What is Adultery?

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Grace Family Baptist Church. Gfbc's mission is proclaiming the supremacy of Christ to all men with a view of biblical conversion and comprehensive discipleship. Thank you for visiting Gracefamilybaptist dot Net. Well. As we walk through the Sermon on the Mount, we have been looking at the indicatives that came in the beginning of the sermon. Jesus gives us a picture of who we are as citizens of this new kingdom that he inaugurates and announces. However, we are always living in that tension of the already and not yet of the kingdom. Jesus comes, and he announces his victory. He comes, and on the cross he gains his victory, and the Kingdom indeed is at hand. However, there are things yet to be done. His kingdom is yet to come in its fullness. And in the midst of all of that this already and not yet tension, we also have the already and not yet tension of the Christian life. We have the already of justification and adoption. We have been justified, we have been declared righteous. You and I are righteous before a holy God. When we come to him through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are his. It is finished. Christ said on the cross to tell Ustan, it's not now. The rest is up to you. Jesus says on the cross, it is finished. So we have this sense of the already. We have been justified, We have been declared righteous. The gavel has fallen down. That's the already. However, there is the not yet. Justification is ours, adoption is ours, sanctification is more ours today than yesterday. Amen, But it's not yet. It's not yet. In fact, if you're anything like me, every time you feel like an area of your sanctification is already, it's as though God pulls back the veil and something happens to allow you to realize, not yet, Amen, glad, I've conquered that. Ooh really okay, not yet? Hyah, better today than yesterday, but not yet our glorification that is yet to come. That's the not yet. So we have the already and the not yet, and the tension between those two. And here as we have moved beyond these indicatives toward these imperatives, and really the six antitheses. That's what happens after he gives us. Remember I told you that is thesis statement was his statement on the law and how we view the law in light of the coming of the kingdom. That the law is perfect, that the law is timeless, that the law is relevant and applicable, but that the law is also insufficient to say. After he gives us that thesis statement of the sermon, if you will, he goes on to give us the six antitheses in order to demonstrate to us what he means when he says, your righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees. We've already discussed the fact that we don't hear that the way here, you know, audience would have heard that we hear your righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees. A pharisee to us as a person who's not very righteous, we don't see that as a very high calling. However, we have to realize that to the original hearers, they could think of none more righteous than a Pharisee. There was no one who lived a purer life than a Pharisee. So when Jesus makes this statement, your righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees. What he is saying in essence is this, Your righteousness as it relates to the law must exceed the righteousness of the most righteous person you've ever conceived of. That's what he's saying, And in these sixth antitheses he gives us a picture of that. We've already looked at the first antithesis with anger as it relate to murder. Look at the sixth commandment, you shall not commit murder. Now you look at the seventh Commandment and also the tenth Commandment, but they would only have understood it as the seventh commandment. Jesus brings in the fact that the seventh Commandment and the breaking thereof, also involves the breaking of the tenth Commandment. By the way, it also involves the breaking of the First Commandment. But we'll get to that road in a moment, and it gets to this issue of adultery. So let's keep in mind number one, what we've come through up to this point, and remember the key to understanding and unlocking and interpreting the Law of God in light of the Kingdom that Jesus has already given us two paragraphs earlier. Secondly, remember also that in that same paragraph he gives us this picture of our righteousness and the requirement that he has for us being to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees. Our righteousness has to exceed the righteousness of the righteous individual that we can conceive of, because the most righteous individual that you can conceive of their righteousness before God, according to Isaiah s filthy rags, filthy rags. So here's the pattern that we get in these six antitheses. You've heard what I say to you. Here's what Jesus is doing. He's really outlining three ways. Way number one, of course, is assumed, and that's the way of not obeying God's law. We all know that is unacceptable to not obey God's law. The one who does not obey God's law, he's in a ditch on the side of the road over here. He's missed the kingdom. We understand that. However, Jesus talks about another ditch on the other side of the road, and that's the one who keeps God's law, but keeps it imperfectly, and yet trusts in the keeping