Why So Serious? Kingdom Citizens & the Battle for Purity
Hopson Boutot
Matthew: The King and His Kingdom • Sermon • Submitted
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The Lord, My God, My Salvation
Scriptural Call to Worship (Psalm 27:1-4)
Welcome & Announcements (Sterling Tollison)
Scripture Reading (Matthew 5:27-30)
Prayer of Praise, God is Creator (Kelly Watkins)
Blessed Be Your Name
The Lord Is My Salvation
Prayer of Confession , sins of the tongue (Jake Rogier)
What A Friend We Have in Jesus
PBC CATECHISM #5
No creed or catechism is exhaustive. Same is true of PBC catechism.
Adopted from our statement of faith and our covenant, this is what we believe as a church and how we promise to commit to one another
Where do we learn about God?
We believe God reveals Himself to His creation through His Word.
PASTORAL PRAYER
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
When [we] look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (Psalm 8)
Thank you for creating us in your image.
Thank you for caring for us.
Thank you for crowning us with glory and honor.
Thank you for calling us to exercise dominion over the work of Your hands.
Prayer for PBC: Pure eyes
Ever since the serpent hissed his lies to our first parents in the garden, we have been tempted to trust what we see more than what God says
Your Word tells us “… not [to] love the world or the things in the world [because] If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.” (1 John 2:15-16)
Help the members of this church to resist the temptations of this world...
Not to look at what we should not see
Not to look in ways we should not look
Not to look with longing at what does not satisfy
We must fight desire with desire, we must fight the lust of the eyes with the eyes of faith
Help us to want to see God!!!
If any members here are struggling with their eyes, help them to not leave here today until they’re open with someone
Your Word tells us to “… confess [our] sins to one another and pray for one another, that [we] may be healed. ” (James 5:16)
May PBC be a place of healing today
Prayer for sister church: By Grace Community Church
Learn God’s Word, live God’s way, and love God’s people
Lead Pastor Kevin Hass, elders Dale Emerson, Matt Houseman, Brent Vallee, and Greg Wolff
Faithfulness, holiness, love
Prayer for US: Against Secularism
We see the rise of secularism in. . .
Perceived contradiction between God and science
Unchallenged acceptance of Darwinian evolution
General disbelief in the historicity of Jesus
Attempts to redefine sin with a psychological diagnosis
Growing disregard for religious freedom
Unhitching of morality from absolute truth
We pray for awakening. . .
Not merely so secularism can retreat, but so the Gospel will advance
Prayer for world: Cote d’Lvoire (kowt-duh-vwaar)
President Alassane Ouattara (all-ah-SAHN wat-ar-AH) — protection for the unborn, justice for the vulnerable, flourishing for all
The “jewel of West Africa” where 27 million souls live
Pray against the political unrest, and civil wars that have ravaged the nation in the past twenty years
Pray against the spread of HIV/AIDS which claims around 40,000 lives a year and inflicts nearly half a million people
The Gospel to penetrate the un-evangelized sectors of the predominantly Muslim north
Rich, biblical teaching to spread throughout the churches
Pray for the sermon
Comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable
SERMON
Toad baked some cookies.
“These cookies smell very good,” said Toad.
He ate one. “And they taste even better,” he said.
Toad ran to Frog’s house. “Frog, Frog,” cried Toad, “taste these cookies that I have made.”
Frog ate one of the cookies, “These are the best cookies I have ever eaten!” said Frog.
SHOW FROG & TOAD PICTURE
Frog and Toad ate many cookies, one after another.
“You know, Toad,” said Frog, with his mouth full, “I think we should stop eating. We will soon be sick.”
“You are right,” said Toad. “Let us eat one last cookie, and then we will stop.” Frog and Toad ate one last cookie.
There were many cookies left in the bowl.
Frog,” said Toad, “let us eat one very last cookie, and then we will stop.”
Frog and Toad ate one very last cookie.
“We must stop eating!” cried Toad as he ate another.
“Yes,” said Frog, reaching for a cookie, “we need will power.”
“What is will power?” asked Toad.
“Willpower is trying hard not to do something you really want to do,” said Frog.
“You mean like trying hard not to eat all these cookies?” asked Toad.
“Right,” said Frog.
Frog put the cookies in a box. “There,” he said. “Now we will not eat any more cookies.”
“But we can open the box,” said Toad.
“That is true,” said Frog.
Frog tied some string around the box. “There,” he said. “Now we will not eat any more cookies.”
