Tear It Out! Series

Sermon on the Mount- Pt 6

Tear It Out!

In the SOTM it seems that Jesus has boiled down His teachings to that which is of prime importance.

The SOTM makes GOOD seem really GOOD.

It inspires to believe in- possibility of a better world.

It also reminds us of our lack of commitment to the principles found in these verses.

What would the church look like that embraced and lived the truths Jesus puts forth in the SOTM?

As we go through this study, I want us to hear the Living Christ speak to us through His Word/Spirit.

Look at Mtt 5:27-32

Throughout the SOTM we find a call to purity.

Our natural understanding of purity is often in terms of obedience to certain laws or regulations.

This taken alone can lead to a prudish approach to life

Prude- someone who shows excessive attention to outward propriety/decorum rather than the heart.

We must not allow a thought/emotional pattern to develop in us, the end result, which if carried out,

we would see as wrong or sin.

Mtt 5:27-28

Jesus always puts love ahead of lust.

Love- always other focused, lust- always self focused.

Esau and his mess of pottage is a picture of lust; Jacob serving for Rachel is a picture of love. Oswald Chambers

Consider the story of Esau … Gen 25:29-34

Look at the story of Jacob … Gen 29:18-20

Lust is the impatience of desire- I want it now.

These verses are a reference to the 7th C …

Ex 20:14 You shall not commit adultery.

Rabbi’s- limited- scope of this commandment to outward actions- missed the intent of the

righteous heart of God.

Sex has become big business in America …

chief means of selling products today.

It has moved from being fine dining to fast food. It has become stop and go experience. You pull up, get what you want, and drive off. T Evans

Interesting contrast- Puritans lived as if- no such thing as sex, while we live as if there is nothing but sex.

How would we define adultery?

Specifically, adultery is sexual intercourse involving at least one married person. In its broadest sense it is any kind of sexual infraction done by or to a married person.

Lev18-broadens- definition of adultery- include incest homosexuality, bestiality-involving married people

God created sex/He created its boundary- marriage.

Sex is a passion you could call a fire, but God has said that this fire is to burn in this particular fireplace. Any fire that leaves its boundaries will create a serious disaster that will burn at our very soul. Unknown

God’s standard is NO SEX outside of marriage.

Heb 13:4 Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

Adultery is more than the physical act of intercourse.

The sin does not start with the act, but w/heart.

In order to fix the act you must fix the heart.

Jesus not only condemns the act- He condemns the heart that prepares itself for- possibility of the act.

This condemns pornography, voyeurism, etc.

(Voyeurism-seeking sexual stimulation- visual means)

Many today would say that adultery, or fornication, is legitimate if there is love.

Jesus ups the ante and clearly labels lust as adultery.

God’s Answer to Immorality

What do we do about it … Mtt 5:29-30.

What is the essence of what Jesus is saying …

We are to deal drastically with sin. We must not pamper it, flirt with it … We are to hate it, crush it, dig it out. DA Carson

Sin today is thought of as an aberration or illness.

It is treated- not condemned and repented of.

In Jesus teaching, sin leads to hell.

V29 There is a relationship between the eyes/the heart

As you control your eyes you will better be able to control your heart.

Job 31:1 "I have made a covenant with my eyes; How then could I gaze at a virgin? NASU

Immoral deeds are preceded by fantasies of the mind.

What he was advocating was not a literal physical self-maiming, but a ruthless moral self-denial. Not mutilation but mortification is the path of holiness he taught, and ‘mortification’ or ‘taking up the cross’ to follow Christ means to reject sinful practices so resolutely that we die to them or put them to death. John Stott

To pluck your eyes out is to NOT look.

V30 Hands represent things you do and feet represent places you go.

To cut them off- do NOT do it, do NOT go there.

It is better to forgo some experiences this life offers in order to enter the life which is life indeed; it is better to accept some cultural amputation in this world than risk final destruction in the next. John Stott