A Holy Amputee
Matthew 5:27-30
I’d like to read the following from a Grand Junction, Colorado News Article from May 2, 2003:
With no water and as little hope of survival, Aspen mountaineer Aron Ralston, 27, used a pocketknife to amputate his own arm and free himself from a boulder weighing 1,000 pounds that feel and trapped him for five days in a remote desert canyon in eastern Utah.
Pinned in a 3-foot wide slot canyon . . . Ralston cut through his own arm below the elbow Thursday morning, applying a tourniquet and administering first aid before rigging anchors and fixing a rope to rappel to the bottom of Blue John Canyon and hiking out to meet rescuers.
Ralston told rescuers that on Thursday morning he realized he would not survive unless he took drastic action. He had run out of water on Tuesday.
Ralston’s pocketknife amputation was not the first in the region. In October 1993, Colorado fisherman Bill Jeracki cut off his leg at the knee when two boulders fell on his leg while angling alone in a remote canyon stream. Trapped and yelling for hours, Jeracki made the decision to sever the limb after the weather took a turn for the worse and he became concerned for survival. He used hemostats from his fishing kit to close the severed artery and vein, then crawled a half mile back to his truck and drove to find help.
What motivates men like Aron and Bill to take such drastic measures? It is the will to live, to survive. It is far better to live without an arm or a leg, than it is to die alone in the wilderness. It is the same thing that motivates cancer patients to undergo surgery to remove a part of their body so that they can survive. It motivates diabetics to undergo amputation of a foot or a leg, so that they can continue to live.
How important is eternal life to you? What lengths would you take in order to live a life of holiness, one that pleases the Lord?
Jesus has been preaching his famous Sermon on the Mount to His disciples. He has been challenging them to think beyond the external rules and regulations of the law to the heart of the matter. He has been urging them to live a life of righteousness that exceeds the religious men of His day. To Jesus, it is the heart of the matter that really matters.
Last week we looked at how he clarified God’s desire for obedience to the 6th commandment: Thou Shall Not Murder. In it we saw that God is opposed to those who treat others in anger. To insult a brother or to condemn a brother with our words is just as much a violation of God’s Holy Standard as to actually kill them.
And now Jesus moves on to the 7th commandment.
Read Matthew 5:27-30
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery’. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”
These are very strong, serious, and difficult words for us to hear. We prefer to think of Jesus as the kind, forgiving, and compassionate savior who told the men who caught a women in adultery, and brought her but not the man to Jesus: “He who is without sin, let him be the first to cast a stone.” We remember that Jesus stooped down and said to her that He did not condemn her, but we also forget to mention that He urged her to now go, and sin no more.
Is sin serious to God? Does God expect His children to live holy lives? Should we do everything we can to resist and flee from temptation? Or is grace and forgiveness cheap? Can we go on living the way we want to as forgiven Christians with no thought of discipline from the Lord?
1. We live in a sexually immoral society.
Since the 60’s this country has been on a downward spiral towards destruction. What once was rare and frowned upon by society has now become common-place and even desired.
Pornography used to be reserved for the back alley and streets. Only deviant men pursued pornography. And then came playboy and penthouse. Soon pornographic movies were moving out of the back alley and on to the main street theatre. Then came the advent of the internet age. Now pornography could move into your own bedroom and living room.
It is estimated that over 75% of internet users who are on-line after 10pm are visiting pornographic websites. The Pornography industry (and who would have ever thought those two words would be combined in a sentence) accounts for more than $10 billion dollars a year in this country, more than all the money spent on Christian missions combined. It is estimated that 60% of all websites are pornographic. The United States is now by far the world’s leading producer of porn, churning out hard-core videos at the astonishing rate of about 150 new titles a week.
Now some defend this as pure fun, a harmless hobby. But the opposite has been proven time and time again. Of 1400 child molestation cases studied in Kentucky, adult pornography was connected in 100% of the cases and child pornography in the majority. It is estimated that 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 7 boys have been molested in this country by the age of 19. 77% of those who molested boys and 87% of those who molested girls said they were addicted to pornography.
And the sad fact of the matter is that the church has not escaped this disease. As many as 1 in 4 pastors struggle with pornography and 28% of born again believers according to George Barna believe that it is acceptable to view pornography.
And what of the other sexual problems that have plagued our nation? We have even redefined our terminology. What once was called “adultery” is now referred to as a “fling”, or an “affair”. We are told that between 1/3 ands ½ of all marriages have suffered through an affair. And we love to watch all of the escapades on “Desperate Housewives”. We eat up the stories on our favorite celebrities. And we no longer blush at the jokes and innuendos on our favorite TV show.
We forget that a Holy God commanded in Leviticus 20:10 “If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife, with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.”
Of course we know that we live under the New Covenant, and that Jesus has paid the price for all of our sin. We no longer live under condemnation as forgiven people who have trusted in Christ.
