INTRODUCTION
We are busy with a sermon series on The Sermon on the Mount.
In previous weeks we looked at where Jesus said that He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it.
And he said that our righteousness should be more than that of the Pharisees & Scribes.
So last week we looked at where Jesus said that murder has its beginnings in the heart where there is anger.
We should therefore ensure that we look not just at the symptoms of a sin, but at the heart of a sin.
Staying with that chain of thought our Lord moves to the next commandment.
We read about this in the following scripture: Matthew 5:27-30
SCRIPTURE
Matthew 5:27-30 KJV
(27) Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
(28) But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
(29) And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
(30) And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
SERMON
Again, as in the case of murder, Jesus affirms the fact that adultery is against the law.
He says that “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery”
So Jesus says that the law is there and it has been said to them from olden times.
This is an affirmation of the law,
And the law that Jesus is affirming here is that it is unlawful to commit adultery.
We read about this law in Exodus 20:14
Now this law also carried a harsh punishment with it.
We read the following in:
Leviticus 20:10 GW
(10) "If a man commits adultery with another man's wife or with his neighbor's wife, both he and the woman must be put to death for their adultery.
Deuteronomy 22:22-24 GW
(22) If a man is caught having sexual intercourse with a married woman, both that man and the woman must die. You must get rid of this evil in Israel.
(23) This is what you must do when a man has sexual intercourse with a virgin who is engaged to another man. If this happens in a city,
(24) take them to the gate of the city and stone them to death. The girl must die because she was in a city and didn't scream for help. The man must die because he had sex with another man's wife. You must get rid of this evil.
Let us pray
Adultery was a very serious offence for the Hebrew people.
It was so serious that it warranted death.
And notice that Jesus does not come and say that the offence is not serious.
In fact, He comes and he does exactly what He did with the sin of murder.
He fills it up.
He fills in the caps.
Again, the Lord is more worried about the heart of the act, because He knows that that is where it all starts out.
The majority of sins are predetermined sin.
It is something that you allow into your mind.
You start to nurture it.
You give it food and water and it starts to grow in your mind.
You build it up in your mind and it starts to take root.
And eventually it grows so big that you are no longer able to control it.
Your ability to control it diminishes the more it grows.
And then Jesus affirms this statement when He says that: “whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”
Lust
When we look at the word “lust” as used in this verse it gives us a very bad impression of the word used.
And the English word “lust” is indeed a bad word.
But I believe that the translation is a bit heavy here.
Why do I say that?
The original word that was used is the Greek word: epithumeō
Epithumeo is also translated to the English word “desire”
Now to desire something is not always a bad thing.
Jesus Himself said that He desired.
We read this in:
Luke 22:15 KJV
(15) And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer:
The original translation for the word “desire” is the same word translated to “lust”
Paul also writes the following in:
1 Timothy 3:1 KJV
This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.
So to desire is not a bad thing, in fact it could be a good thing.
What makes it bad is the object and purpose of your desire.
That is why Jesus said that “whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her”
The thing is this.
To merely look at another woman does not make it a sin
What does make it a sin is when your motive is not just looking at her, but desiring to commit adultery with her.
Your motive determines the sin.
If I look at a woman with the motive of looking at her because she is beautiful, does that make me a sinner?
I don’t think so.
If that was the case then I believe many men and women would sin daily.
Your motive determines the sin.
Jesus clarifies this when He says that when you look at another woman with the intention to commit adultery, then you have sinned.
This brings us to the next thing that warrants clarification.
Adultery.
What is adultery?
Adultery is having sexual intercourse with a married woman or man.
In the broader sense of the word it can also be applied to sex outside of marriage, in other words sexual intercourse between two people who are not married.
But that is a topic for another sermon.
In other words, Jesus is referring to a sexual encounter between a person who is married and another who might or might not be married.
But Jesus does what He does well.
He fulfills the law for us.
