, I makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from me. For it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you, for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
00;49;24;16 - 00;49;53;07
Unknown
Now, let me just summarize here what Jesus is saying when he talks about plucking out an eye and cutting off a hand. He's not talking about literal dismemberment of a hand or literal plucking of an eye. Here's here's what he say. He said, look, when it comes to these sexual issues. You have to deal with it in a serious way.
00;49;53;09 - 00;50;25;28
Unknown
You can't play around with it. You got to get after it. You got to deal with it before it deals with you. Does that make sense? All right. So he used a metaphor there to insinuate the seriousness of the matter. Now. Look at it. He says the word stumble. Look at verse 29. The word stumble. The words stumble again in verse 30.
00;50;26;01 - 00;50;52;09
Unknown
It means to caused a fall. It's a great word that was used like a like a bait stick and a trap. To trap an animal, you put bait. I love to watch those Alaska shows. You know, where they they're trapping and and they put this bait on the trap and they come. They got a wolverine, you know, or something.
00;50;52;11 - 00;51;06;19
Unknown
And that's what he's talking. That that's the meaning of this word, right? It's a bait. Do you realize that the enemy knows exactly what kind of bait to use in our lives?
00;51;06;21 - 00;51;30;01
Unknown
Look. I don't agree with everything Andy Stanley says. You know that, don't you? But what he said right here. Good. Let me read it for you. But if there's more to this life than what meets the eye, if there is a God in whose image you've been made and in whose image every woman you've met has been made.
00;51;30;08 - 00;52;00;06
Unknown
If sex is a creation that was created with a purpose, and a part of that purpose is to enhance the expression of intimacy between two people. And if that fragile, wonderful, delicate experience we term in intimacy can be damaged or broken through or through abuse, then your sexual conduct conduct matters a great deal. So you have to decide what you believe, not just about sex, about everything.
00;52;00;08 - 00;52;19;01
Unknown
Once you decide the answer to your important question, to your important question will be clear. The answer to your question will be clear. Now, lust is no laughing matter.
00;52;19;04 - 00;52;41;15
Unknown
So how do we deal with it? I want to, and I got just a few minutes. I want to just drop this in your heart. Five, I think 5 or 6 things that you can do to win over lust. You ready? Right here in your nose. Number one, confess your sin to Jesus. Don't adopt the idea that so many in our culture.
00;52;41;20 - 00;53;08;16
Unknown
Well, it's just a mistake. It's no big deal. Listen, the Bible didn't call you a mistake or the Bible calls you a sinner. It's sin. It's sin against God. Treat it as sin against God. Confess that sin. Look at first John one nine. Boy, isn't this wonderful. When we blow it, we can confess our sin to God, and he forgives us.
00;53;08;18 - 00;53;34;14
Unknown
If we confess our sins. He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Aren't you glad of that? Proverbs 2813. He you could see as his transgressions will not prosper, but he you confesses him, forsake sin, will find what what church? Compassion. Heart. You go ahead of that. So the first thing you have to do, you have to confess your sin to God.
00;53;34;16 - 00;53;51;13
Unknown
Secondly, you surrender your heart to Jesus. Remember the issue of lust slash adultery. Slash sexual immorality begins in the heart, not in the action itself.
00;53;51;16 - 00;54;27;06
Unknown
You can't change your own heart. Only Jesus can change your heart. That's why every time on Sunday morning when I preach, I don't care if I'm preaching on the economy. I don't care if I'm preaching on climate. I don't care what I'm preaching on. I'm going to give the gospel. I'm going to talk about the cross of Jesus and how he died on the cross so our sins could be forgiven, how he was raised from the dead so that we could be reconciled to God and justified before God.
00;54;27;09 - 00;54;57;09
Unknown
It's the good news of the gospel, and it's for sinners, not mistakes. Okay. So the second thing surrender your heart to Jesus. The Bible says in Corinthians 517, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things are passed away. Behold, new things have come. Number three discipline your heart and your mind. Discipline. I love what John Piper said.
