Motives Matter

heading out. Um what a good what a time we had last last Sunday. For those um that missed it, we had a joint service with New Paradigm, the church that meets right after us. And and we just it was just such a good time to to be able to be with them um to be able to sort of lead out that service as well. And um and just to be able to worship together, two congregations uh in one building. Usually people don't say that.

Usually churches are like we're one church in multiple locations. um but two churches in one building coming together um to just lift up the name of Jesus and and it was a really really good time. So much so that they've requested that we do it again and um and so we are putting that on the calendar to do again um in the coming months. I think we're looking at August 10th as as a potential for that. And so if you missed last week um there there'll be other opportunities coming up as well. Uh, one thing I did say during that, uh, sermon that was sort of a prosperityesque statement, uh, name it, claim it sort of statement.

I just want to say that I single-handedly debunked the prosperity gospel and the name it, claim it movement by saying that the Pacers were going to win the championship and they didn't. And so um so that just goes to show that prosperity gospel name it claim it does not work. Now they would say that group um that I didn't have enough faith or that I didn't give enough money on that day and that's the reason why it didn't come to fruition and I just have one theological term for that and it is just hogwash. Okay, that that is a theological term. Um, but I want to also prove that actually further today as we jump back into the sermon on the mount in our series, What is truth? And so I want you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 5.

Um, and I'm going to say something very controversial right out of the gate. Um, so yes, here it is. I don't like popcorn. Okay. Amen. I don't like popcorn.

I know it seems diabolical. My wife's saying it's weird and she doesn't understand it. Um, how can someone not like one of the go-to snacks in practically every household and movie theater um across the country, but it's true. It's just not my thing. It's never been my thing. However, it is my wife's thing.

She she does love popcorn. So, it's getting popped multiple times a week in our house. I won't say how often, but it's at least multiple times a week in our house. But the thing about popcorn that that I find interesting um or just question what it is is the fact that there's always kernels left at the like every single time there's always kernels that are not popped that are left at the end of it. And what I find interesting in that is how like they are the same thing as the other things to an extent. They are subjected to the same environment and to the same heat, yet some get transformed and some don't.

Why? How is that possible? Well, I've learned never to make the assumption that just because a thing or a person is in a certain environment means that they will be changed, that they will be transformed. Jesus said that the church will be composed of wheat and tears, good and bad. So don't assume that just because a person attends church that they've been popped transformed by the gospel. I believe where Jesus goes next in the sermon on the mount is revealing this truth to the listeners.

Just because people know the law and to an extent are doing the law doesn't mean that they've been transformed by the law. In current terms, just because people go to church and to an extent belong and serve and give and participate in the mission of God doesn't mean that they've been transformed by the gospel. As I've always heard in the south, like just because you walk into a garage doesn't make you a car. Just because you go to church doesn't make you a Christian. The sermon on the mount's going to continue revealing for us that Christianity is not about right activity that gets you to heaven, but rather is about the right identity that gets you to God. Again, heaven isn't even the goal of why we're here.

The goal is to be reconciled and made right with God, our creator, who loves us, forgives us, adopts us, and brings us home. If the goal is heaven without God, then that's just wanting the kingdom without the king. And that in all honesty is exactly how you can define every other world religion that exists. We want some version of heaven without God. We want some version of a kingdom without a king. and that's every other one.

They're seeking some version of heaven without the God of the Bible. And so, turn with me to Matthew 5. We're going to be looking at verses 17 through I can't remember which one I had here originally 48, but realize we're not getting all the way there to 48. And so, we're I'm breaking this up into two parts for us today to save you from hopefully an hour and 15 minute sermon. But starting in verse 17, here's we want to look at this u popcorn theology of Jesus. All right, starting in verse 17, he says this.

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law, the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until it is all accomplished. Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. All right, quick explanation of what's going on here.

The words for abolish and fulfill go hand in hand. abolish and and again this is my annunciation of the Greek which is always butchered but in the Greek it is the word catalo catalo which sounds like a song um anyway which means to dissolve literally like a watering down to dissolve the word for fulfill is pleao which means to reveal its full meaning and purpose the intended meaning of what it was in other words what Jesus's is proposing here to the listeners is expositional teaching. It's expositional preaching in this moment where he does not want to water down the law or dissolve it or take away from it in any way as their current scribes and Pharisees have done and are doing. but rather what he wants to do is expose the true meaning and purpose of the law so that the hearers have an opportunity to be popped to be transformed. That's why he combats those who want to relax the law and instead he's saying no no no teach what it actually says.