of God's law as it relates to righteousness before God, there's a ditch on that side of the road as well. So you can miss the kingdom by not keeping the law, and you can miss the Kingdom by keeping the law in and of yourself and trusting in your keeping of the law as a means of justification, not as a byproduct of justification. So there's a ditch on both sides of that road. So really Jesus gives us the third way. In each of these antitheses, we end up with the third way. You can't not keep the law. Everybody would say, amen, we can't not keep the law. And then Jesus says, here's the law, and everybody goes, yeah, that's the law. And then Jesus says, oh, by the way, you haven't kept this law, and you can't keep this law because this law involves far more than you ever imagine. And they were kind of stuck. I can't not keep the law right, but I also can't keep the law right. Something else, Yes, there is, and that third way is the ethic of the kingdom. And that's what we find here in this second antithesis as well. Look with me, if you will, beginning of verse twenty six, and this week's message and next week's message are inexorably linked, because this week we talk about the issue of adultery, next week we talk about the issue of divorce. Look with me in verse twenty seven. You've heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery, and everybody here's that and says, amen, that's right. Commandment number seven, do not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away, for it is better that you lose one of your members, then your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away, for it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. Jesus just said a mouthful several things. I want you to see here as we look at the second, the seventh commandment, rather in light of Kingdom ethics versus this, we need to understand the seventh commandment. We understand what it is. The seventh commandment is you shall not commit adultery. Now here's the way we usually think of the seventh Commandment, and again, this is the seventh Commandment in the most simplistic terms imaginable. If you are married to one person, you must not have a sexual relationship with another person period. If you're not married, you must not have a sexual relationship with anyone. To do so is to commit adultery, cut and dry. That's the seventh Commandment. You have entered into a covenant. That covenant is exclusive. You may not go outside of that covenant in order to fulfill that which is only provided through the covenant. You may not do that. That's the simple understanding of the seventh Commandment. And so if we understand the seventh Commandment that way, just as simple and straightforward as we possibly can, then here's what we say. Well, I'm married to my spouse and have never been unfaithful with my spouse in relation to another. Therefore, I have not broken the seventh Commandment. And therefore I stand righteous before God on the issue of the second Commandment because I have not physically formed a one flesh union with anyone outside of my marriage bed. Therefore I have not I grope in the seventh Commandment. Again, when Jesus preaches this sermon. That's everybody's thinking on the issue. I've not been to bed with another woman. I've not been to bed with another man. Therefore, when God looks at me, he ticks off the second commandment. Okay, got the seventh commandment? Rather, okay, got that one. Haven't been to bed with someone that's not your spouse. Done, good job, You're righteous in the sight of God. That's the way everyone would have thought of the seventh commandment before they heard what Jesus said. However, he takes it up another notch. Look at what he says verse twenty eight. But I say to you, and this is his pattern. Here's where you thought you needed to be. And because you thought this was where you need it to be, you think you're okay. However, you've got the wrong standard. So every time he says, but I say to you, he's saying wrong standard, you think you're okay because you've got the wrong standard. When it comes to murder, you have not literally taken the life of another person. You're fine. No, you're not, because you have done the very thing that the law was meant to expose in you, which was that you have hated a brother in your heart here same principle. You think you haven't broken the seventh commandment because you do not know what God was after The seventh Commandment was not about God trying to tick off a box of you, just not physically getting into bed with someone who is not your spouse. It goes far beyond that. Righteousness is not just this outward compliance. It is about who we are on the inside. And so he says, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adult you with her in his heart. And let me clarify this for a moment. When he says here that you've looked at a woman with lustful intent, epithemside is the word that he uses there. The word there is not simply to glance, or not simply to glance and find what you see attractive. No, looking at a woman with lustful intent. The picture there is to look at a woman with a desire to possess her. In other words, here's what he means. If you look at a woman in such a way that you put your yes on the table and merely wait to see if she puts her yes on the table too. You've already committed