“But we can cut the string and open the box.” said Toad.
That is true,” said Frog.
Frog got a ladder. He put the box up on a high shelf. “There,” said Frog. “Now we will not eat any more cookies.”
“But we can climb the ladder and take the box down from the shelf and cut the string and open the box,” said Toad.
“That is true,” said Frog.
Frog climbed the ladder and took the box down from the shelf. He cut the string and opened the box.
Frog took the box outside. He shouted in a loud voice.
“HEY BIRDS, HERE ARE COOKIES!”
Birds came from everywhere. They picked up all the cookies in their beaks and flew away.
“Now we have no more cookies to eat,” said Toad sadly.
“Not even one.”
“Yes,” said Frog, “but we have lots and lots of willpower.”
“You may keep it all, Frog,” said Toad. “I am going home now to bake a cake.” [1]
Even the adventures of Frog and Toad can teach us valuable lessons about how not to fight sin.
Mere willpower isn’t enough.
Boxing your sin up and putting it on the shelf won’t work.
Neither will throwing your sin to the birds. You’ll just move on to something else.
If we want to get serious in the fight against sin, we need something bigger and better than the example of Frog and Toad. We need the Word of Jesus.
Turn to Matthew 5:27
Jesus is preaching a sermon to His disciples about how to live rightly as citizens of the Kingdom of heaven.
After telling His disciples how to understand the Scriptures, He begins contrasting kingdom righteousness with the righteousness of the religious teachers of the day
6 times he’ll directly confront popular teaching by saying “you’ve heard that, but I tell you this”
In November, Eli tackled the first contrast when Jesus taught His disciples that avoiding the act of murder isn’t enough. We also have to fight the heart sins that lead to murder.
This morning we’ll look at the 2nd of these 6 contrasts where Jesus confronts the popular teaching about adultery
And in Jesus’ teaching we learn how to get serious about the battle against sin...
Matthew 5:27-30—“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 lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”
In his book, Finally Free, biblical counselor Heath Lambert writes this:
“Jesus speaks these words to people who are struggling with sexual sin. In other words, Jesus is speaking these words to you. He makes such a strong statement because he wants you to wake up to the seriousness of your sexual sin and to alert you to the radical measures necessary to deal with it. Jesus calls Christians to a serious standard and a serious strategy because of the serious stakes involved.” [2]
I cannot improve upon Lambert’s outline, so we’ll use it today as we examine this passage together.
If you want to get serious in the battle against sin, you need to understand Jesus calls you to...
A Serious STANDARD
A Serious STANDARD
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 lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Rabbis taught a very narrow view of purity. “You’re pure as long as you don’t commit the physical act of adultery.”
Jesus returns to the intent of the OT law. Sin is more than the physical act, it’s thinking about it or wanting it.
Sin is bigger than the physical acts you commit, it’s your heart that wants to sin!
Matthew 15:19—“...out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.”
The individual sins we commit are the symptoms of the heart disease called sin
Just like you can have a mild case of a virus like Covid-19 and not really know it, you can be a relatively clean person on the outside while on the inside your heart is sick beyond imagination
Unbeliever: Christianity isn’t about symptom management. It’s about admitting you’re spiritually dead because of your sin and crying out to Jesus to give you a new heart! Repent and believe!
All of this is true of sin generally, but Jesus is teaching us about a specific sin: the sin of lust.
But if we’re going to make any progress applying this text to ourselves, we need to deal with our inner attorney
Each of us has an inner attorney that’s regularly working to either accuse or excuse you, to push you to either pride or despair.
Inner attorney—“This doesn’t really apply to me!”
“I’m a woman not a man so I can take a nap because this one’s not about me!”
“I’m not looking at a woman with lustful intent, so I’m fine!”
“I’m not married, or the person I’m looking at is not married, so I’m fine!”
“I’m not looking at all. I’m only thinking about it.”
John Stott—“[Jesus’] emphasis is that any and every sexual practice which is immoral in deed is immoral also in look and in thought.” [3]
If you are a human being north of puberty, this passage applies to you.
D.A. Carson says that the Greek my be translated “anyone who looks at a woman so as to cause her to lust.” [4]
The idea being that both the act of lusting and the enticement to lust are implicated here
Inner attorney—“So-and-so better be listening!”
Maybe you’re thinking about your husband or your wife...
Or a fellow church member who confessed a struggle with you recently...