Don't dissolve it to fit your sinful lifestyle so that you barely sneak into heaven. Don't do that. In other words, don't lower the bar in a belief that it will actually allow more people to get in. And that's why Jesus lands with this statement in verse 20. I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Why?

Because they have lowered the bar to just external behavioral modification. Well, I can hate other people so long as I don't murder them. They've lowered the bar. They've dissolved what God originally gave to them. They aren't preaching the truth. They aren't preaching the law of God.

They aren't holding you to the expectation of what God holds you to. And what is the expectation of God? Look at the last verse in chapter 5. This is actually verse 48. You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. Oh boy, that's that's heavy.

That's impossible. That's the point. Which is true. Unless God intervenes and provides a way for us to be considered perfect. And that's why I want to show you today. That's what I want to show you today.

But to get there, let's see what Jesus teaches in regards to the law of God and its implications for us. And I want to give you a bit of a preface here. Now, one thing you need to know is the law of God as a common grace to society restrains evil. It restrains evil. A lot of times people want to think about it in this way. They they think that God gave a law and then people were created and then we just never abided by it.

Which is to an extent. We we were created with a law even in the garden. Do whatever you want to do. Eat and drink your fill you love. Like whatever you want to do, do it. Just don't do this one thing.

That's a law. That's a rule. And it's meant to show that actual life and flourishing is always going to be tied to obedience to our God and creator. So if we're living under obedience to him, life and flourishing. If we disobey, death and destruction. So, so that's always been the situation.

However, the law that we refer to of the Old Testament hasn't always been available to the people. For example, Abraham didn't know the ten commandments, right? So, so he wouldn't know those things. He wouldn't be able to follow this law in order to somewhat attain righteousness. So, actual some theologian scholars believe that part of the purpose of the law being established, the Mosaic law, and when I say that, I'm referring to the law of Moses. So he goes up on Mount Si, he gets the Ten Commandments, comes back down, and then over the course of his life actually ends up establishing over 600 laws, and they're broken up into several categories that I'll show you here in a moment.

But part of that, yes, again, it's meant to point us to Jesus eventually, and I'll talk about that in a moment. But this law given to this people was meant to or or the context in which it was delivered is in a world full of paganism. In a world full of people worshiping false gods, not the one true God. Therefore, what's the first commandment? In a world full of people murdering and killing one another. And so, therefore, what's another commandment?

in a world full of people who are not having one husband and one wife and therefore what's another commandment do not commit adultery. Like all of this is tied to not necessarily a reaction to the world but an apologetic in the world. The way you're living isn't going great. And so God's going to reveal himself through a law, reveal his character and say this is a better way to live. And so the people of God were actually meant to live by this so that they could be a city on a hill for the rest of the world, for the rest of the nations to be able to see that, hey, if we do things that way, it actually leads to life and flourishing. If they are in obedience to the God who reveals himself through this law, reveals his character.

That's part of it is that it's an actual apologetic to the world. Stop doing things that way. Try doing things this way. Live this way. It's better. It's a better way.

Now, God still holds us to the perfection of it, though. And unfortunately, the people were never going to be able to do that. I mean, even though there's over 600 laws, even just the first 10 commandments we fall short of. But one of the things that we need to know is that the law of God as a common grace to society restrains evil. And and that's important for what I'm going to say here in a little bit. In contrary to that, what you also need to know and understand is that the gospel of God as a saving grace to society eradicates sin.

What the world is trying to do in solving the problem of sin. Now they might not call it sin, but they do call it problem. the world has problems. The world they'll call it evil. They'll call it bad is that they're trying to create laws in order to manage this situation. And the reality is is just like the law of God doesn't eradicate sin but restrains evil.

The same thing is going to be with our society. Even though they keep re redefining or reconstructing or redoing laws and adding new ones or adding different ideologies and so forth, it's it it might in their mind restrain what they would consider to be evil, but it's never going to eradicate it. It's never going to eradicate it. Only the gospel of God has the means to be able to do so in eradicating sin. And so what Jesus is aiming to help us come to terms with is which one are we hoping in and walking in? Are we hoping in the law of God in order to reach righteousness so that we get a ticket to heaven and we get to usher like we get to walk into the pearly gates because of all of the good things that we've done?

That's not what Jesus is about to preach. It it it is however going to point us to the gospel of God that actually provides a way for us to come in. Now here's two things that we need to understand. The gospel of God and this is what Jesus is saying. I did not come to abolish the law. The gospel of God does not come in and then allow you to say well the law is unimportant.

