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THE KINGDOM AND IT'S LAWS                      LECTURE 7.

       The Law of Purity and the Law of Fidelity

Matthew 5:27-30
     No one can accuse Jesus of attempting to evade the issues
of the day --- His day, ours, or any in-between.

INTRODUCING THE SUBJECT

     1. The second Bylaw He tackled was the seventh of the Ten
Commandments:
"Thou shalt not commit adultery." Probably no two areas of
man's basic responses have inflicted more damage on society
than murder and adultery.  Jesus took His battle for the
whole man right onto the battlefield of life as it really is.

     2. Besides the intense practicality of His teachings, there
was the equally intense personal application.
"But I say unto you, whosoever!" Just as God's will is the
unbreakable, unshakeable iron bar by which we shall all be
judged, so is the comprehensiveness of that word whosoever.  It
includes rich and poor---intelligentsia and uneducated--- king
and slave---male and female---everyone.  Whosoever covers it
all---young and old---married and unmarried---no exceptions!

"Thou shalt not commit adultery."

     3. The Constitution and Bylaws of the Kingdom of God were
instituted to salvage men from total destruction.  Jesus went
to the cross and sacrificed His life that we might come into
the Kingdom and live according to its concepts and precepts.
Here is available forgiveness ---acceptance---deliverance---
healing---hope! "I am come that they might have life, and . .
have it more abundantly."  This is Jesus speaking in John
10:10.

I.   HISTORY RECORDS

     The Law said , "Thou shalt not commit adultery" Ex.20:14.
Now this was a very serious offence. In this offence the Jews saw
the punishment of death. Lev.20:10.

     There is no time in  history when the marriage bond stood in
greater peril of almost total destruction than in the days when
Christianity there came into the World. With Christianity there
had come into the World an ideal of Christianity of which men did
not dream.

We see at this time there were three influences:
     1. The Jews
     2. The Greeks
     3. The Romans

1. The Jews

We know the standard of the law, as laid down on Mt. Sinai,
however two schools of thought had arisen.
     A. The School of Shammai - this was a strict, severe,austere
school. This school defined "some uncleanness" as meaning
unchastity and nothing but unchastity.

     B. The School of Hittel - This was liberal, broadminded and
generous. This school defined 'Some uncleaness" in the widest
possible way. They said a man could divorce his wife if she
spoilt his dinner by putting too much salt in the food.

2. The Greeks
     The teaching of Christianity would teach a wider field than
just Palestine. Also we find that Greek culture had begun to
influence even on this small nation.

     A.W.Verrall the great classical scholar , said that one of
the chief diseases from which the ancient civilisation died was a
low view of women. This was the first thing which wrecked the
marriage situation amongst the Greeks. The fact that
relationships outside marriage carried no stigma whatsoever, and
wars in fact accepted a the expected thing - such relationships
brought not the slightest discredit; they were part of the
ordinary routine of life. "We have courtesans for the sake of
pleasure: we have concubines for the sake of daily cohabitation;
we have wives for the purpose of having children legitimately,
and having a faithful guardian for all our household affairs."

     Their view was extremely paradox. The Greek demanded that
the respectable woman should live such a life of seclusion that
she never appear on the street alone, and that she did not even
have her meals in the apartments of men. She had no part of
social life. From his Greek wife, he demanded the utmost immoral
license. To put it bluntly, The Greek married the wife for
domestic security but he found his pleasure elsewhere. The wife
was a title of dignity, not of pleasure.

3. The Romans

     The history of the development of the marriage situation is
a history of tragedy. originally the religion and society was
found in the home. The Father had full power of life and death
over his family. A Roman son never came of age as long as the
father was alive. To the Roman home was everything and the Roman
matron was not sheltered like her Greek  counterpart for she took
full place in life.

     Then came the Greeks. In the military and the Imperial sense
Rome conquered Greece; but in the moral and social sense Greece
conquered Rome. By the end of the 2nd. Century B.C. Greek morals
had begun to influence Rome, and the descent was catastrophic.
Divorce became as common as marriage. Marriage became nothing
more that an unfortunate necessity.

     It is against this background that Jesus brings forth his
Law of Purity.  Again he lays down that not only the forbidden
action but also the forbidden thought is guilty in the sight if
Gid.

     Not only the man who committed adultery was guilty but the
man who allowed the unclean desire to settle in his heart was
guilty.

II.  PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS

     We are living in a day when the morality  of our whole
society says, "There is nothing wrong with sex as long as there
are two consenting adults."  Our television screens bombard
adult, youth, and child alike with music set to the tempo of
stirring the emotions. Inflammatory words pour out suggestions.
Advertising links sexual appeal to toothpaste, hair spray and
breakfast serials. Nothing is too trivial or too sacred for
satan's attacks.

     Sexual Magnetism has tremendous drawing power.
Ever heard, "I don't know why men are always chasing me"? Sex is
something like electricity turn on the switch and it works, any
man or woman who turns on the switch is asking for trouble.
Listen there is a way of saying "I'm on the make" without saying
anything! Turn off the light before you get into trouble.

     There are several types of persons whose reactions to any
kind of reaction on sexual behaviour needs to be addressed.

     1. The person who says, " Well Jesus says if I look with lust,
I've already committed adultery, I might as well go ahead with
the act," the former is true of what Jesus said but He didn't
include the latter.

     2. Then there is the person who takes the pseudo-holy
approach and tries to stifle his God given privilege of being
able to enjoy beauty in the opposite sex without lusting. This
often results in a life of frustration, becoming irritable and
condemnatory.

     3. There is a third person who comes up with this response
to Jesus differentiation between lust and looking. " I'm too
week. God understands. After all, He gave me these urges." I
realise that it is taught in schools that sex is only a natural
instinct and it is meant to have an outlet when aroused. Hay!!
God didn't make man to be left at the mercy of animal instinct,
as is propagated by such teachings.

Someone once put it, "We can't prevent the birds flying over our
heads but we can prevent them from nesting in our hair."

III.  THE CURE

     Anything which is a cause of, or a seduction to sin should
be completely cut out of life. Divine surgery is necessary and
you are the only one who can schedule the operation.
Anything, even if it seems precious or as necessary to us as our
right eye or right hand, we must severe:  The old life,
books, friends, habits etc.

     1. Matt.5:30 we find the word "offend". This word is
interesting. Translated it means stumbling block. The Greek is
the form of a word which means the bait-stick in a trap. It was
the stick or arm on which the bait was fixed and which operated
the trap to catch the lured animal into its own destruction. So
it came to mean anything which causes a mans destruction. We get
the word "Scandal" from this same Greek word.

     2. We know that Jesus does not mean for us to take this word
literally, for that other eye can prove to be offensive; and the
left hand may reach out to touch as easily as the right one.
Jesus is saying that if there is lust in your heart, you have a
problem which you must deal with.

     3. When Jesus spoke of Plucking out the eye or cutting off
the hand, He was saying in effect, there is no action too drastic
to avoid the pain and remorse that sexual deviation brings.

     Is the bylaw of purity clearly understood? It is a rule for