He says that, yes, adultery is wrong and it is an offence, but I say unto you…
He fulfills it in the following way: “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”
Please note that Jesus does not say that to desire a woman in your heart with the intention to have sexual intercourse with her is the same as committing the act of adultery.
No.
It is not the same thing.
‘Jesus is merely saying that we should make sure that we control our mind, because it is at our mind that evil takes root.
It is in our minds that sin is formed.
Therefore we need to make sure that we control our minds.
We need to renew our minds daily.
We need to ensure that we do not allow our hearts, our minds, to become stumbling blocks, because when we allow bad thoughts to rule over us we are creating stumbling block for ourselves.
We are allowing those stumbling blocks to interfere with God and with our salvation.
Stumbling Blocks
With the idea of ensuring that what we think or harbor in our mind ands and in our hearts, Jesus says the following very profound, very unthinkable, words:
“If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.”
If we were to hear these words today without understanding the idea behind it, we would not be able to understand it.
You see, Jesus is saying that, if your eye becomes a stumbling block to your salivation, you need to pluck it out and, likewise, if your hand becomes a stumbling block to you spending everlasting life with God and with Jesus in heaven then you need to cut it off.
That just does not make literal sense, does it?
Why do I say this?
If I look at a woman with the intention of committing adultery and, because of that I pluck out my eye, will that prevent me from looking at a woman in future with the intention of committing adultery?
I don’t think so.
If I am prone to steal things and you cut off my right hand, I still have a left hand to steal with.
Physically cutting off my hand or plucking out my eye will not prevent me from committing a sin.
So we can eliminate the physical interpretation of this verse here.
Jesus is not referring to a physical cutting off or plucking out.
So what is He refereeing to?
He is referring to stumbling blocks in your life that will cause you to sin.
INNOCENT THINGS MIGHT BECOME STUMBLING BLOCKS
I want you to notice something important here.
Jesus speaks about your eye and your hand.
These are things that are not necessarily bad.
Your eye or your hand is not inherently bad, is it?
Jesus created your hands to work with and your eyes to look with.
These are good things.
And these are also things that are close to you.
They are part of you.
So Jesus is saying that we need to understand that there might be things in our lives that are close to us and that are not necessarily bad, that is causing us to stumble.
What is a Stumbling Block?
So what exactly is a stumbling block?
The idea for a stumbling block is derived from a tree root sticking out of the ground and that, when you walk over it, catches your foot and causes you to trip and fall.
It also have to do with a net that is placed in such a way as to ensnare a bird that flies into it or close enough for the net to be through over the bird.
So Jesus meaning here is that we should make sure that there is nothing in our lives that causes us to trip and fall or that will be able to ensnare us.
Now there are basically four things that are able to act as stumbling blocks
• Satan
• The World
• Other People
• Our flesh (Ourselves)
Either one of these can act as stumbling blocks.
But in this piece of scripture this morning Jesus is talking about the last one – Ourselves.
He is saying that we need to ensure that we are in control of our minds as it can be a stumbling block in our lives.
Your body can be the cause of your sin also.
Therefore it is important to understand that you need to be in control of your body at all times, but it starts at your mind, your heart.
The root is at your mind.
This is where you need to take control.
In your mind.
So we said that innocent things might become stumbling blocks in our lives.
Let’s look at some of them for example:
Wealth
Being wealthy does not make you a sinner.
But when wealth becomes your God, when money and riches become more important than anything else, that is when it becomes a stumbling block in your life.
Power
Another good one is power.
People are so obsessed with power that they will do almost anything to attain it.
They will walk over people, cheat people, steal and lie just so that they could be in a position of attaining that longed for power.
That can cause you more pain and suffering in the long run, but even more important is the everlasting torment that awaits you if youdo not stop your power hungry antics.
Friends
To have friends is usually a good thing.
However, when your friends become a stumbling block to your eternal salvation, then it is no longer a good thing.
I have firsthand experience in this.
When I got saved I had many friends.
In the past we would get together often to have a couple of drinks and to go out to the pubs and enjoy ourselves.
But God was never the centre of our lives.