adultery. If you're looking at a woman and you're saying to this woman with your if you look forward this woman, it's saying to her, yes, you can have me if you want me, Because I definitely want you. My yes is on the table. It is there for the taking, and if you were to respond appropriately, under the right circumstances, we could go ahead and consummate the deal. If you look at someone and put your yes on the table, if you look at someone with a desire to possess them and a willingness for them to possess you, you have already violated the seventh commandment. You just haven't had the opportunity to consummate yet you've already done its. These are the mistakes. God is not after a people who will tie themselves up in legalistic knots so that they don't follow through with who they really are in their souls. Let me say that again. God is not after a people who will tie themselves up in legalistic knots so that they merely do not carry out on the outside what they truly are in their souls. You see, oftentimes we look at this passage and we think about things that are external, and so we look at this passage and we say, yes, yes, yes, Here's what this passage means. This passage means that I have to guard my eyes and we do. This passage means that, you know, we need to dress modestly, and we do, and we'll talk about that. This passage means that you know, I need to not put myself in compromising positions. This passage means that I need to not put pornography in front of my eyes. This message means that I don't need to watch these suggestive things on television, or read these suggestive suggestive things in books and all this sort of stuff. And sure, there's nothing wrong with any of that. But here's what I want you to know. Regardless of how you feel about the Iraq war, follow me for a moment. Here our truth go into Iraq, and Iraq falls rather quickly, I don't know if you remember it or not, matter of days, and we're in the capitol. They take over the capitol, they take over Saddam's headquarters. They go into Saddam's headquarters, and in Saddam's headquarters they find pornography. Women in Iraq are covered from head to toe. You don't get more modest than women in the at least, But modesty is not the ultimate issue. Even in a place where they weren't watching, you know, these suggestive shows that we have here, or these suggestive commercials that we have here, where women were covered from head to toe, men were still lusting in their hearts, and we found the fruit of it. We found the evidence of it when we took the headquarters. Why why God's not after a people who will tie themselves up in legalistic knots so that they merely are unable to carry out on the outside what they really are on the inside. That is not what the law of God is about. That is not what the law of God is after. Remember the two purposes of the law. Purpose number one. The law is a mirror. God gives us his perfect law so that we can look at His law and see into our souls, so that we can see the sinners that we are. There is none righteous, no not even one. There is none who does good. There is none who seeks after God, no one. And just in case you think you are that one, here's my law. How's that working for you? You keeping it? Not? Are you just forbidding yourself from fulfilling those desires that are in you. That's not the question. Are you keeping it? And he answers no. Here's what Jesus does. There's a group of people who look at those who are not keeping the law with disdain. Why because I'm keeping this law and you're not. They think they are just when they look upon their brothers who have somehow broken this law. And Jesus basically says to them, oh, by the way, all of you who think that you are not like the woman caught in adultery, you're the same on the inside. You're an adultery. You have not kept the law. I told you. The Pharisees had six hundred and thirteen laws that they kept, six hundred and thirteen. And Jesus says, you're not even close. And there's not a number that you can add to your six hundred and thirteen that will make you close, because you're ruined on the inside. The physical act of adultery is merely the external consummation of internal sin. That's all it is. It is merely the external consummation of our internal sin. So Jesus expands the definition. Listen to what mount says about this, though the act of adultery may have far more serious social consequences. For example, according to Leviticus twenty the consequence is death for both parties. The intentional desire to awaken lust is equally sinful in God's sight. There is no well marked boundary between the desire and the deed. The deed is just the consummation of the desire, and it's the desire that is sinful. I'm not saying that there is an absolute one to one correspondence between the two. Is the deed more serious, Yes, the deed is more serious, But the deed is merely the consummation of what is there on the inside of us. There's several things that we see about this issue of adultery in the scriptures, and I want you to see what it points to look with me. For example, at Romans one, Romans won Beginning of Worse twenty four. Therefore God gave them up the lust of their hearts, to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever, Amen, what led to sexual immorality? Here? Was it immodesty and inappropriate