Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. And if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell."

Lord, this is some tough stuff. I pray, Lord, that Your Spirit would bring home its meaning accurately, meaningfully and the way that you intended it to be presented. I pray, Lord, that as shocking as this scripture seems, we would have the same shocking response when we see sin. Lord, I pray that you would deliver many of us from this problem, this besetting sin of unbridled, sexual, lustful desire. Lord, I am also grateful that your Holy Spirit has seen fit to include this in the scripture, in the text, because you are sympathetic to our needs and you want to deal with every problem that we have. So, Lord, speak by Your spirit, in Jesus name. Amen.

A couple weeks ago I did a wedding right here where I'm standing for a couple that has been dating for a number of years and had never kissed during their dating, during their engagement. And the first time they kissed was when I said, "I pronounce you husband and wife, you can kiss your bride." When I announced that at the wedding, there was a shock that went through the crowd. Like, "you're kidding!" The reason for that shock is that most people today don't know that kind of purity. That's just too good. We live in a society that has sexual freedom, but in having that freedom, a huge price is paid. Consider this price. This is written by a girl who said, "Premarital sex gave me fear as a gift and shame to wear as a garment. It stole my peace of mind and robbed me of hope in a bright future. Sex smashed my concentration and class to smithereens. My desire for church activities was ground to a pulp. It made crumbs of the trust I had known in Christ and in men and woman. Sex gave me a jagged tear in my heart that, even now, seven years later, is still healing." Just because something is widespread and everybody's doing it, doesn't make it right. Just because everybody speeds on the freeway doesn't make it right. Just because so many people are doing cocaine doesn't make it right. Just because many people are getting divorced and it seems everybody is doing it doesn't make it right. And just because there's sexual freedom and everybody's doing it doesn't make it right. When Jesus spoke these words in verse 27, I'm sure every man in that crowd was a bit uncomfortable. Probably started fidgeting, looking at their watch. "C'mon, get this thing over with." Maybe even getting up to go to the bathroom before it ended. I'm sure they felt very uncomfortable and it seems that each section that Jesus deals with on the Sermon on the Mount, it gets a little stickier. And He says, "Whoever looks upon another woman to lust for her has already committed adultery in his heart." Why is Jesus see-saying these words? Because He's continuing to unmask the self-righteous externalism that He already spoken about in verse 20-unless your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you're not going to make it to heaven. First He spoke about murder, now He speaks about sexual sin. He says if you hate, you're a murderer. And if you lust in your heart sexually after somebody, you are already an adulterer and if you life that kind of a lifestyle, don't you dare hide behind the mask of religion. Now you read that and you might think, "Jesus, you're a bit narrow-minded. I mean, we're in the 80s. You're talking about looks, now. I mean, you're nailing guys hides to the wall because of their looks. Isn't that a bit narrow?" Well, if you think that's narrow-minded, listen to this one. "Don't you know that unright-the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived Neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the Kingdom of God." That's narrow.

In verse 27, Jesus says, "You have heard that it was said to those of old," pointing to the fact that sexual sin has been a problem for a long time. The playboy philosophy has been around before Hugh Hefner even came up with it. It's been going on for a long time. It's been such a problem with mankind, that God spoke about it in His law in the beginning. When He gave the commandments, one of the commandments He put in was, "You shall not commit adultery," because it was a problem in society. By the way, Jesus was quoting from the Ten Commandments. They are not the Ten Suggestions. They are commands of God. They are not just principals that you can say, "Oh I like it, but I'm going to alter it now." They're commandments. "You shall not commit adultery." According to the Jews, and according to God's law, adultery was one of the most heinous crimes. In fact, it was punishable by death. It was punishable by taking you in front of the crowds and stoning you to death. Now could you imagine if that law was still in practice today? There would be more piles of stones than people. The population explosion would be reversed; it would be a population declension. But it points out God's view to that kind of sexual misconduct. You shall not commit adultery. Now technically this word that's used in verse 27, "adultery", speaks about sexual intercourse between one or two people who are married, and they get together separately from their spouses. In other words, it could be sexual intercourse of a married person with another married person, or with a single person, technically. However, the sense in which Jesus uses it implies sexual impurity on a wider scale. For He says, "I say to you that whoever," whoever. And lust is not a respecter of persons of age. You can be young or old. "Whoever looks upon a woman to lust for her is already committed adultery in his heart."

