Who Is an Adulterer? Part 1 B

When God said thou shalt not kill, when God said thou shalt not commit adultery,

when God gave any other precept in the Old Testament, he was talking about far more than the deed

itself, and that's what Jesus wants them to understand. The external system of law isn't going to

cut it, because God is after the attitude.

Welcome to Grace to You, the Bible Teaching Ministry of John MacArthur. I'm your host,

Phil Johnson. There was a time when a movie star or politician who cheated on his or her spouse

would face a potential scandal, but these days celebrities and almost anybody can flaunt their

infidelities, and it hardly raises an eyebrow. That said, has the world's cavalier attitude toward

moral purity affected the way the church views it? What does God say, not only about committing a

sin like adultery, but even a very idea of it? Well, today on Grace to You, John MacArthur looks

at what Christ Himself said about trivializing sinful thoughts and attitudes, as we continue John

series called the sinfulness of sin. And with a lesson now, here's John MacArthur.

We're looking at Matthew chapter 5 in our study. We're going to look at the passage in verses 27

through 30, Matthew chapter 5 verses 27 to 30. As we come to this passage in verses 27 and following,

it's a very fitting word for the society in which we live. We need to see what Jesus is saying.

Now, the Pharisees had their own viewpoint, verse 27, now shall not commit adultery.

And because they didn't do that, they thought they were righteous. They thought they'd go

right into the kingdom and have the chief seats. Maybe you're like that. Maybe you say to yourself,

I'm not so bad. I've never actually gone out of my wife. I've never committed adultery. I've

never done that kind of thing, but Jesus says, if you ever look on a woman to lust

after her, you've done it in your heart. And that's enough to dam you to hell forever.

That's the implication of verses 29 and 30. So your self-confidence is shattered here, see?

The external system of law isn't going to cut it because God is after the attitude.

And you see what Jesus wants to do is show them they can't help themselves. You see,

they could deal with the outside. Sure, they could not commit adultery, but they couldn't do

anything with the inside. And so Jesus hits them where they're helpless, hopeless, powerless,

which should drive them in desperation to God who alone can change the heart.

They desperately wanted to believe they were okay. Jesus shows them they weren't.

Now, with that in mind, I want to digress for a minute. Notice the beginning of verses 27 and 28,

the beginnings again kicked me off into this. I think you'll find it helpful.

Jesus starts, ye have heard, then verse 28, but I say, now this contrast is tremendously important.

You've heard, but I say, this is the same formula, verse 21, you have heard,

verse 22, but I say, verse 31, it has been said, verse 32, but I say, verse 33, you have heard,

verse 34, but I say, it's all the way through here. It points to their misunderstanding of God's

law. You have heard from the rabbis, from the traditionalists, from the scribes and Pharisees,

from those who interpreted the law, but I'm telling you the truth of the law, what you have is not

right. It's not sufficient. They have reduced the law of God to a simple external and they haven't

given you the whole story. They've told you, you don't have to commit adultery and that's it,

you're okay, but I'm telling you there's more to this than just that. You can always invent a

system that you can live up to and then convince yourself you're righteous. They could avoid committing

adultery, but they couldn't do anything about their secret life. And so they missed the whole

point of the Old Testament. When God said, thou shalt not kill. When God said, thou shalt not commit

adultery. When God gave any other precept in the Old Testament, He was talking about far more than

the deed itself and that's what Jesus wants them to understand. Now let me show you what I mean.

Stay with me in this. The basic revelation of God's message to man came through Moses, all right?

In fact, the pinnative, the five books of Moses, are basically the heart, the center, the core

of the Old Testament, the prophets and the writings that follow the mosaic writings, are simply

explanations, commentaries, elaborations of what is contained in the law of Moses.

Many, many times, as you read through the prophets, you find the prophets in writing the people

because they didn't keep the law of Moses. You find the prophets going back and saying Moses said

unto you, or have you forgotten what Moses said? Have you forgotten what God did during the time of

Moses? In other words, the Pentateuch sets the pace. There you find the gospel of Moses,

the gospel of God given through Moses. The rest of the Old Testament elaborates on the Pentateuch.

