Kingdom Purity
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
Introduction
Destructive forces: Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Floods, Earthquakes.
Sin is destructive.
Murder / Anger last week.
Adultery / Sexual sin today.
Destroys families, relationships, reputations, ministries.
How do we deal with adultery and its source?
Jesus’s next teaching on what it looks like to live in the Kingdom of God.
Torah / True Intention / Transformation
Torah - Don’t Commit Adultery
Torah - Don’t Commit Adultery
Abbreviated opening formula.
Again, taking verbatim from the Ten Commandments, Number 7.
“You shall not commit adultery.
And then we can pair that with its punishment found in Deut. 22:22
“If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.
But, how quickly we begin to bring in our justifications!
Only if it is the wife of an Israelite.
Any thing beneath adultery is acceptable.
Culturally (Greek & Roman), women were bound to fidelity but men were free to do whatever they wanted.
This we find creeping in also to the Jewish culture of Jesus’s day.
Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”
Maybe we remember His famous response:
And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
But, Jesus said something to her:
Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
The problem with any of these three approaches is that when we seek to justify sin, we want sin to stay in our defined boundaries.
This is true whether those are sinful or not. I’m just going to do this and nothing else. We are just going to do this and nothing else.
Sin doesn’t obey boundaries.
True Intention - Have Radical Purity
True Intention - Have Radical Purity
Define “to lust after”
Not finding someone attractive. That’s okay!
“Craving, longing, plotting.”
It is 7 plus 10!
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
We find a stark and chilling example of this in the life of King David.
It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful.
And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house.
She returned and a few weeks later realized that she was pregnant. Her husband with the army away for months. We remember how this ended for that faithful soldier and bodyguard to David. One of his mighty men.
Internal sin led to external sin.
This is why
Purity starts in the heart.
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”
This is why Jesus calls us to this radical purity, a radical purity especially for our culture!
This same craving is used for advertising, entertainment, and validation.
The irony is this: Because of what’s going on in our hearts we miss what’s in the hearts of others.
This is the objectification of persons in our hyper-sexualized culture.
Transformation - Savage Protection
Transformation - Savage Protection
Jesus employs hyperbole - exaggerated statement used for emphasis.
“Eat a horse.” “A million things to do.”
Jesus uses two specific parts of the body - the right eye and the right hand.
Right eye, used to line things up. Right hand, clean hand but also dominant hand.
Not being literal because the removal of those body parts would do nothing to lessen lust.
And, if you want to take that application further, read up on Origen’s response to this passage.
Jesus is emphasizing the radical lengths a person should go through to protect their heart.
Another example of this teaching:
Rabbi Muna gave a warning about unwashed hands, spreading disease, even blindness. Rather to chop off that hand than have other issues!
If there are things we can remove to help protect ourselves, then that’s exactly what we should do.
John Stott - The Mortification of Sin. Quote!!
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Jesus would also say:
And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.
And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.
“Better to be a cultural amputee than for the whole body to go to hell.” Kent Hughes
What is the source of temptation?
Identify & Discard.
A person or people? Social media interactions? Entertainment? Internet?
Identify & Discard
Conclusion
Conclusion
Candle at Thanksgiving. Kids table.
Literally playing with fire.
Too often we do the same with sin.
In our pride, we see how much we can endure.
Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
Flee, don’t fight.
So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
Replace temptation with righteousness and purity.