Admonition Podcast

Good evening, everyone.

It's now 7 p.m.

Time to start Bible class.

Give everybody just a moment to file in.

Before we get started, we'll go ahead and start off with a word of prayer.

If you would please bow with me.

Dear Lord, our Almighty God and Heavenly Father, we come to Thee in prayer this time
thanking you so very much for the wonderful day that we've had to enjoy.

Thank you for keeping us safe on our drive to this location to study your Word.

Lord God, may we please take the lessons that are given to us tonight and apply it unto
our daily lives.

May we remain attentive and aware of all that you have to teach us for.

everything that we go over tonight, Lord, we know that we're simply skimming the surface
of the bountiful and unending amount of knowledge that you've decided to share with us.

Please continue to be with us.

Bless the sick of the congregation and those in need of prayers.

Please continue to guide and direct our lives as you see fit.

And so we pray to you in Jesus' name, amen.

So last we came together for class, we were going through the book of Matthew,
specifically Matthew chapter five.

And last class period, we had made it almost through all of the Beatitudes.

I had it marked down that we had made it all the way to verse 10.

So that's where we will pick up again this evening and continue our study of the book of
Matthew.

So, as we do, the chapter really breaks into three natural sections.

The first are verses 10-12 where we going to start.

I know it also goes back all way to the first where Jesus finishes the Beatitudes by
speaking about persecution.

Second, verses 13-16 where He speaks about the influence in the world as salt and a
comparison to light as well.

And then the third section would be verses 17 through 48 where He deals with the subject
of righteousness.

Christ shows us that true righteousness is deeper than simple outward performance in this
section.

uh It's something that reaches the heart.

So, if you remember correctly or if you still have your notes from Matthew chapter 5 last
time, I know it's been about a month or so since we last had the class, uh our key thought

is still the same as it originally was.

which is, let your light shine, as well as our key word still being righteousness for this
chapter.

So, we'll go ahead and pick up in verse 10, and I'll go ahead and read this first one.

You know I like to call on people to read.

So, verse 10, he starts out with, This is an important verse because it reminds us that
living right does not always make life easier.

Sometimes it does, and it's great when it does, but not always.

Many times in life, doing the right thing can make life harder on us.

But Jesus does not say, blessed are they which are persecuted, because uh they were rude.

He says, blessed for righteousness sake.

He does not say blessed are those that are persecuted because they were foolish.

Again, He says, for righteousness sake.

That means that this is a type of suffering that comes because a person is standing behind
what God wants them to stand behind.

He says, for righteousness sake.

Now, we live in a world, unfortunately, where many Christians are persecuted the world
over.

In

Our country right now, for the most part, you don't see that.

We don't have to worry about being a Christian and going out to the local McDonald's and
getting shot for our faith.

But there are countries where simply possessing a Bible is completely illegal.

So, uh here we don't have to worry about being killed for our faith, but many brethren
around the world do.

So, we want to always keep that in context of the many blessings that we have here in the
States.

ah Of course, we still face things like persecution.

We face ridicule many times ah and lots of times mockery, specifically from the scientific
community.

ah But as we study throughout not only the rest of this chapter, but the rest of the
Bible, we see that science and the Bible always go hand in hand.

ah They are a great commentary for one another.

When looking through the proper lens, they'll never coincide.

ah So, Paul said, if we turn over to 2 Timothy,

3 and verse 12, we'll have someone get that.

It's a good commentary on what Christ is saying here in 2 Timothy 3 and verse 12.

So, all shall suffer persecution if we live justly in Christ Jesus, all of us.

If you are doing what is right, you are going to suffer in the world because of this.

Persecution is not a sign that something has necessarily gone wrong.

Sometimes it's a major sign that you're doing something right.

And rightly so.

Many times the apostles were doing the right thing and they suffered because of it.

Who here has ever heard the phrase, no one ever kicks a dead dog?

It's an old phrase or a horse.