It elaborates on that law of God, that set of standards which God laid down through Moses.

Now, the essence or the heart of the gospel of Moses is found in the book of Deuteronomy.

Now let's look at it together. Deuteronomy is the fifth and last of the five books of Moses.

And in this book, we have a summary of the law of God. I believe, I don't know if you agree with

me on this, but stay with me and maybe you will. I believe that Deuteronomy is the most important

book in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy is coming from two Greek words,

Deuteronomy meaning second and namaz meaning law. It is the second law. It is the re-iteration of

the law given by God. It is the summation. As the book of Deuteronomy opens, the people are ready to

enter the promised land. They are about to go into Canaan. They have been delivered from bondage in

Egypt. They are God's people. They have been identified as God's people and now they're going to take

their land. They're going to take the possession of the land God gave them. Now as they move into the

land, God reminds them of all they need to know. And so we have here the summarization of all the

gospel of Moses, of all of the standards for living in God's kingdom. They're here in the book of

Deuteronomy. In fact, even the Ten Commandments are repeated in the fifth chapter of Deuteronomy.

Did you know this? Did you know that Jesus quoted Deuteronomy more than he quoted any other

Old Testament book? And did you know this? The New Testament writers quote Deuteronomy more than they

quote any other Old Testament book. So it is a critical book. It is the summarization of the whole

Testament because all that comes after Deuteronomy comments on the Pentateuch and Deuteronomy is the

summary of the Pentateuch. So it is really the key, the high point of the Old Testament. As we go to

the Old Testament, we find the key is in the Pentateuch. As we look at the Pentateuch, the key is in

Deuteronomy. As we look at Deuteronomy, the key is in chapter 6, verse 5, thou shalt love the Lord.

Now listen to me. The Old Testament is not building a relationship on law. It is building a

relationship on what? Love. And people do not understand this. They think the Old Testament

economy was an economy of law. It is not. It is an economy of love. It is a relationship that

God is after. Love is the key to a relation to God and all throughout Deuteronomy. God continues

to say, I want you to love me. I want you to love me. I want you to love me. I want a heart

commitment. I want a heart devotion. I want a wholehearted kind of genuine affection for me.

Now listen, Moses throughout Deuteronomy, and if we had time, we'd go right through the book,

and you can do it yourself, over and over and over. He says to the people as they enter the land,

you must love the Lord. You must love the Lord. You must love the Lord. Why? Because it is a

relationship of love that God has always sought with man, always. Now let me tell you something that

will help you. Before God ever gave the law, as we know it, the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue,

and all the other statutes and commandments. Listen to this. Before God ever did that,

he established a relationship with Israel. He first loved Israel, and so the New Testament says

the same thing. The Gospel of Moses, the Gospel of Jesus, the Gospel of Paul, the Gospel of Peter,

the Gospel of James, and the Gospel of John are all identical. We love him because he first what

loved us. God loved Israel. That's how it all began. God loved us. That's how it all began.

First we had a relationship of love, and then we had a response of obedience to his law.

God has always wanted a heart relationship. Listen people, somebody in the Old Testament who

just mechanically kept the Ten Commandments, didn't fulfill the plan of God. The Ten Commandments were

only given to regulate a relationship that was based on love. And if the love relationship wasn't

there, the regulation didn't mean anything. That's the point. In the Old Testament, you see,

God put the standard, love the Lord, you got to allow your heart, soul, mind, and strength,

and love your neighbor like yourself, and the people in the Old Testament would say,

that's God's standard. Man, we can't keep that standard. And that's exactly what he wanted

him to say. He said, but if you can't keep the standard, what happens? You get guilty,

and you get convicted, and you get the feeling sinful. But you know something? God didn't just

leave them in the sense of conviction. He didn't leave them just boggle by their own sinfulness.

