Living In The Kingdom Part 9
Scripture: Matthew 5:27-32; 19:3-8; Exodus 20:14; Malachi 2:15-16
I want to thank Pastor Fulks for ministering in my absence on last Sunday. If you did not get a chance to attend, please go to our Facebook page and view her message from last week. Her title was “Activate Your Faith” coming from Nehemiah the first chapter. It was a powerful reminder of what each of us needs to do more of in 2022. This morning I will be continuing my series “Living in the Kingdom” based on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. In my first message of 2022, I told you that we must begin implanting the Word of God in our hearts so that we might begin living according to His Word. Last Sunday Pastor Fulks told us we need to activate our faith which cannot be done separate from God Word as we know from Romans 10:17 that “….faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
When we read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in chapters five through seven of the book of Matthew, it is a very good place to start implanting His Word in our hearts because that is what His sermon focuses on – the heart. If you recall from my previous messages in this series, Jesus began this sermon by discussing what our attitudes should be as children of His kingdom – what is referred to as the beatitudes. Then He told us why we should have those attitudes – because we are supposed to be the salt of the earth and the light of this world. Next He transitioned to His authority and why He could teach the things He was teaching them – because He is the Son of God. After establishing this foundation, Jesus began to address some of the things they had learned in their Jewish education by saying “as was said to those of old.” He then began explaining some of the Ten Commandments, how they had been taught versus the true spiritual meaning behind them. The first commandment He addressed was the sixth commandment which says we shall not kill. His focus was on the thoughts of the hearts versus the actual act of killing someone. Jesus said being angry with someone without a cause is breaking this commandment. In other words, the unjust anger in our hearts is on the same level as murder in God’s eyes.
This morning we will focused on what Jesus said about the seventh commandment which states that we should not commit adultery. Our foundation Scripture comes from Matthew 5:27-32. In this section of His sermon, Jesus specifically speaks about two more heart issues – adultery and divorce. As I go through this message, we will examine what He said in the context of this specific sermon, especially as it relates to divorce. This morning, we are going to look at what Jesus taught as the most egregious reason for divorce. Let’s read what is recorded in Matthew 5:27-32. “You have heard that it was said by them of old time, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say unto you, that whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. 29 And if your right eye causes you to offend, pluck it out, and cast it from you: for it is better for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be cast into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to offend, cut it off, and cast it from you: for it is better for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be cast into hell. 31 It has been said, ‘Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement.’ 32 But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, except for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced commits adultery.”
Let’s examine what Jesus said about adultery. As I said, the seventh commandment says “You shall not commit adultery.” (Exodus 20:14) Before we go further, let’s define what adultery is. Adultery is defined as “voluntary sexual relations between a married person and somebody other than his or her spouse.” In Scripture, adultery is also a term that was used to define the acts of idolatry (people of God turning their backs on God and worshipping idols.) This morning we will be dealing with the primary definition of a married person having sex with someone other than their spouse. Now to be clear, the Bible forbids any type of sexual immorality, so I want to point out that fornication is often linked to adultery. The reason for this is simple. Biblically, fornication is sex outside of marriage. All adultery is fornication, but not all fornication is adultery. If two single people engage in sex before they are married they are committing fornication, not adultery. However, if one of them in married, then the one who is married is not committing fornication. That person is committing adultery. Do you see the distinction? The Bible makes it perfectly clear that those who commit these acts without repenting will spend an eternity in hell. But I am getting way ahead of myself because Jesus totally transformed the definition of adultery.
If you recall, the Pharisees and Sadducees taught that sin only occurred when the thought was acted upon. Jesus immediately dispels this teaching as false. He said that the very thought and lust for a woman is adultery and places a person in danger of going to hell. Our Savior states that the commandment did not regard the external act merely, but the motivations of the heart, and the movements of the eye. For Jesus, anyone who looks upon a man or woman burning with lust in their hearts have already committed adultery and violated the seventh commandment. I want you to see clearly what Jesus was talking about – it is about lusting after someone who is not your spouse. We can see someone that is attractive and not lust after that person. But it changes to lust when we start imagining ourselves with them /or undressing them with our eyes. At this point it becomes sin. People will tell you that if you are married it is okay to look (to window shop) as long as you do not act upon it. Jesus says that is a lie.
I am sure most of you have seen the movie “The Preacher’s Wife” starring Denzel Washington, Whitney Houston and Courtney Vance. In the movie, Courtney is the pastor of a church and Whitney is his wife. Courtney is struggling and God sent an angel (Denzel) down from heaven to help him. Scripturally, there is a lot that this movie gets absolutely wrong, but for the purposes of this message I am only highlighting the relationship between Whitney, Courtney’s wife, and Denzel, the angel. She, not knowing he is an angel, begins to fall for him because of the current struggles in her relationship with her husband. Now Denzel, the angel, sent by God to help her husband, begins to imagine what it would be like if he was her husband instead of Courtney. Do you remember this part of the movie? Well long story short, Whitney’s mother, who was staying with them for a while, witnesses their interaction and calls her out on it. Whitney tells her mother that it’s okay to window shop as long as she does not buy anything. Her mother responded that she better not window shop with money in her pocket. What I want to call out is what Whitney said, that it is okay to look as long as you do not act upon it. This is directly what Jesus calls out as sin.