Our enjoyment came first.
But when I met Jesus everything changed and slowly but surely I lost most of my friends.
They no longer wanted to hang out with me as I was no longer interested in just enjoying myself.
And I presumed they were tired of being told that they were going to go to hell if they did not accept Jesus in their lives.
You see people don’t want to hear about the wrong things they are doing when they are enjoying it.
They believe that if they ignore it, if they are ignorant of it, then they are safe.
Then they have a valid excuse.
So when you tell them that what they are doing is wrong and will only let them end up in everlasting torment, they are actually cross with you, because you have just eliminated their one excuse – I Did Not Know.
Well now you know…
Family
Family can be a very difficult stumbling block to overcome.
Family is a very similar to friends, but is a bit trickier.
Is there a family member that you have an issue with?
Make it right because that issue stands between you and God.
You hating that family member or despising that family member is on you.
It causes you to stumble and it ensnares you.
You need to make the effort and change this.
If something is causing you to trip, if something comes between you and God, you need to identify it.
You need to get rid of it or rectify it.
CAST ASIDE THE STUMBLING BLOCKS
Jesus says that “if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee”
Cast it from thee.
What does that mean?
The idea is that Jesus is talking about something that stands in the way between you and God.
If something stands in the way between you and God, what do you do?
If an engineer is tasked to build a road and he gets to a place where there are huge rocks in front of him, what does he do?
Does he abandon everything and stop building the road?
No, he blows through it.
He casts it away.
And he continues with the road.
He does not allow anything to come between him finishing the building of the road.
Why do we as Christian allow stumbling blocks to hinder our progress?
We need to cast anything away that stands between us and God.
The original translation means: to throw or let go of a thing without caring where it falls
Did you here that – without caring where it falls.
You need to get rid of everything – EVERYTHING – that stands between you and God.
And you should cast it away from you so that you will not be tempted to go back for it and get it again.
That is what is meant by this.
When I cut of my hand it is useless.
It cannot be of any use anymore.
That is the idea.
You need to cast it away from you so that it does not have any use anymore.
You should not care about it anymore.
Please understand that I am not talking about getting rid of people in your life.
Jesus did not mean that we should get rid of people when they cause a stumbling block.
He meant that we need to get rid of that which causes the stumbling block.
We need to get rid of the heart of the problem.
If you are angry with your brother, don’t ignore him because it is a stumbling block.
Your brother is not the stumbling block.
Your anger, your hatred is.
You need to make things right with your brother.
If your stumbling block is wealth don’t now get rid of all your money and possessions, unless off course you want to give it to me (joke).
No, get your attitude right.
Get your motive right.
Align your motive with Jesus’ motive.
CONCLUSION
You might be sitting here this morning and you realize that there are things in your life that stands between you and God.
There are stumbling blocks in your life.
You realize that these stumbling blocks are not placed before you by Satan, or the World, or other People, but by yourself.
You are your own worst enemy.
You are the one responsible for your own stumbling blocks.
What are you going to do about it?
I want you to take responsibility this morning.
I want you to identify those stumbling blocks that you are responsible for.
Think about it.
What is it?
What?
You need to look at your mind.
Get to the heart of the problem.
What is causing this problem?
Is it money, wealth, friends, family, power, wanting attention from others, hatred, social enjoyment, television, your work…
Whatever it is, you need to get to the heart of the problem.
Why is this obstacle in your way?
What is the reason
Why?
Now I want you to think of the how.
How can I get rid of this stumbling block?
How can I cast it away?
How?
Can I ask everyone to close their eyes please?
Have you identify the WHAT?
What is this stumbling block?
Have you identified the WHY?
Why is this a stumbling block?
What is causing it?
If you have managed to get this far, we are going to address the how part.
How do I cast it away?
It’s easy.
By laying it at the altar.
If you have a stumbling block in your life I want you to bring it to the front now.
We are going to get rid of it right now.
We are going to take it and place it at the feet of Jesus.
We are going to cast it away.