He didn't just leave them frustrated with guilt. He gave them not only the standards, but he gave

them a system to deal with their inability to keep it. What system was that? Sacrificial system.

And the sacrificial system was given by God in order to give man a way to deal with his inability.

When a man said, or a woman, I can't keep the love, God, and I'm over. What are all of my sin?

God said, then, confess your sin to me and prove the genuineness of that confession

by an act of sacrifice. And the sacrificial system didn't make men right with God. It simply

pointed out that only God could make them right with him. It pointed out they needed a sacrifice.

It pointed out their inability. And so here's the way it went in the Old Testament.

God gave a standard, and the standard was a relationship of love.

Men couldn't fulfill all that that standard required, and so they were guilty and convicted of sin.

And in order to deal with that, God provided a sacrificial system. And the sacrificial system was

itself futile. The sacrificial system never gave a lasting peace. The sacrificial system never

really relieved the guilt. And in its futility, it pointed to the fact that there had to be some day,

some place, some way of full and final and ultimate sacrifice that would once and for all do

away with this sin. Don't you see? The whole thing pointed to whom? Jesus Christ. Therefore,

the gospel of Moses was the gospel of Christ. Jesus Christ is no Johnny come lately to the standards

of Israel. Jesus Christ is the fruition of everything Moses ever taught. The whole sequence

just points to a savior, because he's the only one that could deal with man on the inside.

Now you say, John, how do the Ten Commandments fit in? That's easy. The Ten Commandments are simply

a way to regulate love. That's all. That's right. Did you know the Ten Commandments are just

a definition of love? You say, oh, I've heard the Ten Commandments are law, that's shout,

not, that's shout, not. That's just law. No, it's love. There's simply a way to regulate love.

Did you know that the first four commandments relate to God and the last six commandments relate

to your neighbor? They are merely a regulation of love. That's all. Once God established a

relationship with people, they came out of Egypt first. Their relationship was there. The law

was only a way to define how that love worked. And it was twofold toward God and toward your neighbor.

That's the epitome of the Old Testament in the book of Deuteronomy. That's the gospel of Moses.

And it is no different than what Jesus said, and it is no different than what the epistles of

the New Testament teach. You see the point? The whole law is to love God and love your neighbor.

And that expresses itself toward God and being loyal, faithful, reverent, and set apart.

It expresses itself toward your neighbor and respecting authority established by God,

respecting life made in His image, being pure, unselfish, truthful, and contented.

And believe it, let me taste some. Every single one of those is a heart attitude, isn't it? Everyone.

Thou shalt not kill, and thou shalt not commit adultery, are much deeper and broader statements

than the scribes and the Pharisees ever allowed for. Do you see? They were simply statements of

regulating a heart attitude. And the sad thing that happened in Israel was the Israelites began to

focus only on the external, focus only on the ritual, focus only on the religious observance,

focus only on the outside so that morality became a matter of what you do rather than a

relationship of love. And they missed the whole thing. If you understand that, and then you

understand the background of the sermon on the mountain. You see, you understand what Jesus

is to say. So in verse 21 of Matthew 5, when he says, you have heard that it was said by

them of old thou shalt not kill, whose reverential kill should be a nature of judgment. They

stopped there. They just said, don't kill and you're all right. But I'm telling you,

if you're angry with your brother, you're in danger of hell. Why? Because you don't love your

brother. And that's the thing that's the issue with God. And in verse 27, you heard him say,

you should not commit adultery. But I'm telling you, if you lust and you're in your heart,

you are guilty. Why? Because your attitude toward your brother is wrong.

You're not pure. And you're coveting something that isn't yours. This is the whole background.

And so our Lord drives them down deep to the matter of the heart and says, that's the issue with me.

Their tradition had obscured the original message and corrupted it.

Christ wanted to read it. Now, when he gives the law here to the scribes and the Pharisees,

what's going to be their reaction? They're going to say the same thing that Jews of old would say.

