You can't mix the kingdom of darkness with the kingdom of light. Tear it out. Cut it off. It's better to be bored and have nothing to do than to indulge yourself in spiritual pornography. ♪♪ We don't know exactly where the Sermon on the Mount was preached from, but it was somewhere in these mountains. And so I'm now from the land of Israel expositing the Sermon on the Mount. It's one of the most important parts of the Word of God. Many people skip over the Sermon on the Mount because it just sounds too altruistic for them. It sounds like it's so up there that how could anybody ever live like this? But when Yeshua gave us the Sermon on the Mount, He said what He meant and He meant what He said. And the principles of the Sermon on the Mount, beloved, teach us and train us how to live a kingdom lifestyle while our feet are planted on the earth today. So we're gonna pick up now where I left off last time. Yeshua is speaking here. And listen to what He said. "You have heard it said that you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you. For it's better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you" for it's better for you to lose one of your parts of your body than for the whole body to go into hell." Get this now. Yeshua just got done teaching. Hey, listen, it's not just wrong to commit the physical act of adultery, but it's wrong even to look at a woman to lust after. And if you do that, you've already committed adultery. What does it mean to look at a woman to lust after her? Here's the best way I can explain it for you that's very practical and should be helpful for you. If you see an attractive woman, if you're a man, and maybe a woman for that matter, if you see a man, immediately something in you might light up. You know, you see an attractive woman, all of a sudden, bam, you're attracted. You can't help that. But what you can help is if you continue to look. If you see an attractive woman, and all of a sudden you're aroused, what you do is you immediately look away. If you see an attractive woman and then stay there looking at her because you are attracted, then you're lusting, then you're committing the spirit of adultery. If you look again because you saw that she was attractive and you want to go back for a second look because you saw that this woman was attractive, that is adultery. And so Jesus is saying, if this is causing you to stumble, cut your eye out, tear your eye out from you. That means you have to be ruthless. I remember teaching this to somebody recently, and they said, "Yeah, but what if you don't want to? What if you don't want to look away? What if you don't want to?" I said, that's the whole point, my friend. That's the whole point. You do want to. That's why you have to tear out your eye from you. It's not enough to say, "I want to, and therefore give yourself permission to do it." That's adultery. That is adultery in the spirit. Jesus said once again, "If your eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you." And so if you notice yourself wanting to look at a woman because she's attractive, that is what Jesus is speaking about here. He's commanding you, don't do it. And if you do do it, you're in a spirit of adultery. This even applies to television. I wonder how many of us watch certain shows or movies on television because we're attracted to the actors physically. That's a spirit of adultery. It grieves me that so many Christians watch The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. What is the point of that? You're living in sin. If you're watching The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, I know I'm speaking to a younger demographic now, that's absolute defilement of your spirit. You're teasing yourself with something that's not of God. The whole thing's not of God. All of it's not of God. It's of the world. You can't mix the kingdom of darkness with the kingdom of light. Tear it out. Cut it off. It's better to be bored and have nothing to do than to indulge yourself in spiritual pornography. And that's what that is. You might not think it is, but it is. You're watching because you're attracted to The Bachelor, you're attracted to The Bachelorette, you're attracted to the candidates. You know, it's all garbage. And then the whole concept of the way relationships are formed, based on some bogus alter reality where the whole thing is based on going from one gorgeous location to another gorgeous location, and then you're having a good time there, and because you're having a good time there, you think you're in love. That's a bunch of you-know-what. In Orthodox Judaism, none of that's going on before they're married, and there's far less divorces in Orthodox Judaism, because they realize that relationships are not built on lust. Relationships are built on commitment, and building a partnership together, and building a friendship together, and having the same vision to serve God, and to lead a godly life, and to have a godly marriage, and to raise a godly home. So cut that blank out of your life, my friends. Stop giving yourself over to lust. I'm talking to you. It's a stern warning for you. If you think Jesus is going to let you get away with it, and you're not going to suffer for it, you're extremely wrong. You are hurting yourself by indulging in literal pornography by watching some of the things that you're watching on television. It might not be full-blown pornography, but it's the same thing. It's a spirit of adultery. Okay, lets continue on to what Jesus said here. "If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell." You've got to be ruthless with sin. You've got to be ruthless with yourself. You know, I personally don't believe there's anything wrong with having a glass of wine. But for me, I grew up in a home where my dad drank every day, so for me, it's very dangerous. So I have to be ruthless with myself. I have to be ruthless about exposing myself to alcohol, so I don't get drawn into something that's going to lead me in to sin. And then Yeshua goes on to teach about divorce. "It was said, 'Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery." Listen, Rabbi Schneider's not the one that's saying this. I'm not the one that's saying this. I'm just reading to you what Jesus said. If you want to be open to God, don't get mad at me, just listen to what Jesus said. This is what Jesus said. "It was said, 'Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce.'" But Yeshua's taking it to the next level. "But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery." How many times today do we have this excuse with people? "Well, I was emotionally abused. I got divorced because my husband or my wife was emotionally abusing me." Anybody could say that. What did they do to that? Did they look at you sideways? Did they not affirm you