Matthew 5:27-32: Transforming Passion — A ‘Christian Growth’ Message

Transcript

Good morning everybody, let’s bow heads and pray.

We thank you, our gracious God, that you’re a speaking God. We pray that you’d help us to be a listening people, that we would hear and do, rejoice in and live out your word for Jesus’ sake, amen.

Well friends, it’s a great privilege to be preaching. We’re following, as you know, the Sermon on the Mount, the very famous sermon on the Mount in the New Testament. I want to begin by saying something about the sermon itself before we look at our six verses, which are Matthew chapter 5: verses 27 to 32.

What I want to say is there wouldn’t be many people who wouldn’t wish that the world was a better place. There wouldn’t be many people also who wouldn’t wish that they could be personally set free from a lot of the fears and the failures which tend to plague them. And we wonder whether the Sermon on the Mount would be a very good charter to give to the world and help this process. Some people have thought that the sermon is the kind of script that you can just give to people.

And it’ll be helpful for the world and it’ll help be helpful for the individual, and if we all just put it into practise, everything would be great.

Transforming the world

I was reminded by one of my fellow ministers the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy was one who thought the Sermon on the Mount was not only the key to the Bible, but also the key to life. But he found it impossible to live the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount, and so sadly, he walked out really at the end of his life into the snow and was found dead.

The famous missionary Dr Albert Schweitzer actually thought that Jesus taught the sermon on the Mount to his disciples, and then found that they were so hopeless in living out what he had been teaching that he kind of threw himself onto the cross as a kind of a desperate martyrdom to make them wake up and put it into practise.

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So there are extreme views on people thinking the sermon on the Mount is the way to go, and you may be actually the sort of person who thinks that the sermon on the Mount is a very sweet sermon, very noble, well-meaning but really impractical.

I dare to say that there may be some people here who are saying to themselves, look, we’re in a series at our church, on the Sermon on the Mount, and it’s all very well and good, and, you know, these boys who get up to preach, they’re very well-meaning and they’re very pious and we’re going to sort of pretend that this is all great, but actually it’s just forgettable. It’s just not practical.

And my friends, if you were to take that position, I think it would be a tragedy.

So I want you to know that the Sermon on the Mount is not a new set of commandments that we are to go out and try and strive to live, nor is it sweet irrelevance. The sermon is a completely useful, wonderful, practical sermon.

Because Jesus puts new life into his people, and then asks them to live the new life. We know this from the New Testament, we read in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, Jesus died, that we might live.

Or let me illustrate it another way and say that if a man has had a series of heart attacks and his heart is pretty close to death, this would not be the time to command him to go walking, running, taking up marathons.

But imagine that he was given a transplant. A healthy new heart, a very successful piece of surgery, and there was wonderful progress in his strength. It would not then be cruel, would it, or foolish to, uh, instruct him or encourage him to learn to walk and learn to run and perhaps even eventually to run a marathon. And a Christian is a person who has been given a spiritual heart transplant.

Not only does he or she therefore have new strength to do the will of God, but we also have a new gratitude, a new love in our heart for the one who has given his life, that we might have this spiritual heart transplant. And therefore, when we read the sermon on the Mount, this word comes to us and uh calls on us to be peaceable or faithful or honest, etc. First of all, the Christian will say, well, thank God for Jesus.

Because though I have not been able to live this way, he is a forgiving saviour. And will also say thank God for the Holy Spirit, who brings new life into our hearts and helps us to be obedient. In fact, the Christian, although he or she is far from perfect, will have times where he or she will say something like this, I want to be as godly as I can. I’m not looking for loopholes, I’m not looking for the minimum.

I’m not looking for some way out of this, I’m looking for grace in order to be as godly as I possibly can. And the sermon on the mount therefore becomes for you, part of your new desire.

So the Sermon on the Mount is not a chart up on the wall like an exercise regime, which just makes you depressed to look at it, but it becomes an internal thing, like a boy or a girl thinking, how can I make this new boy or girl that I’m going out with, know that I really love them.