Yeah, no one ever kicks a dead horse is another way people don't usually attack what is
powerless, uh what is irrelevant and what is just not accomplishing much.

But they will attack what is alive, what is moving, what is visible and especially that
which is effective, won't they?

Of course, when a Christian lives in a dark world and stands for righteousness, darkness
many times pushes back.

So, Jesus says that the persecuted are blessed.

Why is that?

Is it because the kingdom belongs to people like that?

The kingdom belongs to those who are willing to suffer for what is right?

These are the types of servants that God looks for.

He doesn't just want people with an outward appearance that just punch in the punch clock
in the back of the building and pretend to be a Christian.

It's, who was it?

Was it, uh I'm trying to think of the name right now.

uh Big playwright of the earliest, early centuries.

uh

Shakespeare, thank you.

All the world is a stage and everyone's a player, right?

So, Christians aren't that.

We're not actors playing the part of Christians, are we?

Christians is a denotation of our job.

It is a definition of who we are.

So, there's a big difference between a subjective reality and an objective reality.

Subjective, you can look like something, but you're not actually there.

An actor can only portray things that they've seen before.

Now, those of you that know me know that I used to do magic back in the day.

I was a magician for corporate events and trade shows for many different years.

And one of the things that I got told many, many times were, you're just an actor playing
the part of a magician.

See, that's the subject of reality.

The object of reality is when you start to take that term and redefine it.

We know that there's no such thing as magic and miracles today, right?

But as a magician, it would be someone who, I prefer the term illusionist.

because it's someone who performs illusions.

Now, objectively, you could be that, someone who performs that.

So now you're not an actor pretending to be that, you are actually that thing.

This is what we want to be as Christians.

Our Christianity should not be subjective, it should be objective.

The objective reality of who we are on the inside.

And if it is on the inside, that's what's going to project onto the outside.

moving forward, verse 11 through 12, this is kind of when it gets personal.

Jesus makes the persecution more personal.

So, if we go back, verse 10, He said, �Blessed are� who?

�Those.� Now, in verse 11, He changes and He shifts here.

He said, �Blessed are ye.� Blessed are you, specifically.

�When men shall revile you and persecute you.�

and say all manner of evil against you falsely." Key word right there.

If they're saying evil against you and it's truthfully, that's not a good thing.

But you are blessed when they accuse you falsely.

For my sake, not for your own sake, but for my sake.

Rejoice in being exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted
they the prophets which were before you.

Verse spoke more generally.

Verses 11 and 12 become very, very personal to us.

So, Jesus tells us the kinds of things that may happen.

He lists them out.

He says, men may revile you, they may persecute you, they are going to say evil things
against you falsely.

The word falsely there, this is not about suffering because we did wrong, this is about
suffering because we are suffering for Christ specifically.

And many times that kind of persecution takes the form of words.

People can attack your name, they can attack your motives, because they don't see into the
heart of a Christian like God can.

They can attack your character and even the reputation of the church.

So, I had an illustration in mind and I had thought about bringing a prop to kind of
illustrate this point, but you'll have to use your mind's eye because I figured out that

it wouldn't work.

But if you take a flashlight,

and shine it on something, typically what are you trying to do?

You're trying to illuminate it, right?

You're trying to cast more light on it so you can see more detail in the dimly lit room.

Now, if you were to use this illustration as what they're doing, accusing falsely, they're
shining the flashlight and your deeds, your actions will cast a shadow.

So the more deeply they look, the more deeply they falsely accuse,

If you are of the Christian character that you are supposed to be, what kind of shadow is
going to lay out in front of you?

Is it going to be a clean shadow, nice sharp lines, or is it going to be hazy with the
false accusations?

Well, maybe they did do that kind of thing.

The point being is when people look at a Christian who's living inside the way they are,
it will reflect on the outside.

So, being under that type of scrutiny,

shining the flashlight, you're going to see the deeds cast in the shadow.