00;54;57;11 - 00;55;20;23
Unknown
He said we must not give sexual image or impulse more than five seconds before we mount a violent counter attack with the mind. I mean, that five seconds, he said. In the first two seconds we shout, no! Get out of my head! In the next two seconds, we cry out, Oh God, in the name of Jesus, help me, save me now I'm yours.
00;55;20;27 - 00;55;45;12
Unknown
In the final seconds, you replace the image with a powerful, positive image. Now, I may give you an illustration. Years ago, when I was at Mullins Station as pastor, Darlene and I were there for eight and a half years, we had a revival, and I asked doctor Chuck Kelly, the president of New Orleans Seminary, to come in and preach the revival.
00;55;45;15 - 00;56;06;00
Unknown
And I went to the airport and I picked Doctor Kelly up, brought him to the hotel we had reserved for him, and he asked me to stay and talk to him for a few minutes. And and he was unpacking his suitcase. Do you know the first thing he unpacked out of a suitcase? It was an eight by ten picture of his wife.
00;56;06;03 - 00;56;41;16
Unknown
You know where he put it? He put it on top of the TV. I said, Doctor Kelly, what's that all about? And he looked at me, set you up. I don't want to be tempted to watch anything on this TV. That would be bring shame to the name of Jesus or be detrimental to my wife. So we had an 810 picture of his wife on the TV.
00;56;41;19 - 00;57;07;01
Unknown
That's what Piper's talking about. You got to replace a negative image in your mind with a positive image. Piper suggests let that image be Christ on the cross. Just picture in your mind Christ dying on the cross for your sins.
00;57;07;03 - 00;57;33;24
Unknown
You get that positive image in there, and the negative image will go all right. Second Corinthians chapter ten, verse five. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. And look at. I love this. And we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
00;57;33;26 - 00;58;11;20
Unknown
I never will forget a a young lady coming to my office as pastor of First Baptist Richland and. And she she walked into my office, she sat down and she started weeping. I said, what's wrong? And she called her husband at the computer looking at pornography. She was devastated. Devastated.
00;58;11;22 - 00;58;16;19
Unknown
And I met with him.
00;58;16;21 - 00;58;27;09
Unknown
See, his sex life became my business as a pastor because I love that family.
00;58;27;11 - 00;58;52;25
Unknown
And I called his name. I said, I don't care what you have to do. I don't care if you have to take a baseball bat. I don't care if you have to take a, a 36. You take that. If that computer's your issue, you take it out there and you blow it to smithereens. You cannot afford to lose your wife and your kids.
00;58;52;27 - 00;59;21;07
Unknown
And you know, as a pastor's boy, you see a lot of times that you pour your heart into people and it goes in one ear and out the other ear in their lives unravel. They actually listened. And that couple still together today, they had victory. Their family, families still together. The kids are in good shape.
00;59;21;09 - 00;59;59;10
Unknown
If only we would listen to God. If only we would have the Word of God to shape our lives. Would be so much better off. So here's the next one. Avoid tempting situations. Look at first Corinthians 1013. A lot, a lot of people say, well, nobody gets tempted like I do. There's a there's a Hebrew word for that baloney.
00;59;59;13 - 01;00;31;17
Unknown
Baloney. Listen, everybody's tempted. Here's something you got to remember. It's not a sin to be tempted. It's a sin to give into the temptation. Right. Do this. It's a sin to give into temptation. So? So the Bible says right here. No temptation has overtaken you. But such as is common to man. And God is faithful, boy. Right? That in your Bible.
01;00;31;18 - 01;00;48;03
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God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able. But when the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.
01;00;48;05 - 01;01;15;02
Unknown
I remember a few weeks ago I was preaching. Somehow that verse came up and I was talking about dealing with temptation. And I said, out there on Sunday. I said, listen, if you're tempted, tuck tail and run. And teenagers went to their parents. If what? What does it mean to tuck tail and run? And I said to myself, I've got to start watching these old sayings that I have stuff I learned on the football field.
01;01;15;02 - 01;01;26;19
Unknown
You know, and that teenager had no clue about what I'm talking about.