And that’s what we saw as we look to chapter 5, verses 1 to 20. There we saw Jesus gives his people a spiritual heart transplant, and from chapter 5, verse 21 onwards, he calls on his people to live the new life out.

He puts a supernatural life in and he calls on us to live the supernatural life out.

Now the Pharisees, of course, in Jesus’ day, the religious leaders, they were religious people, but they were not reborn, they were not supernatural people. They saw their religion as a chart on the wall, as external rules. And the easier to tick off the rule with the minimum, the happier they were. In other words, they’d see something like you shall not kill, and they’d say, great, I haven’t killed anybody, well I can tick that off.

But the Christian is a reborn person. The Christian is in a love relationship with God. We’re not only forgiven, but we’re also transformed.

I remember going to visit, I think I may have told you, the youth group at the church once where I had worked for a long time, and I said to the youth leader, how are you coping with all these young people turning 14,15,16,17, and all these hormones flying around, and he said, we’re not basically legalising or moralising them, we’re teaching them by the grace of God, to be as godly as they can. So these young people are not asking the question:

How far can I go in disobedience, but how godly can I be?

Now today we come to two areas of life which have to do in the sermon on the Mount with purity and faithfulness. And I’ve called the first one looking because Jesus talks about the adulterous look, and I’ve called the second one losing because Jesus talks about losing your spouse in terms of divorce, so looking and losing.

We’re on page 1441 in the Bible, it’s Matthew chapter 5, 27 to 32, and let’s think about this subject of looking.

Looking

So Jesus quotes commandment number 7. You’ll see this in chapter 5 verse 27. Famous commandment, unpopular commandment. Don’t commit adultery.

And if you’re a Pharisee, of course, and you like to put a tick beside the law, you’ll say well I haven’t taken anybody’s wife, I’m good. But Jesus says in chapter 5 verse 28, you’ve heard the law, don’t commit adultery, but I tell you that the look, with a desire to have a person is adultery.

This is a very searching comment from Jesus, and obviously we’re going to need help if this is going to be taken seriously. And we might ask ourselves at this point, is Jesus just being difficult here? I mean, does he live in the real world? Does he know what’s going on in the real world? Does he realise how tempting this world is and how our eyes roam all over the place?

And the answer is yes, Jesus does know the real world, what he’s teaching is that sin is much deeper than we think it is. It’s not just a giant weed that appears out of our life in some form, but it’s actually the seed that’s in the hearts that he’s talking about.

And so we’re we’re not gonna save ourselves and save our souls or satisfy God by avoiding some extreme disobedience like stealing another person’s spouse, but we’ve got the disobedience, says Jesus inside us.

And so when we hear this verse, chapter 5, verse 28, about looking.

A certain humility sets in at this point, and God willing a certain repentance, and we find ourselves saying, dear God, please forgive me and help me, and we turn to Christ in our helplessness, and we rejoice that he forgives us.

And we rejoice that he gives us a new life, and this new life goes down to the heart, and it causes a change in the soil of the heart and the seeds of the heart.

In order that there might be a new lifestyle. Jim Packer says in one of his books on holiness that God’s spirit enters the slimy swamp of the human heart like a diver going in with chlorine into a slimy swamp. And this chlorine at the bottom of the swamp begins to transform the whole swamp.

And so Jesus, you see, helps the disciple to know first of all the depths of our problem, which is the heart, but also the depths of his solution, which is that he can transform.

And although it may be a slow process, the transformation, it is steady and sure.

Now as we talk about the subject of looking at uh somebody, I realise that for some people this is going to be a bit of a non-issue. I mean the idea of you ogling a pretty girl or a pretty boy, perhaps doesn’t interest you in the slightest. You’re well past all that, you’re not interested, it’s a non-issue.

I hasten to say, however, that you will have your own areas of temptation. You know, maybe it’ll be something like gossip or pride, this particular issue may not be your issue.

For other people, this issue of temptation, looking, being tempted sexually is a huge issue. It’s a constant battle. I understand, of course, being a man, that for men, this is probably a bigger issue since we are more visually affected. But women are not unaffected.