dress? No, it was blasphemy. It was the worship of the cree nature rather than the worship of the Creator. You can dress as modestly as people in the Middle East do. But if you are not turning your heart appropriately toward God, and if he is not the only God whom you worship, ultimately, you will express your adultery toward through other means, a sexual impurity, an infidelity. Later on, homosexuality and adultery are all born out of the sin of blasphemy. Ultimately, according to Romans chapter one, our sinful sexual desires flow forth from a misunderstanding or a misapplication of the first Commandment. Secondly, live with me at the Thehesians chapter five, Asians chapter five, So look at three through fourteen. Just begin at three. But sexual immorality in all impurity or covetousness. How about that He takes it and connects it to the tenth commandment, You shall not covet So it's connected to the first commandment. It's also connected to the tenth commandment, must not even be named among you, as is proper amongst saints. Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. By the way, the crew joking that he's talking about here is sexual innuendo. For you may be sure of this that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous that is what an idolator, has no inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God. The Bible connects breaking the seventh Commandment with breaking the First Commandment and with breaking the tenth Commandment. It is covetousness and it is idolatry. So again, it's not just about this act of consummation. It is about the idolatry in our hearts, and it is about the covetousness in our hearts. Ultimately, adultery is about not being satisfied with God, not just your mate. It's about not being satisfied with the provision that God has made for you. That's ultimately what adultery is. First Thesalonian chapter four, we see that this is also an issue of defrauding the brethren. First Thessalonian chapter four, let's look at that verse one Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you receive from us how you ought to walk to please God, just as you are doing that, you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust, like the gentiles who do not know God. Again, the passion of lust connected to what not knowing God, which is a violation of what the first commandment, that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warns you, for God has not called us to impurity, but in holiness. Therefore, whoever disregards this disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. Again, this is a defrauding of the brethren, so much more than just this act of consummation that we think about. Again, you violated the seventh commandment. No not, I've kept the Seventh Commandment. Really, no covetousness in you, no idolatry in you, No pursuit of the satisfaction of legitimate desires through illegitimate means not prescribed by God in you. I think not we violated this. Listen to this from the Westminster Larger Catechism. What are the duties required in the Seventh Commandment? The duties required in the Seventh Commandment are chastity in body, mind, affections, words, and behavior, and the preservation of it in ourselves and others. Watchfulness over the eyes and all the senses, temperance, keeping of chaste company, modesty and apparel, marriage by those that have not a gift of continency, conjugal love and cohabitation, diligent labor in our callings, shunning all occasions of uncleanness, and resisting temptations thereunto Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. It's broader than we think. In order to understand the significance of the violation of the Seventh Commandment, it's important not only to understand what all it encompasses, for example, the Ten Commandment and the First Commandment, it's also important for us to understand it in the context of the biblical purposes for marriage. And there are three I want to outline for you three biblical purposes for marriage. Purpose number one. God gave us marriage for procreation. We see that in Genesis chapter one, for example, first commandment in the Bible be fruitful and multiplied. We also see that in Malachi chapter two. What was God after in your union? Godless seed. That's what he's after, godless seed. So procreation, and by the way, procreation is not just the having of children. Procreation is actually bringing forth children with a view toward raising them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, so that we may take dominion as God has called us to. It's not just having a number of children. It's bigger than that. It's more significant than that, it's more important than that. And that is purpose number one for marriage. So when we look at purpose number one for marriage and put adultery in that context, what do we see. God gives us marriage for the purpose of procreation within the context of a family that will bring children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Adultery number one opens us up to illegitimate procreation outside of the covenant of marriage. Thereby denying one set of our children. Are both sets of our children the parentage that God requires in order for us to raise them. The way He told us to illegitimate children is not just about embarrassment or our reputation. Illegitimate children is about us