We're here in Matthew chapter
5 again. We'll begin reading in verse
27. Now this is the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking. And He says in verse 27, Ye have
heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit
adultery. Now just as He did with the law
of murder, or just as they did with the law of murder, those
who perverted the law of God, restricted adultery to acts between
married persons exclusively. And so that the law had no respect
to fornication or unchaste thoughts or words or actions, but that
single act only. And he says in verse 28, But
I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after
her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Now look down at verse 31. It hath been said, this is what
them of old time said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let
him give her a writing of divorcement. They said it's okay to divorce
her just so as you give her a writing of divorcement. Verse 32, But
I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving
for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery.
And whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, commiteth adultery. Now look back at verse 29, And if thy right eye offend thee,
pluck it out, cast it from thee. For it is profitable for thee
that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole
body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend
thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee. For it is profitable
for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy
whole body should be cast into hell. as he did with the law of murder.
The Lord Jesus Christ spiritualizes the law of adultery. The law
is spirit. The law is spirit. It speaks
to the heart. It speaks to the thoughts, to
the intents of the mind and the heart. And so here with the law
of adultery, he does the same thing and he declares it spiritual. Now, the law is written in letter. And we can read it in the letter. We can hear it according to the
letter. When the Apostle Paul was yet
a Pharisee, he said, as touching the law, as touching an outward
obedience to it, he said, I was blameless. But when the commandment
came into his heart, it came into his heart through the power
of the Holy Spirit so that he was convicted in the heart for
the actions of the heart. So that then all the righteousness
he had looked at outwardly. but came to Him as absolutely
vanity. Because before you ever get out
here to these hands, before you ever get out here to what I can
see and what you can see, there's a heart matter. And that's what
the law of God speaks to. It speaks to the heart. Now,
when our Lord says here, if thy right hand offend thee, pluck
it out. And He says, if thy right eye
offend thee, pluck it out. If thy right hand offend thee,
cut it off. The Lord commands the believer to strike at the
very root of the problem. Whatever it is that's feeding
our fleshly nature, that would feed the desires of our flesh,
He says, do away with it completely. Just do away with it completely.
The problem is so radical. The offense is so great. He uses
just some radical language here. Cutting off the hand. Plucking
out the eye. How does a believer do that?
How does a sinner do that? It's foolish for us to think
that this can be accomplished by threats of hell. That's not
what our Lord is doing here when He says it's better for you to
go through life with one hand than the whole body perish in
hell. He's not trying to scare people from hell. That's not
what He's doing. He's making a clear statement. And it's impossible
to think that this could be done through the law or to think that
because we've conformed ourselves outwardly to some aspect of moral
living that we have mortified the deeds of the flesh. The fact
of the matter is that's exactly what the Pharisees did. And by
thinking that that was mortification of the flesh, They were simply
walking after the flesh. They were walking in the flesh.
Mortifying the deeds of the flesh is walking after the Spirit.
It's being led of Christ the Lord in the heart and walking
after Him. That's how the flesh is made
dead. That's how the hand is cut off
and the eye plucked out. Now, the problem, there's been
some Brethren who have actually, in their life, actually cut their
hand off and plucked their eye out. There's been some who have
checked out of society and gone to reclusive places and lived
to try to get away from the lust of the flesh. But after you cut
the hand off, after you pluck the eye out, after you board
up the windows and lock all the doors, you're still there. And
the problem is us. The problem is the heart. So
how, when our Lord says, turn from anything and everything,
part with everything near and dear to you that's going to cause
you to feed those sinful lusts. But how is it we can do that,
brethren? How is it that we can do that?
The Apostle Paul, when he was regenerated, a believer, he said,
he's talking about the goodness of God's law, and he's talking
about his own sinfulness. And in Romans 7, he says, that
which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. If
then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that
it's good. The law's doing, it's revealing
to me that I'm not doing what I want to do. And it's revealing
to me that what I'm doing is what I shouldn't be doing. But
the Apostle Paul, he wasn't speaking of outward immorality. He wasn't
speaking of an evil course of living. He's talking about the
heart. He's talking about sin of the
heart. Throughout the context of Matthew
chapter 5, our Lord is declaring the very depths of the sin of
His people. How far reaching into the heart
the law goes. And how condemning it is in the
heart. How then is it that we can cut off this hand and pluck
out this eye? Paul was brought to cry out. Oh, wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from this body of death? Not just a hand, not
just an eye, not just something I need to fix and get in line.