We can't keep that law. We can't be done. We can't do it. We're not that good. We can't love

like that all the time. We need help. We can't maintain your standard, God. And that is exactly

what He wants them to say. Then the Old Testament, when they couldn't maintain it, they went directly

into the sacrificial system, right? And all the way, the sacrificial system consummated in Jesus

Christ who was slain as the Lamb of God to take it away, the sin of the world, and of whom the writer

of Hebrew says, by one offering, he perfected forever them that are sanctified. The writer of

Hebrew said he did what the blood and bulls of goats could never do, take away sin. And that's why

beloved after Jesus died on the cross and paid the final penalty. Jesus brought judgment on the

city of Jerusalem. The Roman soldiers came down within about 30 years or so into the city of Jerusalem

and they literally destroyed the city. They destroyed the temple, which by then had its veil

rent in Twain anyway, because the sacrificial system was open when was done when Jesus died.

But in 7080, they came in and they literally destroyed the temple, obliterated the city of Jerusalem,

and since that time to this very hour, there has never been a sacrificial system in Israel since.

Why? Because it was over, because that for which it pointed was there and arrived in Jesus Christ.

And it was the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ that took away the sin that all the system

of sacrifices could never take away, but simply pointed to you. Say, well, then how would that

person in the Old Testament be saved? Because the efficacy of Christ's death in this period of time

when He died went forward to us and backward to them. And if they believed God when they lived,

and if they looked forward to the fact that God would take away their sin by His power,

and if they knew they couldn't do it on their own and they believed God for a sacrifice that would,

then He applied to them the sacrifice of Christ, though as of yet He had not even given it.

And us, we're on this end. Though Christ died two thousand years ago, His sacrifice has applied

to us today if we believe and accept Him. And so Jesus wants to force us to frustration

and an inability to keep the high, exalted law of God and run for mercy to Jesus Christ,

to alone can grant us a righteousness we can not on our own obtain.

In 2 Corinthians 5, 21, Paul sums it up in these words, for he had to made Him who knew no sin.

Who is that? Christ, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

In other words, we couldn't be righteous because we were sinful,

but He became sin that we might become righteous. He bore our sins to make us righteous.

And so beloved, I'm telling you this, the words of this covenant that cemented the relationship

and the Old Testament were not legalistic. The Ten Commandments weren't even legalistic.

They simply brought out a standard by which a loving relationship to God and your neighbor could

exist. And there had to be the relationship first or all the law keeping that went on mid-absolutely

nothing. You know something, there are people today in our society who live by new testament ethics.

Did you know that? They're good fathers, good mothers, nice people, good neighbors, give

to charity, go to church, don't kill people, don't commit adultery, they keep the outward law.

But you know what? They don't have the relationship so the law means nothing because it isn't the

outworking of love. The inner attitude I'm telling you was always the issue with God, whether you're

in the Old or the New Testament. And that's why Jesus can say I didn't come to destroy the prophets,

I didn't come to set Moses aside, I didn't come to change one single thing, just put it back where

it belongs. And unless you get up to that level, which is higher than the scribes and Pharisees,

you will never under any circumstances enter my kingdom. And of course we realize we can't,

and that forces us to Christ. So Moses was pushing people to Jesus just like Christ was pushing

them to Himself. In fact, in Luke 16, 15, the Pharisees who were so covetous in their hearts,

Jesus said to them, you are they, listen to this great, you are they who justify yourselves before

man. But God knows your hearts. Isn't that good? And then He says, for that which is highly

esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. It is an abomination to God to keep an

external law without a heart relationship. God knows your hearts, the law and the prophets,

nothing is changed. Still a heart. So our Lord simply redefines the original standard. And in

so doing, He defines righteousness and sin in true biblical terms. And this is so important.

What Jesus is really doing is preaching on sin. If you don't understand sin, you'll never understand

anything else in the Scripture. Jesus spends a tremendous amount of time dealing with the problem

of sin. Listen, when the memory of John Newton was nearly gone and he was an old man,

that great saint of God couldn't preach anymore,

he had forgotten so many things that he couldn't carry on a conversation.