You are going to see everything laid out bare in front of them and your own deeds and
actions will speak for themselves.

The motives will become clear.

They try to inspect us, they try to expose us, but the shadow goes in front of us.

In other words, the very pressure that they use against us can sometimes make our
testimony of Christ just that more visible because they see how we do, how we act.

So, Jesus says, rejoice and be exceedingly glad.

Now, that sounds strange from an earthly perspective, but it makes sense spiritually.

because our reward is not rooted in this earth, where is our reward rooted?

It's rooted in heaven, exactly.

And so, Jesus says, this puts us in the company of the prophets.

The prophets were not always celebrated in their day.

Many times they were stoned, and we read about them having to wipe the dust off their
sandals and keep moving forward to the next city.

Many of them were opposed, rejected, persecuted.

So, if the world pushes back against us for doing right,

Could it possibly be that we're walking a road that's faithful to Christ?

Yeah, no one ever kicks a dead dog, no one ever kicks a dead horse.

If we suffer that kind of persecution, this should absolutely be something for us to
rejoice over.

Absolutely, because they're seeing our actions.

They don't want to continue seeing the good actions and the light of Christ that's being
brought into the world.

So now we move forward to verses 13 through 16, and we're gonna, I'm gonna label this.

inner small sections, salt and light, because Jesus moves from persecution now over to
influence.

And what happens?

So, let's go ahead and have someone read verse 13.

nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a lamp stand.

Alright, so backing back up to verse 13, he says, are the salt of the earth.

Salt does several things and we're going go through that tonight, but each one gives us a
good lesson.

So salt, what's the number one thing that comes to your mind that salt does?

It adds what?

Flavor to the food, yes.

It keeps things from becoming tasteless.

Bland.

It enriches the flavor.

Specifically, if you take a little bit of salt and you add it to melted chocolate when
you're making brownies or whatnot, it elevates the chocolate and actually makes it

sweeter.

I didn't know that for years.

I thought that was crazy, but apparently that's how it works.

I tried it, 100%.

It gets a whole lot sweeter.

In the same way spiritually, Christians bring meaning and godly influence to a world
that's spiritually bland.

We had flavor to it.

A good flavor.

What something else salt does?

It preserves.

In Bible times, this would help slow corruption and decay.

Typically now we have preservatives.

We have all these chemicals that I'm not even going to try to pronounce.

but we have them in everything from our McDonald's french fries that sit under the seat
for months at a time and still look like they were ate yesterday, right?

I saw the movie Super Size Me years ago and they had a hamburger and they put it in a
sealed jar and they came back six years later and unwrapped that thing, looked like it was

made five minutes ago.

Disgusting.

But that's aside the point.

Salt is there.

to slow corruption and decay in a natural way.

So, it's a fitting picture because Christians are meant to have a preserving influence in
the world.

Our lives, our teachings, our example should be one that holds back corruption, just as
salt does from food.

We should be trying to influence the world in a way that the corruption doesn't take and
point people toward the holiness of Christ.

Did know that salt can also help heal?

I actually didn't know this one until I had studied specifically for this lesson.

Saltwater gargles, I have listed Epsom salts for your feet and other methods.

The world, however, is sick in sin.

Christians are meant to bring a healing influence to the world.

This is why Christ says, we are the salt of the world.

We can't heal the world through human philosophy.

Can we heal the world through entertainment?

The world is littered with it.

It's just getting worse.

What about politics?

Here's one that hit hell and to me, what about self-help books?

Not if they're not Bible-based, absolutely not.

The Word is healed by the Word of God, first and foremost.

Something else about salt is that salt does not do its, uh it doesn't do any of its work
if it's not in contact.

with what it's going to preserve, with what it's going to flavor, with what it's going to
heal.

It must come in physical contact with what is going on.

As a Christian, we're called to be different from the world.

is different from a hamburger, right?

But to flavor the hamburger, we put a little bit of salt on there.

Well, maybe the French fries, but.

