You may be seated. Thank you. Okay, Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. We have encountered some very
difficult verses of Scripture here in our Lord's Sermon on
the Mount, and this one before us is no exception. This is the reason I'm so in
favor of. convinced of the need to do this expositional type
preaching verse by verse. You're forced to deal with everything
the scripture says. And you do not major on one thing
at the exclusion of another. You don't major on your favorite
pet doctrine, if you will, at the exclusion of something you're
not familiar with. You're forced to deal with it
all. And our Lord here is dealing
with some very, very difficult things. I appreciate your prayer,
because no man is sufficient to this task. Let's read our
text tonight, Matthew 5, beginning with verse 27 through verses
32. Matthew 5, 27. Christ is talking here now. This is the
lawgiver. This is the one who wrote the
law. Verse twenty-seven, You heard that it was said by them
of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say unto you
that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed
adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee,
pluck it out and cast it from thee. For it is profitable for
thee that one of thy members should perish, not that thy whole
body should be cast into hell, and that thy right hand, if ended,
cut it off, 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. Now it hath been said, Whosoever
shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement.
But I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving
for the cause of fornication, the cause of her to commit adultery,
and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committed adultery."
Now, we've been dealing with this subject of God's law. and its place in the life of
a believer and all men. And as I said, this is the lawgiver
himself talking here. This is the one who wrote it,
who is expounding upon the law here in Matthew 5. Now, I want
to make this as clear and as simple as possible, as simple
and as clear as the Holy Spirit will enable me to, but this is
not a simple subject. And it's going to require your
absolute, your utmost attention. And I forewarned my wife ahead
of time. I said, I want you to be at your
best because I want to hear your comments on this message. I said,
if you get this, I'm just hoping everybody will get it. Everybody
will be able to enter into it. We have some theologians here.
I'm not afraid of that word. It means the study of God, the
study of God's Word. We have some theologians here,
ladies as well as men, people that are well versed in the scriptures
and can understand the meaty portions of scriptures. And that's
what we're looking at tonight. We're not dealing with milk here.
This is meat, strong meat, and it belongs to mature believers. So I need your undivided attention
tonight. I think it's very important that
we understand as much as we can about the law's place, the law
of God's place, not only out of respect to God's Word. It is God's law, isn't it? We need to understand as much
as we can about God's law, first of all, because it's God's law. to prevent us from being in error. I don't want to misconstrue and
misapply and abuse God's holy word. We just read that back
in verse eighteen or nineteen. Whosoever shall break one of
these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall
be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. I don't want to be
guilty of that. I want to deal with God's word
exactly as it is. I don't want to And I don't want
to bring reproach upon Christ and his word. Thirdly, we need
to understand as much as we can about the law. Now listen to
this. In order to eliminate any misunderstandings
between us and another believer. OK, just because somebody says
you and I were talking about this. Because somebody says something
in a certain way that we're not exactly sure of what they mean
by that, and we misconstrue his meaning, it doesn't mean we're
not, you know, brothers, and that's something that there's
not just a misunderstanding of terms. All right? Okay, now when we talk about
the law of God, it can mean many things, but the moral law, the
Ten Commandments, of which we're all very familiar. The Levitical
law, the laws of the priesthood, the ceremonial law, the laws
of purifications, and so forth. And when you speak of the law,
we saw this through our study of Psalm 119. When you speak
of the law, David spoke of it many times, talked about commands,
precepts, and so forth. It just means God's Word. When
you talk about the law, it means God's Word. All right? Now, first of all, and you better
hear me here. You better hear me on this point.