Or your teenage son or daughter.
God did not draw you here today so that you would think about so-and-so. He intends to speak to YOU today!
Inner attorney—what kind of “look” are we talking about?
Perhaps you’re seriously fighting this sin, but we live in such a sexualized culture that it’s almost impossible not to notice certain things that entice lust. And a passage like this crushes you to the point of despair.
In the original language, the verb “looks” suggests someone who “keeps on looking” [5]
Martin Luther—“you cannot prevent the birds from flying in the air over your head, but you can prevent them from building a nest in your hair.”
This is the extended glance, the leering gaze, the double take, the intentional pursuit of enticing books, images or videos, or thinking and dwelling on any of these things
Brad Hambrick—Lust is … “entertaining myself with something that is not mine by covenant.” [6]
28—“...everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Jesus is not saying that lust is the same as the physical act of adultery.
1 Corinthians 6:18—“Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”
All sins are equally damning, but they’re not equally damaging
Imagine a train, with multiple stops. The final stop is physically acting out your immoral desires. But along the way are other sins that fall short of the physical act of adultery. Things like inappropriate touching, giving yourself emotionally to a person that is not your spouse, exchanging inappropriate images, pornography, and more. The first stop on that train is the sin of lust. Jesus says you’ve broken the commandment by even getting on the train.
If you’ve been riding the train, you are NOT the conductor.
“Sin always takes you further than you want to go, keeps you longer than you want to stay, and costs you more than you want to pay.”
How do I get off the train?
If you want to get serious in the battle against sin, you need to understand Jesus calls you to...
A Serious STRATEGY
A Serious STRATEGY
29-30—If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. . . . And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. . . .
What does Jesus mean?
I have a few vivid memories of my early years in a very strict fundamentalist, home school family. I remember as a young boy attending some sort of homeschooling conference with my dad and the conference speaker commented on this passage. He talked about running into a man with a hook and an eye patch who must’ve been incredibly holy because he took this passage quite literally.
Whether or not that speaker was being serious, some Christians have taken Jesus’ teaching quite literally.
The most notable example is Origen in Alexandria who was so convicted after reading this passage that he castrated himself. [7]
Thankfully the early church strongly condemned this practice, even going as far as to threaten excommunication for pastors who practiced or promoted this sort of self-mutilation. [8]
The problem with interpreting Jesus’ strategy literally is it doesn’t really deal with the problem
John MacArthur— “The solution to sexual impurity cannot be external because the cause is not external.” [9]
If you plucked our your right eye you could still see with your left. Even a blind person can lust.
Why? Because lust is a sin of the heart.
Jesus uses graphic language to make a radical point: you will not put your sin to death unless you adopt a serious strategy
If your eyes are tempting you, act as if you have no eyes and refuse to look at the tempting object. If your hands are tempting you to sin, act as if you don’t have them by refusing to touch, refusing to click, refusing to press play.
Jesus isn’t talking about mutilation, but mortification
Mortification is the Christian's ongoing, successful work of putting sin to death
Romans 8:13—“For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
Colossians 3:5—“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”
What radical steps do you need to take to put the sin of lust to death in your heart and life?
Imagine you’re an ER nurse working on the night of a horrible terrorist attack in your city. The room is flooded with people, each of them with serious injuries. Some are suffering from PTSD, some need stitches, some have broken bones, some are missing limbs, some are bleeding internally, some need emergency surgery just to make it through the night. What do you do? You have to assess each case individually.
The same is true of this moment. Christians in America are being ravaged by the sin of lust. And what you need in this moment may not be the same thing that the person next to you needs. So I’m going to paint with some broad brushstrokes but I want to challenge you that you need to do the hard work of sitting down with another brother/sister (or maybe an elder) to work through your particular situation.
Maybe you need...
To destroy/delete the movies, magazines, pictures you turn to
Stop watching certain shows or movies altogether
Stop hanging out with those friends at school that constantly tempt you
Internet accountability software . . . or get rid of your smart phone or other devices
Get the TV out of your bedroom . . . or get rid of TV entirely
Stop talking to that guy/gal at work . . . or quit your job entirely
Stop reading those books that cause you to be dissatisfied in your marriage
Stop messaging that old friend on social media
Have a painful conversation with your spouse/parents confessing your sin
Talk with one of your pastors
I heard about an old traditional Baptist church, that invited people to the front of the stage to pray every Sunday. Week after week the same man would come up to the stage and pray, "Oh Lord, clear the cobwebs from my life." Week after week he'd come up and pray the same thing. "Oh Lord, clear the cobwebs from my life." On and on it went for months, until one Sunday, the preacher leaned over his shoulder and prayed, "Oh Lord, KILL THE SPIDER!"