the way you wanted to be affirmed? I mean, anybody could claim that. I know emotional abuse takes place. Emotional abuse takes place in every marriage, right, because none of us are perfect. All of us, at times, are irritable, and we don't always treat our spouses the way that we should. Have you ever got angry at your spouse? Have you ever yelled at your spouse? Have you ever been cross or spoke roughly to your spouse? All of us could say, yes. That could be emotional abuse. Yes, it happens. But Jesus said, "I'm telling you, unless your spouse has committed adultery on you, if you divorce her, you're... listen to what he said again. "I say to you, everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery." Now listen, there's grace in the kingdom of God. I'm not trying to bring condemnation on anybody. But I'm speaking this hardly because there's too many of us that are Christians, we say we love Christ, and yet we give ourself an excuse to get divorced rather than work things out. We have to take Jesus' word seriously and recognize that there's not an easy out of marriage. To have a successful marriage requires commitment. But too many of us feel, "You know what, there's a lot of Christians that get divorced. I had some emotional abuse. I'm not really enjoying this relationship. I think I could experience a better marriage with somebody else, so I'm going to get divorced." Yeshua directly contradicted that. No, unless you are being... I believe unless you're being physically abused, and even there, you know, what does Jesus think about that? But unless you're being physically abused and abandoned, there's a case for abandonment in another portion of Scripture, unless your husband or wife has literally left you and physically beat you up, or unless the spouse has committed physical adultery, I don't really see in the word of God a reason or a permission to get divorced. And so I want to encourage you, if your marriage is hard, don't think about divorce. Cling to God. Pray for grace. Ask Him to give you grace to get through it and to build a relationship with your husband or with your wife, because getting divorced, beloved, most often does not make the problem easier. It makes your heartache worse, because of the consequences of divorce, not only on you, but on your children. So I just want to bring that to the body of Christ right now. But divorce in the Christian church is almost the same as it is in the world. Jesus very strictly taught about this. And you know what? In Orthodox Judaism, they take God's Word seriously. You see very, very, very little divorce in Orthodox Judaism. Why? Because they don't look at marriage as being for themselves first of all. They look at marriage as two people coming together to form a partnership to raise a family and to raise children for God. That's it. Everything else is a side benefit. Everything else is an added benefit. But divorce is not first about our own... I mean, marriage is not first about our own pleasure. Divorce, once again, is about building a godly family for the glory of God. So I'm not condemning you to that. I don't want you to feel that. But what I do want to do is put a strict warning out to the body of Christ: divorce is not permissible. Instead, what we should be thinking is, how can I change myself? What am I doing in this marriage that's contributing to the problems that I'm having? And what can I do in my life to take responsibility for where I'm contributing to the problem? And then pray for God to bring peace to your marriage and to change your spouse's heart as well. That's the direction we should be pointing towards, beloved ones. Verse 33. "Again, you have heard the ancients were told, 'You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord. But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for is the throne of God, or by earth, for is the footstool of his feet, or by Jerusalem, for is the city of the great king. Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you could not make your hair white or black. But let your statement be 'yes, yes' or 'no, no'; anything else beyond these is of evil." And so how many times have we said, yes, yes, we've promised we're gonna do something, and then we don't do it. Our heart might have been right, but then we found we don't have the willpower or the strength to carry out our vow. Or we say, no, no, I'll never do that, but sure enough, a month, three months later, we do exactly what we say we promised we wouldn't do. Jesus said, just say yes and no. Anything beyond that is evil. What He wants us to understand is how weak we are in the flesh. And especially not to take an oath in God's name. Not to say, I swear to God I'm gonna do that, because that's bringing God right down to the defiled world of our flesh. That's bringing God who's in heaven down to petty, little old you and I, and then defiling His name when we take an oath in His name, and then don't do what we said we would do. And so once again, Yeshua said anything beyond simply saying yes or no is evil. And then Yeshua goes on and He says this. "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you." So basically what Yeshua is talking here about is divine mercy, divine love, divine generosity. The Lord did say in the Hebrew Bible, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. He said that. Why? Because He was breaking into a barbaric world. And if somebody maybe stole something from you in the world of the barbarians, they might have retaliated because you stole something from them by murdering your wife and children and burning your house down. So the Lord was bringing them up from that barbaric world of violence to an equitable system, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth - justice. But Yeshua is bringing us beyond the righteousness of the Pharisees, and He's saying, "I say to you, if someone asks you for something, give. If someone hits you on the face, turn the other cheek. If someone takes from you, don't resist them." Why? Yeshua is saying, trust in God. Trust in God. Whatever you lose for His sake, because you want to be faithful to Him, because you don't want to be brought down into a spirit of vindictiveness and the flesh, just trust God. Let it all go. Follow Him. Jesus said, God is going to repay you. Everyone that gives, it comes back to him pressed down, good measure, running over into your lap. So Jesus said, "Just trust in God." Whatever happens to you that's wrong, don't worry. You just keep your eyes on Him. Keep your heart open. Stay in love. Stay in grace. Stay in peace. And God is going to bless you and bless you and bless you. He's going to reward you for every single good thing that you've done. Beloved, these principles teach us how to walk in this earth in the kingdom of God and on His principles.