It must be established, and I wish everybody who was going to deal
with the law would start right here. It must be established
that the believer is not under the law in order to be saved. The believer is not under the
requirements of the law, obligations of the law in order to be saved,
in order to be justified, in order to be sanctified, in order
to be accepted by God Almighty. The believer is not, I'll repeat
it three times if necessary, is not under the law in order
to be saved, justified, sanctified, accepted with God Almighty. Jesus
Christ fulfilled all the requirements of God's holy law for our justification
before God Almighty, for our acceptance, for our salvation
before God Almighty. He fulfilled all of that, all
of the requirements for every believer that comes to God by
him. Now, the unbeliever is under that law. He's under that law. And unless he fulfills it perfectly,
he'll be condemned. So what should the law drive
a man to? I'll drive him to Christ. But
Jesus Christ fulfilled the law perfectly before us because the
law demands perfection. Not the best we can do, but perfection
in thought, word, and as well as deed. And only Christ was
perfect. Only Christ was perfect. The
righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us by Jesus Christ imputing
to us this righteousness, this requirement of us. And it's as if I had kept it. It's just as if, in God Almighty's
eyes, it's just as if I had never seen Him, just as if I had kept
that law perfectly, just like Jesus Christ. That's all of my
salvation. That's all of my hope before
all of God. All of it. All right? Is that
understood? Let that be established. And
like I said, anybody going to deal with God's holy law, they'd
better start right there. Right? They'd better start right
there, or at least establish that at some point in time. Now, secondly, not only are we
not under the law for justification—now, listen to this. And like I said,
you've got to have your attention here. The moral law is not the
believer's rule of life in the sense, in this sense, that we
continually resort to it for answers. We continually resort
to it and use it to motivate us to live soberly and righteously
and godly in this present world. There's a verse of scripture
in Titus 2, 11, and 12 that teaches us that something else is what
teaches us to live soberly and righteously and godly in this
present world. What is that? Not the law, but
what? For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation appeareth unto all men teaches us, the grace of
God teaches us to deny ungodliness. live soberly and righteously
and godly in this present world. Not the law, the grace of God. And I'll expound on that a little
more in a minute. Because the strength of the law,
the strength of sin, is the law. You all know that scripture.
The strength of sin is the law. The law is what makes my old
man want to rebel. I've always used the illustration
of a little child. If you tell it what not to do,
what is the first thing that child wants to do? Do that, what
they have been forbidden to do. If you close the door and say,
son or daughter, you're not permitted to go in that room, it'll kill them until they at
least peep in the peephole or get in that room somehow or another.
The strength of sin, the old man, is the law, right? You know
it within your own heart, this old rebel, rebellious nature. All right? So the law is not
our motivating principle, nor is it the rule which we resort
to, to make us live soberly and righteously and godly in this
present world. The law doesn't make us want
to do that. The just shall live how? By faith. The motivating principle,
the constraining influence in the lives of believers is not
written rules. I don't do what I do for my wife,
which is not enough, but I don't do what I do for her because
I'm supposed to, although I am. The law does tell me what I'm
supposed to do, but I don't do for her what I'm supposed Because
I'm supposed to and I don't continually resort even to the scriptures
to find out what I am supposed to do. My love for her constrains me,
right? My love for her constrains me.
The law is written in the heart, though. The law is written in
the heart. But there's a new and effectual
principle that guides, motivates, restrains and constrains called
grace. It's called grace. It's called love to Christ. And that's what guides, motivates,
restrains. Yes, love will restrain you more
than law. I just before proved that the
law seems to make me want to sin. It's not the fault of the law,
is it, Terry? Scripture says the weakness of the flesh. So this new principle is what
even restrains sin within me and constrains me to do good.
OK. And this grace, this love, this
grace, this love causes us to love God's holy law. All right. This new principle
within causes me to love God's holy law and consider it holy
just and good and wouldn't dream of breaking it. It's love for
God. Love for God. That's the first
commandment. And that's within the heart,
written on the heart. How could I sin against the God
I love? All right, now let me read this
article to you. This was written by a man named Henry Scobar,
an old Puritan years ago. Listen to this article. It's
excellent. He puts it into word. I'm going
to paraphrase it here and there so you get by the old English.
Life in Christ. And when we talk about life in
Christ, they refer to it as religion. All the old Puritans say religion.
And they mean regeneration. They mean true religion. Life
in Christ is an inward, free, and self-moving principle. Those
who have experienced it are not acted or motivated by external
things. They're not driven merely by
threatenings. Thou shalt not. If that's what
it takes to get us not to do something, we don't love God,
do we? Huh? Not by threatenings, nor
are we bribed by promises. If you'll do this, God will do
that. Not that either, nor constrained by law, but we're powerfully
inclined to that which is good and delight in the performance
of it. Well, there's a new powerful inclination written on the inside. The love which a pious, now there's
nothing wrong with that word pious. It means devout. I'm devout. I hope I'm devout. You're devout.