But we must also remember that God expects us to flee immorality. And that to treat the holiness of God as a mere incidental is a very foolish thing to do.
The writer of Hebrews warned in 10:26-31
“If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the Law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has Trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again “the Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.”
Historian J. D. Unwin has studied eighteen civilizations in an effort to best determine which facts accounted for their disintegration and his conclusion was this: “Every society has one of two choices, either sexual promiscuity and decline or sexual restraint and growth.”
Has God’s judgment already begun with this nation and with the church?
2. Jesus is concerned with our hearts.
The Pharisees were content with staying away from the act of adultery, but our Holy Savior was interested with our thought life, with our focus, and with our heart.
He says: “If any man looks at a woman lustfully he has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
If we are honest with ourselves, we have all failed miserably in this. We can join former President, Jimmy Carter who confessed to a nation that he was guilty in Christ’s eyes of adultery.
So what do we do living in a sex-charged society? How do we avoid the look?
a. Confess your sin!
You will never recover until you are willing to uncover your sin. By that I mean you need to get honest with yourself, and perhaps with those you have wronged.
King David knew this better than anyone. He had a problem with lust. The look at Bathsheba led to the call which led to the adultery which led to the cover-up and murder. But David kept his heart hardened to his own sin. He covered it up. Until Nathan showed up and set him straight.
David wrote in Psalm 32:3 – 5
“When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord – and you forgave the guilt of my sin.”
I John 1:9
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
James 5:16
“Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”
b. Give your heart to God once again.
David after confessing his sin, prayed in Psalm 51:10
“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
Paul urged us in Romans to set your heart and mind on the things of the Spirit, the things that please God. Romans 8:5
‘Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires, but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.’
And in Colossians He spoke about the center of our devotion, the desire of our hearts and minds. Colossians 3:1-2
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”
Once we have turned our hearts back towards God and repented of our sin, confessing it openly to God and to others we may have offended, we then must move with Christ into a radical shift of lifestyle.
3. Jesus calls us to deal ruthlessly with our own sin.
Paul continues in Colossians 3:5 “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.”
And in Romans 8:13 “for if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.”
Jesus calls for a radical and ruthless treatment of sin in our life. We must show sin no mercy. We must put it away completely. We must deal with ourselves harshly and completely to rid ourselves of the evil thing.
His words are a metaphor, not to be taken literally. What good is it to cut out your right eye? You could keep looking with your left eye? And even if you had both eyes plucked out, you could still fantasize. No, you must rid your heart completely of the evil thing. You must remove yourself from temptation. You must take radical action to free yourself from the snare of the tempter.
You may love your eye, but isn’t it better to amputate a diseased eye so that the rest of your body can live? You may cherish your hand, but isn’t it better to stop the gangrene before it spreads?
Using this metaphor, Jesus shows us that we must tackle sin seriously in our lives.
Do you have a problem with pornography? Rip it out. Throw out your computer. Put a lock on the internet. Place it in a room where everyone can see what you are looking at and put a password on that only your wife knows so that you have to get her permission before you view it. There are safety organizations out there that will send a record of every website you have viewed to a third party who will hold you accountable.
Is cable TV your issue? Cancel it. Do you have a problem with magazines? Stop going to bookstores.
Is there someone you are tempted to fantasize about at work or school? Break off the relationship with that person, or tell someone to help you stay away.
Young people, do you have a problem with control. Then don’t ever allow yourself to be alone. Go out in groups.
The point is: we know what to do. We can change. Are we willing to do surgery on our hearts and on our priorities?
Job said in Job 31:1 “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust upon a young woman.”
Martin Luther once said: “I can’t keep a bird from flying over my head, but I can keep him from building a nest in my hair.”
Doc Campbell of the old “Hee Haw” show confronted a patient who said that he broke his arm in two places. “Well then, stay out of them thar places!”
You must decide today who you are going to live for. Are you going to live for yourself, your flesh, and feed it everything it wants? Or are you going to live for the Spirit of God, and feed Him everything He desires?
Be honest. Get an accountability partner. Cut out the temptations. Remove the filth from your home, workplace, car, and anywhere else you have it hidden. Surrender your heart to the Lord. Receive the held of the Holy Spirit who is capable of giving your victory. Be ruthless, and you will see God give you a fresh start.
Ed Welch wrote a book in 2001 titled: “A banquet in the grave.” In it he had this to say:
There is a mean streak to authentic self-control. Self- control is not for the timid. When we want to grow in it, not only do we nurture exuberance for Jesus Christ, we also demand of ourselves a hatred for sin. The only possible attitude toward out-of-control desire is a declaration of all-out war. There is something about war that sharpens the senses. You hear a twig snap or the rustling of leaves and you are in attack mode. Someone coughs and you are ready to pull the trigger. Even after days of little or no sleep, war keeps us vigilant.”
