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Quest for Faith: One Desire

We go back this Sunday to a series that started in January of this year. So far there have been eleven services and sermons planned around Jesus first words spoken to those He had called to be His disciples.

The idea behind this series is that every one of us in this room needs to come to a better and fresh understanding of what it means to be in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.

If you are not growing closer to God you are growing away from God. That’s the way it is. There are no other options. There is very little room in the life of a disciple of Christ for neutrality or inaction. Following Christ engages every area of our life. It effects are relationships, our vocations, our choices for entertainment, our stewardship, and every area that makes up the life of an individual and family.

Today we jump back into the middle of this sermon. Jesus has just warned His disciples that there is something just as bad as murder and that is contempt for someone else. I am sure they were in a bit of shock because while they knew the Ten Commandments they had never heard this kind of an interpretation. Now He moves on to the next subject and I am sure they were shocked once again.

27 “You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’28 But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 So if your eye—even your good eye—causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your hand—even your stronger hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

31 “You have heard the law that says, ‘A man can divorce his wife by merely giving her a written notice of divorce.’[n] 32 But I say that a man who divorces his wife, unless she has been unfaithful, causes her to commit adultery. And anyone who marries a divorced woman also commits adultery.”
Matthew 5:27-32

I am going to treat this subject as delicately as possible however if you are worried about your children hearing a message dealing with lust and sex you need to feel free to take a walk with them if you need to as we progress. I don’t personally believe that there is anything here that will harm them but I am going to deal with this for two reasons. First because Jesus dealt with it and secondly because there are many people in this room that need to hear it. This is sound biblical teaching as uncomfortable as it might be.

This is the second time in the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus is using contrast. Earlier He said, “You have heard it said that you should not murder but I say. . .” Here once again He is using a contrasting statement to teach on a touchy subject. He is dealing with sex and lust.

He dealt first with violence and anger and now sex.

“Sex and violence are two things that are repeatedly cited as the areas of our greatest problems, in life as in the media. Violence is the sure overflow of anger and contempt in the heart. Anger and contempt constantly intermingle, both with each other and with the torrents of fantasized gratifications that also inhabit the human heart: such as those for fame, drugs and alcohol, power and money. Hungers for these dominate a social framework in which a seemingly unlimited range of desires are constantly pushing their claims for “liberation” into unlimited satisfaction.” (Willard)

There were multitudes of men in Jesus day who thought that they were good and right in their sexual life because they did not do the specific thing forbidden by the commandment. They were like those who thought they were right in relationship to their fellow man because they had not killed or murdered them.

The problem is that these same men who thought of themselves as righteous and holy and sexually pure would follow a woman with their eyes and indulging themselves all kinds of unholy thoughts. In today’s world the sin of lusting has certainly broken down all gender barriers. In Jesus day, it apparently was a “man” problem but no more can we make it that exclusive.

The Desire: It’s in the heart!

“You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Matthew 5:27-28

Jesus is saying that anyone who looks at another person for the purpose of lusting –using the visual presence as a means of savoring the fantasized act—has committed adultery with “her” in his heart.

Practically speaking this means all the elements of a genuine act of adultery other than the actual movements of the body are present. At this point the only thing missing is the occasion for it to occur. When the heart is ready the action will occur if the occasion arises.

Just like a thief is the person who would steal if the circumstances were right, so the adulterer is the one who would have wrongful sex if the circumstances were right. Circumstances being “right” usually means there is not a chance of getting caught. Jesus is teaching us that this is “adultery of the heart.”

This action will cause those around us to be affected. Lusting nearly always produces some form of inappropriate action including all behavior now classified as sexual harassment.

When someone is consumed by fantasizing and visual lusting, it like anger and contempt, will make its presence known. It will be detectable in a person’s body language and expressions. Even though it might not be acted out it will affect those around us. The “I’m just looking” mentality is a public act that effects the relationships of those closest to us. There is no way around this. You may think that you have this sin conveniently closeted away from prying eyes but in reality it is controlling every thing about you.

Dallas Willard says, “No one can be in harmony with The Kingdom Among Us who indulges and cultivates this type of absorbing desire.”

The Deed: Looking in all the wrong places!

Jesus is teaching that those who cultivate the habit of lusting will not feel at home in the goodness of God’s kingdom. The person who consistently sins in this manner will not and cannot be connected to God’s way of holiness and godly living.