Devoted. Pious. I want you to be pious. Not overly pious, but pious. The love which a pious man bears
to God and Christ is not by virtue of a command, but by a new nature
within him, prompting him to it. Nor doth he pay his devotions
as an unavoidable tribute." In other words, because I'm supposed
to. That's what the law of tithing is. I've got to pay this because
I'm supposed to. No, there's a new principle now,
giving. Giving. You give because you
want to, and not just 10%. A whole lot more than that. And he does not do, she does
not do what they do to appease divine justice or quiet a conscience. But these religious exercises
are the emanations or the outpourings of the divine life. And it's
natural to this newborn soul to create an image of Christ. It was just as natural for Christ
to do what was holy and right as it is natural for us to sin.
Right? And if there's new creatures
in us, the same thing holds true. Right? Right. The newborn, the
believer, prays, gives thanks, and repents, not because they're
commanded, although they are, but not because they're commanded,
but rather because You pray because you're sensible of your wants
and your needs. You give thanks because you're
thankful. Not because you're supposed to. Because you're thankful. You
repent because you need to repent. You're sorry, right? All right. Let me go on here. Alms are not extorted from him.
His love makes him willing to give. And even if there were
no outward obligation, if there were no Ten Commandments, his
heart would devise these things. Even before the law was given,
there were believers who did according to the law, right? They did according to the law
because it was written on their hearts. Whosoever is born of
God doth not commit sin. His seed, Christ's seed, remains
in him. And he cannot sin because he's
born of God. Though holy and religious persons do eye the
law of God and have a great regard unto it, it's not so much the
sanction of the law as it is its reason. It's pure. It's holy. It's right. It's the right thing
to do. That's what I want to do. Right? Not because it says,
thus it is written. But because it's right, that's
good, totally, it's just. Listen to this old Latin saying,
who shall prescribe a law to those that love? Love's a more
powerful law which doth them move. You may want a copy of
that. All right, with that said, did
you hear all of that? Repeat it back to me. I didn't
expect you to, but you understand the principle, right? It makes
sense to you that, sure it does, that they that are spiritual
discern all things. The spirituality of the law,
even, on the inside. With that said, now stay with me. Some tough
questions follow, and I've got to hurry. Are we under the law
of God? Let's take the moral law of God,
the Ten Commandments. Are we under the Ten Commandments
in any way, shape, form, or fashion? Yes. Yes, we are. We are under God's authority.
We will always be under the authority of God Almighty's holy law, His
Word. It's God's law. He never repealed
it. He never said since Christ fulfilled
it for you don't worry about it. But we're not required thank
God in mercy and grace we're not required to keep it to be
saved. That's the good news of this
thing. That takes away the fear before all the perfect love cast
out fear. realizing his perfect love to
us by providing such a perfect salvation. All right? And that,
in turn, makes me want to be a perfect man of faith. We're not required to do those
things to be accepted or justified, though we will attempt to do
those things out of love. Out of love. And this is what
the Apostle Paul—turn with me over to Romans 7. Romans seven
we always read this and quote this just talking about our inability. But I want you to look at the
spirit of a man who has been regenerated at his desires not
just the old man. You know we often resort to this
passage of Scripture just to say just to prove our total inability. Right. Well look at the spirit
and attitude of a man. of God here. Look at verses seven
through fourteen as he talks about God's holy law. What should
we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid such
talk. That's the strongest language
Paul could say. God forbid. The law is not sin
or evil. Nay, I had not known sin, but
by the law. For I had not known lust, except
the law said thou shalt not covet, but sin, taken occasion by the
commandment. wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law, sin was
dead. I was alive without the law at once. But when the commandment
came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment which was
ordained to life, it killed me. I found to be unto death. For
sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
The law didn't deceive me. Sin did. Wherefore, the law is
holy. The commandment is holy. and
just and good. Was then that which is good made
death unto me?" God forbid that talk. The false doesn't lie in the
law. So let's talk about the law in those terms. But sin,
now there's the culprit. That it might appear sin works
death in me by that which is good. That sin by the commandment
might become exceedingly sinful. We know the law is spiritual.
I'm carnal, sold unto sin. Now look at verse 25, and he
goes on to say, I don't do the things I want to do, but I do
the things I would not do, and so forth. And he says, O wretched
man that I am, who's going to deliver me? In verse 25, this
blessed answer, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's
who delivers me. Thank God He sent Christ to fulfill
that law for me. So then, with the mind I Myself," did
he say, I Myself, James? Did he say that, Henry Soward?
