Radical Obedience

What would you do if you went to your favorite coffee shop and asked for your normal double premium mocha latte with skim milk from grain fed cows and while watching the barista making your favorite beverage he or she uses instant coffee.

They call out your name to give you your beverage...do you accept it?

I’ve seen y’all with your coffee here and I am fairly certain, you would turn to that barista and expect them to take radical steps to fix it...

If we would not accept a beverage like that, why would we be willing to accept a faith like that?

In an effort to fool others and even God, people often embrace a cheap imitation of the real thing.

Instead of taking the radical steps of growth that our faith requires, we are often too willing to settle for “instant faith” brewed relationship with God...

Those who desire to live in Christ’s kingdom cannot settle for anything less than genuine righteousness.

That is Jesus’ point in the sermon on the mount!

These are the words of King Jesus to kingdom citizens!

...if we are going to live in His Kingdom, and experience the blessings of our King....then we must possess genuine righteousness.

He began with the beatitudes.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (5:3).”

Who participates in heaven’s kingdom?

Jesus says, the spiritually bankrupt do.

Not the self-sufficient, but those who admit they have nothing to offer such a King.

And they mourn over that. “Blessed are those who mourn,”

They grieve over their sin.

And they are meek too. And they hunger and thirst for righteousness because they know they don’t have it and will not get it on their own...

Yet there’s one person who will never do that.

Those who think they’re good will never hunger and thirst for righteousness because they are self-righteous...

Jesus has a message for people who embrace self (false) righteousness apart from a life surrendered to Christ...who think they are okay with God because of the good lives they are living...

Matthew 5:20 NASB95

“For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Those are stunning words...think about how those words would have impacted the scribes and Pharisees who heard it...

And who were the Scribes and Pharisees?

...the religious elite...the self-righteous...the ones who thought they were good with God.

The scribes and Pharisees were the “spiritual giants” in first century Israel.

Clean living. Upstanding. Very religious. Zealous for God’s law.

But Jesus tells them they are on a path that will take them to hell.

His strongest words about hell were not to the wicked sinners like the prostitutes and tax collectors, but to the self-righteous ones.

Matthew 23:33 NASB95

“You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?

Speaking to scribes and Pharisees he calls them serpents and vipers...

In the context of Matthew 5, Jesus is just starting His public ministry, and they’re checking Him out, and they can’t believe what they’ve just heard.

“Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

What did He mean by that?

How can you have a righteousness that is better than “Spiritual Elitists”?

Jesus explains what that means in the rest of the sermon.

His criticism is not that they weren't good, but that they weren't good enough.

And He begins to show them why...

Jesus reveals the nature of the kingdom of God for His disciples in contrast to what the Pharisees were teaching.

He demonstrates for us the difference between genuine righteousness and pharisaic, legalistic righteousness.

Jesus deals with matters of the heart, because the condition of our heart is what matters!

Notice the phrase Jesus uses six times to highlight a series of contrasts.

“You have heard that it was said,” in verses 21, 27, 31, 33, 38, & 43.”

by “But I say unto you in verses 22, 28, 32, 34, 39, & 44.”

Jesus takes six important Old Testament laws and interprets them for His people in the light of the new life He came to give.

Jesus expands their scope by dealing with the attitudes and intents of the heart and not simply with the external action.

The Pharisees said that righteousness consisted of performing certain actions, but Jesus said it centered in the attitudes of the heart...

Listen to what Warren Wiersbe says about this… “The Pharisees had a list of external actions that were sinful, but Jesus explained that sin came from the attitudes of the heart. Anger is murder in the heart; lust is adultery in the heart. The person who says that he “lives by the Sermon on the Mount” may not realize that the Sermon on the Mount is more difficult to keep than the original Ten Commandments!”...(Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 23.)

As John taught us last week, Jesus begins speaking to specific heart matters by dealing with anger and linking it to murder.

Matthew 5:21 ““You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’”

The self-righteous person agrees, says I’ve not committed that sin, I’m good.

Hold on, Matthew 5:22 ““But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.”

Anger starts in the heart...angry words are just as sinful as murderous actions...

God is concerned with both murderous acts and murderous attitudes. He knows the issue is ultimately one of the heart.

He warns us about allowing the attitude of anger to get a foot in the door of our heart.

Jesus’ point is that if our righteousness is merely external, we’re in trouble.

Hell is full of people who can say, “I never murdered anybody.”

But they are just as guilty as a murderer in God’s eyes when they’ve thrown around careless words...

Matthew 12:36–37 ““But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. “For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.””

The actions we perform externally are a result of what is happening internally!