Do we have to come in contact with the world as Christians to have an influence on them?

Yes.

Can we live in the world, but still be apart from the world at the same time?

Yes, absolutely.

That's what we're called to do.

That's what we're told to do.

But then Jesus gives the warning.

If the salt loses its savor, it becomes useless.

So here's the analogy.

If a Christian has no influence, if a Christian has no conviction, if a Christian has no
testimony, that Christian is not fulfilling his purpose.

Be ready always to give an answer of the hope that lies within you.

1 Peter 3 15, with meekness and fear.

He says, we have to have that testimony ready to give to people.

This is our salt.

Someone get Luke 17 and verse 32.

You can also just say it if you haven't memorized.

It's only three words.

Remember Lott's wife.

What happened to Lott's wife?

She turned into a filler of salt.

Why was she turned into a filler of salt?

She disobeyed, she looked back.

And the terminology there in the Greek gives the light as if she was almost looking back
at a longing, uh a disappointment to see the city of Sodom, which, you know, burn and get

the justice that it so rightly deserved.

They had been told, they had been given a chance to repent and they did not want that.

So she turns around.

She's literally turned into a pillar of salt.

Does God want statues?

He wants servants.

He wants warriors for Christ, people going out, doing the job of evangelist, having
testimony.

Her assault was not supposed to be a monument in this, in her case, physically to her
indecisions of whether or not to follow God.

Yes, she physically went, but her heart, we can safely assume remained in Sodom because
she looked back.

Could her salt have been more properly used to salt the earth with the testimony of what
had happened in Sodom and Gomorrah?

Absolutely.

I think it's very fitting to use Lot's wife in this same analogy with Matthew chapter
five.

God wants our lives to season the earth with a testimony of His truth, His Word, not
merely become a warning because of disobedience.

So, moving on to verses 14 through 16, we're going to label this one, Ye are the light of
the world.

And we've already read it, so, uh Jesus changes pictures, but the point stays the same,
it's influence.

He says, You are the light of the world.

There are a couple of things that light does that darkness absolutely cannot do, that evil
cannot do.

Light reveals while darkness tries to hide.

Light shows the way while darkness obscures it.

Light can bring clarity and darkness makes it harder to see.

We read a city on a hill cannot be hidden and a candle is not lit so it cannot be covered
up.

When you light a candle, typically why do you light a candle?

So you can see, for light.

This was the key lesson of the chapter, remember, let your light shine.

Jesus is not calling us to a private religion.

This is not the Gnostics back in the day of the early church.

Or as Brother Cain likes to say, the Gnostics, because it starts with the G.

These were a type of people that claimed that they had a private,

lesson from God.

had some kind of hidden knowledge, thus, gnosko, hidden knowledge, or gnostics, gnostics.

Notice what he says will happen.

He says that they may see your good works.

This is important because some people talk, unfortunately today, as if works don't matter
at all.

But he says specifically, so that they may see whose good works.

Ours.

There's ownership in the word your.

It takes possession of works in the sentence.

Again, this is important because people talk as if works don't matter.

Now, we can never do so many works that we deserve salvation.

That's not how it works.

It's still a gift from God, but He still demands that we work.

And that's for every Christian.

Jesus says artworks can glorify God when they are done from the right heart and for the
right purpose.

So, good question.

If people watch my life, are they seeing enough light to be pointed towards God?

When they shine that flashlight on us and our works, our shadow is laid out, bear to see,
can they see that arrow or that shadow on the ground pointing towards Christ?

That's something I hope we all ask each

ourselves as we go throughout our lives.

So, verse 17 through 18.

Now we come to the heart of the chapter.

Jesus turns to the subject of righteousness in relation to the law.

He says, think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets.

I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no
wise pass from the law

till all be fulfilled." Jesus says very plainly, I have not come to destroy the law of
Moses.

I not here to destroy it.

I am here to fulfill the law and prophecy.

That means He came to bring them to their intended completion.

