Jesus and the Law - Part 3
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Welcome… Introduction
We live in time and culture where sex is everywhere. Our culture has two gods; money and sex.
Sex fills our entertainment
Sex is used to sell every imaginable good or service
And with the advent of computers and the internet, sex has never been so accessible
I was asked the other day why we don’t see more demonic activity like in Jesus’ day.
Look around. The enemy is constantly at work destroying lives.
And the enemy is crafty. The enemy is no fool.
Over 40 million Americans are regular visitors to porn sites.
There are around 42 million porn websites, which totals around 370 million pages of porn.
The porn industry’s annual revenue is more than the NFL, NBA, and MLB combined. It is also more than the combined revenues of ABC, CBS, and NBC.
Eleven is the average age that a child is first exposed to porn, and 94% of children will see porn by the age of 14.
25% of search engine requests are for porn
38% of adults say porn is morally acceptable
When you look at statistics within religious communities, they are not really much different.
Paul quotes common Greek though in 1 Corinthians 6 when he says, “Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food.”
This is the idea that we have no control over our biology and that our biology has no moral significance.
A similar modern sentiment might be, “Boys will be boys.”
We live in a culture that says you ought to have any sex you want, whenever you want. The only rules are 1) Do what makes you happy, and 2) Don’t judge another person’s sexual preferences.
But...
What Does Jesus Say?
What Does Jesus Say?
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall 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 than that 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.
Just like murder is actually a matter of the heart,
Sexual sin, even adultery, is a matter of the heart.
Has ALREADY committed adultery in his heart...
The looking isn’t the adultery, the adultery has already been committed.
Jesus is continuing to emphasize here that sin comes from our wicked hearts.
Jesus’ Sexual Ethic
Jesus’ Sexual Ethic
God created man & woman, he knows what is good for us
God created sexuality, he knows what is good for us
God created marriage, he knows what is good for us
God’s intent for sex is only to be in the confines of marriage
God’s intent for marriage is to be between 1 man and 1 woman
We see God lay the pattern marriage and sex in Genesis. Jesus affirms this pattern clearly in Mark 10.
But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.
Some people inappropriately accuse Christians of being anti-sex.
This is not the case.
Christians are pro-sex, but only in submission to God’s law.
One of the most surprising passages about sex is in 1 Corinthians.
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.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary has this to say about this passage:
The marked mutuality of Paul’s comments (the husband has authority over his wife’s body and she has authority over his) was, however, revolutionary in the ancient world where patriarchy was the norm. For the husband to have authority over his wife’s body was nothing special…. Paul’s following statement affirming the reverse, that “the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does,” clearly pointed to a radical and unprecedented restriction on the husbands’ sexual freedom. It communicates, negatively, his obligation to refrain from engaging in sexual relations with anyone other than his wife and, positively, his obligation to fulfill his marital duty to provide her with sexual pleasure and satisfaction.
This was completely unique in the ancient patriarchal world!
Christianity teaches that sex within a marriage should be free, generous, and reciprocal.
In the following verse, we read:
Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
Christianity teaches that, withing marriage, sex ought to be frequent
While Jesus and the Bible speak positively about sex,
Sex does not define a person’s humanity
Sex does not define a person’s humanity
Even though the Bible supports marriage and sex inside marriage, the Bible also makes it very clear that you can be fully human without ever having them.
Jesus never had it.
Nor did Jeremiah.
Nor John the Baptist.
Nor Elijah.
Nor the Apostle Paul.
Paul actually had to respond to the church being confused that maybe singleness was some higher spiritual calling.
I read this off a Gospel Coalition article: [slide]
“The Bible says that marriage is good, sex is good, singleness is good and celibacy is good. They are all precious gifts given according to the wisdom and timing of the Lord for his glory and our everlasting good.”
Jesus wants you to live a blessed life
Jesus wants you to live a blessed life
This is what the first part of his sermon was all about. The beatitudes.
The blessed life is the full life. The flourishing life. The good life.
The thing is, Jesus tells us that the good life can only be found in him.
And since the beginning, the enemy has been sowing seeds of doubt that God is actually withholding the good life from us.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
The enemy casts doubt on God’s word.
God says sex is best inside marriage
The enemy says, is that really the best way for sex?
And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”
But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
And the enemy deceives, lies.
“You won’t die”
Sex outside marriage isn’t that bad. We’re all consenting adults here.
Porn doesn’t hurt anyone, I’m not actually being unfaithful.
And here’s the key:
Sin promises something it cannot deliver
Sex outside of marriage promises something it cannot deliver
Sin says, “I’m going to be amazing, you won’t regret this, God is withholding goodness from you that only I can deliver.”
That’s why the author of Hebrews says:
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Freedom from sexual sin
Freedom from sexual sin
Jesus is not advocating self-mutilation in this passage.
Everything in this text is point to sin being an issue of the heart.
Jesus is advocating that you fight sin with every means available to you, even if it means great sacrifice.
My point in this sermon and Jesus’ point in THE sermon is not to inspire you greater righteousness.
Jesus point is to bring us to a place where we realize that our attempt at righteousness falls desperately short of God’s moral standard.
Jesus point is to bring us to a place where we realize that our only hope is to exchange our feeble attempt at righteousness for the complete and pure righteousness of Jesus.
Jesus lived the perfect, sinless life.
Not just on the outside, but his heart was pure.
The truth is that our sexuality has fallen short of God’s righteous standard. And because of our sin, we are guilty to the full extent of the law.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.