We don't need it anymore. We want to say as a humanity, we can do the law that will get us basically what the gospel promises, heaven. But that's not the reality. The reality is is we need the gospel that gets us to God. However, it also then allows us to be able to uphold the law of God to actually then be the city on a hill so that when others look at our lives, when others look at our churches, when others look at our people, the Christians, they're able to see, hey, the way in which they are living their lives under the banner of the gospel, being able to follow and treasure Jesus Christ above everything else. They're flourishing in a way that the rest of society is not flourishing because the gospel, Jesus Christ and what he has accomplished for them is causing them to live in a way that is actually upholding the moral character of God and and reflecting it, imaging it out to everyone else.

And it provides them something different that the world cannot provide for them. And that's good news for us. Right before I jump into this, I want you I'm going to say one verse over and over and over. Romans 8:1. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And the reason why I say that is because when you start walking through the law of God and you remember that he tells you in verse 48, you must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.

When we start walking through these things that Jesus is teaching, to be honest, what you need to think in your mind is, "Oh no. Oh no. I'm not measuring up." And that's a good thing because again, there is therefore now no condemnation. That is actually a condemnation when he says you need to do this and if you don't do it you are condemned for the wages of sin is death and that's the punishment that you receive. But if we are in Christ we need to remind ourselves if we are in Christ that does not apply to us anymore as far as the condemnation that comes when you don't measure up.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Now, another thing, another little caveat I want to mention before we walk through the law is often times when it comes to apologetics, when it comes to the world around us, looking at Christians and trying to debunk what we follow, what we listen to, what we abide by, what we do as Christians, they'll say, "Well, what you do is you actually just pick and pluck which verses you want to follow and trust and live out in your life." And so, yeah, you might look at the Ten Commandments and say, "Well, yeah, I I shouldn't murder, so I'm not going to do that because I'm a Christian." Well, what about all the other laws that are in in the Bible? How come you're not following everything that's written in Leviticus? How come you're not following everything that's written in Deuteronomy?

How come you're picking and choosing? And the reason for that is that there are certain laws that continue to apply and there are certain laws that don't apply. And what I mean by that is that you can actually categorize the Mosaic law, the law of Moses. You can categorize it into three sections called the moral law, the civil law, and the ceremonial law. The moral law is God's universal standards for right and wrong that are rooted in his character. Okay?

So take the ten commandments for example. Rather than it being a do this and don't do this. It actually reads more like a revelation, a realization, and an application. Here's what I mean by that. Because God is not a murderer. Revelation.

It's revealing his character. Because God is not a murderer. realization is that he's created us in his image. We bear his likeness. So because he's not a murderer and we are in his image, realization application, do not murder. Now remember in the context Moses is receiving this in a pagan world that is not that that even though they are created in the image of God are not reflecting the image of God.

And so God is revealing to them, I'm not a murderer. You should not be murderers because you bear my image. You need to know who I am and who you have created to be and therefore connect those two because God is not a thief. Revelation and you bear his image. Realization application. Don't steal because God is not an adulterer and you bear his image.

Don't lust. This is the moral law that has been ultimately fulfilled in Jesus. Meaning he is the only person to abide by it perfectly and achieve its requirements for righteousness sake. So when you look at the ten commandments, Jesus is the only one who can say 10 for 10, I nailed it. the only one. We can't say that.

Only Jesus can say that. But it is revealing the character of God and it's revealing the personhood of God. It's revealing the ideology of God. It's revealing the system of life that causes flourishing. And Jesus was able to live it out perfectly. This moral and ethical law is still in effect today and applies to you and I and the whole world.

Why? Because of what I said about the the law and the gospel relationship. The law reveals to us, who God is, what he is like, and how he wants the world to function. We realize we can't attain that. So, we need an intermediary. We need someone to come in and attain it for us.

And then because he is righteous and we are not, when he gives us his righteousness, his righteousness now allows us to be able to then uphold the moral ethical kingdom that God has created and established. So in Adam, you're going to hate and you're going to murder. In Christ, you now have the ability to not hate and not murder. You get you see the two of those the flip the the kingdom or or the gospel in the middle is the hinge by which we are now able to actually live this out. Therefore, the moral law of God is going to continue to apply because it gives us the instructions and information of what this kingdom of God, namely the church throughout all of the world, what we are to do, how we are to live, how we are to act, how we are to think, how we are to feel, how we are to love, how we are to serve. It gives us a framework for all of that.

Now, what about the civil law? What is that? Well, it's the part of the Mosaic law that God used to govern Israel as a nation and specifically as the people of God. This included their national life. This included their justice system. This included their society as a theocracy.

