The Cost of Purity
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We are a few messages into covering what might just be the greatest sermon every. A sermon given on the side of a mountain by Jesus. If you’ve missed any of the previous weeks, you’re in luck. You can find them in our church app or on our website. We also stream our services to Facebook and Youtube.
This passage of scripture in Matthew chapters 5-7 is know as the sermon on the mount. We are in a section of the sermon on the mount where Jesus lists a series of 6 things that he wants to correct in the prevailing interpretation of scripture.
In each of these 6 things, Jesus starts with “You have heard it was said” followed by a commonly accepted saying. Then he says “but” and offers a new way of looking at that command or saying.
Last week in verse 21 we read this:
Matthew 5:21–22 (NIV)
21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister, will be subject to judgment.
Last week was murder and anger. This week is adultery and lust.
***Title Slide***
There might be a temptation to check out a bit when you don’t think this is an issue you struggle with. I would caution against that. What is so neat about the words of Jesus here is that we can apply his teaching on one sin to a multitude of other sins. Today’s passage is that way.
I’ve titled this weeks message “The Cost of Purity”. This word purity is not in our passage, but it represents well the underlying premise that Jesus is preaching in our passage for today. In the NIV translation, the word purity is found in 4 places. In each instance it is a word used to describe a tool as a Christ follower to win the hearts of others.
I’m going to read them quickly to you. Paul in his letter to his protege Timothy...
12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.
It’s an instruction to have purity as an example to believers.
1 Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.
Paul continues this idea of purity in the way Timothy is to interact with younger women.
Then in 2 Corinthians 6, I am going to read from verse 3...
3 We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. 4 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5 in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; 6 in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7 in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 8 through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9 known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
***pause on verse 3***
These qualities of a Christ follower ensure that we are not a stumbling block...
Lastly in 1 Peter 3, Peter is writing a challenge to wives...
1 Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, 2 when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.
I would say that this goes for the husbands as well. Purity in our lives has the power to win our loved ones over.
When what we do matches what we say we believe, those who need what we believe will better be able to accept it.
With that as a backdrop for our passage in Matthew 5, let’s read starting in verse 27.
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Perhaps I should just end here. Amen. Have a great day.
I think there is a tendency in the human race to justify ourselves and make what we are doing less wrong. “Well, at least I didn’t sleep with her.” “At least I didn’t murder him.” Jesus is saying that our sin starts in our heart and in our intentions well before our outward physical action.
Let me attempt to draw a line in the sand for you. Let’s use last week’s example of anger. Let’s say someone has intentionally said or done something hurtful to you. In most cases, there is this moment in which our hurt turns to anger. It is at that moment that we have a choice to make. Will I feed the anger, or will I take a deep breath and start down the path of forgiveness?
If I willfully sit and ruminate in the anger, I have arguably, by Jesus definition, crossed into the place where I am now subject to judgment.
Now, lets take a look at our current topic. It is impossible for us to remove ourselves from the presence of the opposite sex. We will at some point see someone of the opposite sex who is attractive.
There is this moment in which our gaze of seeing an attractive person goes a step beyond just a notice. Our thoughts turn from a glance into a lingering look and at some point turns into lust.
The Greek word here for lust means willful desire for something; to aspire or long for. It is used in a positive context in 1 Timothy..
1 Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task.
That word aspire is the same word that is translated lust in Matthew. Look at the word here...
6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.
The phrase “setting our heart on” has the same Greek word that was translated lust in Matthew…Let’s put that back up and use some of the other translations for that word
Matthew 5:28 (NIV)
28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully (setting their heart on her, aspiring to have her, desiring her) has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
It’s not about noticing an attractive person of the opposite sex, it is about the thoughts that follow that notice. The intentional, willful continued gaze that follows where our hearts then have committed adultery.
Jesus offers a solution...
29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, 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. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, 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.
Looking around the room, it appears you all have your right eye and right hand…So…either these parts of our body are not causing us to stumble or perhaps Jesus had something else in mind with what he is saying here.
I have not been able to find a single Bible scholar who believes that Jesus was promoting self mutilation in order to prevent sin. The eye or the hand is not the problem. Our heart is the problem.
Yet Jesus uses two body parts that were considered very valuable parts of the body. Most people are body right handed and right eye dominant. The right eye and hand were necessary for battle, for coordination, for basic everyday function. His audience would have understood the importance.
Even so, Jesus says it is worth losing very significant bodily function if it meant that you would no longer sin. Jesus is telling us the importance of purity in our lives. Purity is worth that much. If we desire purity, we should be willing to pursue it at all costs even at the cost of an eye and a hand.
The real question is…how much do we value purity, holiness, righteous living? Are we willing to go to extreme measures to root out and prevent sin in our life?
Or are we willing to believe the lie that the serpent told Eve in the garden...
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ” 4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.
How many of you would be willing to jump out of a plane without a parachute? How many of you would be willing to go scuba diving with an empty tank? What about hiking Mount Washington in winter with shorts and crocs? Why not? Because we would die.
Somehow though we have convinced ourselves that when we sin we “will not certainly die.”
I heard a great definition of sin this week…
Sin is active participation in a lie.
The lie that looking and lusting is not adultery.
The lie that the sinful action will fulfill a need in us.
That we will not certainly die.
If you are hearing these words and you feel bad about something you’ve done, let me encourage you that this feeling you are having is conviction.
Conviction is a good thing. Conviction convinces us of our need for a Savior. Jesus came to forgive. If you’ve put your trust in Him he has forgiven you. If you haven’t today is a good day for it.
There is this thing the enemy tried to do though. He gets you looking at your sin and then tries to shame you. Conviction says I’ve done something wrong. Shame says there is something wrong with you.
Let me encourage you today that through the blood of Jesus you have been made right. The enemy will want you to believe there is something wrong with you and in that feeling we go back to the sin because we think it will help us feel better, but that is just another lie.
Paul encourages us in 2 Corinthians 10:5
5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
And in Romans 12:2 we are to
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
This process takes time. The process takes help from others to encourage us, to challenge us.
I like watching basketball…I used to like playing, but my back and knee can’t handle the pounding, so now I watch. Although I’m a Celtics fan, I enjoy watching one of the greatest shooters ever, Steph Curry. He practices everyday shooting between 300-500 shots a day. In 20 years in playing basketball, that’s between 2 and 3.5 million practice shots.
In actual games he has only taken 16,500 shots. He takes more practice shots in a month than he has game shots in his entire NBA career. He is the most effective shooter when it counts because of how much he practices.
Look what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount…this was from a few weeks ago:
19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Not just here, but at the end, in chapter 7...
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
***Title Slide**
Church, we need to be a people who are willing to do what it takes for our purity. Everyday is game time. How can we be successful? We put the words of Jesus into practice. Daily practice. Getting together with one another and practice. Steph doesn’t just shoot by himself. He has a coach who will point out areas for correction, areas to fix and change. Who is doing that for you on a regular basis. Who are you doing that for on a regular basis?
Invitation