Matthew 5:21-30

Matthew 5:21-30

Last week I illustrated three things all believers should do.

1. Go to church

2. Read Your Bible Daily

3. Be in regular prayer and fellowship

I want to stress again hope important these are to your Christian growth

And I would argue that one who is not actively seeking growth in your Christian faith is doing themselves more harm than good.

But I do want to stress something I don’t think I stressed last week.

Doing these three things, even regularly, habitually, obsessively, will not save you.

Only a relationship with Jesus Christ, the belief that HE is the ONLY way to forgiveness of sins and that his death on the cross and resurrection are what made payment for your sins

That is what saves you.

All the good deeds in the world won’t save you.

You can’t save you

Only Jesus can save you

But today I want to talk about a few things that while they don’t save you are very good for you

In fact we’ll be talking about these things over the next few weeks

Things we can do to better ourselves.

Not things that save us, but things that will bring us closer in our relationship with Jesus and closer with our fellow man.

We’re going to start off with three today and then take them one at a time in various ways until July.

And as we go through these I want us to keep in mind that these words, the words from the Bible come from someone smarter and wiser than we are.

And someone who has our best interest at heart.

I think most of us can remember our teenage years

Ah, those wonderful years when I knew EVERYTHING and my parents and other grown-ups had no idea how brainless they really were.

How wonderful it was to be a teenager and know that every problem in the world would be solved when we all got a little older and we were in charge.

Ah, the life of a teenager, when I knew everything and if you didn’t agree you must hate me.

Well, thankfully, I have grown up, but one thing I didn’t count on was a fresh batch of teenagers following behind me

And you know what THEY know everything and know for a fact that we adults don’t have a clue.

How the tables have turned.

Now, a disclaimer. I have met some really awesome teenagers.

Respectful and attentive teenagers who have it together much better than I did at their age.

But what I’m trying to get across here is there are many of us who look at God in the same way a stereotypical teenager looks at their parents

With an attitude that says we know better than God what’s good for us

We ignore what God says in favor of personal habits or what we think is best for us.

We are going to look at Anger Lust and Divorce

And we’ll see that Jesus isn’t talking about things you need to do to earn forgiveness.

But instead Jesus is showing us a way to live that will grow us closer to Him and benefit us.

Think of it this way: If you work at a job and you perform your duties listed in your job description to the  letter, you will receive your pay, but you won’t advance in the company.

You do the minimum and then you go home, but if you put in that extra work, ask for more responsibility, you will be rewarded with higher pay and better rewards.

In being a Christian, the work has been done on your behalf, you will get your eternal reward.

But what if you put in a little extra, a little more than what has already been done for you.

No, your eternal reward won’t be better, but your spiritual health and your emotional well being will benefit.

So, let’s take a look at Anger.

Notice the first thing Jesus talks about when talking about Anger

v. 21-22 21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

Anger and Murder are being compared.

WHY? They certainly seem different, but are they really?

There was this guy in High School I didn’t like.

I’ll be honest, I can’t remember why I didn’t like him, but one thing is for sure, when I’d think about this guy I was usually angry at him for some reason or another.

And I would go bowling and imagine this guys face on the bowling pins.

And I wanted nothing more than to knock those pins down and “kill” this guy

Anger at anyone is the same as murdering them in God’s eyes. I hate it when I am angry, because, first and foremost I’m drawing away from God in my anger, but I’m also drawing away from those I am commanded to love.

We live in a world where we are told to hate the people that don’t agree with us.

And it’s easy to be angry at politicians, or neighbors, or family because their thinking isn’t in line with ours.

When it comes to anger I’m going to keep it as succinct as possible.

Outside of righteous anger, which Jesus illustrates quite well when people were desecrating his Temple, there is no reason we should let anger rule our lives and poison us as much as it does.

We aren’t perfect and anger will get the best of us from time to time, but let’s look at one sentence from Jesus when he has EVERY right to be angrier than ever.

Jesus says one sentence that when we get angry we can say in our heads.

When we say this sentence it’s not us saying “I’m right their wrong, and I need to let it go.” Though you might

It’s not saying that you are justified in your anger, you may or may not be.

It’s remembering when Jesus was at His worst and still loved instead of hated.

Luke 23:34a 34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

People were killing Jesus, they had nailed him to a cross, he was completely innocent and had every right to hurl hate at these who were killing him,

But he forgave them.

Because Anger never solves problems, but love does.

Now, like I said before there is a place for Anger, there is a place for God’s wrath,

But there through Jesus’ example we are to leave God’s wrath to God and while we are to illustrate and proclaim injustices, we are also to love instead of hate in the hope and desire that other people will repents and come to know Jesus as their savior.

But let’s watch that love too.

Because Love too easily can turn to lust.

Jesus equates Lust to adultery in the same fashion as anger to murder.

