Uprooting Lust
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Intro: How far would you go to save your own life?
In the spring of 2003, a man named Aron Ralston was hiking the Bluejohn Canyon in Utah when he accidentally slipped and found himself pinned against a canyon wall with a dislodged boulder trapping his right wrist to the side of the canyon.
He stayed in that position for 127 hours (over 5 days/nights).
When he realized that it was unlikely he would be rescued-- and he wold eventually die, Ralson did the unthinkable. He amputated his own right arm with a dull multi-tool device.
In Jesus’s teaching on lust, we are confronted with the question—
How far would you go to protect yourself against sin?
This text can combined with 31-32, fleshing out the true meaning of the 7th Commandment
Jesus teaching: Doing the right things, for the right reasons, from the right heart.
We will start with the right things (Big-picture)
The honoring of marriage
The honoring of marriage
If there is something that has been very devalued in our society it’s marriage.
It’s pretty basic, but the only reason for the 7th command not to commit adultery, is because the Maker made marriage in the beginning, sanctified it, blessed it.
The backdrop of the 7th commandment: No Adultery, stands the creation act of Eve
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
I’m not going to take time to share marriage statistics, but according to a recent article in The Hill, marriage is it’s lowest rate in the US since 1867. The average age for marriage is 30.
It’s likely do to the fact that live in a culture that has less and less a desire for binding commitments (covenants)
When the Bible talks about marriage, it always stresses the high, high importance of commitment and covenant (Mal 2:14)
Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
Hold Fast.
Honor. (Prize, highly value)
Apply: So much of what Jesus says in the SOM runs countercultural to our day.
—Our culture: most everything exists to please me, the consumer. That includes relationships like marriage, where my needs, happiness, fulfillment are supreme.
—Christ: We are created, bearing God’s image to enter into high level commitments, called covenants.
And for this high-level commitment to last, it requires massive amounts of self-denial, sacrifice…giving up my needs....
This is the right thing
The value of women
The value of women
If we look at the entire gospel of Matthew—something unique stands out: the unique value of women
1) Starting with the Genealogy of Jesus—includes multiple key women God used in redemptive history (Tamar, Rahab, Bathsheba)
2) We note how Joseph treats Mary with dignity when he found out she was pregnant (Mt 1:19)
3) Stories like the faith of a Cannaanite woman (Mt 15:28)
4) The faithful woman at the cross (Mt 27:55-56) “many women looking from a distance”
The empty tomb: Mary Magdalene (Mt 28)
Matthew make it a point to point out the importance of women in redemptive history and faithful disciples
God’s Word shows how valuable women are in the history of redemption; shows their value in God’s kingdom…..I think to help us me see differently than the world shows them.
Q: Why is this important in uprooting lust?
In general, so much of advertisement, entertainment, media presents women in a one-sided way: objects for the male eyes to consume….and that has become the default standard of many eyes and hearts.
Some influence will always shape our standards and imagination. Again, God’s Word runs counterculture, especially in how women are portrayed and viewed.
Apply: I think there are two extremes we need to avoid.
1) One is to buy into the way that women are often portrayed as depersonalized objects to consume as objects of lust.
2) But there is another. I once heard a speaker give a talk on sexual purity and he said: “Every woman who is not your wife you need to see as a threat”
That’s not valuing woman either. I would not want every man to see my wife or daughters to see them as a threat.
Besides, its not ho God’s Word says we are to see other women
older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.
*Valuing women rightly is another right thing
The nature of sin (27-28)
The nature of sin (27-28)
I agree with ML-J who said: “The whole purpose of the law….was to show the sinfulness of sin”
His exposition of this text: The Exceeding Sinfulness of Sin
Apply: In other words, God does not give us his law so that we say: “Yeah, I’m doing pretty good”
Jesus shows the exceeding sinfulness of sin, by showing where it originates—when the eyes and imagination of gone there.
Just like we can commit murder with our words, we commit adultery with our eyes and imagination and be held guilty.