There is a big difference between simply tearing something down and completing it.

The law of Moses was not permanent in the sense of final covenant of man for all time.

It was preparatory in nature.

It pointed towards Christ.

One useful way to explain this is kind of like in terms of our local legal systems or
constitutions.

A government may have one constitution for a certain period, certain laws on the books for
a certain period.

We see this all the time when we go from Republican to Democrat.

Republican to Democrat, don't we?

Did laws change between the two back and forth?

Kind of seesaw and teeter?

I'm not saying that's what's happening here in the Bible, but we did have a different law,
a different covenant.

And now we have, if you read the book of Hebrews, it's all about it.

We have a better covenant because we have a better lawgiver.

We have a better sacrifice.

We have a better high priest, which is Christ.

The former one served its purpose while it was in force, but it's replaced when the new
leadership comes.

Now, it's always been led by God.

In a similar way, God's people have lived under different divine judgments or
arrangements.

What three different periods do we have in the Bible?

Patriarchal, Mosaic, and Christian dispensations, right?

Jesus did not recklessly tear down the old law, He fulfilled it and established the new
law.

When you look at the different prophecies of the Bible,

I can't remember right off the top of my head how many prophecies.

think there are, uh correct me if I'm wrong, Kennedy, there were over 300, 400 different
prophecies in the Bible of Christ specifically.

And we had read in one of our books that someone did the math on it.

And the chances of Him fulfilling every prophecy of the Old Testament, the one person, was
as if you had the entire state of Texas full up about two foot with quarters.

And on a single quarter in all of Texas, there was an X.

And it would be like walking and waiting through these quarters and on the first try
reaching down and pulling out that quarter with the X on it.

That's a good comparison to how hard it would have been to fulfill that.

And many people argue, well, people lied about some of the things that he did.

uh He was trying to fulfill the prophecy so he did X and Y and Z.

If that was the case, how did he fulfill the prophecy of being born in Bethlehem?

Someone get Hebrews 10 and verse nine, please.

Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 9.

Alright, and now if you turn back over to Hebrews 9 and just skim through and look at
verse 16 through 17, He teaches that a testament goes into effect when the testator, the

person who wrote it, passes or dies.

Christ's became binding through His death.

We don't get the money from our in-laws until after they've passed.

You don't go for their will and testament until the death has already occurred, do you?

If you do, something's wrong.

This means that we are not under Moses today as our covenant authority.

We're under Christ.

And this matters because many in the religious world still try to mix covenants.

They want an all you can eat buffet.

They want specific things and rules for Moses.

And then they walk over to the salad bar, they walk over to Christ.

Oh, I like that, but I still want some of this over here.

I've met families that study and still today don't know which law and covenant they're
under.

And so we have to teach them.

Easiest way for that is typically I'll ask them to sit down and read the book of Hebrews
with me because that's the theme of the whole book, is what covenant are we under?

Someone back up a little bit and get Hebrews 8 and verse 13.

says a new covenant he has made the first obsolete.

Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

So tell me, you get a brand new cell phone, do you still keep the old cell phone or do you
trade it in towards the new one to get some money back?

I knew there'd be somebody in here that's like, I keep it just in case.

In relation to the covenant, you don't do that.

Generally, you would trade that in because it is now obsolete.

It's no longer working.

But the new one is, and it's far better.

Romans chapter seven verses two through four uses marriage language to show the
impossibility of being bound in that way to two systems at once.

So, Matthew 5 and verse 17 is not a minor point.

This is foundational.

Christ fulfilled the old law and established the covenant under which we now live.

So, that brings us to verse 19 back in Matthew chapter 5.

This is respect for God's commands.

He says, �Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments.� Does every
command from God matter?

Yeah.

Does it matter if it�s small or big?

No, God's truth is not ours to dim down.

It is not ours to soften, and it is absolutely not ours to selectively obey.

We have to obey all of God's laws.

If Jesus treated the revelation of God with that kind of seriousness, then shouldn't we
too?