With the mind, the inner man, thoughts, affection, I Myself
serve the law of God. With the flesh, the law of sin. Is that clear? That's very clear
to me, very clear. So what's the proper use of the
law? What's the proper use? We talk about the moral law.
Let's take that for example. What's the proper use of the
law? Paul said in 1 Timothy 1, verses 8 and 9, knowing that
the law is good. The man used it lawfully, didn't
he? Yea, he did. It's just not made
for a righteous man, but for the ungodly and so forth. Well, by the law is the knowledge
of sin. Paul just dealt with that there in Romans 7. By the
law, we hadn't known that we were sinners except the law of
God came. Thank God the law of God came. Right? I would know who God is, how
holy he is, what he requires, and what I am before this holy
God. And I'd go around Henry Sword thinking I was a self-righteous
man. I might be okay. And that's what people don't
understand about the law today. You that desire to be under the
law, don't you hear it? No, they don't hear it. They don't hear
it. That's what the Lord's dealing
with in Matthew 5. The Pharisees, they thought they
understood the law. They were teachers of it. But
Paul said in one place, they need to be taught all over again
what the law demands. They were keeping it outwardly,
but he said in Romans 2, every one of them were guilty of breaking
it on the inside. But just because they kept it
outwardly, they thought they were okay. It goes deeper than
that. The law shows a man his utter
depravity. The law drives a man to Christ. It talks about the
law being a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. It's a good thing,
isn't it? The law is an expression of God's holy character. Would
anybody diminish God's holy character in one iota? It's an expression
of His holy character, His holy character. So in short, And sum
up everything I've said up to this point, the law is not to
be looked at as a standard to try to meet, to be accepted by
God, so much as a teacher, a teacher, to tell us we can't measure up
to it and send us to Christ who did. And it ought to make us,
show us how far short we come of it, it ought to make us want
to strive to come up to, to be like Christ. OK? To go to Christ, to give
us grace to do those things written within the law. We quote this
verse all the time, without me you can do nothing. Right? And that's true. Without Christ,
we can do nothing. There's another verse of Scripture,
you quoted it in your prayer. I can do all things, though,
through Christ, which strengthens me. You read that in John 14.
He said, if you ask anything in my name, I'll do it. I'll
send the Holy Spirit to give you the strength, the ability,
and so forth. There's no more I that do it.
It's just God giving grace and gifts in me, Christ in me. All right? All right, now let's
get to the text. Matthew 5. Is there any place
for law in preaching? Is there any place for the law in
preaching the gospel? We can sure get bent out of shape
when we hear these things. And perhaps somebody is all up
in arms right now. I hope not. If you've heard me
for three and a half years now, you've heard me preach the law
constantly. The law says, without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission of sins. Is that the law of God?
I quote that nearly every time I stand up to preach. I just
did. The law says, thou shalt have no other gods before me.
And we're constantly harping, coming down on people who are
worshiping false gods, other Jesuses, a God that can't save,
aren't we? We bring up that law, you shall
have no other gods before me. Number one, don't take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain. And we're constantly talking
about this evil and adulterous generation is constantly taking
the name of our Lord in vain. We're preaching the law, aren't
we? No graven images. No graven images. The soul that sinneth, it must
surely die. That's law, isn't it? I quote that at least every
other time I preach. That's law, and that's God's
Word. And like we've been looking at,
Christ is not destroying, nor deriding, nor diminishing His
law here. The Scripture says He is magnifying
it and making it honorable. He's the one that gave it. Why
would He want to break down His own law? Not at all. He's dealing mostly with Pharisees
here who, like I said, kept the law outwardly, and they only
taught people that. And Brother John Gill, boy, he
goes in-depth into some of the things that the Jews taught concerning
the law. It was unbelievable how they
added to, and it never did get to the heart of the matter. But,
you know, they tithe mint, anise, and cumin, and they would strain
the gnat and swallow a camel, you know. But Christ now magnifies
it. Now look at verse twenty-seven.
