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Sermon Notes of Rev Dr Ivor J.W.Oakley (30-7-2000
Guisborough Evangelical Church)
Additional Reading Matthew 18:1-9, Romans 8:9-16
Some subjects are difficult for the preacher, and are
ones that both he and the congregation would like to avoid. But the expository
preacher working systematically through a book of the Bible cannot avoid the
issues that arise; he must deal with the rough and the smooth, the difficult and
the easy.
We are going to look at the meaning of Jesus’ statement here, the second antithesis, and then take it further and explore the Bible’s teaching about sin and how to deal with the problem in our daily lives.
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 (Matthew
5:27-28). The strict Jews prided themselves with their moral standards. They
were quite confident they were not guilty of adultery. They limited adultery to
the physical act, and therefore broadened the definition of purity. By their
limited standards, they were pure. Jesus says adultery is more than just the
act, but the desire also. And Jesus’ words themselves are not to be limited,
for remember he endorses the spirit of the law, not just the letter. The command
applies to a woman looking lustfully at a man, e.g. Potiphar’s wife and
Joseph. It also includes looking lustfully at an unmarried person as well as a
married person, although “adultery” is mentioned.
This is a statement which has caused much heart searching and needless worry. It is not referring to normal natural physical desire which is part of man’s God-given instincts. There is nothing wrong or shameful in them. This command has no reflection on the institution of marriage in which those instincts are properly expressed. Marriage was instituted by God so “that natural instincts and affections be directed aright, that a man and woman live together in purity and honour” (words from the marriage ceremony). The Song of Solomon in its natural interpretation speaks of the delight of lovers in marriage.
Jesus is dealing here with the
situation outside marriage, involving married or unmarried men or women. He is
not just talking about looking, but about looking lustfully. There is a very
real difference here. Jesus is speaking about the deliberate intention of lust.
Deliberately using the eyes to awaken lust and excite desire. Deliberately
arousing passion. And seeing another person not as a person but as an object and
means of gratifying desire.
The result is that adultery is committed in the heart. Eye adultery leads to heart adultery. The heart will be controlled when the eyes are controlled first of all. The route is from the eyes, to the imagination, and finally to the act. What a precious gift imagination is. It is the source of many noble works of art and culture which greatly enrich life. But how debased it can become when the eyes are not controlled, and transmit messages to the imagination. So if we can commit murder with our words, we can commit adultery with our hearts and minds. We live in a world where many things are deliberately designed to encourage people to sin in the way Jesus speaks of – films, books, adverts, pictures, the way people dress – all calculated to stimulate desire.
How penetrating and disturbing this teaching of Jesus
is. The doctrine of sin is not popular today outside and inside many churches.
Yet it is the essential backcloth to every great Christian doctrine. What reason
did Christ come into the world? Why did God become man? Why did Christ have to
die? Surely God would never have allowed his Son to come and to suffer unless
absolutely necessary. Why does the Holy Spirit have to cause us to be born
again, with new heart and life, to sanctify us and enlighten us? It all comes
back to our plight in sin, guilt, under its power and curse. Unless God had
acted as he did, our whole case would be utterly and totally helpless. People
hope to save themselves by their own efforts, but they are simply blind to their
need, and don’t realize how helpless they are.
The doctrine of sin is also essential if we are to
understand the task of evangelism. It is not just about loving Jesus as friend,
but it requires repentance and complete dependence on Christ’s salvation alone
for time and eternity.
So Jesus challenges shallow reasoning about sin. Sin is
all about our heart and inner life, and not just our outward acts which all can
see. Our thoughts and imagination, the person we are when we are on our own –
all in the realm which no one sees or hears. Jesus’ words go right to the
reservoir of our being. The Bible is not just concerned with sins but with sin,
the state of the heart and the inner nature. Not the symptoms, but the disease
itself. For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual
immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy,
slander, arrogance and folly (Mark 7:21-22).
And how subtle it all is. How sin deludes and fools us.