Job 31 gives us an unusual look at what lusting is not:

“I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust at a young woman. For what has God above chosen for us? What is our inheritance from the Almighty on high? Isn’t it calamity for the wicked and misfortune for those who do evil Doesn’t he see everything I do and every step I take? “Have I lied to anyone or deceived anyone? Let God weigh me on the scales of justice, for he knows my integrity.

If I have strayed from his pathway, or if my heart has lusted for what my eyes have seen, or if I am guilty of any other sin, then let someone else eat the crops I have planted. Let all that I have planted be uprooted.

“If my heart has been seduced by a woman, or if I have lusted for my neighbor’s wife, then let my wife belong to[a] another man; let other men sleep with her. For lust is a shameful sin, a crime that should be punished. It is a fire that burns all the way to hell. It would wipe out everything I own.”
Job 31 1-12

To understand the deed that Jesus was referring to one must have the understanding of Job. He knew that to be right sexually before God he had to be precise and detailed in his response and approach to handling this temptation. He had established a practice of not engaging bodily parts or perceptions, thoughts and desires in his activities of sexual trifling, dalliance and titillation.

A Christ follower is the kind of person whose feet, eyes, hands, heart and all the rest simply walk with the good policy that he or she adopted because he or she knows it is good and right.

We are all faced with the inundation of fantasized world of sex that starts with the magazines at the grocery store checkout, continues in the advertising world, romance novels and nearly all of television and movie production.

You may be able to make the case that these things are not sinful however it is important to note if you are going to take Christ’s teaching seriously that everything that is lawful is not necessarily helpful to allow you to follow Christ.

I need to say something to clarify something that has been taken out of context to the detriment and discouragement of people. Most of us in this room are not blind. We see and we understand beauty. We have minds that function and process the information we see. You are not going to be able to keep thoughts from going through your mind. Jesus did not say if you look on a woman (or man) and have thoughts about what you see. What He did say is, “anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart”

There needs to be a balance in this that explains to us that desire is not what this is talking about. You may not be able to control the fleeting thought of even desire but you can control looking at someone for the purpose of desiring. Dallas Willard says that is the “desire to desire.” This phrase gets us to the heart of the matter. Committing adultery in the heart is to indulge and cultivate the desire to desire because we have come to a place of enjoying fantasizing about sex with the one seen. Desiring sex is the purpose of why we are looking!

There are many different approaches one could have taken to this topic. For the sake of time I am not dealing directly with pornography however that is a huge indicator of the depth of this problem in people’s lives. It is a symptom of a much deeper problem.

In an episode of the TV show Friends Chandler and Joey turn on their television to discover that for some reason, their cable company is allowing them to receive free porn. For the rest of the episode, these guys are glued to the set. They never leave the house. They never leave their chairs. The TV never gets turned off. They couldn’t get enough of the stuff.

Pornography is dangerous because it always leaves you wanting more. Lust never delivers what it promises.

Video: Take a look at this video of how one man decided to take care of this problem.

For many folks this desiring becomes a chosen habit. They feel trapped but in reality they have opened the door to this addiction or habit. The desire is desired, embraced, indulged, elaborated, and fantasized. It is the purposeful entertaining and stimulation of desire that Jesus marks as the manifestation of a sexually improper condition of the soul.

While the adultery of the heart is not acceptable behavior for a Christ follower there is no doubt that actually committing adultery is worse. Until about midway through the twentieth century it was generally accepted as a taboo that adultery was not acceptable behavior under any circumstance. It was simply put wrong.

Today you would be hard pressed to find a current writer about ethics that would regard or include adultery as simply wrong. In fact, almost anything in the way of sexual relations is now regarded as correct as long as both parties consent to it. Some modern and post modern writers will explain that adultery is not wrong as long as a child is not conceived.

The biblical view that you need to know and understand is that “the rightness of sex is tied to a solemn and public covenant for life between two individuals, and sexual arousal and delight is a response to the gift of a uniquely personal intimacy with the whole person that each partner has conferred in enduring faithfulness upon the other.” (Willard)

The Deliverance: Surrender...there is no other way.

29 So if your eye—even your good eye—causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your hand—even your stronger hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

What does this mean? Should we be practicing this literally? What did Jesus mean by using such a graphic illustration? Remember who He was talking to. He was addressing people who knew the law and they looked to the law to be able to keep them in check.