Matthew 15:19–20 NASB95

“For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. “These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.”

Jesus knows this...and He provides the necessary instruction to help us understand what it means to be a citizen of Heaven...Being a citizen of Heaven requires a complete heart change!

That heart change results in a righteousness that exceeds the external righteousness of the Pharisees!

Today we examine a second example of that righteousness in Matthew 5:27-30.

Main Point: Kingdom Citizens Take Radical Measures to Fight Sin!

One of the measuring sticks to genuine righteousness is how hard we fight against sin!

Sadly, we often reduce sin to what we do instead of looking inwardly to where it originates.

Jesus makes it clear, however, that sin is rooted in who we are.

Our eyes, hands, (and mouths) are mere instruments of what transpires in our hearts...

The overarching truth of all these verses is a call to defeat sin.

We are to deal drastically with sin.

We cannot pamper it, flirt with it, enjoy nibbling a little of it around the edges.

We are to hate it, crush it, dig it out …because sin leads to hell.

And that is the ultimate reason why sin must be taken seriously.

Jesus is going to deal with the specific sin of adultery in this text, and there are principles we can learn from this that applies to EVERY SIN!

How should kingdom citizens view sin? How can we fight it?

Guard Our Heart (27-28)

Matthew 5:27–28 ““You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

We Need to Recognize that Sin Begins In The Heart.

Jesus is quoting the Law of God, the seventh commandment, found in Exodus 20:14, repeated in Deuteronomy 5:18.

It is clear that God prohibits adultery.

A married person is not to have an intimate relationship with anyone other than their spouse.

This was such a serious offense, the punishment was death.

This was always God’s intent for the seventh commandment.

But the Pharisees were self-righteous and they always took a very narrow approach to sin, a very external approach.

And so, for them, sexual sin referred only to the very act of adultery.

Furthermore, adultery for the Jews was seen not so much as a matter of impurity, as a matter of theft.

They taught that the reason it is wrong for a man to commit adultery is because he is stealing another man's wife.

In their view, sin is action, external, so righteousness is action and external too.

So it is with the self-righteous, they congratulate themselves on how well their living because they have not DONE anything wrong, yet their attitudes would reveal complete guilt.

Jesus speaks truth lovingly here to make sure the Pharisees and all those striving to be like them, see the truth that they were not as righteous as they had thought.

That’s what He’s doing with all of us.

First, He tells us that we are not as righteous as we think we are when we commit murder with our angry words.

Now He tells us that we are not as righteous as we think we are when we can commit adultery in our hearts.

We Have to Identify The Root Of The Problem.

The Bible puts sin under three general categories...

1 John 2:16 NASB95

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

Lust = used in 1 Jn 2:16 is the same word Jesus uses in Matt...

it speaks of desires...cravings, passion...the object determines whether such desires are good or bad...will say more about this in just a moment.

Desires of the flesh appeal to our appetites...

We give in to the flesh because we are sinful...we are not sinful because we sin, we sin because we are sinful.

Lust of the flesh is powerful because we are sinful at our core...even though our heart are redeemed, our bodies have not yet been redeemed...

Desires of the eyes appeal to our affections...

The eyes are windows to the soul by which sinful desires enter in.

We look at something or someone intently...

Pride of life appeals to our ambitions...

Pride is all about the glorification and satisfaction of self instead of God.

We make idols of that which we want more than pleasing God.

Jesus teaches us that adultery comes from the rooted sin of lust...

The real problem with adultery is twofold.

1. It starts in the heart...the lustful intent.

2. It works through the eyes...lustful look.

Before there’s ever an adulteress action, there’s an adulteress intent in the heart and look through the eyes.

When Jesus says “look”, He’s not referring to a casual glance.

Perhaps the word "stare" best captures the idea.

It begins when we view a woman who has value and worth in God's sight, not as a person, but as a thing, an object to be used, a way to enjoy oneself.

Desire is a God-given drive.

Desires are natural and neutral...

Through marriage, God gave mankind a way to enjoy the good desire for intimacy.

Yet tragically, it has been perverted and polluted, when anything and everything outside marriage is acceptable.

Jesus says that if we look at a woman, any woman, with lustful intent we have committed adultery with her in our heart.

Does this apply to women?

At first glance, we might conclude that Jesus seems to be speaking only to men here.

But of course, women struggle with lust too, don’t they?

A woman can look at another man or another woman with lustful intent...

Sadly we even hear of women teachers being intimate with students...which began with a lustful intent.