Now, why is that not in effect anymore? God is not governing Israel today like he did in the old covenant. Now God is sovereign over every nation and is governing as the governor of everybody. However, in the way in which he governed Israel then, and this would get this would get like uh some end of times guys really riled up and frustrated, but he is not governing Israel like he did in the Old Testament because that transferred when Jesus fulfilled it through his life, death, and resurrection and then established a new covenant with a new people that is not tied to the Jewish Jewish bloodline, the Jewish people. It is now transferred to a new nation that God is creating. That isn't just a single nation, but a nation from every nation.

The church of Jesus Christ. That is who he is now governing as a theocracy is the church, not a physical nation. You understand that? So the civil law does not continue to apply in regards to that. In addition to that, there's also the ceremonial law. This is the part of the Mosaic law that God used to instruct the people of God in worship, sacrifices, rituals, and religious festivals.

Again, important since God instituted it, but it's no longer applied today because in Jesus, everything that it was pointing to was fulfilled at the Passover where he became the ultimate Passover lamb and the ultimate Passover sacrifice that all of those were pointing to. And because he fulfilled it, no longer do we continue those rituals. It's the reason why we don't ask you to bring animals every single Sunday and we sacrifice them on behalf of your sins. Jesus fulfilled that. So, we can look at those laws in the Old Testament and say, "Okay, I don't have to bring an unblenmished lamb. I don't have to get some pigeons.

I don't have to if I can't, you know, if I don't grow them, I'm not going to we're not going to set up shop here and sell them for you so that you can sacrifice them." The ceremonial law was meant to point people to Jesus and then cease once Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice once and for all according to Hebrews specifically chapter 10. So um Jesus isn't watering this down. He's not dissolving it. Instead, what he's doing is he's wanting to pull out its intended meaning and purpose so that the people of God understand what God's expectation is and his standard for righteousness. So that ultimately it's able to reveal to them, oh no, um, I'm not in a good position.

This isn't going to go well for me in the end. Jesus gives six analyses of truths from the law that they've heard about. Meaning again scribes and Pharisees have taught but themselves they dissolved it or watered it down and have misinterpreted and therefore misapplied it in their daily lives. Now as I said last week not everything is about theology but everything is theological. Your theology informs your world view and the way you view the world informs the way you live in the world. God Jesus Christ in this moment is giving them the right theology in regards to the moral law of God that is still in effect today and is helping them understand what they need to believe about it.

because what they believe about it will then inform how they live in regards to it. What I mean by that ultimately for us is we can't be Christians who simply say we believe in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yes and amen. Got my ticket to heaven. I get to be with God forever. We need to know what the rest of the book talks about.

We need to know what God's view is on anger. We need to know what God's view is on lust. We need to know what God's view is on adultery and murder and um the different ones that we're going to look through here, lust, marriage, divorce. We need to know all of these things because once we receive the gospel and are in relationship with Jesus and his identity comes to live and dwell within us and we now have the right identity. Again, right activity doesn't lead to the right identity, but right identity does lead you to the right activity. Well, we need to know what the right activity is so that we can walk in it and walk in step with the spirit of God.

And so, this is why it's so important that you don't just learn about the gospel and then believe that it's everything that that believe that that's all that you need to know. We then use it as the springboard. As JD Greer says, the gospel isn't um um just the spring like it it is the depths of the water in which when we dive in, we're now able to actually know and understand all that God is calling us to and how we live our lives, how we steward our lives, how we ultimately, whether we're eating or drinking or whatever we're doing, we're doing it in a way that is honoring and glorifying God. And so Jesus is going to unpack that for us. And that's why I want to continue coming back to Romans 8:1 because it's heavy. It's unattainable.

But the right identity, Jesus Christ living in us and walking in step with the spirit of God helps us to actually uphold these things to actually not sin and worship. And we need to know that. We need to know that. All right. So here, let's jump into uh these first three because we're definitely not going to get through all six. The first three, looking at verse uh 21.

You've heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. 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. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and therefore remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you're going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge and the judge to the guard and let you and then you be put in prison.

Truly I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. All right, listen up. We are all angry people. We are all angry people. You say, I'm not angry. All right, then we are all frustrated people.

Okay, call it what you want. We're all frustrated people. Like I don't I don't think I'm an angry person, but there are moments I'm an angry person. A frustrated person just this week. And I know it always it's always road. I don't know.

Like driving um is when it comes out of me the most, I would say. Uh my kids are the second, but the the first Yeah, don't amen that. Kelsey knows. Um, but I was driving on the road. I was driving my motorcycle and um I was driving through Caramel the Thousand Roundabouts and as I was coming around a roundabout, there was this I mean this big SUV coming and and she was distracted and I'm know it was a she. I'm not saying that women are bad drivers.