Jesus is teaching that if you think that laws can eliminate being wrong you would be consistent to cut off your hand or gouge out your eyes so that they could not possibly do the acts the law forbids. This was where the legalistic teaching of the Scribes and Pharisees was headed. Jesus was reducing this train of thought to the absurdity it was.

Being acceptable to God is so important that truly if that were the answer it might be worth it. But it goes much deeper. A mutilated body can still have a wicked heart.

The greatest question you and I need to ask daily is, “Where is my heart?” In other words where is my passion? Am I more passionate about earthly things or godly things? Am I more concerned with happiness or holiness? Have I truly come to a place of full surrender and invited God into my life? Have I placed Him in all of His holiness on the throne of my life or am I still running my own show?

“20 And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. 21 For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. 23 All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.” Mark 7:21-23

Today I am asking you to truly examine the innermost parts of your life. There is no sense in playing church or playing Christian. If you are serious about it you need to move forward.

A Word about Divorce:

The words that Jesus spoke here about divorce were contextually sensitive. In those days men had all the rights and women were given little or no rights. If you were to study the modern day system of many Muslim countries you would see a similar system that was common in Jesus day. A woman could be divorced for any reason her husband chose.

If you take the collective words of Jesus regarding divorce you will come to this conclusion: While He might not forbid it absolutely, it was never God’s will or intent for a man and woman who have entered into a marriage covenant. Marriage is deeper than any other relationship. It is deeper than even parents and children. The Bible says we become “one flesh” when we are joined together in marriage.

What Jesus is dealing with is the hardness of heart that often drives the separations and divorces today. Having a hardened heart is not a reason to divorce. Divorce disrupts a natural unit in a way that harms its member for life.

We really need to look at these verses in the context of this sermon. Jesus deals with anger and contempt followed by His words about lust and adultery. He then follows with a word about divorce.

“How many divorces would occur, and in how many cases the question of divorce would never have arisen, if anger, contempt, and obsessive fantasized desire were eliminated? The answer is, of course, hardly any at all.” --Dallas Willard Closing This is a heavy topic and it is not one that is easy to even process. This I know. The enemy of our souls is doing everything possible to destroy you personally, destroy your family, your marriage and destroy any relationship with God that you might have. I believe that on today you are being given the chance to think about some things that maybe you haven’t wanted to think about. We are going to end this service discreetly giving you a chance to talk to God. different people are going to lead you in prayer and I want you to really focus on any areas of your life that need to be cleaned up.

It may be that you don’t struggle with anything I have talked about today and if that is the case will you take a couple of minutes and intercede in prayer for those in this room who feel trapped and are discouraged today. Pray that God will give them the strength and courage to surrender them selves completely.

4 For God did not spare even the angels who sinned. He threw them into hell,[a] in gloomy pits of darkness,[b] where they are being held until the day of judgment. 5 And God did not spare the ancient world—except for Noah and the seven others in his family. Noah warned the world of God’s righteous judgment. So God protected Noah when he destroyed the world of ungodly people with a vast flood. 6 Later, God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and turned them into heaps of ashes. He made them an example of what will happen to ungodly people. 7 But God also rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a righteous man who was sick of the shameful immorality of the wicked people around him. 8 Yes, Lot was a righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day. 9 So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment. 10 He is especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire, and who despise authority.

These people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at supernatural beings[c] without so much as trembling. 11 But the angels, who are far greater in power and strength, do not dare to bring from the Lord[d] a charge of blasphemy against those supernatural beings.

12 These false teachers are like unthinking animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed. They scoff at things they do not understand, and like animals, they will be destroyed. 13 Their destruction is their reward for the harm they have done. They love to indulge in evil pleasures in broad daylight. They are a disgrace and a stain among you. They delight in deception[e] even as they eat with you in your fellowship meals. 14 They commit adultery with their eyes, and their desire for sin is never satisfied. They lure unstable people into sin, and they are well trained in greed. They live under God’s curse. 15 They have wandered off the right road and followed the footsteps of Balaam son of Beor,[f] who loved to earn money by doing wrong. 16 But Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice.

17 These people are as useless as dried-up springs or as mist blown away by the wind. They are doomed to blackest darkness. 18 They brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting. With an appeal to twisted sexual desires, they lure back into sin those who have barely escaped from a lifestyle of deception. 19 They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you. 20 And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before. 21 It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. 22 They prove the truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.”[g] And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.”
2 Peter 2:4-22



2007/07/15