Just so that people are not dealing with false guilt, I don’t believe that this means noticing beauty or attractiveness
--This is deliberate gazing,
--Internal harboring impure thoughts
--Fantasizing
To catch the spirit, we can look that the 10th command
“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.”
The Greek translation of the OT used in Jesus day used the same word for covet that’s translated lust
(Ex 20:17) “You shall not lust after your neighbors wife”
The 10th commandment gets to the heart of the commandment
Apply: We may never commit the physical act of adultery—but if we want to, if we imagine it….use some visual material like porn—our hearts are entangled in the sin.
Apply: I also want to add—though Jesus teaching is gender specific (calling out the men); the struggle is not. The principle applies to men and women.
The point that Jesus presses here: We cross the line in breaking the command with the eyes first—the eyes are the avenue to the imagination
Even Job understood the eyes as the avenue of sin—so he made a covenant with his eyes to avoid lust
“I have made a covenant with my eyes;
how then could I gaze at a virgin?
Apply: If we are going to make any progress in uprooting lust, we need to begin with the intake of our eyes
“Imagination is a God-given gift; but if it is fed dirt by the eye, it will be dirty.”
Carson, D. A. (1984). Matthew.
Apply: So friends, what are you feeding your eyes? What is fueling your imagination? What’s in your search history? Your Netflix account?
**It’s all shaping our imagination….and sin always begins there.
Gospel: The law is meant to show the sinfulness of sin….to have our hearts exposed before God.
***Unless we know the nature of sin, we will never appreciate the beauty of Christ and the gospel
Gospel: In a sense, this is about advent and Christmas. Why do we have advent/Christmas—because of the sinfulness of my sin
(Quoting ML-J)
“The incarnation would have never been necessary were it not for my sin”
“It is only a true grip of the NT doctrine of sin that enables us to realize the greatness of God’s love to us”
Apply: In general—people, even church attending people do not seem always seem awestruck at the Love of God as much as we should.
Could it be we have such a low understanding for the doctrine of of sin? In our lust saturated culture, we become desensitized
**Jesus gives us this teaching to show s the sinfulness of sin, that should, in turn cause us to be awestruck at his love—and in return love him more.
And loving him more means following the high demands of obedience
The high demands of obedience (29-30)
The high demands of obedience (29-30)
Jesus teaching wraps up with calls to action
Now it’s understood that Jesus uses hyperbole—exaggeration or effect.
The right eye, hand were considered more valuable; if you were in a war situation you need your right eye to shoot straight and handle your sword.
**But if even that prized part of your body is the instrument to sin, it’s better not to have it.
Main Point: take drastic measures to protect yourself against sin. Whatever they are. They vary from person to person.
Put up high fences; grow thick hedges if the struggle is severe. If you are breathing and a Christian, you should have some hedges.
Q: What tempts your eyes the most? What’s the breeding ground?
Even in the 4th Century, the Church Father John Crysostom told his hearers—get practical:
“Let them hearken to these things, who hasten to the theatres, and make themselves adulterers every day.”
John Chrysostom. (1888).
One piece of practical advice—
“The longer we resist a particular temptation, the less power that temptation can exercise in our lives”
Keener, C. S. (1997). Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 5:27–30).
Also, soak in the transforming call to a renewed mind from God’s Word
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
And finally, realize that if you don’t deal with the sin problem now….in the heart, —it will catchup up later.
But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.
Your sin will find you out.
I’ve shared before of how my first pastor I sat under as a teenager was disqualified from ministry because he got caught in a prostitution scandal. It came out that for decades he had a pornography problem that led up to more
(Which is also a warning that sin left unchecked tends to escalate in desire—of you look at porn, you will eventually want more that just to look)
His sin found him out.
If only he took some drastic measures earlier. The consequences were so high.
Friends, don’t get too the point where your sin finds you out. Deal with it now—deal with it early. Deal with it drastically.
Deal with it through the powerful gospel Christ.