I'm just saying this was a she and she slam I mean screeching slammed on her brakes as I'm coming around to where in my mind I'm thinking this is it. This is it. I'm going to just careen straight into this SUV and go flying over it and get to meet Jesus. Um, but she veered off to the right and I veered off to the left into the the middle of and I going to say like I I threw my hand up not in the way that you're thinking. See, you are angry people, but I threw my hand up and in my mind if I was God, hell is receiving someone in that moment. Like that's exactly where they're going.

I was livid. Livid. And this is also probably coming from a person that Kelsey's thinking. This is what you do all the time. You drive distracted. You slam on your brakes.

All right. I even joked with her this week where there was a car ahead of us. I'm not going to say how far because that's debatable, but she's like, you know, doing the whole like you need and I'm like, how often do you think on a daily basis how I survive driving around the city without you? Like I just wonder, you know, but anyways, that's beside the point. Marital things. We'll get to marriage and divorce here in a moment.

But um but I like I was gripping the motorcycle so hard filled with rage in that moment. And I have no idea who that woman is. No idea who that woman is. Maybe she was in a in a in a hurry and not distracted. Maybe she literally just didn't see me. That's the number one cause of motorcycle accidents because they just don't ever see them.

But it revealed in me in that moment that there's some unhol. And now again, there's righteous anger and I'm not talking about that. Like there's Jesus, you know, with the whip and he's like angry and he's going to flip over tables. There's that. This was not that. I was angry.

And I think there there are different things for all of us in these moments that that caused this for us. What was going on in Jesus' time was everyone's angry, but they had so dissolved down the law that they're just saying, you know what, as long as you just don't physically murder somebody, you're good. You're okay. You can be angry. And he's saying, no, no, no. You got to realize that it's way deeper than that.

It's not just behavioral modification to where you've controlled the fact that you're no longer killing people. That's how it was when Moses is receiving this law and going to telling people, "Hey, y'all y'all got to stop physically murdering each other." Okay, this is the law of God. Jesus is saying, "Okay, to a degree, good job. Good job. You're no longer physically murdering people, but everyone hates everybody.

You're still murdering in your heart in the judgment that you have for one another." Jesus lumps all of this in. I mean, I just this is the root for why we end up hating other people is because of this reality that there's we want people to do the right thing. What we're really saying is we want people to do what we think is the right thing. And when they don't, we judge. We judge.

We don't even know if whatever we think the right thing is is what God says is the right thing, but we judge. I had a conversation with someone else. I won't even say who it is, but um but he's a man who is at work and uh another younger guy in his work was wearing a shirt that says like, "Don't f with me." But the shirt spelled it out and and it made this individual for whatever reason it set them off so frustrated and and so they actually called this person out and said, "You can't wear that kind of stuff in in this this this place." And then that guy ends up saying, "Well, who do you think you are? You don't have the right to be able to tell me."

And because this guy knows that this guy is a Christian, he says, "Why don't you and your God leave me the f alone?" I don't even know. I could say that. You know what I'm saying? Well, then this guy goes off on this guy. And as he's telling me the situation, I I was he's wanting me to be like, "Yeah, good job."

And I'm like, "Buddy, I think I think you were wrong in the situation. I think you were wrong." First of all, you don't need to defend God. It's like defending a lion. He'll be all right on his own. I think that was an opportunity for you to actually see what he's wearing on his shirt and enter in and have a conversation.

Hey, tell me about your shirt. Are you are are you all right? Are you upset? Like does do people just frustrate you in general and that's why you wear the shirt? Like it's an opportunity to engage, but instead because we have our own view of what we think people should be and do. Like I think everyone should drive the the the way the law tells you to drive.

And when you don't, it makes me angry. I I think my children should just abide by what mommy and daddy say. And when they don't, it makes me angry. It makes me angry. This is the root for why we end up hating our brother. We put some level of standard on them that we expect and when they don't measure up to it, we get angry and we judge.

Well, Jesus lumps that in with murder. Oh, are we then all murderers? Yes. Yes, that's the point. Yes, we are. Lord have mercy on us.

And the way the way Jesus teaches us to respond is not to be less angry, but to pursue reconciliation. To pursue reconciliation. The interesting thing is that he doesn't start off by saying, "If you have something against your brother, go forgive them." Instead, Jesus says, "If someone else has something against you, you need to pursue reconciliation and tell them that you're sorry." You really like, did you see that? He's saying you're angry and then his solving of it is, "Hey, you've made other people angry.

You need to go and and deal with that." And I really do think that this this level of revealing the moral character of God and honestly revealing the role of him as a parent that I really think about this in terms of like when we try to do things with our kids because we want to enjoy the experience. We will not enjoy the experience if our children are fighting with one another. And so one of the moments in this wi with with with worship is God is telling us, look, look, before you bring your act of worship to my altar, I want my children to stop fighting. I want my children to stop judging and being angry with one another. Then come and worship.