bringing children into this world that we do not provide for, either financially or in discipleship. So when it comes to procreation again the very purpose of marriage, we have violated the marriage by opening ourselves up to illegitimate propriation outside of the context of the marriage relationship, where God intended forward to take place. Second purpose of marriage is sanctification. Sanctification look at this. A lot of people don't like this, but termly, first wereit this chapter seven. A lot of us don't like this because we're caught up in the romanticism of the Greco Roman world, and we like to think about all these romantic things in marriage and so on and so forth, And how do I love thee Let me count the ways Romeo Romeo wore a Romeo. Then we reverse Didius. Chapter seven just messes all that up. Verse one. Now, concerning the matter about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman, But because it's temptation to sexual immorality. Each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. How romantic is that verse three, The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourself to prayer, but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self control. God gave us marriage in order to satisfy that god given desires that He bestowed upon us within the context of a relationship that will allow those desires to be met within a holy relationship. Problem with adultery. God gave us marriage so that our physical desires would be met in a holy context. What does adultry do. It takes those physical desires and meets them in an illegitimate context. It says to God, I know you love me, and you intend to meet my desires. However, I'm not satisfied with the way you met my desires. I want to go meet my desires in another way, because, quite frankly, I think I'm a little wiser than you about wants and needs and desires. So I'm going over here to this other relationship that does not meet your requirements, so that I can somehow achieve the wholeness that you, o, God, are incapable of bringing about in my life. Psidolatry, psidolatry, finally procreation, sanctification. And then there is illustration. There's illustration. God gives us the marriage relationship as an illustration of the relationship between Jesus Christ and his church, painting a picture of the relationship between Christ and his church. And here's what's interesting about marriage. Think about this, Remember that tension between the already and the not yet of the kingdom. We have the already and the not yet. Jesus is already the bridegroom, but the marriage has not yet taken place. In fact, turn with me, if you will, to Revelation chapter nineteen, verses five through eight. Revelation chapter nineteen. And from the throne came a voice saying, Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him small and great. Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters, and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, Hallelujah for the Lord, our God, the Almighty rings. Let us rejoice, exult, and give him glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. It was granted to her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. The fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. Think about this for a moment, folks. We have the already and not yet of the betrothal of Jesus to his bride his death in order to purchase his bride. He's ascended to the right hand of the Father forever to make an accession for his bride. But we have the not yet of awaiting the consummation and the marriage of Christ to his bride. In the meantime, he gives the world a picture of what the not yet is going to be like through the frail, fragile human relationship of marriage. Can you say, humbling adultery is a perversion of the Gospel. This picture of Christ, who is forever Fai full to his bride. This picture of Christ who dies for his bride, who is patient with his bride in her faithlessness and in her utter inability to satisfy. And he needs that he would have if he'd have, anybody does it. Adultery takes that picture and turns it on its head. That's why we find in our passage. Look at what he says in verse twenty nine. If your right eye causes you to sin, and remember the right hand and the right eye. The right side is the side of strength, the son of my right hand. That's the son of my strength. Okay. If your right eye, the strength of your seeing, causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better that you lose one of your members than your whole body be thrown into hell. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away, for it is better that you lose one of your members than your whole body go into hell. In other words, Jesus says, now, on the one hand, we think about this from a temporal perspective, and basically this is where we get the legalistic walls built around our sinful impurities. If your right accuses you to sin. Okay, and then fine, you just don't have this, don't have that, don't do this, don't do that, you take away all of these things. Well, there we go back to Iraq with the woman covered from head to toe and the lust still in the heart and soul of every man. Doesn't eradicate, it doesn't eradicate it. Does this mean that we're careless? Absolutely not Jesus's point here. He's speaking hyperbole. But what's his point here? His point here is that