My, my, I've only got about ten minutes to deal with about a
month's worth of material. Now do you remember verses nineteen
and twenty where he said, I'm not come to destroy the law,
but to fulfill it? He said, except if you're righteous
to succeed as righteous as scribes and Pharisees, you'll not enter
the kingdom of heaven. In other words, these old boys think they
have a You remember when Paul said in Philippians 3 concerning
the righteousness of the law, blameless? He was a Pharisee,
wasn't he, when he said that? He wasn't blameless. When he
saw the true meaning of the law, that's what he wrote Romans 7
about, he said, it killed me. about the law. I was a teacher
of it. I had no idea what it was saying. And that's who Christ
is dealing with here. All right? Verses 27 and 28.
Now, you've heard it said by them of old time, Thou shalt
not commit adultery. Who said that? God said it. God's the one that gave that
law. Seventh Commandment. All right? But they twisted,
they twisted and turned this thing around where It was really
OK to twist it and make it the way you wanted it, so you'd fit
in with your lifestyle or whatever. Brother Gil brings that out clearly.
But Christ says, but I say unto you now, you're keeping it outwardly.
Granted, you've never gone out on your wife or whatever, perhaps.
But I say unto you now, He says, if you look on a woman, you're
guilty already. You're guilty. Are we under this law? Is Christ
saying here, now, y'all don't have to worry about that, I fulfilled
that for you? Huh? Well, that's blasphemy. No, he's
magnifying, he's showing that what the laws are actually all
about. And he never did say one time, now, oh, I fulfilled all
these things and y'all don't have to worry about a thing and
y'all don't have to keep it, it's okay. That's the reason I said I don't
like the statement, trust Christ and live like you want to. I
don't like that. It's not scripture, it's not biblical. Trust Christ
and do like he tells you to. That's a biblical statement.
I understand what men are saying when they say that and some of
my dear friends say that. What they mean is God has given
a man a new principle then where he wants to do what's right.
Trust Christ and live like The new spirit within you, the new
man within you, makes you want to do it. That's right. But there's
also another scripture that says the flesh lusts against the spirit
and the spirit against the flesh so that you cannot do the things
that you want to, or would do. Do you always do what you want
to do? No. Do you still want to sin at all?
You don't have to answer that, buddy. So trust Christ and live like
he tells you to. That's a more biblical statement.
But adultery is still forbidden, and so is the thought of it.
So he's looking upon them. What does this make you? What
does this say to you? What does this law say to you?
Well, it drives me to Christ in a hurry. Doesn't it, you?
Lord, I'm guilty, even though I may not have done it outwardly.
I've done it a million times on the inside. Have you? Women? Women? You're not free from this, are
you? Why, no. What does this law make
you want to do? Drive you to Christ in a hurry.
Lord, help me. Help me. Help me. And I tell you, it makes me,
when He expounds upon it like that and magnifies it, it makes
me not want to look on a woman. Doesn't it? It makes me not want
to look on a woman. The new nature is within, led
by the Spirit. So He gives the remedy here.
Look, here's the remedy to this. You say, who can do it? Why would
He give, John, why would He give such a thing? Why would He talk
about this, something that's an impossibility? Why would He
make us miserable? I can't do this. He said, with man it's impossible,
but with God all things are possible. Didn't he? George Whitefield, that famous
preacher, I don't know if he's lying or not. I had to take him
at his word. Some of you read some of him. He said he never
had a problem with it. The Lord just delivered him from
that. And I know he thanked God for it because he was, he preached
literally hundreds of thousands all over and all of the imagine
all of the temptations that he was confronted with and as a
God-given gift to not be able to not be consumed with this. I need the same thing. I want
the same thing. I want the same thing. He gives the remedy. Verse 29, If your right eye offend
thee, pluck it out, cast it from thee. It is profitable for thee
that one of thy members should perish, and not that your whole
body should be cast into hell. Now we've got, surely we've got
enough spiritual wisdom to know that he's not talking about mutilating
the flesh. The Lord God would not tell a
man to mutilate his flesh. It's the reason you have to have
spiritual discernment here. Right? Rightly divide the word
of truth. The Lord wouldn't tell you to
do that. He's speaking of the lust of the eye. The lust of
the eye. Three things scripture talks
about in this thing of sin. It talks about the lust of the
flesh. lust of the eye and the pride of life. Lust of the flesh,
that's these desires that come within us for these sexual appetites,
desires for food, drink, fleshly pleasure. Now, there's nothing
wrong with those things. There's nothing wrong with these
desires that come up. Thank God we have them, or we
wouldn't procreate, right? We wouldn't have children. The
earth would not be Adam and Eve in new pleasure. before they
sin. He said multiply and replenish
the earth. If it had not been pleasurable,
what's the sense in it? I'm not making fun. I'm just
saying it's fact and God made it pleasurable. There's nothing
wrong with that. Inordinate affection is though. A hungering, a craving
that consumes your whole person now, that's evil. It's wicked.
and it will make you wrong. That's the lust of the flesh.