Way back in the Old Testament, they children of Israel had problems with the Canaanites. Now let me tell you how the Canaanites worshiped. And this is what excited and enticed the children of Israel to follow false gods. The Canaanites worshiped a God names Baal. You've heard his name cause you've read it in the scripture. But you may not know how Baal was worshiped He was worshiped through public sexual intercourse. Since Baal was the god of fertility, he would bless the children, he would bless the crops, he would supposedly bless the crops the livestock and so on and so forth. Since all of society was centered around fertility, they would worship that way. And there were temples that were set up and guys and gals would walk up to the temple, and if you're a guy, you'd find yourself a "priestess". If you're a woman, you'd find yourself a "priest". And in their worship, they would commit sexual intercourse in public in the temple, and during the act of sexual intercourse, the person who was worshiping would say, "Oh Baal, even as fertility is taking place right now, please make fertile my children, my crops, my livestock," and so forth. That's how worship went on. And the children were enticed. "We don't worship that way. That's a new twist." And so God forbid in the beginning that they even make any kind of covenant with those kind of people because of the influence that that immorality would have. Later on in the New Testament, they had problems with it. In the days of Paul the apostle, he was smack dab in the middle of a culture that was very permissive sexually. The Greeks and the Romans had a saying. They said, "Eat, drink and be merry. For tomorrow we die." In other words, just lavish all kinds of pleasure on your body, because you're going to kick the bucket soon. So you might as well have a great time. Might as well live it up. To the Greeks, sex was simply a biological act with no moral significance. Sort of like eating, sleeping, drinking, sex. It's just a biological function. And there was, perhaps, no greater city tempted with it than a city named Corinth. And there was a bunch of Christians who were living in that kind of a permissive society, and because everybody was doing it, they thought, "Well, so we have adulteress affairs, so we live together before marriage and have sex, everybody's doing it. God will give us a break." And Paul said, "Wrong. Don't you know your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and it's to be honored and you are to honor God with it." It is not just for biological function. It's for spiritual purposes. God bought you with a price and if you're a Christian, you're to live a pure, moral, upright life. And later on, he said, "Let me get the point across a little more clearly. Anyone who commits fornication, sexual acts of impurity, adultery, sodomy, homosexuality," and all these lists, "he who practices those things as a lifestyle will have no inheritance in the Kingdom of God. Corinthians, I hope I've made myself clear." He had to write those kind of words to a permissive society because of the problems that they were having.

Now before we go any further, let me say, God is not bummed out at sex. He invented it. He created it. And He created it to be such a fulfilling bond within an institution that He created called marriage. In fact, there is a book of the Bible totally devoted to sexual fulfillment. It's called The Song of Solomon. It's enough to make a lot of people blush. Listen to what Solomon said in the Proverbs. He said, "Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of your youth. As a loving deer and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy you at all times, and always be enraptured with her love." Don't blush, it's in the Bible. He encourages sexual fulfillment in the bonds of marriage. The detestable thing in God's eyes is when it's perverted. And it is perverted when there is fornication or adultery or homosexuality; when it is geared toward a purpose God never intended it to play. Then it becomes perverted, and perhaps that's the best word we can use to describe our society's view on sex. Totally perverted. In fact, it is so perverted that many of you are desensitized to its perversion. I don't know how, but it seems that Christians can have the freedom to go to R-rated movies and see all sorts of sexual acts and come up with this idea that, "Oh, I know that they're bad and I can kind of tune them out from my mind." Our society it preoccupied with sex. It's not just a sideline. It is a preoccupation. It seems to be the uninterrupted theme of entertainment. In every form of entertainment; even PG movies there is that theme. Christians wake up to it.