What Jesus is saying here is that adultery happens because lust is rooted in the heart and unless the lust is rooted out, the intent for the act is just as sinful as the act itself.

So, Jesus has something to say to all of us.

We’re all tempted.

And there are all sorts of variations of these lusts.

So, what should we do about it?

The world around us says, don’t do anything, because there’s not a problem.

In fact, people can go about it safely and anonymously...there are websites that allows men and women to sign up, chat with one another, and eventually make the hook up.

Ninety-two percent of the males on the site are married, as are 60 percent of females. The cost of beginning infidelity is $49 for a package that allows 20 contacts.

When the CEO was asked how he would feel if his own wife used his site, he honestly responded, “I would be devastated.” Most likely, the majority of spouses would feel the same.

He justifies his site by saying, “Humans aren’t meant to be monogamous.”

The site’s 4 million subscribers may agree.

Clearly, Jesus doesn’t think like the world thinks, nor should we, as His followers.

Which leads us to our second weapon in the fight against sin...

the first weapon...Guard Your Heart...defense

the second weapon...offense

Take Radical Steps To Avoid Sin (29-30).

Matthew 5:29–30 ““If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. “If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.”

Jesus is not talking about literally maiming our bodies. He’s not calling for mutilation, rather mortification (Romans 6:12ff).

When there’s temptation to sin what’s needed is a strategic battle plan that involves tenacious, moral, self denial.

Jesus says, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.”

He tells us that we need to radically guard our eyes...Pluck it out. Throw it away.

He is emphasizing how seriously we need to think about sin...whether its adultery, murder, lying, stealing, etc...we need to take all sin seriously!

Anything that leads us to sin should be given up.

We are to regard sin so seriously that we prefer to lose an eye or a hand rather than to lose our self in sin.

The word-picture is to emphasize deliberate, decisive action in dealing with our propensity to sin.

What is Jesus telling us to do?

Make it difficult to repeat the sin.

What ever sin plagues us at the moment, we must take radical action to eliminate the temptation at its source.

Jesus says that our eyes and feet can “offend” us literally "trip us up" and cause us to stumble.

The word "stumble" was used to refer to the "bait stick in a trap"...it is in the present tense, meaning keeps causing you to stumble.

This word brings two pictures to mind.

First, the picture of a cord stretched across a path, deliberately put there to make a man trip.

Second, the picture of a pit dug in the ground, and deceptively covered with a layer of thin branches.

The man who steps into this trap stumbles and crashes into the pit.

Friends, our eyes and hands can cause our hearts to stumble. So Jesus tells us, don’t let that happen.

The Savior won’t allow His followers to put band aids on gangrene.

He commands amputation.

He tells us to take drastic, decisive action to get rid of habits or relationships that will bring ultimate destruction to our lives...explain...

If the temptations come to us by what we see, then we are to radically change what we look at...pluck out our eyes so we become blind to the objects which previously caused us to sin.

If the temptations come to us by what we do, then we are to radically change by eliminating , the factors that contribute to that action.

Is this kind of radical action really necessary? Yes, and here’s why.

2. Consider the costs of not doing so.

Matthew 5:29–30 ““If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. “If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.”

He says it twice so we wouldn’t miss it!

It’s better to live this side of heaven with a redeemed, purified heart that imposes self- inflicted limitations, than to enter eternity with an impure heart that accepted everything because they thought they were good enough!

We can only receive this pure heart, however, as a gift of grace from God by faith in Christ...once our heart has been renewed, the path to purity requires a progressive growth in sanctification that mortifies the flesh that requires radical obedience.

Lesson for Life: Treasure Christ More Than Self!

Jesus wants our hearts! He deserves them!

We need to deal honestly and decisvely with the real cause of our sin.

It is an impure heart that settles for God substitutes.

This is simply idolatry.

What is there in our life that we are putting in the place of God?

What do we desire and long for more than anything?

Sin is a cruel taskmaster and lust is one of its favorite instruments to keep us enslaved and in bondage.

Unbeliever...Jesus came to rescue you, to set you free from this never satisfied tyrant.

Believer...we need to treasure Him above all else.

What we have gained in Him, puts to shame what we give up...

God has given us everything we need for life and godliness and equips us with all we need in our battle against sin...

We are not left powerless in guarding our heart...explain

We are not left without help in following Him with radical obedience...explain

Jesus certainly wants to lead and guide our behavior, but first and most importantly, he wants our hearts.

He bought them (1 Cor 6:19). He owns them.

What he bought, we should gladly and freely give to him.

When we treasure Christ above all in our heart, the eyes, hands, and the rest of the body will happily follow its lead.