Then the lust of the eyes start coming in. When this gets a hold
of you, then the eyes go looking for an outlet. Right? Scripture brings this up in this
order. The eyes go looking for the fulfillment
of the flesh. And the remedy the Lord has given
here, I'm plucking the eyes out, is whatever your particular weakness
is, should be avoided. at all costs, even to the point
of it being painful to you. That make sense? Oh, but I love,
and I don't want to bring up any examples because we don't
have rules and regulations here. That's legalism. Say, well, this
is it, you can't do this, you can't do that, and we're going
to come into your home next week and see if you're doing these
things. They do that. They sure do. Some of you have
been places where they do that. The elders of the church come
in and examine the people. They take where Paul said, let's
go to the churches and see how they do. He wasn't talking about
see what they're doing, seeing how they're getting along, you
know, growing and they'd go preach to them. They wouldn't go home
to home and say, what's that magazine? You got a TV? Open that cabinet.
I bet there's TV in there. That's legalism of the worst
sort. That's Phariseeism. That man may not have a trouble
with... He may be watching his videotapes
of gospel preaching on a TV. He might not be watching HBO. Just because I got a problem
with it, if his eye is good, my eye of evil makes his eye
of evil? So I can't lay down a law for
him that's right. That's Phariseeism of the worst
sort. But whatever your particular
weakness is, should be avoided, and no allowance given, even
to the point of being painful. Like I said, lust of the eyes
doesn't just involve infidelity, although this is the context
of what our Lord's talking about. It seems to be the worst problem
known to man and women, especially men. David said this, David said,
Turn away mine eyes from beholding iniquity, didn't he? Turn away
mine eyes. Now Job said this, Now I have,
I apologize before God and man for ever saying anything derogatory
about what Job said. Job said, I made a covenant with
my eyes that I should not think upon a maid. Now that's not a bad thing to
do. Joe did that out of a good motive from his heart, out of
love to his wife, evidently. Man, is that not a good endeavor? Huh? Sure it is. Your love for
Rebecca, wouldn't that be a good thing to say? I love my wife
too much. Why should I look upon another
woman? Huh? That's a good thing, isn't it? Now, don't depend on
that covenants. You depend on somebody else.
much stronger than your little vow or your covenant. You'll
break it immediately. He said, don't vow a vow. If
you devour a vow, defer not to pay it. You better keep it. You
vow a vow before God. I can do all things through Christ
which strengthens me. Just say, I'm not going to do
this. You better say, Lord willing, I'm not going to do this. Right? God, if you'll give me the grace,
I'll make a covenant with my eyes. That's better. In other words, make no provision
for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. That's scripture.
Make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.
And the eyes generally make the provisions, don't they? Everybody in here knows
the truth of what I'm saying, don't you? It's so. Avoid those
things and places that you that cause you to look with lust and
feed the lust within. Then finally the hand gets in
on this thing. Now look at verse thirty. If
your right hand defend thee, cut it off, cast it from thee. It is profitable for thee that
one of your members should perish and not that the whole body should
be cast into hell. And once again he's not talking
about mutilation of the body. But he's leading into this thing. Once the eyes look upon something
with lust, generally the hand follows to do it. The eyes begin
to appear and want it so bad, and the hands go after it. All right? We need to remove
ourselves from any temptation. Make no provision for the flesh
to fulfill the lust thereof. Right? Like Joseph. You remember Joseph? My, what
a temptation that was. This woman kept coming on to
him two or three times. What'd he do? He hang around? He ran, didn't he? God give me the grace. He ran. Now, whatever your temptation
may be, but don't try to fight it. Remember this. Don't try
to fight it solely upon your strength. You can't do it. Satan wants you right there,
buddy. We're not wrestling with flesh and blood. Not this body,
per se, we're wrestling with. Principalities and power, rulers
of the darkness, spiritual wickedness in high places. And he's been
manipulating men through the flesh for years. And if he turned
the first man and woman who were perfect, manipulated them around
through the lusts of the so forth, what's he going to do with us
weaklings? We better appeal to somebody stronger than that man,
hadn't we? A strong man, armed. With a two-edged sword, get thee
behind me, Satan. Me? No, my elder brother, my
captain. Right? Lord, help me. He leads
captivity captive. Am I captive to something? I'll
tell you who leads captivity captive. Go to him. Lord, get this, get him off my
back. You heard these silly guys out
here preaching. He'll step on the head of the
devil. He's a roaring lion, the scripture
said. Roaming the earth, see whom he
may devour. Step on the head of the devil.