This whole body of death, this whole mass of sin that I am in
my flesh, this corruption that I am, who's going to deliver
me from it? And he said, I thank God. through
Jesus Christ, my Lord. That's how we're gonna be delivered.
Now, plucking out the eye and cutting off the hand, the way
to put out the eye of carnal flesh is by God's grace. Through the Spirit of God, as
he enables us to behold Christ Jesus, our Lord, with the eye
of faith in the inner man. The light of the body is the
eye. And if the body is single, if it's whole, and it beholds
Christ, and it's set on Christ, then the whole body will be full
of light. And the just live one way. By faith. By faith. Now listen. He said if you live
after the flesh, and I want us to make sure we
understand what that means. If you live after the flesh.
Well, Now, I don't commit adultery. Now, I know there's some folks
that do commit adultery, but I'm not as bad as them because
I don't commit adultery. That's living after the flesh.
That's what the Lord is teaching us here. That is living after
the flesh. To think that you're not as bad
as somebody else because you don't do what they do. What if
you just do something that's bad outwardly and you decide,
well, I'm going to go to church and I'm going to straighten up
and fly right, turn over a new leaf. Well, that's still walking
after the flesh. I'm not trying to discourage
you from going to church. I'm not trying to discourage
you from turning over a new leaf. But I am telling you, brethren,
not to look at that as being the plucking out of the eye or
the cutting off of the hand. That's still thinking that you
have somehow done what the Lord has said here. By that, that's
more walking after the flesh. What is it to walk after the
flesh or to be not to walk after the flesh? He said if you do
that, you'll die. If you walk after the flesh,
you'll die. But if ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds
of the flesh, through the Spirit. The law spiritually speaks to
the heart. The Spirit has to do something
in the heart. And when the Spirit has done
this in the heart, and we behold Christ, the flesh will be mortified. Now listen, how does He do this
for us? He takes the Scriptures and He
teaches us what He has done for us. If you go to these Scriptures
and you're looking for something you can do, I don't blame you
for not wanting to go back to Him. All you'll find is just
an utter maze of things and no peace and no comfort because
your mind is constantly plagued with the fact that I can't do
these things. Or they have no appeal to you whatsoever. But
that's seeking to find life in the Scriptures instead of seeking
to find Christ who is the life declared in the Scriptures. That's
who we're seeking. So we go to these scriptures,
a scripture like this, verse 30, there where he says, it's
profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish
and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. The gospel
declares to us that our substitute, so delighted to magnify the law
of God, that he was willingly made sin for us, cut off out
of the land of the living under the fierce wrath of God in our
place because it was profitable in honoring the righteousness
of God's law that one member of the body should perish than
that the whole body should be cast into hell. Our Lord Jesus
Christ is the head of the body. And He went through the cross
and He laid down His life for the sin of His people charged
to Him. And He was made sin for them
and put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself so that rather than
the whole body be cast into hell, that one member be cut off out
of the land of the living so that we might have life. This
is the Gospel. When we hear the Gospel, this
is how the Spirit causes us to behold Christ. And when we behold
Christ, we are strengthened in the inner man so that we have
no desire to walk after the flesh, to let the flesh rule, to let
the carnal man have his way. The inner man is strengthened
and renewed so that we can war against the old man within us.
We can fight against the old man within us. I don't look at
these scriptures, the carnal heart looks at these scriptures
and this is what I think when I look at it. I begin to look
at these scriptures myself and there's a part of me that looks
at them and I begin to think, okay, I'm going to fix this,
I'm going to do this or I'm going to do that or I'm going to stop
doing this or I'm going to stop doing that. But unless I'm brought
to the feet of Christ to behold Christ, I could straighten up
and be as straight and narrow as the Pharisees was. This is
who the Lord's speaking against. Except your righteousness exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you'll in no case
enter into the kingdom of heaven. But it's through the gospel that
the heart is made new. It's through the gospel that
this work takes place from the inside out. And then the person
has the strength then to say, I no longer want to walk after
the flesh. I want to part with anything
that's going to hinder me and come between me and my Lord.