In 1939, I wasn't around to see it, I just heard the stories, there was a scandal over a movie called "Gone With the Wind" because a four-letter word was used by a Hollywood actor in the movie. And this created a scandal in the movie industry. You think about that today; that's a joke. What film doesn't have a four-letter word? And listen to Christians as they rate films. They go say, "Hey, how was that movie?" "Oh, great, only, they only cussed about twenty times. Few four-letter words, but it was pretty clean." You couldn't get by with that in 1939. To talk about four-letter words in movies today- that's passe. Sociologist from Harvard University, in fact the chief of the sociology department, this is was he said. "Our society is so preoccupied with sex today, that it oozes out of the very pores of American society."

"Picture this scenario," Josh McDowell writes, "Boy meets girls. Boy and girl find each other attractive and want to know each other better, so they set aside an evening. Do they talk and discuss? No. They spend ten dollars to sit side-by-side in a movie theater and stare at the screen. On the screen, boy meets girl. Boy and girl find each other attractive and want to know each other better. Do they set aside an evening? Do they talk and discuss? No. They remove their clothes and have sex to the sound of violins. The movie has a happy ending. After the movie, real life boy and girl still want to get to know each other. On top of that, their hormones are roaring. They have just been surrounded by a movie that said sex is a great way to get to know someone. Their minds reel with flashes of skin, beautiful music and a happy ending. They look deeply into each other's eyes and have sex in the car. Boy thinks girl is easy. Boy dumps girl. Girl wonders what went wrong." Now you, uh, listen to that and you might think, "Teh, you're exaggerating things, Skip. That's just a preacher's exaggeration getting down on television in the media like all of you preachers do." Listen to this: a report came out recently that said, "The media, television and film, ranks third, right behind peers and parents in that order, ranks third in influencing the behavior of teenagers." The media is the third greatest influence- television, film- that influences the behavior of teenagers. And what is the message, folks, that the media is telling us? A pack of lies. The entertainment that you go watch is a pack of lies. Let me ask you something. How many would consider themselves average this morning? You mean the rest are abnormal (light laughter)? Okay, most of you are average. The average American, the average American, in one year of television, watches 9,230 sexual scenes or implied sex scenes on television. 9,230 in one year. Eighty-one percent of those sexual encounters are outside the bonds of marriage. That means that the average young person, lets say between the ages of eight and eighteen- ten year period- in ten years will watch almost 93,000 sexual encounters. 72,900 of them will be extramarital or premarital sex. Don't tell me that doesn't make an impression upon a person's behavior. Especially when their heroes are doing it. It ranks third in the behavior of young people in our society. American Journal of Communication came out and said that television shows six times more extra and premarital sex than marital sex. Six times on television. On soap operas, ninety-four percent of all sexual encounters are outside of marriage. You say, "Okay, neat statistics, man. Where's the lie?" Okay, do some calculation on your own. Calculate how many years you've been exposed to the television, if you're an average person. And let's say you have watched TV for ten years. I'm being very minimal with you. I am saying, let's pre-let's just suppose you're twenty years old and you began watching it around ten. You have watched at least 93,000 sex scenes, eighty-one percent of which are outside the bonds of marriage. That's the average. In those sexual encounters that you have watched on television, how many do you remember have contracted sexually transmitted diseases on TV? I doubt you can remember a case of five out of 93,000. That's the lie. The fact is that 33,000 Americans get VD every single day. Twelve million a year. You don't see that on the screen. In the movies no one pays the price of elicit sex. That only happens in real life. The best thing that could happen to american youth is for JR to get VD on TV. That's real life. Or AIDS. And show him withering away in a hospital room. But Hollywood doesn't show that. It lies to people. It hides that kind of stuff. When was the last time you saw someone on TV say "no" to sex? When you went to a R-rated movie, when did you see someone say, "No, I'm sorry. It's against my moral principals. That's not right, it's certainly not biblical." And so, we watch the films and we watch television, and we say, "Well, that's okay. It doesn't affect me." And yet we have kids, especially boys, growing up with a totally unrealistic idea of the beauty of a woman. Why do young boys always look for the fox in class to date? Because all the heroes on TV have great-looking chicks. And that's the emphasis. The emphasis of beauty is totally messed up. And there's cost that peo- you know this idea of free love, it's not free. It costs. You pay for it. And you pay big prices. You pay psychological prices. Guilt after marriage is one of the biggest problems we see in counseling people who've had premarital sex handling their hormones. And then there's broken homes. One-parent families because the other person couldn't cope with the pressure. All sorts of mental stress. There's spiritual stress. Spiritual consequences. A person doesn't experience the blessing of God as he or she used to. He can't witness effectively anymore. He feels so guilty and under the pressure as a failure.