we live for eternity. What's the problem with adultery. The problem with adultery is we were meant to be fully satisfied this side of heaven. The problem with adultery is this we are seeking what we can never have through a relationship that God isn't never ordained. I'm dissatisfied. I want to be satisfied. Maybe that woman will satisfy me. This woman to whom I'm married doesn't satisfy me. Maybe there's another woman out there who will satisfy me. Maybe the only problem is I just got the wrong woman. And if I got the right woman, if she was taller or if she was shorter, if she was bigger, she was smaller, smarter, not so smart, whatever, darker, lighter. If I just had the right woman, then I would be satisfied. Yet that would be true if your dissatisfaction had anything to do with another human being. But there is no human being who will satisfy you. Jesus is basically saying, you're living with a temporal lens on. Better to pluck out your right eye, cut off your right hand, and suffer in the here and now and enjoy the glories of heaven forever with the bridegroom, who is the only one who will ever satisfy you, than to allow your eye or your hand to cause you to look forward and reach for something that will not only leave you dissatisfied, but will ultimately lead you toward destruction. He's calling us to an eternal perspective, folks, not to outright legalism, but to an eternal perspective. Remember the Pharisees. They tried the outward legalism route. It didn't work. That's why he's preaching mis sermon. The worst possible thing we could do is basically look at this and say, Okay, Jesus is coming. He's saying the Pharisees have these six hundred and thirteen laws. We got to be more righteous than them, so we need at least six hundred and fourteen. Six hundred and fifteen. You miss the entire point. It's not the number of laws that they have. It's that they are trying, through external measures to accomplish something that can only be accomplished internally by the spirit of the Living God as we yield our lives to him. But how do we get there from here? Because truth be told, there is lust all over this room. We live in a li us full culture. We are lustful people. How do we get there from here? We know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that there are men all over our culture, and this this room is no different. There are men all over our culture, and there are men in this room who struggled on an ongoing basis with things like pornography and perhaps even relationships that they're giving getting ever closer to with women who are not their wives because they think they've found something that they were lacking. So what do we do if we don't go building up the walls, what do we do? Do we just do we just? Do we not go outside? Look out our eyes. Do we not engage and have relationship with people? Cut off her hand? The only problem with that is that the source of your problem is not out there, It's in here, and it's something you can't cut off. What do we do? I'm glad you asked four things that we do in applying this, I believe there could be more. Let me give you these four christ centered application of this passa descripture, non legalistic application of this. Okay, Christ's centered application of this. Number one, and this is thinking about it from an eternal perspective. And now I wrote these for me. You just get to eavesdrop. I wrote these for me. If I'm gonna walk in this? What do I have? That's what I ask myself. If I'm gonna walk in this, what I have do? I've been crushed under the way of this for weeks now. If I'm gonna walk in this, am I What am I gonna do? God? What am I gonna do? If I'm gona walkingness? If this is about covetousness, and this is about the violation of the First Commandment? What do we do and this culture in which we live? Number one, I must adorn myself in a manner that honors my bridegroom and identifies me as belonging to him, and give no indication or impression of seeking to please another. And what's interesting about all four of these is all four of these are about me and my Jesus, but they translate completely into the relationship with me and my bridget so when it comes to faithfulness, because ultimately faith in our marriages is just a picture of faithfulness to the bridegroom Jesus Christ. Ultimately, that's what it is. So what do I do. I must adorn myself in a manner. I must robe myself in a manner, clothe myself in a manner both inwardly and outwardly that honors my bridegroom, not that keeps with your rules or anybody else's rules, but that honors my bridegroom. I need to adorn myself in that way. And I need to adorn myself in such a way that identifies my identifies me as belonging to him, and give no indication or impression of seeking to please another. That's true with the way I adorn myself spiritually. That's also true with the way I adorn myself physically. It's a couple of ways. For example, to look at modesty, we can look at modesty with a ruler six inches below here, three inches above there. Okay, Oh, we can look at modesty this way, because a woman can be immodest with a skirt all the way down to her ankles. Adorn yourself in such a way that you seek to please the one to whom your love is pledged, and do not present yourself as though you are two. I must not seek to steal the attention or affection of