Yes.

So, verse 20.

Let's go ahead and have somebody else get verse 20 for me of Matthew chapter 5.

that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and parishes,
ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." Okay, now if you remember from our

earlier notes a little over a month ago, this is one of the key verses of the entire
chapter.

The Pharisees looked righteous.

They were subjective in their following of Christ.

They had appearance, they had ceremony, they had visibility.

They definitely had religious performance.

They walked down the street to be seen of others praying.

But Jesus said true righteousness is one that has to exceed theirs.

That does not mean bigger parades.

That does not mean louder prayers so people can hear you when you've got the door closed.

make a show out of it.

It's not by being louder, it's not by being more theatrical, it's not, but it is by going
deeper, internally.

Their righteousness was often outward without inward purity.

Jesus is about to show that the kingdom of righteousness is not just about actions, it's
about motives, it's about desires, it's about the heart.

Does God know the thoughts and the intents?

of the hearts of every man and woman alive?

Yeah, absolutely.

He knows everything.

So he knows if we are just punching that punch card in the back and pretending to be a
Christian on Sunday.

He knows what you're talking about around the water cooler at work.

He knows the guy that you sent a vulgar sign to while you were driving past him on the
freeway.

He knows what you're thinking when you honk the horn at the guy who doesn't move forward
at the red light.

Yeah, I know, I just used two driving, but Memphis is full of bad drivers.

brings us to verse 21 and through 26.

If you want to label this section in your Bible, I'm calling this one, Murder and Anger.

Right?

have heard that it was said of them of old time, thou shalt not kill.

But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in
danger of the judgment." Here Jesus begins again in the same repeated pattern we've seen.

You have heard, but now I say to you.

Now, why can Jesus say, but I say unto you?

Because He's the one with authority, right?

Look, you've heard under the law of Moses that you should not kill, you should not commit
murder is the Greek word there.

But I say unto you, because I'm above Moses, right?

I have more authority than that, which he absolutely did.

He's not correcting Moses.

He's correcting the shallow way people had handled Moses.

These are people that were very legalistic.

Remember the Pharisees, the Sadducees?

They were very, very legalistic and they wanted to follow the letter of the law.

They would never necessarily go beyond that.

The Pharisee could absolutely say, I've not murdered anybody.

But Jesus says, about anger?

What about contempt?

What about bitterness?

Holding on to anger that you could let go of.

In other words, sin begins deeper than the final outward act.

It reminds me of the word Methusko.

Raise your hand if you've ever heard the word Methusko.

I know you two in the back.

The word Methusko is a transitive verb.

It's Greek, but it's very much considered like the word thaw, to thaw a piece of chicken.

At what point uh of taking it out of the freezer, setting it on the counter, putting it in
the bowl of water, putting it in the microwave, hit and go,

At what point does the chicken begin to thaw?

As soon as you take it out of the freezer, it's the start of a process.

So Jesus says, whoever's angry with his brother without a cause.

I jumped forward in my notes.

if a man carries rage and contempt in his heart.

He can justify the world's by saying, well, I never killed him.

I never murdered him.

I never went the final.

But Christ is saying, what about anger?

It's very related back to Methusco, to Thal.

He's saying don't start the process.

Anger is where the murder starts from, from one reason or another.

Don't start the process that leads you down the road to that final act.

Then Jesus presses the need for reconciliation.

If a relationship is broken, for lack of better term, He basically says deal with it.

If relationship is broken, do not pretend to be right with God while refusing to make
things right with your brother.

When Jesus said, whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, he's condemning a
specific anger, a sinful anger, selfish anger, hateful anger.

But that also shows that there is such thing as righteous anger and unrighteous anger.

There are times then...

We absolutely should be angry.

It doesn't mean we have to be angry at the person, but we can be angry at the sin.

The difference is that righteous anger is controlled.

Righteous anger is holy.

And righteous anger is never centered upon one's self.