And as we live in the world and there are people everywhere and there are temptations everywhere, it is a constant fight for many, just as some people have a constant battle with alcohol. It’s all they ever think about.

We also must realise as we think about this subject, that there is a tsunami of sexual information coming at us, propaganda coming at us, indulgence coming at us, and it increases everywhere and it increases every year. And it gets to the point where the unbelievers, of course, couldn’t care two hoots what they’re watching or seeing, and believers are kind of being drowned in the same tsunami.

You won’t perhaps believe this, but 60 years ago people boasted of their morality.

They would talk about how upright they were, now of course people are boasting about their immorality and all their conquests.

But the sermon on the Mount is still deeply significant and helpful, because it keeps saying to the non-Christian, God’s standard is much more serious than you think it is. And it keeps saying to the Christian, God is able to do a profound work in and through you because he’s made you new.

And therefore you, being a believer, to aim for the most faithful and joyful life that you can, you won’t regret aiming for the most faithful, joyful life you can. You’ll honour God as you do that, you’ll help the world because you’ll be showing the world a life which is really supernatural.

And of course, you’ll be remembering all the time that you have a saviour for the failures, and you’ll remember that you have the Holy Spirit as your helper.

So just as we might say to anybody, who we know in the world, do you have a friend, do you concentrate on being the best friend you can? So we would say to the Christian believer, do you have a father in heaven? You will be concentrating on being the best child of the heavenly Father that you can.

Now what does Jesus mean in chapter 5:29 to 30 when he says, you know, if you’re having trouble pluck out your eye or cut off your hands.

We know that this is not literal. We know that this is not the solution because the problem, as we’ve already heard, is the heart.

That’s why people who go into monasteries thinking if they cut themselves off from all the world and don’t see anything outside their monastery, they’ll be fine, find themselves, don’t they, dealing with the depravity of their own heart. You never get away from your heart.

And we know of course that if you did remove your right eye and your right hand and sadly down church history, some sad and crazy people have done this literally, you’ve still got an eye and a hand left.

What Jesus is teaching simply is that we are to grasp that the issues are big. They’re eternally big. Disciples are to act as if they’re serious. The sin in the heart is serious, God’s help, his provision, his transformation is wonderfully serious, and our devotion to Jesus is to be serious as well.

We must of course be realists about ourselves.

The Christian man or woman has sin in the heart but also the Holy Spirit in the heart, and there will be this constant battle.

When my son was about 3 years old and had gone to the shops with my wife on one occasion, and they’d gone into a newsagent and he’d wandered off, she found him looking at some very dubious magazines in the days where there were very prominent magazines.

And she said to him, he’s 3 years old, we don’t look at rude things, and he looked up at her and he said, we never forgot this, I like rude things. And who of us here this morning would not say something similar, there is a part of our heart that likes what is wrong.

But God has put into our hearts His Holy Spirit so that we’ve got a new love for what is right.

We also need to be realists about discipleship. Are we really expected to walk out of this building and walk through the streets of the city and never notice an attractive person?

Let’s be realists. In other words, it’s completely normal to see a person and to be attracted. The question then comes, what do you do with the next look? And where does that next look lead and what’s it seeking?

And we also need to be realistic about being godly, if we’re going to be Christians, we’ve got to be true to the word of God. What does he say? We’re not to twist the word of God or get our scissors out and remove what we don’t like. We’re to be very grateful for our saviour. He paid a huge price for us to be forgiven, and we’re also to ask the Holy Spirit to feel and rule our hearts. So that’s the first thing, the longer issue this morning, looking.

We’ve received a spiritual heart transplant, which is very great when we put our trust in Jesus, and the sermon on the Mount lifts our desires.

It lifts our standards, it lifts our hopes and expectations, our determination.

Secondly, the subject of losing, chapter 5:31 to 32, in other words, the subject of divorce.

Losing

And Jesus talks in chapter 5 verse 31 about a man who looses his wife, that is, he lets her go, and he quotes the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 24, where Moses said that a divorce may be possible.