another, which is essentially to compete with Christ for his place in their life, and to offer them an inferior substitute that could never satisfy. He said again, I must not seek to steal the attention or affections of another, which is essentially to compete with Christ for his place in their life, and to offer them an inferior substitute that could never satisfy. That's true of me as a preacher, and that's true of me as a husband. If as a minister of the Gospel, I try to steal your affections and get you to praise me instead of Christ, get you to depend on me instead of Christ, get you to yearn for me instead of Christ, get you to adore me instead of Christ. I am enticing you to adultery, and I'm also an inferior substitute that will never ever ever satisfy you. You will only be satisfied by Christ. The same is true with our mates. If I am enticing another, or being enticed by another toward adultery, Basically, here's what I'm doing. I am offering them, or seeking from them, a substitute that will never satisfy. Here's the other thing. The sooner I get that, the sooner I stop looking for satisfaction elsewhere. Because here's the problem. And this is what happens. When we begin to wonder with our eyes. We begin to say, you know what, I don't know that I'm necessarily completely satisfied with my spouse. Newsflash, you can't be. You were never meant to be. If you are looking to your spouse for your satisfaction, that you are committing idolatry. If you're dissatisfied, it is because you're not feasting on Christ. If you are feasting on Christ, all of your needs are being met, and your relationship with your wife is gravy. It's bonus it's extra amen. If Christ is my all in all, and I am feasting on Him, and I am filled with him, and I am adoring him, and I am satisfied in Him, that I look to my wife not to say, oh, she's just not enough for me. No, I look to my wife and I say, oh, God, that you would satisfy me utterly and completely, and then on top of that, give me this woman. You're too good to me. God, it's too good to me. When your eyes begin to wonder, it's because you're not feasting on Christ sufficiently, and you're seeking satisfaction from another that can never ever ever give it to you. Don't believe me. That's Solomon read Ecclesiastes more women than he can get around two in a year and still completely and utterly dissatisfied. There's not a woman in this world who will satisfy you. Don't We hear it all the time. You know, beautiful leading man marries you know, gorgeous leading woman. A year later they're breaking up, and what's everybody saying? Dude, what does he want? She's perfect? No, she's not. There is no woman that will satisfy a man. There is no man that will satisfy a woman. The only one who will satisfy us is the bridegroom himself, Jesus Christ. And as long as we are looking for satisfaction anywhere else, we will never find it, and we will be wandering and coveting and committing adultery and idolatry again and again and again. Three, I must satisfy myself with the abundant provision offered me by my personal, intimate, exclusive relationship with Christ, and recognize that seeking satisfaction from my longings and desires from another number one represents idolatry, and number two is destined not to satisfy me in the long run. Finally, number four, I must do all of this with full awareness of my frailty and failings, knowing that I am utterly dependent upon Christ to empower, instruct, and completely satisfy me. That's what's wrong with the legalistic response. The legalistic response says, I'm not satisfied. Therefore I yearn for things out there. So here's what I will do. I will block off the things out there. Guess what, you haven't done anything with the dissatisfaction. It's still there. We must feast on Christ might you also need to put some filters on your computer. Yeah. Amen, It's just like, I mean, I feast on Christ, So what need would I have to go over here to the Mormon Temple. I'm feasting on Christ, Why am I going over there? I'm not going to go over there. So might there be things in our midst that we need to be aware of? Absolutely, most assuredly. But that's not the answer. Do we need to be concer earned with things like modesty? Modesty? Absolutely, But that's not the answer. The other thing is is you can tell where somebody is on this issue by what their problems are with modesty. Let me explain. If I'm feasting on Christ and I'm understanding this the right way, then the modesty I'm worried about is mine. Hear that, The modesty I'm worried about is mine. If I'm feasting on Christ and being satisfied in Him, I want to present myself in a way that honors Him and that respects the other members of the Body of Christ and doesn't leave them to stumble so that they can honor and feast on Him. However, if I'm not feasting on Christ, I'm worried about your modesty. Why, Because there are yearnings and dissatisfactions in me that I'm blaming you for. That's why I'm not satisfied in Christ. I'm not feasting on Christ. Therefore I need all the walls and all the barriers up because I'm not satisfied, and any little thing will send me over the tipping point, because I have all these yearnings out there just waiting to be satisfied. And all of my attention is on your modesty, not mine. When I'm feasting on Christ, when I'm satisfied in Him, when