Matthew 5:27-30

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — 1 Timothy 1:15-17
• Hymn — Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise (#38)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Westminster Shorter Catechism Reading — Questions 71, 72, and 79
• Hymn — The Church's One Foundation (#347)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Sermon
• Hymn — Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing (#457)
• Benediction — Hebrews 13:20-21

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Sermon Title: Confronting Disordered Desires with the Gospel

Scripture: Matthew 5:27-30

I. The Pervasive Sinfulness of Disordered Sexual Desires

A. Jesus quotes the seventh commandment verbatim (Matthew 5:27)

1. The Pharisees and scribes limited the commandment to the outward act of adultery
2. This allowed people — like the Rich Young Ruler — to congratulate themselves on external obedience
3. Jesus pushes past external behavior to the heart

B. The Fall introduced disordering of human desires (Genesis 3:6)

1. To be God's image bearers is to think, will, and desire rightly — as God does, in our creaturely way
2. Eve saw, coveted, and took the forbidden fruit; the Hebrew word for "covet" in Genesis 3:6 is the same as in the tenth commandment (Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 5)
3. The Greek word for "covet" in the Septuagint's tenth commandment is the same word Jesus uses for "lustful intent" in Matthew 5:28
4. The heart of the Fall is a discontentment with God's word and God's way, turning desire inward toward self and creation rather than Creator

C. Jesus defines heart adultery (Matthew 5:28)

1. "Everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart"
2. Jesus uses one example (man lusting after a woman) as a synecdoche for all disordered sexual desire — men or women, of any person toward any other person
3. Not all sexual attraction is sinful; D.A. Carson: this is not a prohibition of normal attraction but of the "deep-seated lust which consumes and devours"
4. The Greek reads literally: "anyone who looks at a woman for the purpose of desiring her" — the disorder begins when the look becomes coveting for self-satisfaction, even in imagination
5. John Stott: "We all know the difference between looking and lusting"
6. The heart breaks the tenth commandment before the body has a chance to break the seventh
7. The law as a mirror: we must see the true condition of our hearts, not just our external behaviors

II. The Gospel Mortification of Disordered Sexual Desires

A. Jesus uses hyperbolic illustrations of radical treatment (Matthew 5:29-30)

1. Tear out the right eye; cut off the right hand — not literal, but shocking language to convey the seriousness required
2. Sin is serious: the serious diagnosis demands a serious cure
3. Culture encourages us to coddle sin; Jesus calls us to mortify it
4. D.A. Carson: "We must not pamper it, flirt with it, enjoy nibbling a little of it around the edges… hate it, crush it, dig it out"; citing Colossians 3:5

B. What mortification is and is not (John Owen)

1. It is not the total destruction of sin — not achievable in this life
2. It is not mere diversion or occasional conquest
3. It is the habitual weakening of sin, bringing it to a slow death — cutting it off from its very roots and life source

C. Mortification is a cooperative, gospel work — not done in our own strength alone

1. We have a real role: Philippians 2:12 — "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling"
2. But God is at work in us: Philippians 2:13 — "it is God who works in you to will and to work for his good pleasure"
3. Know the causes and roots of your particular sinful desires — movies, social media, discontentment — and cut them off
4. Spend time with your own heart; resist constant distraction; get to know the hidden pathways through which temptation enters
5. Treat sin as an enemy: no enemy is conquered without diligent study of its patterns and designs
6. Pray: prayer reorients a disorientated heart back to God; the Lord's Prayer addresses our need — "lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil"
7. Confess your sins: 1 John 1:9 — "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness"

D. Look to Jesus as the foundation of mortification

1. Hebrews 12:1-2 — "lay aside every weight and sin… looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith"
2. Study his person, his life of obedience, and his death — he endured the cross to conquer sin and disordered desire
3. By his death and resurrection he has made us new creatures; the Spirit is at work refashioning our thinking, willing, and desiring

E. The hope of the Gospel

1. Already, in Christ, New Life has been given — real victories are possible by the Spirit, even if not perfect
2. The ultimate hope: Revelation 21-22 — no more tears, no more disordered desires; we will fully and perfectly love God, neighbor, and ourselves as we ought
3. Until then: keep fighting — know yourself, know your heart, look to Christ, and look to the Spirit at work in you