Jesus tells us to Love people and he’s right

We are to Love, but there is a line there and limitations we must place on ourselves.

A Great Christian Evangelist and Apologist was once asked by a young and inexperienced pastor in Pennsylvania how one keeps themselves pure.

This Evangelist said to this young pastor, “Never take that first step toward sin.”

And that is great advice, but it puts a lot on you responsibility wise.

It’s saying, under your own power, never step away from love and step toward lust.

Jesus’s words in this passage are much more harsh.

Tear out your eye or cut off your hand

I think I’d go with the Evangelists advice.

Seems a lot less harmful to my body.

But let me tell you a name or two here.

The young and inexperienced pastor was John Stumbo, the current President of the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

The Evangelist was Ravi Zacharias, a man who passed away last year and was later found to have been deep in a world of sexual sin.

At some point in his life Ravi Zacharias took that first step and never confessed it.

I think Jesus’ words are looking pretty good here.

But tearing out our eye and cutting off our hand?

In the ancient world the right side of ones body was the important side of the  body and Jesus’ words were said to over emphasize the importance of remaining pure for your spouse and for God.

Cut off the things that make lust creep into your heart.

Ravi Zacharias said never take that first step and Jesus is saying never even point your self in that direction. Because saying you are never going to take that first step implies that you are facing sin and I want us all to commit to turning away from it.

This goes for more than Lust in our lives, if there is sin crouching at your heels step away from it.

Turn away and Walk toward Jesus.

You will be better off and will benefit from having Jesus in your heart instead of Lust.

Finally we’ll talk about divorce.

This is a touchy subject, because we see Jesus’ words pretty plainly and there are some in this room who have been divorced, and I’m going to start with this, regardless of your past and your decisions or the decision of a former spouse, or whatever situation your were in when the decision to divorce came to you,

If you are a follower of Jesus, then his death and resurrection has paid for all your sins past present and future.

That being said Jesus’ words here on divorce are still true.

If anger and hate led you or your spouse to divorce then adultery was committed.

If lust for another ripped your household apart then adultery was committed.

There are two allowances for divorce in Christianity

One is stated here.

If your spouse was not faithful to you then you are within your rights to divorce them.

But I would also URGE that divorce should be the last and final resort.

If the spouse comes to you with a repentant heart then we should be like Jesus and do what can be done to heal the broken relationship.

The other allowance is illustrated here by Paul

1 Corinthians 7:12-16 12 To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. 13 If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. 15 But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you[b] to peace. 16 For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

First is says that if you are married to an unbeliever then you should never ask for a divorce, ever.

But, if the other asks you are to let them walk away.

This is it, the only two allowances for divorce in the Bible.

That being said there are people who do not feel safe and beyond are not safe in their households. These people need to leave their households and be safe.

Divorce may come, but as a believer I would urge you to never take that step, make yourself safe.

Take what ever measures you need to be safe, but let the other be the one to divorce, because if they are hurting you, then they are not acting in a Christian fashion and you need to let them walk away.

And if you have a spouse who has hurt you in the past and wants to make it right, I still want you safe, but God’s word is clear, divorce is not the answer.

Matthew 19:6 6So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

These words of Jesus show us that when people are married they are one flesh. In fact, I will also add in there that when people are joined in marriage, a Christian Marriage they are joined in with Jesus as well.

Ecclesiastes 4:12 12And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

With Jesus in our marriage we can sustain anything.

Any hurt, betrayal Anger or lustful act can be overcome with Jesus in our marriage.

Can you see now why these three topics are together?

Jesus saved us through his perfect life and his death and resurrection on the cross.

Our response to that is important.

I don’t want us to look at Jesus and the Bible as a bunch of do’s and don’ts

They are in a way,

But, they are do’s and don’ts with eternal consequences

Our eternal consequence has been paid for

As Christians we don’t have to worry about Hell, or God’s wrath.

So then why do we have to worry about these do’s and don’ts.

We have to worry about them because God knows what is good for us.

Like our parents knew what was good for us when we were teenagers.

But the problem is we still act like teenagers to God.

We still think we know better than God

We listen to those we agree with instead of being challenged by the word of God.

Years ago my uncle illustrated a really neat trick he could do with his teeth.

ILLUSTRATE

I asked him what happened to all his teeth and I’ll never forget his words of advice

“I made a bad choice that my parents warned me against, and I didn’t listen.”

He wouldn’t tell you what his mistake was, but when I was 17 I told my parents I wanted to drive a friend to see his dad on the other side of the state.

Both my parents forbade me, but I did it anyway.

I’m not going to gross you our by taking out my teeth right now, but know that I can.

My parents knew what was best for me and I didn’t listen.

There are times when God speaks to me through His word and I don’t listen.

But from experience I’ll tell you I am always, always, always better off, listening to God.

And I hope you take that to heart today.

Let’s PRAY.