But he said this, he said, it seems as though there are only two things I can remember.

One is that I am a great sinner and the second is that Jesus Christ is a greater Savior.

That's the issue. That's what Jesus wanted the Pharisees to see. That's what He wants you to see.

You were so great a sinner, you couldn't have toned for your sin, he did it for you.

I read this week about a child who was bitten by a poisonous snake.

And the mother was there when the child was bitten and the mother was just

struck with love for the child and so she placed her lips over the wound to suck the poison out.

She succeeded in doing it, saved the child's life. She had a little cut on her lip.

Poison went into her and she died. So it is with Jesus Christ,

who drained out of us as we're the poison of the serpent and so doing died in our place.

We are great sinners, but he is a great Savior. Amen. Let's pray.

We thank you Father again for giving us insight into your precious word. Help us to know that it is

a relationship you want, not a set of rules, a relationship that we could never keep in our own

strength and so we fly to Jesus Christ for grace and mercy, forgiveness and righteousness that He

alone can give and so Father, we thank you for what you will do and have done for all who believe

in Christ's name. Amen.

You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible Teaching Ministry of John MacArthur.

Our current study is titled The Sinfulness of Sin. Well, the Lord's teaching there in Matthew 5,

it was revolutionary when Jesus taught it and it's revolutionary now. We once asked John about

his own experience studying and teaching through the book of Matthew and the impact it had

on him and on the congregation of the church where he served as pastor. And here's what he said.

Well, in my education, I had been taught that the sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5 to 7,

was a kind of manifesto for the millennial kingdom and that it did not relate to the current

church age. That may seem bizarre for people to hear me say, but that is exactly what was taught.

That was the old Scofield view. That was the old Scofield dispensational view.

And so it was dismissed as any kind of standard for evangelism or Christian life,

I've just pushed off into the future millennium. That never set well with me.

There were other things about traditional dispensationalism that didn't set well either and

systematically through the years. My instincts have been validated because I've come to the

conclusion that most of what I thought sounded wrong was in fact very wrong. So the first thing

that happened to me in Matthew 5 was I took it as a message from our Lord that was transcendent

that basically was for every person in every age and every period of time and it could be applied

to every life. It was a great masterful evangelistic sermon that had implications throughout all of

time. So this was a huge turning point in me as I had to kind of reshape my theology as I went

through the sermon on the Mount and that meant Matthew chapter 5. It all started with the

Beatitudes. I honestly had never really thought much about the Beatitudes because I had been taught

that they really don't apply. Once I get into the Beatitudes, it was absolutely life transforming.

I would probably say my time in the sermon on the Mount was the most transformative time in half

a century of teaching the Bible. So this is profoundly important material. This is the

first real sermon we hear in the New Testament from the lips of our Lord. We need to know everything

that's contained in it. If you want more information on this, you need to order the four

commentaries on Matthew and begin to think deeply about that incredible gospel.

That's right friend, don't settle for a surface understanding of Scripture,

especially when it comes to the life and teachings of Christ. Get one or all four volumes of

John's Matthew commentary when you get in touch today. Each volume costs 19 dollars and shipping

is free. To order call 855 grace or go to our website gty.org. Again, that's gty.org.

And friend, if something John said today encouraged you, would you let us know? It's always a joy

to hear that friends like you are benefiting from these broadcasts and it's helpful for us as we

plan our radio schedule. It lets us know what we're doing is hitting the mark. So when you have a

moment, write a note and email it to letters at gty.org. That's letters at gty.org. Or if you

prefer regular mail, you can write to grace to you box 4,000 panorama city, California 91412.

And once more, to order John's commentary on the book of Matthew and four volumes or the entire

MacArthur New Testament commentary series, call us at 855 grace or go to gty.org. Now for the

entire grace to you staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for starting your week with us and

be back tomorrow when John MacArthur helps strengthen you in your battle with sin, perhaps like

never before. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on grace to you.