John Owen -- "Be killing sin or sin will be killing you."
If you want to get serious in the battle against sin, you need to understand the serious standard and adopt a serious strategy because of the...
Serious STAKES.
Serious STAKES.
29-30— [2x Jesus says]. . . For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.
Indulging the sin of lust, even for one moment, is enough to send you to hell
But perhaps not in the way you think.
We tend to think of hell as a penalty for lust in the same way you might think of a parent threatening their teenager...
“If you don’t shape up you’re not driving your car anymore! You’ll be grounded and I’m confiscating the keys.”
So God is saying, “Stop lusting or I’m sending you to hell!”
When we think of it this way, we might even be tempted to thing, “isn’t that an overreaction? I mean, everybody’s doing it! Is it really as bad as all that?”
But I think it’s better to think of hell as a penalty for lust in the same way that a road sign warns you not to drive any further because there’s a dangerous cliff ahead and nowhere to turn around.
“If you don’t turn around you’re not driving your car anymore because you won’t have a car to drive.”
Hell isn’t some arbitrary punishment assigned to lust. Hell is just the end of the road where lust leads.
Just as a car careening towards a cliff begins to experience the effects of its eventual destruction (the brakes won’t work, any loose items in the car begin to fly towards the front), the life enslaved to lust begins to experience the effects of hell long before it arrives there.
Maybe you’re experiencing the hellish effects of lust in your life right now...
Your lustful appetite is always hungry. . . but it’s never satisfied
Even the gift of intimacy within marriage is no longer satisfying to you . . . you’re bored with what should bring you excitement and pleasure
Or if you’re single, you’d rather indulge your lust than pursue a flesh-and-blood relationship
You started down this path because it made you feel free . . . but now you’re a slave
You thought you could manage it without hurting the people you love. . . but now you’re caught in a web of lies, or you’ve confessed and you’re beginning to see how much damage you’ve actually done
Eventually if you will not let your lust go, you’ll careen off that cliff and you’ll end up in hell!
Revelation 22:14-15—“Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.”
You cannot love Jesus and your lust at the same time. You cannot serve two masters.
C.S. Lewis illustrates this perhaps better than anybody in his book The Great Divorce.
He tells about a man with a lizard on his shoulder that represented lust. He’s invited into heaven, but he realizes he can’t go with the lizard on his shoulder.
So an angel asks him, “would you like me to make him quiet?”
“Of course I would.”
“Then I will kill him.”
"Well I don’t want to do anything drastic!”
“It’s the only way. Do you want me to kill it?”
"Can’t we talk about it later?”
“There is no later. May I kill it?”
“Can’t we just do something a bit more gradual? I think I can keep him under control.”
“That won’t work.”
“Well, I would let you kill it, but I’m not feeling great. Could we do it another day?”
“There is no other day.”
“If you kill it, you’ll kill me too.”
“No I won’t.”
“But you’re hurting me now!”
“I never said it wouldn’t hurt you. I said it wouldn’t kill you.”
Finally after a continual back and forth, the man gives the angel permission to kill the lizard of lust. And in that moment the man turned into a brighter and better version of himself, and the dead lizard turned into a beautiful white stallion. [10]
If you’re going to be rid of the lizard of lust, you must put it to death. Not tomorrow, today.
And the first step is humbly admitting that the lizard is there.
Admitting, both to God and a faithful brother or sister that you have an enemy that you cannot defeat on your own.
The longer you hold onto the sin of lust, the harder it is to kill.
Frog and Toad found that out the hard way.
So did Frodo and Sam.
In many ways, lust is like the ring of power
It promises power, but it makes you weak
It makes everything around you blurry and faded
Even though you hate it, it becomes precious to you
The longer you hold it, the more enslaved to it you become
It can only be destroyed in community
It will cost you more than you can imagine to be rid of it, but it will be worth it
In the end, even Frodo and Sam couldn’t destroy the ring on their own. It required the death of another.
So too with lust. And the One who warns us about the seriousness of this sin, is the One who would die to free us from it.
Grace Greater Than Our Sin
BENEDICTION
Leave with hope in this promise from 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24...
“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it.”
Amen.