Come and worship. We need this in the community of the faith, the kingdom of God that he is establishing. He's setting us for what we are to do when the law reveals that we've sinned against a holy and perfect God. We go to him and we ask for a like we ask for forgiveness. We've sinned against you, Lord. Reconciliation and restoration and repentance before worship.

before worship. Look at verse 27. And he jumps into the second one. You've 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. And 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. Oh, I I brought for um some knives and machetes for our invitation today. Lust is not acknowledging. Listen, I'm going to say what lust is not and I'm going to say what it is.

Lust is not acknowledging that someone is handsome or pretty. All right? We we all have eyes. We're not dumb. If the Bible was telling us to never acknowledge beauty, then you actually to a degree rob God of receiving glory for his beauty revealed in creation. Okay?

It's just reality. Here's what lust is. Lust is taking it a step further and objectifying the beauty of God's creation and treating it as a commodity for your own pleasure. That's what lust is. It is objectifying the beauty of God's creation and treating it as a commodity for your own pleasure. And men and women are both guilty of this.

A lot of times, so much so we think lust. Okay, men, listen up. Men and women are both guilty of this. Now, I've heard some men say dumb things in the past, like, "Well, I can look at the menu so long as I don't order off of it." By looking with the intent of self-serving pleasure, you are indulging. You are indulging.

Now, when you look at anger and lust and divorce and even when we get down next week to oaths and retaliation and loving your enemies, there's a thousand examples and there's a thousand applications to this. Okay? What I'm going to give you here in a moment in generalizing men and women who deal with lustful intent, it is a broad stroke. Okay? These are broad generalities that I think majority of men will land in this category and majority of women will land in this category. Not necessarily every case by case scenario, but I do believe these are general generalities that are the root of the differences between men and women.

Men will visually objectify and sexualize women as an asset or commodity that they will then sacrifice on the altar of their own pleasure. I think that's how generally speaking men exercise lust, objectify, visually objectify and sexualize women as an asset or commodity that they will then sacrifice on the altar of their own pleasure. It's how they use women to make themselves feel good to dumb it down as possible. Men want the hot princess. general. That's what men want.

They want the hot princess. Women will emotionally subjectify and romanticize men as an asset or commodity that they will sacrifice on the altar of their own fantasy. Different but the same things. They will emotionally subjectify and romanticize men as an asset or commodity that they will then sacrifice on the altar of their own fantasy. It's how they use men to make themselves feel good. Women want the shining night.

And I mean the the world understands this. This is literally not necessarily in the last decade or so, but this is how Disney's made their money for the last 50 60 years. both fall under the category of lust because what does it because what it does is it removes the image of God from their identity and then they are treated as a slave for my own desire. This is what lust does. Now Jesus gives some application here. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.

For it's better that you lose one of your members than your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. So yes, I brought knives and a machete for our time at the end of the service. I'm just kidding. But here's the question.

Is Jesus kidding? I mean, we're we're asked to look at like what Jesus is teaching. We're asked to like by the gospel uphold it. So should we go around like whenever like if a brother comes to us and says like man I I looked at a woman lustfully this week and and sinned against her and against God. Let me get my I know Ransford's got a pocket knife. Let me see your pocket knife real quick.

Like let's do some work. Let's do some surgery. Like is is are we to take this literally? Well, good news. There are times when the Bible teaches literally and there are the times when the Bible teaches in hyperbole. Hyperbole.

This is one of those times where Jesus is saying something that he doesn't mean literally. It's extreme only because this subject is extremely important. Extremely important. And therefore Jesus is going to exaggerate his application of the matter. If you can't turn your phone on without drifting towards porn sites, then throw your phone into the White River. It's that type of explanation.

If you can't watch a Lifetime movie without thinking, I wish my man was more like this handsome carpenter from a small town, then you need to unsubscribe from your streaming platforms. Instead of removing the imo day, the image of God from others, which is what lust does, we are called to actually ascribe it by loving one another and submitting to one another with the image of God in mind. And that's where you get marriage. Marriage. Turn with me to Ephesians 5. I'm not going to unpack this whole thing, but I just want to read through it for you.

Ephesians 5:22-23 or through 333. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its savior. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Now, hold up. Submit?

That's a taboo term today. We don't use that. Submission is, oh, how do you view Christ? And what response does God call you to react in submission to who Christ is? Well, we are to honor, respect, support, love. We're all about what he is doing.

