Sermon on the Mount Mt 5:27-31

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Sermon on the MountMt 527-31

• Sex and Sexuality

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Mt 528But I tell you that anyone who looks at a
woman lustfully has already committed adultery
with her in his heart.
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The sin of adultery, like other sins, finds its
root in a persons inner thoughts. Thus, to look
deliberately at a woman lustfully, i.e., desiring
or imagining a sexual relationship with her, is
to commit adultery in ones heart and thus to
violate the deepest intention of the law as now
revealed by Jesus Donald Hagner Commentary
on Matthew
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But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman
lustfully has already committed adultery with her
in his heart.

• Created as body Gen 27
• Broken Bodies Gen 31-6 body consequences
  covering pain
• Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal
  body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not
  offer the parts of your body to sin, as
  instruments of wickedness, but rather offer
  yourselves to God, as those who have been brought
  from death to life and offer the parts of your
  body to him as instruments of righteousness. Rom
  612-13

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But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman
lustfully has already committed adultery with her
in his heart.

• God Made Flesh Jn 1
• Tempted, yet without sin (Heb 415)
• The Christian story, at its core, has very
  positive things to say about bodies, but
  throughout history the church has sometimes
  equivocated. We Christians get embarrassed about
  our bodies. We are not sure always sure that God
  likes them very much. Lauren Winner

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But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman
lustfully has already committed adultery with her
in his heart.

• Raised as Body
• Jesus, the first 1 Cor 1520.
• A resurrection body Lk 2437-42
• 1 Cor 1542-54
• Imperishable
• In glory
• In power
• Spiritual (responsive to the Holy Spirit)

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But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman
lustfully has already committed adultery with her
in his heart.

• Ex 2017 - You shall not covet your neighbour's
  wife
• Anyone else apart from the person you are married
  to.
• Cf. Joseph and Mary engaged, but no sexual
  relationship.

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But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman
lustfully has already committed adultery with her
in his heart.

• Gk Epi-thum-eo to desire or to possess
• Not just sexual attraction
• But wanting or planning to have sex with
• Gen 321 - The LORD God made garments of skin for
  Adam and his wife and clothed them

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But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman
lustfully has already committed adultery with her
in his heart.

• I do include such things as porno movies,
  magazines, web sites, online filthy sexual chat,
  trashy romance novels, phone sex with paid
  operators, explicit movies, lingerie catalogs,
  and even the swimsuit issues of sports
  magazines Mark Driscoll

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But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman
lustfully has already committed adultery with her
in his heart.

• Having lost all sensitivity, they have given
  themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in
  every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for
  more.
• Eph 419

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But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman
lustfully has already committed adultery with her
in his heart.

• Progression the power of the human eye, the
  arousal of desire, and the decisions made by the
  heart.
• This shift also suggests that if one is to
  prevent adultery, the course of action must begin
  in the heart, the centre of human personhood,
  where all decisions on moral and ethical
  behaviour are made. Betz

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Progressive Dehumanisation

• comparison
• protects the marriage relationship
• dehumanises others
• dehumanises self

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Application

1. Cleansing / Setting Free if you have looked
2. Present your bodies as living sacrifices.

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Reflection Verse

• the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the
  ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath
  of life, and the man became a living being.
• Gen 27

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Love your body.You are a bodynot a no-
body,nor just any- body,but some- body.The
body is the dwelling placeof the whole-making
Spirit(Jim Cotter, prayer)