I received a letter this week. Whoever wrote it, you're anonymous, I won't mention your name. Came in the mail this week. "Just a quick note, Skip. On Sunday's message I am very much looking forward to the teaching, because lust is without doubt my biggest problem. Since September, I have outwardly been disobedient to the Lord in adultery, fornication, sex with a prostitute. During my worst time, I actually would have committed suicide if I knew that I would have gone to heaven. Much like a person addicted, so my mind has been warped over a fourteen year period prior to Jesus, without doubt the most precious thing in my life. How can a person love Jesus and still be like I am? I don't know. I guarantee I'm looking for answers this Sunday morning."

I'll stop there. A lot of this can lead to one of the most insidious diseases in the United States called pornography. I found out something the other day that blew my mind. You know these video rental stores? You know what the number thirty-seventh most popular video, thirty-seventh most rented video in America is? Now before I tell you what that is, the eighty-fifth, way down, the eighty-fifth most popular rented video is Star Trek. Now, there's Trekkies everywhere- it's become a cult. And you have everybody- I love Star Trek. Sunday nights, I'm glued to two hours of Star Trek (laughter). I confess it. That's eighty-fifth. Thirty-seventh most popular video is a video series of incestual relationship between husband, daughter, boy, mother and they all come together in a fifth session for a total family orgy. Most popular. I have in my library, The Meese Commission on Pornography. I started to read it. I almost puked, I couldn't handle it. To find out what has happened is a mind-blower. That's the problem in our society.

And yet, Jesus points to a deeper one in verse 28. "But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." A couple words in that verse. It says, "I say unto you that whoever looks..." The word "look" means to gaze at, to look intently at. It is not speaking of the first glance, or of an unexpected temptation that crosses your path of vision, and you look at it. That's not what it's speaking about. It's a present participle. Whoever continues to look at somebody. And then it says, "to lust for." To lust for. That's the goal of the looking. In other words, it's not the first look, it's the second look that's a killer. It's the double-take. Driving down the street, chick walks by. (Makes inaudible movement) (laughter) It's a steady, intense gazing after to fulfill al lustful desire that is in your heart, and that constitutes an adulterer in God's eyes. When you, in your mind, play with that temptation, seize upon that temptation to fulfill your own gratification and lustful desires. Girl walks across the street. Man sees girl. He can't avoid the first look. He turns away. There's no sin at all. But he looks back, intently gazing to fulfill those desires, sin is born. Whether you follow through with the act and you end up in bed or not is irrelevant; you've already committed the sin. Please keep something in mind: if you are tempted in this area a lot, don't get down on yourself. I know few people on earth that are not tempted in this area. It is not the temptation, it's the seizing of the temptation. "Oh, but I'm tempted all the time. I feel like such a rat." No, the devil's the rat who's doing it. It's when you seize upon the temptation, it becomes a different matter.