And of course Moses was not keen on the idea of divorce and God himself certainly not keen on the idea of divorce, but of what happens in the Old Testament and the new and everywhere is that people latch onto the permission and turn it into an easy escape.

And so Jesus again goes to the heart in verse 32, and he says,

It should only take place, says Jesus, if there has been unfaithfulness.

And even then, if there has been unfaithfulness, it’s only a permission. It’s not a necessity.

There are many people who have had an unfaithful spouse, and they have forgiven. And there’s been restoration and reconciliation and great progress.

It’s only a permission in an extreme situation, not a necessity.

One of the people whose especially helpful in all this is John Stott, who was one of the great teachers of the 20th century, Bible teachers. He says these verses in chapter 5:31 to 32 are only a part of the New Testament teaching.

He says that Jesus is focusing here on the person who’s actually divorcing a person so that they can move on to another person, in other words, their motive is how do I get out of this marriage and into another relationship.

Stott also reminds us that divorce, the whole issue can be a very terrible and painful experience, and should not be treated coldly, heartlessly or carelessly.

He points out that Jesus, and this of course should be the view of all disciples, is pro-marriage, pro-security, pro happiness. He’s against the easy escape just to line up a new romance.

And therefore to push a wife out for this particular purpose, he says, makes your new marriage just adultery. And it forces her, if there’s another marriage into adultery as well.

John Stott famously said that he wouldn’t discuss divorce with a couple if they wanted to come and see him and talk to him about it because he said, I will first of all talk to you about marriage, and then I will talk to you about reconciliation.

And then if necessary, we’ll get onto the painful subject of divorce. So you see again in these verses, Jesus is speaking to his disciples who’ve had a spiritual heart transplant. He’s teaching them not to follow the world, which is always thinking of me to the max, but to follow the Lord who is always calling for godliness to the max.

I want to finish by reminding you again that this sermon does not hang like a sword threatening us. Sins are forgivable, wonderfully forgivable, when we truly repent and turn to Jesus.

Serving him is also possible through the new life that he gives us.

And therefore this sermon comes as a word.

That those who’ve had a spiritual heart transplant can in some measure do and desire what God wants. God’s people have been made into his new society.

And he’s with us and wanting us to live out his word in his world.

One writer has put it like this.

You’ve heard of the appeal of Jewish teachers to the law in Deuteronomy 24 in the interests of substantiating a policy which permits husbands freely at their own pleasure to divorce their wives simply by providing them with a document. But I say to you, Jesus continued that such irresponsible behaviour on the part of a husband will lead him and his wife and their second partners into unions which are not marriage but adultery.

To this general principle, there is one exception. The only situation in which divorce and remarriage are possible without breaking the seventh commandment is when it’s already been broken by some serious sexual sin. In this case, and in this case only Jesus seems to have taught that divorce was permissible, or at least that it could be obtained without the innocent party contracting the further stigma of adultery.

The modern tendency of Western countries to frame legislation for divorce on the basis rather of the irretrievable breakdown or death of a marriage than of a matrimonial offence may make for better and just a law, but it cannot be said to be compatible with the teaching of Jesus.

So dear friends, let us aspire to be as godly as we can in the area of purity and in the area of faithfulness. And I could finish today with a long list of questions about provocative clothes and compromise stuff to watch on the television or whatever, but I’m going to finish where we should finish, which is that Christ has given to his people a new life in our hearts.

And we’re therefore able to ask the question, how godly can I be, not how compromised can I be. He has been so good to us, we respond with faithfulness.

To the glory of God.

Let’s bow heads

We’re thankful to you, our Heavenly Father, first of all for a saviour. In the face of the standards which you have and you rightly hold.

We’re conscious that we have fallen and failed in so many ways, in thought, word and deed, and so we we’re thankful for our saviour, the Lord Jesus. We’re also thankful for your gift of the Holy Spirit who transforms our heart.

And enables us to put into practise in some measure your will and word, we pray that you would be our helper. That we would have new desires, new strength, new help.

And that we would be asking the question, how can we be as faithful to you in response to the way you have been so merciful to us.

We ask this in Jesus’ name, amen.

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