Jesus said “that whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.” This is “heart adultery” and it carries the same penalty as actually doing it. If we are going to implant the Word of God in our hearts this year we cannot be selective based on what we like or don’t like in Scripture. There are many people on a path to hell thinking they are righteously going to heaven. I know this to be true because years ago I was one of them. If we take God’s Word at face value, and believe that it means exactly what it says, it will force us to make a decision about how we are living. The problem the world faces today is that many are looking for loopholes and therefore they do not read God’s Word to mean exactly what it says and that my friends is a mistake. This issue and the consequences of it was so important that Jesus said if your right eye causes you to sin you should pluck it out and cast it from you. Can you imagine how many people today who would be walking around blind because they lusted after someone and to ensure they never did it again they plucked their eyes out? I would have been blind as a teenager. Jesus was making it clear how plain old admiring and wishful thinking could get us into spiritual trouble for all eternity. Please understand, I am not saying that you need to start plucking your eyes out or cutting off your hands, but I believe Jesus was emphasizing that we should separate from us anything, no matter how dear we hold it, anything that will cause us to sin. We should reach a point in our lives that, by all sacrifices and self-denials, we overcome the evil tendencies of our nature, and resist our excessive imaginations. Again we must be clear on this, if you are having sex outside of marriage the Bible says you will not enter heaven – that’s what the Bible says so if you are offended, take it up with God. But it goes far deeper than that, if you are prone to lust after someone you find attractive and you do not repent, the consequences are the same. I do not care how much sugar we put on the topic of grace and God knowing our heart, read the Word and see what the Word says. For example, the Word says:
“For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. 20These are the things which defile a man…...” (Matthew 15:19-20a)
“Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind. 10Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” (First Corinthians 6:9-10) Each “not” and each “nor” in this verse means “with no exceptions.”
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, impurity, licentiousness. 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, strife, jealousy, wrath, selfishness, divisions, heresies. 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of which I tell you beforehand, as I have also told you in time past, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:19-21) Again, the word “not” means “there will be no exceptions.”
“Let marriage be held in honor by all, and the bed undefiled: but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.” (Hebrews 13:4)
So let’s move on to what Jesus says about divorce. It is not by accident that Jesus included divorce in this section of His sermon. In verses thirty-one and thirty-two Jesus says, “31 It has been said, ‘Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement.’ 32But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, except for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced commits adultery.” In verse thirty-one, Jesus tells them what they had been taught, that a man can divorce his wife by simply by putting it in writing. A husband could divorce his wife for any reason, even if he simply got tired of her and no longer wanted her around. To fully understand what Jesus was teaching, let’s look at what was recorded in Matthew chapter nineteen. We will begin at verse three.
“The Pharisees also came unto Him, testing Him, and saying unto Him, ‘Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?’ 4And He answered and said unto them, ‘Have you not read, that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female.’ 5 And said, ‘For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they two shall be one flesh?’ 6Therefore they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder. 7They said unto Him, ‘Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?’ 8 He said unto them, ‘Moses because of the hardness of your hearts allowed you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.’” (Matthew 19:3-8)
Jesus makes it clear that from the beginning God did approve of divorce. If Adam and Eve had never sinned, there would never have been any divorce thus, fulfilling God’s will on earth as it is in heaven. But we know that they did sin and because they sinned everyone that came after them was born with a sin nature. Our sin nature opens us up to be cruel, unforgiving, lustful and all of the other things that lead to divorce. However, and this is important, once we accept Christ, we no longer has a sin nature – we have been washed clean spiritually. Now our minds and our flesh didn’t make the transition with our spirits and so we must begin to grow spiritually in order for the fleshly desires to come under control. So when Jesus was asked why Moses allowed it, He told them it was because of the hardness of their hearts. Also, in the Jewish culture, men predominantly had the right to divorce their wives, but the wives had rights as well. God takes the man’s responsibility towards his wife extremely serious. I want to read Malachi 2:16 and use it as a reference point in our discussion of what Jesus said about divorce. From the Amplified Bible, Malachi 2:15b-16 says, “…..Take heed then to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth. ‘For I hate divorce,’ says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘and him who covers his garment with wrong and violence.’ Says the Lord of host. ‘Therefore keep watch on your spirit, so that you do not deal treacherously (with your wife.)