Now, heh, guys don't come up with this excuse that, "Well, I look but I don't lust. I'm just admiring a creation of God (light laughter)." Yeah, I don't see you looking at trees like that (laughter). That's not a creative admiration. It's an excuse. There are three men in the scripture that come to my mind as examples of people who underwent sexual temptation, two of them fell. One was named David, the other Samson. David was cruising on his palace roof one night, just checking things out. And Jerusalem was on a slope, so wherever you are on a housetop, you can look out and see everything. And he saw everything. It was a good-looking woman named Bathsheba, young. She was bathing in her house, and he could see it right from where he was standing. They didn't have mini-blinds in those days. And David looked out and he saw Bathsheba. Now, him seeing that was not the sin. He couldn't help it. But it was the second look. And he looked at her and he thought about what could happen. Her husband's out of town, she's all alone. Who's going to know? He had her brought to her house and committed adultery, revealing the adultery that was already in his heart. Then there's a guy named Samson. Samson was a strong man, but a spiritual wimp. He loved temptation. He saw a a trap, sexually, he knew it was a trap, but he enjoyed it. And Delilah came by with her beautiful, soothing voice and said, "Samson, honey (light laughter), where does your great strength lie, you big hunk? (laughter)" You never read about Samson saying, "I rebuke you (laughter)." He said, "Well, now that you've flattered me." And he played with the temptation like fire. You can warm yourself with a fire, but you get too close and it'll hop up your arm and consume you. And he ended up as a crust of bread, as a man God, and he ended up as a crust of bread, as a slave grinding for his enemy. That's what sexual temptation can lead to when it is unbridled, when it is unchecked. Samson fell. There's a little maxim that says, "Sow a thought," sow a thought, like a seed. "Sow a thought, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny." Those little things can end up as monstrous giants in the end. Now, before we move on to our next verse, you notice that Jesus may seem a little bit unfair so far. He's spoken just about men and their sexual lusts. What about the woman? Of course, any principle of scripture, you can look at two sides of the coin, and if it's the truth for men, it's the truth for women. But men, you know that your urges are a little bit different than women's. And Jesus was not out of line in giving this kind of emphasis in his teaching. However, woman, whenever you dress to be looked at by a man, you are perhaps more guilty. When you dress in such a way that you want other people to look at your bod, don't get bummed out at a guy if he's lusting when you have incited that. And that also is a part of our society, is it not? That's a response many want.

Look at the next verse, verse 29. "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out, cast it from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It's more profitable for you that one of your members should perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell." You think, "Oh, gross!" Good. That's the response Jesus intended you to have. Just as you read that and you think, "That is so gross to literally think of that," that's the response you should have to sin that offends God. It is gross. And Jesus knew what He was talking about. He wasn't a crude orator; every word was selected. He knew what He was saying. Question is, what does it mean? Now Origen, one of the early church fathers, when he read these verses, was so convicted, he had himself castrated to avoid sexual temptation. And never, you never avoid temptation by mutilation. You just prevent yourself from the total outcome of that temptation. And at first it would seem that these verses are contradictory. If Jesus is saying, "Sin takes place in the heart," what good does it do to cut off a member of your physical body? I mean, if you have a lust problem with your eyes and you gouge out your right one, you've got a left one left. And if you find yourself blowing it with your right hand, you've got one left after you cut that off. So it would seem, as most every commentator believes, that Jesus is speaking in a hyperbolic way, as an analogy. This is obviously figurative. You may say, "I disagree." And if you do disagree, we expect to see some physical changes in the next few weeks, if you believe the Bible literally. It's obviously figurative. Look at some of these words. "It is more profitable," Jesus said, "for one of your members to perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell." Look up at the first part of that verse where it says "causes": "If your eye causes you to sin." Now, let me give you some background. In Jewish culture, the right side of the body was considered the best. The right of anything: the right eye was the best vision, the right hand was the best strength. I'm sorry if you think thats prejudice you left-handers; that's just Jewish thought. It represented the best. And then there's that word, "causes" which could be translated, "bait-stick". Bait-stick. You would take bait, put it on a stick, you'd use it in a trap to trap an animal; it was used as a lure. What I believe Jesus is saying is that anything that causes you, that lures you and traps you spiritually or morally, get rid of it. Even if it is the best thing to you. Even if it is the most precious thing to you. If it is causing you to lose your relationship with God and be trapped morally or sexually, cut it off. Do it immediately, do it radically. Paul the Apostle said, "I discipline my body. I bring it under subjection lest, when I have preached to others, I would myself become a castaway." In other words, my body and my urges are not the most important thing in life, and they're not going to control me. The Lord is. And anything that gets in the way of that, I'm not going to do it. Practically. You got magazines that you look at? Even certain photography magazines that cause you to stumble, or certain sports magazines that you look at a certain issue and it causes you to sin, get rid of them. Don't subscribe. Are you married and you're having another kind of an emotional attraction to somebody at work? Cut if off. Get rid of it. Don't allow it. Don't meet with the person. Are you dating someone and you find yourself falling into sexual urges and temptation? Break up! "Oh, that's radical. I can't break up." Why not? Who's Lord? "Oh, but we've tried to bring it under, under the submission of God, but every time we get together, every single time we fall." Break up. If it causes you to stumble, get rid of it. What's the point here? This is the principle. If you do not control what goes on around you- conversations your involved it, movies you watch, television you watch, magazines you read- they will control you and you will be brought into bondage. That's the principle. You don't control them, they'll control you.