Even as Christians we can quickly accept the fact that if we have not committed
the act, we are alright. How easy it is to enjoy sinning with our imagination
and mind. Why do we enjoy certain articles in certain newspapers – all about
marriage break-up, misconduct, ‘gossip’? Our interest may be legal,
sociological, or for general knowledge. But the danger is that we project
ourselves into the situation, involve ourselves by proxy, and commit adultery in
our mind. How easily our instincts and imagination which can be harnessed for
good, can become our enemies and downfall. “Unto the pure, all things are
pure”, but if we are not pure – and we are not - things that are good in
themselves can be harmful.
When we examine ourselves in the face of God, his
holiness, his Law, his all-seeing eye, the depth of his requirements – we are
lost for words, condemned, unclean, defiled, ashamed, and helpless to help
ourselves. How the Gospel suddenly makes sense. What good news that we are still
loved by God. How we need Christ. How perfectly fitting his death, bearing the
judgement of our sin, and bringing about the reconciliation which follows.
We need the work of the Holy Spirit giving us new heart
and motives. He works in the depths.
Thy
nature, gracious Lord, impart
Come
quickly from above”
We need a power greater than ourselves to deliver us, because it is quite beyond us. Truly apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:5) said Jesus.
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. 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 (Matthew 5:29-30). Jesus makes his point
by exaggeration, a typically Eastern form of speech. We are not to understand it
literally, though some have done in the early church, e.g. the early father,
Origen, who mutilated himself. Literal physical self-maiming does not deal with
the heart or with its desires for it is merely an external action. Jesus is
using a dramatic figure of speech. He means ruthless self-denial, dealing
decisively and strongly with sin. “Mortification” is the technical term. By
the Spirit you put to death (or “mortify” A.V.) the misdeeds
of the body (Romans 8:13). I beat my body and make it my slave so that
after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize
(1 Cor. 9:27). The body has to be the servant, not the master. Clothe
yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think how to gratify the
desires of the sinful nature (Romans 13:14).
Discipline the self that it does not make provision for
the flesh. Don’t pour oil on the flames – beware of books, newspapers,
pictures, novels, TV programmes, friendships, habits and pleasures which
stimulate or disturb or provoke the baser part of nature. Be disciplined.
Tempters and temptations vary, but the general benchmark is this: anything which
makes it harder to live a pure and holy life, which makes Christ more distant,
which robs us of our desire for spiritual things, these are the things which we
must avoid. We may be regarded as narrow minded, but it is better to be
culturally maimed than impaired in holiness. Even if something is no problem for
us, we must be aware that we are an example on those with weaker consciences and
wills.
Then we need to be positive. Napoleon said “To conquer
we must replace”. It is fatal to think about temptations, or even to pray over
them in detail. Evil has to be crowded out, not barred out. Whatever is true,
noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable… think about such things (Phil.
4:8). Be positive; fill life with Christ, his will, work and service. This also
emphasises the need for the Holy Spirit’s work in your life. When the Holy
Spirit puts to death all our misdeeds, he indwells us and is at work both to
will and to do God’s good pleasure. He will empower us. We are to act as
empowered by him. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is
God who works in you to will and to act according to his good pleasure (Phil.
2:12-13). The two sides are essential – I work, and he works. I labour,
struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me (Colossians
1:29).
We need to feel our helplessness and sinfulness, in
order to make us live and fight and strive in total dependence on his indwelling
Holy Spirit. R.M.McCheyne said “I ought to pray for a deep sense of my utter
weakness. I am helpless about every lust. My only safety is to feel my
helplessness, that I may hang on the arm of his omnipotence. My only defence is
to cast myself in to arms of Christ, as a helpless child, and ask that he may
fill me with the Holy Spirit”.
And why is all this so urgent? Jesus says we need to see our life in the light of eternity. It is better to lose one part of the body than the whole body into hell. Nothing is more important than the soul and its eternal destiny. All else is subservient to this. Sacrifices, scorn and ridicule of men, disapproval of men, inconvenience – these are a small price to pay for our eternal salvation, and to be right with God and pleasing to him. Nothing must come between the soul and Christ. This is completely counter to modern permissiveness. But eternity is more important than time, purity than culture, and cultural amputation than eternal destruction. The most important thing in this life is to prepare ourselves for eternity. Our days on this earth are numbered. All that matters is eternity. No point in gaining whole world if lose own soul. The real issue is whether we live for this world or for eternity. Will you follow the crowd or will you follow Christ?