While couples make the marriage covenant with each other, God is party in the relationship too. He owns us and makes us one, all at the same time. Genesis 2:24 tells us that God designed men and women for each other; to be in relationship with each other out of His wisdom for what is best for them. This design was the culminating action in the creation process. Out of it was to be the future of this race, this species that God created to rule with Him. Marriage is not just an institution for couples, but for society and God. God not only made the couple one, in a way He made Himself one with the couple too. It grieves Him when we cannot or will not follow through with our part of this covenant. When we examine what was happening when this was written by Malachi, the men were dealing treacherously with their wives. So what were they doing that was so treacherous? They did not perform their promises to them (as husbands), but defrauded them of their wifely support (spiritual, emotional and physical) and they took in concubines (women who lived with the men without the status of being a wife), to share in the affection that was due to their wives only. They also put them away and gave them a bill of divorce cutting off any future support. In all this they “covered violence with their garment”; they abused their wives and yet, in the sight of others, they pretended to be very loving and tender towards them. It is so common for those who mistreat their wives to pretend outside of the house that everything is great at home. But God knows and, in this case, He called it out. God never wanted divorce and neither did He want men to sin. Malachi gives several reasons for divorce; adultery/fornication with a concubine was one with neglect and abuse closely following. But going back to what Jesus said in His sermon, He said “….except for the cause of fornication.”
In this verse the King James Bible says “fornication.” Other translations are more general using the term “sexual immorality.” So what was Jesus really saying about divorce with the cause being sexual immorality? This term actually includes any type of sexual encounter outside of the marriage relationship. I will not list them all here because the list is long, but I am sure you all can come up with a lot of them. The bottom line is this, if you are having any kind of sexual interaction outside of marriage it is sin. I have already talked about how just lusting and imagining it is sin, so now I am talking about the very act. Based on what Jesus said, any type of sexual immorality would be grounds for divorce. God designed sex to be a fulfilling, intimate moment between a husband and wife, and only the husband and wife. So if a spouse is doing anything sexually to fulfill their desires outside of marriage, which would include watching pornography, going to strip clubs, etc., Jesus considers that a reason for divorce. Why, because in doing so the person is sinning against God and their spouse. They are also defrauding their spouse of their due. And First Corinthians 7:3-5 tells us “Let the husband render unto the wife her due: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. 4 The wife has not power over her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband has not power over his own body, but the wife. 5 Deprive not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your lack of self-control.” I know this Scripture has been used against women, but we need to understand this from a spiritual perspective. The husband and wife are supposed to fulfill their spousal responsibilities willingly. God designed sex for marriage and the Bible tells us that each spouse cannot withhold this intimacy from one another except by agreement for a time of prayer. Sex is not to be used as a form of negotiation or given with indifference. It is a certainty that when it is used inappropriately a door is open for Satan to come in and cause problems.
Now let me attempt to put this all together to get the full picture of what Jesus was talking about in His sermon. It was common during this time for a man to divorce their wives if they saw another woman that they “liked” better. If they believed another woman (most likely younger) could better fit their needs, they would divorce their “older” wife for the younger one. This is still happening today. This is what Malachi referenced in the statement about concubines. Solomon also referenced this when he wrote, “Let your fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of your youth. 19Let her be as the loving deer and graceful doe; let her breasts satisfy you at all times; and be ravished always with her love.” (Proverbs 5:18-19) Lusting with our eyes is forbidden – period! However, if done after we are married it is magnified because we are lusting for something that we do not have and in doing so become dissatisfied with the one we do have. Then we begin to imagine ourselves with that other person when we are performing our spousal duties thus further defrauding our spouse. I am doing my best to keep this rated PG.
Jesus was making it clear in this message that adultery begins in the heart. It begins when we lust. That lust for someone else will oftentimes lead to troubles in our marriage which could further lead to divorce. If you take nothing else from this message today, hear me clearly on this. Stop window shopping. Stop undressing someone with your eyes. Stop longing for someone else’s spouse. Stop lusting after people you see on TV, in movies, etc. Stop watching and reading pornography even if it is in the privacy of your own home. It is offensive to God and nothing is private to Him. Stop having sex outside of marriage. When you are with your spouse, stop closing your eyes and imagining you are with someone else! Why do you need to stop? Because right now according to the Word of God, you are on a road to hell. I do not care how much other good you are doing or how much money you are giving to the Church, if you do not repent and stop, the Bible is clear on this. But please do not take my word for it – go to the Word and implant what you find in your hearts. Search it out for yourself. If Jesus is your Savior and He said that people who are doing the things I just listed are going to hell if they do not stop and repent, do you believe Him? You do not have to take my word for it – but you do need to take His!
Please feel free to share this message with anyone you know who are living in sin. If they read this message and repent, it will save their life!
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
(We are once again conducting live services on Sunday morning beginning at 9:15 a.m. We will continue to broadcast live on Facebook Live at 10:00 a.m.. Please tune in to "New Light Christian Fellowship Church" and like our page if you wish to watch our broadcast and be notified when we go live. If you are ever in the Kansas City, KS area, please come and worship with us at New Light Christian Fellowship, 15 N. 14th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102. We also have Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m. via Zoom that you are also welcome to attend – please email me for the link. Also, for use of our social media, you can find us at newlightchristianfellowship on FB. To get our live stream services, please make sure you “like” and turn on notifications for our page so you can be notified when we are live streaming. We also have a church website and New Light Christian Fellowship YouTube channel for more of our content. If you would like to donate to our ministry you may do so through our website: newlightchristianfellowship.org by clicking on the PayPal or Cash App buttons. May God bless and keep you.)