Remember we said that there were three outstanding examples of sexual temptation in the Bible, two of them fell? One of them didn't. Joseph. Beautiful example of a man who literally fled temptation. He was in a house with his master's wife and his master's wife was so sexually luring and tempting. This beautiful young woman would come to him every single day while her husband was at work and say, "Hop in bed with me, Joe. Lie with me." And he'd say, "Get out of here. You're my master's wife. I'm not going to do such a thing. It's not right." She was incessant every single day and every single day he'd say no. Till finally one day her husband was gone, and she ripped off his clothes. And he streaked out of the house (light laughter). He literally fled. He didn't stand around and go, "Well, I don't want to be impolite and leave. It's not a good witness, you know. (light laughter)" He split. He would not- hey, don't be a dart board, if you have a problem with this. Don't stand around and be a dart board. Leave the apartment. Turn on the ignition of the car. Get going. Don't allow yourself those glances, that thought process. God will give you the ability to say no if you want to. None of this, "I just couldn't help it." If you believe that, then you believe God lied. Cause He said, "There is no temptation taken to you but such as common to man. God is faithful and will not allow you to be tempted above that which you are able and with the temptation give you a way of escape." The matter is, do I want it? Will I accept it? Will I step out on it? Hey, flee temptation. Don't leave a forwarding address. Get out.

This is a serious issue. It's like the story of the hunter who had his gun pointed at a bear's forehead, ready to pull the trigger, and just then the bear spoke, softly, in a soothing voice. He said, "Hey, wait a minute. Isn't it better to talk than to shoot? Maybe we can negotiate. What is it you want hunter?" Hunter said, "I want a fur coat." Bear said, "Good, good, I think we can talk about this. All I want is a full stomach." So they sat down and started negotiating, talking. A little while later, the bear walked away alone. The negotiations had been successful. The bear got a full stomach and the hunter got a fur coat (laughter). Give Satan an inch, he'll take it all. Don't negotiate with him. Don't negotiate with sex. Don't negotiate with adultery. Don't say, "Well I can't break off the relationship. I'd be a bad witness. I have to at least say why and maybe have one last dinner." Just call him and say, "It's over." God knows what's best. He never gives principles nor commandments that are bad for you. They may be a little painful, they may be very painful to obey, but He does it because He knows what's best for you. He does it because He knows what will make your life blossom and thrive and He knows those things that'll kill ya. And when He tells you something, don't think God's a dummy. Do what He said and you'll be rewarded for it. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we know this is a serious issue in our country. This is a serious issue in many of our lives. It's certainly a temptation none of us are beyond. We're all exposed. Father, I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, that holiness would invade our lives by our act of will. And this morning, Lord, we present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to You, the temple of your Holy Spirit. Lord, give us the guts to be obedient. Surely isn't easy. Lord, I pray for those people who have said yes to sexual temptation who are here this morning and feeling a brick load of guilt on them. I pray, Lord, that as they come to You with it, and perhaps they already have many times, that, since they've asked forgiveness and You've forgiven them, that they could forgive themselves and walk in freedom once again. Heal those wounds that are inevitable there because of that kind of activity. But, Lord, I pray that they'd have the assurance of forgiveness and the power to go on. Create, Lord, better thoughts, better actions, better habits, better characters, and the supreme destiny. In Jesus name, Amen.