In the same way, wives are to honor, encourage, support, love, and say, "Man, we're all about what our husband is doing. So long as what he's doing is in line with what Jesus has called of him to do. If it's not, wives, you also have the ability to be able to say, "Hey, stop." That doesn't mean you're not submitting, but it does mean that you're calling out. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.

He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does the church because we are members of his body. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ in the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband. Marriage was not intended for you to find the love of your life.

That would be selfish. Marriage was intended to be an object lesson to the world what the relationship between Christ and the church is actually about. what it's actually about. And where we fall short is where it lands in the next category. Look at verse 31. It was also said, this is back over into Matthew 5.

It was also said, "Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery." All right, remember Romans 8:1. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Don't forget that.

Here's the thing about divorce. It might be one of the most misinterpreted and misapplied topics throughout the Bible. One of the reasons why Moses started giving certificates of divorce was because they were divorcing or separating from their spouses for anything and everything. Divorce was rampant. Covenant of marriage was so dissolved that Moses instituted this. And then Jesus does give some explanation for some opportunities for divorce, but brings it in a little bit tighter.

A little bit tighter. The Bible and honestly I think even a lot of Christians have all kinds of ideas in regards to this. The topic of divorce has been debated debated for 2,000 years. Different theologians will say different things. Different tribes will say different things. Some well God like we know the Bible says God hates divorce.

However, Moses condoned divorce and even made it law, handing out certificates of it. The Bible says, "What God has joined together, let not let not man separate." Yet, it also says, as we just read, you can divorce on the ground on the grounds of sexual immorality. But then, if you remarry, you're also then committing adultery. So, what's going on here? Paul actually says to avoid divorce simply by just don't ever get married.

That's what Paul says. It's so hard to be married. It's just easier to not. I wish you would just remain as I am. So, 1 Corinthians 7, I want to show you a couple of things in regards to this because I'm going to give three grounds for divorce. I'll tell you them right now.

Adultery, abandonment, abuse, AAA. But here's where those come from. Obviously, one we just saw in Matthew 5. You shall not commit, well, you shall not get divorced unless it's on the grounds of sexual immorality. That would be considered adultery. We'll talk about that in a moment.

But here's the other two. Concerning the matters which you once wrote, this is first Corinthians 7:1. It's good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman, which is just weird. That's Paul say. It's just good for a man not to have sex with a woman. Okay.

I thought God created it. He's talking about marriage here. It's just good for you to not get married. But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should get married. Have his own wife and each woman her own husband. It's better to get not get married.

But if you're going to burn up in lust, go ahead and get married. Now, no one leads out their wedding day with that verse. I just I couldn't help myself. So, it's you and me, babe. That's not the best vows to lead off with. Now, Paul's going to do some interesting things here as he walks through this.

He's going to say some things where he's like, "This is uh this is from me, not the Lord. This is from the Lord, not me." And so, you got to pay attention a little bit to it. As a concession, this is down into verse six. As a concession, not a command, I say this. I wish that just all were as I myself am.

he was single. Now, he does talk about it a little bit in the sense that there's gifts here and and it's always easier for married people to say, "Well, there's the gift of singleness to try to help our single folk." But there is something to it where Paul is saying one of the reasons why he sees singleness as a gift is because he says, "Have you ever spent time with married people, especially when the honeymoon phase is over? like, man, it's hard. It's difficult. I don't know that I want that.

And then at the same time, they're distracted by the relationship. How much more time could they devote to the purposes of God if they weren't in a marriage? Now, that's don't hear me saying that's grounds for, well, I feel called to full-time ministry, so I'm going to go and divorce my spouse. That's not what he's saying. But there was a difference of accessibility that Paul had to be able to go and do all the missionary journeys than Peter had who had to stay in Jerusalem. Peter was married, had a family.

Something to think about. Again, that was as a concession, not a command. I say this, I wish that all were as I am myself. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. Verse 8. To the unmarried and the widows, I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am.

But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. To the married, I give this charge, not I, but the Lord. The wife should not separate from her husband, but if she does, she should remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband. and the husband should not divorce his wife. So right there he's just saying the ideal is that nobody gets divorced. Period.

That's the ideal. 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. basically saying like if someone's a believer and becomes a believer or whatever and the spouse is not a believer, well, should that that be grounds for divorce because we are unequally yolked in a way? And he's saying if they consent to live with one another, then y'all should stay married because the believer has all access to be able to share with the unbeliever the goodness of Jesus Christ and hopefully lead them to Jesus. If any woman has a husband who is in and he consents to live with her should not divorce him. 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. It's just saying access to gospel because of the Christian who's in the home. But if the unbelieving partner separates, this is the idea where abandonment comes into play. If the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. Let it be so. In such cases, the brother or sister is not enslaved to a marriage that is not a marriage because of abandonment, separation.

