Covenant Eyes- Matthew 5:27-28

 

 

 

“You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery'...

 

Is it any wonder that when Jesus turned his attention in the Sermon on the Mount to the practical right and wrong choices of day-to-day living, the first two subjects addressed were uncontrolled anger and sex? Can you think of any two other things that have destroyed more lives, damaged more young children, and alienated more families from each other?

I could press the point about how saturated our society is with sex, but I know I don't need to. You've already had the point made loud and clear many times today as you drove past billboards, turned on the radio, changed the channel, and surfed the web. Not to mention the clothing worn at school and at work that is specifically designed to flatter one's body shape in order to gain attention. 

I can't help but think of Job's words from centuries before Jesus ever lived as a man.

"I made a covenant with my eye not to look lustfully at a young woman....Does he not see my ways and count my every step?...If my steps have turned from the path, if my heart has been led by my eyes, or if my hands have been defiled^, then may others eat what I have sown, and may my crops be uprooted. If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or if I have lurked at my neighbor’s door, then may my wife grind another man’s grain, and may other men sleep with her. For that would have been wicked, a sin to be judged. It is a fire that burns to Destruction; it would have uprooted my harvest."

 - Job 31:1-12

 As he did with anger, Jesus started with the absolute right and wrong of the matter of adultery. But he explained that in God's kingdom, it is more than just the restraining of the actual physical act that matters to God...it is the heart of the person. And regardless of what I might or might not do based on the consequences of my actions and the fear of "getting caught", if my eyes are wandering because my heart is inclined toward other women, then I have already violated my relationship with my spouse (or future spouse for those who are not yet married), and with my God.

I want to be careful here because this area is one that is especially double-edged. On the one hand, Satan has kept the second-rate cheap version of sex in front of our minds and eyes so much, that it is possible to completely lose sight of Jesus' ideal of a pure heart and not think twice about a lingering look filled with illicit desire. On the other hand, Satan has also employed the weapons of worldly guilt to keep boys, girls, young and old men and women alike absolutely crippled in their desire and pursuit of Godliness because they cannot shake the "dirty" feeling that comes from this most personal of sins.

So today, I simply want to ask a question and remind you of a truth...

1.You have already made a covenant with your God. Most of you have already made a covenant with your spouse. Have you made a covenant with your eyes such as Job did? If not, then why not? 

2.  If you have, then when you think about your past and are overwhelmed with guilt, or you think about your present or future and are overwhelmed with fear, then I want to remind you that as with anger and everything else, Jesus began this sermon by calling us to a righteousness that surpasses that of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law. AND THAT RIGHTEOUSNESS IS YOURS INSIDE CHRIST! It is not yours if you can manage the strength to live up to it; it is yours because you have trusted in the One Who did! So quit falling to that sin over and over again because you don't feel worthy of forgiveness and keep returning to the mud like a pig returning to its wallow, and start living with the confidence and strength of someone who has been bought with the blood of Christ and redeemed from the old way of life...and lust.

To focus on the sin is to put yourself in a position to fail again. You cannot change your heart by legislating your eyes and hands any more than we can change the heart of the nation by legislating laws. The laws of the nation will merely reflect its heart.

No...focus on Christ who will teach you how to overcome and change you from the heart out. And as you do, I think you will find along with all of God's saints who have done so throughout the centuries that God's perfect law of liberty that is legislating your eyes and your hands will more and more perfectly reflect the heart that is in you.