They speak, well, that's another thing. They speak evil of principalities,
dominions. They have no idea what they're
speaking of. No idea. They're doing his bidding. Appeal to Christ, who sends the
comforter and strength. That's what we read about in
John 14, wasn't it? And let me tell you what, you're
going to have to appeal to Him more than ever after you leave here tonight. Invariably, I know this by experience.
When you get up, you know, when you're engrossed in the Word
and you seem to have a handle on it and everything, that's
when the assault comes at its hardest, at its strongest. And
you'll follow Him in a minute. All right, verses 31 and 32.
I'm out of time. Divorce and adultery. I don't
want to just skim over that. It's just too tough. Let me say this, just in brief. Let's read it. 31 and 32. Whosoever
shall put away his wife, let him give her a right in divorcement.
That's what has been said. Christ in one place said, Moses
gave you that law for the hardness of your heart. Christ does not
condone divorce under any circumstances. He gives an outlet here. Fornication
or infidelity, he gives an outlet there. But the rule, we'll call
it a rule, what we live under is grace, though. He says, when
somebody sins against you, you forgive them four hundred and
ninety times. Four hundred and ninety times. Now, in unavoidable
circumstances, the Lord knows that. There are people who have
been married before, we have many here, and before they were
saved, carnal mind not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. Once the law, once God saves a man, he's bound to it,
isn't he? He's bound to it. Once God saves
a man, he's bound to what Christ says here, under no circumstances. There's the outlook given, I
said, but we'll deal with that more in depth. I didn't mean
to leave you with that note. It's a difficult subject and
requires more than just a couple of minutes to deal with. But
it's enough to know that the Lord Jesus Christ forgives all
manner of sin and iniquity. And the past is past in the Lord's
eyes. It's past. The right now is now,
isn't it? Right now is mine. And whatsoever
he saith unto you, do it. Whatsoever he says not for you
to do, don't do it. That's the law. That's the law of love, the royal
law of Christ. All right, stand with me, and
I'll dismiss this. Our Lord, we love your holy word,
and chiefly, foremost, we love Christ, who is the incarnation
of that Word, that we love the Lawgiver, not only His Law, His
Word. We love Him because He first
loved us. If you had not loved us first,
we'd never have loved thee. And, Lord, if you had not kept
that Law for us, we would not be saved. We couldn't even pray
right now. Because you ever lived to make
intercession for us, you sit at the right hand of the majesty
on high, and you are our advocate with the Father. And we can now
come into the presence of the thrice-holy God and ask Him whatsoever
we will. Expect to be heard through the
merit, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we thank you.
Thank you so much. And Lord, in light of that, we're
thankful. We love you in light of that.
We want to love you more, and we want to serve you according
to your perfect Word. We want to do what you tell us
to do. We feel our inability, and it drives us more to you
to ask for the ability to do it. We want to bear much fruit.
You yourself have said that herein is the Father glorified, that
we bear much fruit. We don't want to bring a reproach
upon Christ and the gospel. We don't want to bring a reproach
upon our families. We don't want to break down The
church, Lord, we want to serve our Lord. We want to be like
Christ. We want to bring glory to God. We want to do what's
right because the judge of the earth shall do right. And we
want to be perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect.
And Lord, motivate us, constrain us, work in us by your grace. Do that which is well-pleasing
in your sights, not because of duty. but out of love, creating
us a love for Christ. We fall in love with Christ,
we fall out of love with sin, and serve our Master. Thank you
for bringing us here. Forgive me, forgive my inability
to expound your Word, but thank you for what understanding we
have. In Christ's name, blessed name, we pray and met together.
Amen. You're dismissed.