God's called you to peace. To peace. For how do you know wife whether you will save your husband or how do you know husband whether you will save your wife? And then he goes on to list only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him and to which God has called him. This is my rule and all the churches in all the churches. So for Matthew 5 and 1 Corinthians 7 and even the law there are only three grounds for divorce.

adultery and and I would even say that the way you would categorize each of these are that they are covenantbreaking sins. Adultery breaks the covenant that you have between spouses. Abandonment breaks the covenant. And I put abuse in here as well because abuse is similar to abandonment. However, it's physical. It's physical.

You are in harm's way and you need to get out and be safe. But here's what I will say. Divorce should never be the first resort. Even in those categories of adultery, abandonment, abuse, divorce should never be the first resort. In Jesus' day, divorce was a first resort for everything. If a woman burnt the bread, divorce.

like it was so dissolved and flippant that that's why Jesus is putting it's he's deepening it here for them. You look at me the wrong way, you talk to me the wrong way or I just find out or I find someone that looks better, more fun to be around, divorce, divorce, divorce, divorce rampant. It cheapened marriage to be contractual rather than covenantal. And Jesus is bringing it deeper to allow them to see that, hey, this this thing between these two people is not contractual. That's why when you hear vows at someone's wedding, the vows don't go like, um, I will love you if you do the dishes and then your turn. Well, I I'll love you if you take out the trash.

All right. All right. Back on you now. Like we That's contractual. Like no one in the audience is going to be sitting back thinking that's so beautiful. Like I hope I have something like that one day.

No, the vows are for better or for worse. In sickness and in health. I think one vow that we should probably add in in that traditional view of vows, maybe we say things like in the good times and the bad, but I would say in the times that I do right and in the times that I sin. We're in this till death do we part. We're in this till death do we part. Ephesians 5, marriage between a man and a woman.

And again, as I mentioned, is an object lesson between the marriage of Christ, the groom, and his bride, the church. When you think about that relationship, Christ and the church, who's the adulterer? I mean, who's the one cheating? And yet, the groom lays his life down. This is the whole point of the story of Hosea and Goomemer. If you don't know anything about that story, Hosea is a prophet marrying Goomer, a prostitute, and just continues.

She sees it as contractual. He sees it as covenantal because marriage is meant to reflect the unconditional covenantal love of God. We are not to view it as a contractual conditional relationship. Therefore, we should not be looking for all of the different opportunities or reasons why we might be able to divorce somebody. Because I'll end with this. If while we were enemies of God, while we were enemies of God, considered evil, objects of wrath, no one seeking good, no one seeking God, no one doing righteousness.

If while we were enemies of God, the gospel has the power to reconcile even sinners to a holy, perfect, and righteous God. I think the gospel has the power to restore and reconcile any relationship on this earth, no matter how dark or depraved the sin was. Because if we're saying we believe the gospel that took unholy, unrighteous, evil sinners and reconciled it to God, then whatever happens between a man and a woman on earth is nothing in comparison to that. And so even though there are grounds for divorce and adultery, abandonment, abuse, the gospel has the power to reconcile, restore, offer forgiveness, and bring that relationship back into a relationship that ultimately honors God. It's true. It's just true.

And so it should be the last resort after we've pursued a level of reconciliation. And that's ultimately what Jesus goes to next when he continues the train of thought with oaths and retaliation and ultimately love for your enemies. And we'll pick it up there next week as we dive into that. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you so much for your word this morning. This might not necessarily be one of those like, "Hey, call to worship like we're just we're going to go after the mission and purposes of God like what we talked about last week, but this is a call to holiness.

This is a call to living our lives in the way in which you have called us to. You've that you've raised the bar rather than lowering the bar. Father, we all have anger issues. We all have lusts. We all have fantasies, romanticizing of of what our relationships should look like, even romanticizing what we think other people should just act like in general. And when they don't, we get angry about it.

And honestly, divorce isn't even just a situation that deals with marriages. We divorce friendships all the time just because of anger, because of our own frustrations. And Father, I just pray that seeing what you call us to and seeing what your gospel has accomplished for us, I just pray that we see that there's a different way. There's a way to be able to uphold the law that could that that reveals your character and who you are. That ultimately then when we become in Christ, we see a different way and we can now also live out these same things and reflect your character and be the true image bearsers of God. And so we ask that you help us with that, that you strengthen us with that.

Help us be people who are slow to anger. Help us be people who pursue one another with love, respect. Help us have marriages that reflect the marriage of Christ in the church. It's in your name we pray. Amen.