I'm adoring Him, when i'm worshiping Him, when I'm filled with Him, my principal thought about whether or not I'm presenting me in the right way. Does that mean modesty is not an issue? Oh, modesty is absolutely an issue. We do need to pay attention to that. We shouldn't be about the business of defrauding our brothers and sisters and making this more difficult than it already is. Amen, But that's peripheral. The real issue is something far more significant than that. The other thing is this. For example, when you see a young woman or an older woman for that matter, who's dressing immodestly and mostly here's what we do. We think about this Passenger Scripture from this pharisaical view, okay, establishing righteousness by the outward keeping of the law. And immediately we see somebody who's immodest, and our response is, oh, how could they are? I can't believe what are they doing? Why are they instead? Here's what you see when you look at immodesty, am idust dressed. You think about young women out there today, Okay, am I at dressed? The girls out there with the you know, with the with the with the low ride jeans and the high riding shirt and the tramp stamp. You know. And you don't know what a tramp stamp is this you don't even need to know, but that's what they literally call it. Okay, it's the little tattoo in the smaller the back. It's not enough to expose that part of the anatomy. Now, you put a tattoo there so that you make sure the attention of the male eye goes to that sensual sexual part of your body. Okay. When you see that, here's what you see. You see a young woman saying, I am dissatisfied. I am an in shell and my only hope is to somehow receive and achieve adoration from the outside. Doesn't have to be positive, just has to be male. Just please look at me, please lust after me. Are they necessarily young women who just really want to give themselves away? No, because what happens is when men do sort of you know, augulum, they get uncomfortable. You ever notice that young women dressed like a streetwalker, young men staring, making eyes, whistling. She starts taking that sk It's not a skirt, it's not long enough to be a skirt. It's a scream Okay. She starts taking that and pulling it down. Now she can't pull it down because it comes like to here. She can't pull it down, but she's pulling on it like she can actually add material to it and make it longer. She's pulled down the shirt. She can actually add material to it and make it longer. Why is she doing this? Because her desire wasn't to necessarily give herself away. Her desire was to achieve and receive adoration. That girl needs Christ. Does she need a longer skirt? Sure? I mean you know she needs Christ. Here's the sad reality. Though most of us will demigrate her for her skirt and never tell her about the Christ whom she needs. Shame on us. That's not Christian. Because here's what we say to that young woman. Here's the problem. When you come to that young woman about her skirt, first and foremost, you create a pharisee or an enemy of the Gospel. She's either an enemy of the Gospel because you bring her not the Gospel, but this outward obedience that she already thinks Christianity is. Oh, it's all about the way I dress great or if you do penetrate that outward shell, and she does hear you. But what you've been proclaiming is the six hundred and thirteen rules and not the Gospel, then she gets the long skirt, but she doesn't get Jesus. No, you bring to the gospel. You teach her about the bridegroom and what he thinks about her. And eventually she'll probably broach the subject of too much cleavage or too much it is, or too much whatever, But she won't do it appropriately until she's learned to feast on Christ, to adore him, and to adorn him. Most of us came into this room, and if we had just read the seventh Commandment closed up the Bible. Most of us could have left feeling justified. Yes, I can check that one off. The goal of Jesus in this second antithesis was to stop you in your tracks and say put your pen back in your pocket. You don't get to check this one off that easily because God was not after in the seventh Commandment. This forced outward compliance. No, he was actually exposing the inner desires of your heart that are absolutely corrupt and covetous and blasphemous. And it's only when we get there that you get the seventh Commandment. If we'd read the seventh Commandment and left, we would have left boasting in ourselves. You read it properly in the Sermon on the Mount. The only way we can leave here boasting is to boast in Christ, because apart from Him, every last one of us would be crushed on the rock of the seventh Commandment with absolutely no hope whatsoever of anything but ultimate judgment. Instead, we get a picture of how much the bridegroom loves his bride, and what a privilege it is to be able to enjoy a human, earthly relationship that is a mere reflection and foretaste of the consummation that has yet to come, when Christ and his bride are united in the new Heaven of the New Earth. You've been listening to the podcast or Gracefamilybaptist dot Net. Grace Family Baptist Church is located in Spring, Texas. For any questions or comments regarding Grace Family Baptist Church, calshol free at eight seven seven six five one eighty eight fourteen, or go online to Gracefamilybaptist dot Net.