But it has to be through the gospel. Look over with me at
Hosea chapter 1. The Lord said, you've heard it
said that a man can't put away his wife except he give her a
divorce, give her a letter of divorcement. He said it wasn't
that way from the beginning. The reason that divorce entered
in, that Moses allowed that was because of the hardness of the
heart. Because Moses knew if he didn't
allow them to put her away, they'd kill her. They'd kill her. Have her killed! and he allowed
her to have a righting of divorce and to put her away. But our
Lord hates that. He hates that. He hates putting
away. How then am I going to be brought
into some peace if I've been divorced or if I've divorced
someone? How am I going to be brought to peace? How am I going
to be brought to have some inner peace about this thing? If I
see myself as an adulterer in my thoughts and in my Just a very intense of my heart.
How am I gonna find any peace whatsoever? Through the gospel
through hearing of what Christ has done look here in Hosea chapter
1 Verse 2 in the beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea
at the beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea now this
is just a an allegory brethren that tells us what our Savior
did it's a beautiful picture and Hosea's name means Savior. The Lord said to Hosea, go take
unto thee a wife of Hortums and children of Hortums. Does that
describe you? That describes me. That's what
the Lord Jesus Christ did. Go take you a wife of Hortums
and children of Hortums. For the land hath committed great
Hortum departing from the Lord. And he went and he took him a
wife. But look at chapter 2 and verse 5. He said, Their mother
hath played the harlot. She that conceived them hath
done shamefully. She had a few children, but then
she went back to her whoredoms. She left her husband. She left
Hosea and went back. Listen. For she said, I'll go
after my lovers that give me my bread and my water, my wool
and my flax, my oil and my drink. Now listen to the Lord. Therefore,
behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall
that she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her
lovers, but she shall not overtake them. And she shall seek them,
but shall not find them. Then shall she say, I'll go and
return to my first husband, for then was it better with me than
now. For she did not know that I gave her the corn, The whole
time we were in our rebellion, the whole time we were playing
the harlot against God, He said, I'm the one that was putting
the corn on your table. And wine and oil and multiplying
her silver and her gold, and all she did was prepare it for
Baal. She used it just to kick up her heels and to worship the
idol god of her imagination. Therefore, I will return and
take away my corn in the time thereof. She's got to be brought
down. She's got to be brought to see
what she is. She's got to be brought to see that she's got
nothing apart from him. I'll take away my corn in the
time thereof and my wine in the season thereof and will recover
my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness. And now
will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers and
none shall deliver her out of mine hand. And I'll cause all
her mirth to cease, her feast days, and her new moons, and
her Sabbath days, and all her solemn feasts. And I'll destroy
her vines and her fig trees, whereof she has said, these are
my rewards that my lovers have given me. And I'll make them
a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. And I'll visit upon her the days
of Balaam, wherein she burned incense to them. She decked herself
with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers
and forgot me, saith the Lord." Now look at chapter 3, verse
1. Then said the Lord unto me, she's
gone off and she's left, she's departed. The Lord hates putting
away. Aren't you glad for that? You
didn't know the Lord. Aren't you glad that the Lord
didn't put you away when you were running? You see that picture?
You were running after your lovers. You were running after those
things that are dear in your heart. Patting yourself on the
back at how well your lovers had been to you. Boasting in
what you had and everything that you have and all the goodness
that you have. All the while playing the harlot,
playing the adulteress, running straight away from your husband.
And He all the while was the one giving the corn and the oil
and the wine and the wool and the flax. Husbands, love your wives as
Christ loved the church. How did He love it? When she
was running after her lovers, He brought the corn and the oil
and the wine and the wool and the flax. And just as much love
In the day that He would discover to her her lewdness, He took
it all away. Began to take it from her one by one, to bring
her down to the slave block. Brought her down to a place where
nobody wanted her. Nobody wanted to have anything
in the world to do with her. She's stripped. She's naked.
She's sitting there. Nothing more but a harlot being
bid on. Sold as a slave. We were sold
under sin. We were... totally the captives
of sin, with nobody to purchase us, nobody to redeem us, nobody
to buy us out of our captivity, nobody to do anything for us
whatsoever. Look at chapter 3 and verse 1.
