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 the 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's series called the Sinfulness of sin. And with a lesson now,

here's John MacArthur. We're looking at Matthew chapter five in our study. We're going to look

at the passage in verses 27 through 30. Matthew chapter 5 versus 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, thou shalt 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.

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