01;01;26;21 - 01;01;55;23
Unknown
But here's the thing. Never put yourself in a tempting situation. I have some rules. I love NCIS. I liked it when Gibbs was on there. You remember Gibbs. Gibbs had rules, right? Remember, give rules and folks that work for him. He'd always be quoting one of those rules to them. Well, I have some rules. Here's one of my rules.
01;01;55;25 - 01;02;04;06
Unknown
Never be alone with another woman. Not. That's not my wife.
01;02;04;09 - 01;02;35;28
Unknown
Mandy can tell she works up here. When I counsel a woman. My. I got glass all the way around. I got glass in the door. I never counsel a woman. Without somebody sitting in. And where Cathy is, is Cathy or Mandy or somebody sitting there while I'm counsel? Somebody? It's just a rule. You'll never catch me having lunch with a woman.
01;02;35;28 - 01;03;05;16
Unknown
Not my wife. Darling. Canty, there have been times that we've gone out to eat, with, another couple or or, Or, or with a friend of Darlene's. Just a friend with Darlene, and I'm sitting on one side there, sitting on the other side, and. And, Darlene has to go to the bathroom. You know what I did?
01;03;05;18 - 01;03;31;09
Unknown
I get up and I go to the bathroom. Even though I don't have to go to the bathroom. You know why? Because I don't want one of you walking in and see me sit with another woman. You said pastor. That's crazy. No, no, no. You know what the Bible says? Bible said don't have the appearance of evil.
01;03;31;12 - 01;04;02;10
Unknown
So anyway, here's the last one. Seek to honor the Lord. Look at First Corinthians 619 and 20. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.
01;04;02;12 - 01;04;28;06
Unknown
I'll tell you, if you get up every day, and if you have a quiet time, I'm tell you have a quiet time every day. Read your Bible and pray and ask the Lord to help you to glorify him that day, to please him that day. I'm telling you to do wonders for you. I encourage you to do that every day.
01;04;28;08 - 01;04;45;15
Unknown
You cannot ever afford to let your guard down. I don't care who you are. I don't care how old you are. I don't care. I don't care. We have always got to keep our guard up.
01;04;45;17 - 01;05;22;21
Unknown
Look at this statement right here. Sex is bigger than we often realize and more powerful than we often admit. And that's why Jesus deals with it so forthrightly. Okay. Well, I hope I haven't offended anybody tonight, but I want to remind you that I haven't chased rabbits outside of the Word of God. Okay. It's right out of the Bible.
01;05;22;23 - 01;05;50;04
Unknown
And this is something you need to teach your kids and your grandkids. Take these notes. That's the reason I gave you these notes. It's so you can teach somebody else. Okay. Now, look, here's what I don't want to happen. I do not want anybody to walk out of here feeling guilty over something that happened in the past. Please don't do that.
01;05;50;05 - 01;05;54;17
Unknown
That's not what this is about.
01;05;54;20 - 01;06;27;00
Unknown
If you're a born again believer, every sin in your life is separated from you. As far as the East is from the west. Okay. So this is not to put any Bible guilt trip. It's just to make sure that we understand that we have to live with tension in our lives. And we can have victory. We we have been created by God for victory.
01;06;27;02 - 01;07;03;00
Unknown
All right. Let's pray. Heavenly father, I thank you for the word of God. I thank you, Lord, that you allow me to pastor a church where I don't have to be afraid to teach controversial stuff out of the Bible. I thank you, Lord, that we are a church who loves the Word of God, and we love you. And we want to grow spiritually, and we want to be a part of expanding your kingdom.
01;07;03;03 - 01;07;32;05
Unknown
Lord, I pray that you would be honored and glorified through our lives, and I pray that every one of us would walk in victory in this area of our lives. In Jesus name. Amen. Now, let me say this next week is spring break in Collierville. And we have so many young families are go during the week. So we will not be having a class next Wednesday night.
01;07;32;07 - 01;08;00;21
Unknown
Okay. In fact, the church is not going to have anything Wednesday night. So don't show up here next Wednesday night. Okay. All right. Thank you. God bless you.