Then said the Lord unto me, Go yet, love a woman, beloved of
her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the
Lord toward the children of Israel. This is how the Lord loves His
children. children who looked to other
gods and loved flagons of wine. And he said, so I bought her
to me for 15 pieces of silver for a homer of barley and a half
homer of barley. What's it going to cost to redeem
his bride? What's this price of redemption
right here? It's going to cost Him coming
from glory, coming to this earth, walking this earth in the face
of sinners, going to the cross and being made sin for His people,
and bearing the fierce wrath of God in the place of this harlot
who had done nothing but go after her lovers, please herself and
her lovers, boasting her what she had accomplished, and hating
Him all the while. And He said, and I did it. I
bought her. And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many
days. Thou shalt not play the harlot.
Thou shalt not be for another man. So will I also be for thee. He bought his bride. He came
and while He was on this earth, here in Matthew 5 we read that
He's speaking to His disciples and He's telling them, whatever
it is that you have to put away, whatever it is that is hindering
you from following after Christ, as radical as it may be, part
with all of it and follow after Me. I was cut off. that the whole body not be cast
into hell. I hate putting away. I didn't
divorce my bride. I've gone to the cross and I've
bought you with the price of my blood. I've redeemed you and
you're mine. Now you abide for me many days
and I'll be back to get you. I'll come back to get you. And
he says, and she don't play the harlot anymore. Husbands, love your wives as
Christ loved the church and gave Himself for you. that he might
sanctify it, that he might cleanse it, that he might wash it, that
he might present it to himself a chaste virgin, holy, spotless,
undefiled by his own righteous garment, the wedding garment
that he's decked his bride in. Now, when we hear Christ in the
heart, when we hear Him speak this law into the heart that
He's made new, where He's written this in the heart, how do we
mortify this flesh? How do we cut off, cut out the
eye, pluck off the hand that offends? How do we do that? How
do we love our wives as Christ loved the church? How do we do
that? If you be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. We're constrained by the love
of Christ. We're constrained by the love
of Christ in the heart. We seek Him. We see Him. We behold
Him. We walk after Him. It's called
being led of the Spirit, brethren. To put off concerning the former
conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful
lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind." In the heart,
in the new man. Put on the new man, which after
God is created in righteousness and true holiness. And make no
provision for the flesh. That's what our Lord is teaching
us. He said, don't think I came to destroy the law. I came to
fulfill it. And I fulfilled it perfectly
for you. Now, abide with me for many days. Put away anything that would
hinder you. And if you behold Him, when grace brings us to
depend solely upon our Savior, that's when our new man is renewed,
that's when through the Spirit the flesh is mortified. Listen
to this scripture. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ
and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof.
You can't do both of those. You can't put on the Lord Jesus
Christ and make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust
thereof. The first is the cure for the second. Put on the Lord
Jesus Christ and you won't make provision for the flesh to fulfill
the lust thereof. That's how the hands cut off.
That's how the eyes plucked out. It's seeking those things which
are above. I don't guess that we can ever enter into what it
is to have a husband that loved his bride so much that he wouldn't
put her away until we've discovered we're the harlot, that we're
the adulteress. that we've experienced in our
own lives, in our own hearts, what it is to be forsaken, to
be left alone, to have someone turn their back on us. The Lord will sanctify those
things, I pray, sanctify those things to our heart to make us
to behold Christ didn't do that. He won't ever do that. Not for
those that God gave Him before the world began. Not for those
for whom He gave Himself. That's how He loves. That's how
He loves. Not this, I love you today and
tomorrow, I'm leaving you and the wife and the kids and running
after my lovers. No, no, no, no. He loves infinitely,
everlastingly. And when you behold Him, brethren,
He makes it easy to forsake the lovers and follow after Him.
He makes it easy to turn you back on those things you once
held dear and follow after Him. When you've got something better,
you can't go back to that which is the least. I pray He'd make
Himself great in your heart. I pray He'd make Himself known
in your heart that you might know Him. When He does, you can't
go on. When He does, you can't go on
the way you're going on. He'll turn you, and you'll follow
Him, and you'll abide for Him many days, and no more play the
harlot. That's just how it is. That's
what love does.