It's All Fun And Games Until Someone Loses An Eye

It’s All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses An Eye- by Pastor Vern Hall

Matthew 5:29, Hebrews 11:23-26

Introduction:

Tonight as we look into these scriptures I want you to go with me on a journey. Just let your mind take a walk through your life and consider the sights and sounds of this dreadful disease called sin. We’ve all encountered it, we’ve all been effected and infected by it, and we all have seen its consequences. I see its results each day I go to work. It’s gripping the lives of the children I encounter…..children who should have responsible adults in their lives to care for them and guide them in the way, but instead they drift deeper and deeper into an existence which glorifies sin and portrays it as the fun and fashionable thing to do. And people are consistently reinforcing the glamorization of sin either directly or indirectly. As I look around this world we live in and I consider society’s stance on self-indulgence, fornication, excessive living, friends I think the Author of Hebrews was spot on accurate when he told the Hebrews in the Word of God, “There IS pleasure in sin for a season.” But my how we need an awakening in the Land! We need to be willing to sacrifice whatever aids these desires to cling to a sinful existence. When we get to the point where we are sincere enough about a relationship with Lord Jesus that we can say, “Lord whatever it is that is hindering my growth and my relationship with you, I’m willing to give up in order to enjoy more of you,” then we are truly getting sincere. After all, it’s all fun and game until someone loses an eye. Now I’ve heard several sermons preached on Matthew 5:29 and similar verses and they’ve always been about viewing pornography. But I’m going to go another way tonight and I desire your prayers because I’ve been swimming up rive all week in preparing for this message. There are few points I would like to bring out tonight as we consider this topic…..it’s all fun and game until someone loses an eye.

I. First of all, now I realize that Jesus was speaking to the Jews of the day who thought they were righteous, but here his stance on sin is made crystal clear to me. This is where I part company with the vast multitude of Bible commentators and theologians who state that Christ was speaking in hyperbole here. As I was studying for this message I read commentary after commentary where many writers were in agreement in saying that Jesus was using exaggeration here for a greater affect. Many times since Sunday as I read those commentaries and studied a multitude of theologians, Bro. Greg’s message from Sunday night resonated over and over in my mind, “Who are you? Who are you to part company and disagree with these intellectual minds? Who are you to part company with men who have given their entire lives to the study of the scriptures? Who are you to dare say they missed it?” But then I think about my Lord on the cross with a crown of thorns on his precious head, and a soldier’s spear in his side. He deemed sin to be so horrible that he died to pay that debt. Our sinless savior didn’t need to give an eye or a hand, he gave his whole life to kill sin. The Bible said that he came to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. For this cause came he into the world to destroy the works of the devil. Thank God, his blood made the atonement. But how serious is sin. We’ve got so many today kicking up their heels and loving their sinful lives, and it seems they don’t think very seriously of it. To them, it’s all fun and games, and to them I say it IS all fun and game until someone loses an eye!

A. Paul knew the gravity of a sinful existence. He said to the Colossians, “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.” It’s true that a line has been drawn. We need to be found on the side that opposes worldly impulses to the fullest extent.

B. There is too much soft line approach when it comes to sin today. So many today are using their liberty for a cloak of maliciousness. Sin has ravaged their lives. People dear to me are caught in the clutches of drugs and alcoholism. Some of you have family members who lead pitiful existences in this world today because of sin. And many will say that because they say they are saved and they have a man living on the inside that cannot sin, and that may be true. I don’t disagree with that, but I get sick of people that I care about flirting with sin and justifying sin. I get tired of folks wrecking their testimonies. It seems like a large part of humanity today is more interested in seeing how close they can get to sin and still have Jesus, instead seeing how close they can get to Jesus and far away they can get from sin. They say, “Well, I’ve prayed that if the Lord wants me to stop drinking that he’ll take the desire away.” Friend, the Bible commands us in Hebrews chapter 12 to “lay aside the weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us.” Friends, I realize that we draw our strength from God but too many people today are wasting too much time praying to God to take things away when His word tells US to lay them down!” You lay it down!