Can we have a cause for righteous anger?

Yes.

Should we be angry without a cause just to be mad?

No, that's just your Sinusso discourse in your heart.

Someone get Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 26 and someone else please get Mark 3 and verse
5 after that.

Ephesians 4.26 and Mark 3 and verse 5.

Be ye angry and sin not.

Is that a command to be angry?

not necessarily, but he's saying it is okay to be angry.

If we have righteous anger, that is okay.

But there's a comma there.

It sits there and says, sin not.

All right, Mark three and verse five.

So here we have Christ, righteous anger.

It said because of what?

Because of the hardness of their hearts.

It's because their motives behind pushing the rules they were, was not righteous.

It was wrong of them to act that way.

And so out of anger, he said, hold out your hand, I'm gonna heal you.

Despite what they say, because he had righteous anger.

As Christians, we need to make sure that when we are angry at people, it's for the right
reasons.

We don't need to hold contempt in our heart for things that are unrighteous reasons for
anger.

And sometimes that's hard whenever somebody just cuts you off in traffic, right?

It is hard.

Yeah, yeah.

My wife will tell you, I had some guy pull out.

I'm pulling out of the parking spot just the other day.

I had just backed up and I start turning my wheel and he wedges himself, comes around the
corner and wedges himself right there within a paint job of my vehicle.

And I just look at him and go, what do you want?

Like I'm trying to pull forward and get out of your, you can't wait?

I have two more foot to go and I'm out of the way.

And the dude just looks at me like I'm.

You gotta let it go.

And it hurts.

It hurts sometimes, right?

I was fuming about it for the next hour and a half.

I do.

I do, namely this lesson actually.

So that's what I did.

I had to start reminding myself of the Beatitudes.

I had to start reminding myself of Matthew chapter 5.

And look, at the end of the day, I wish that man well.

I hope that, you know, he gets the help he needs, right?

Driving lessons.

Verses 27 through 30.

We're gonna move forward.

He comes to adultery and lust.

I'm not sure how much further we'll be able to get in this because we're getting fairly
close on the clock.

You have heard it said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery.

So here he is, here's this pattern again.

You have heard it said, but I say unto you, whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after
her, hath committed adultery.

with her already in His heart.

Here again, Jesus takes the law deeper than the Pharisees ever did.

They were satisfied with just the outward act, right?

The Pharisee could feel justified in his own mind by not doing the final act.

But Jesus shows us that sin starts much earlier.

Remember the example of Methusco.

It begins in the heart.

So, the Lord is teaching us that righteousness is not simply about what our hands have
done,

but also what our heart has welcomed into our lives, what our heart has entertained, and
sometimes even what our heart has desired.

And sometimes those desires need to be unlearned, and it's not always the easiest.

A man can be clean in the eyes of society, but still stand guilty before God if he allows
lust to take root in his heart.

This is something that's especially needed in our time.

Now, why?

Because many people, my glasses are getting annoying, because many people excuse inward
lust as though it was harmless.

Well, it's okay, I'm not acting on it.

So, but even though you're not acting on it, are you still cultivating something on the
inside if you hold it in?

Yes.

Jesus says the heart matters.

The inward man matters.

The private thoughts, the hearts, the intentions of man matters.

The hidden life matters.

Your reason for doing something, obeying Him, matters.

Now the Bible tells us we are to fear God and keep His commandments.

But Christ says, if you love me, what?

Keep my commandments.

Let's use our definitive two cents here, right, collectively.

Which would God prefer the reason be that we serve Him?

Out of fear or out of love?

Love.

It's okay to fear God, we should.

He's the most powerful being in all of existence.

He created us in the universe.

He has the final say on everything.

But our fear,

I'm sorry, let me start over.

Our love should outgrow our fear.

Early on when we are disciplining young children, they listen because they don't want to
get a spanking from dad.

As they grow up, they start to love dad.

And they start to listen and obey, no longer out of fear of the hand or the belt or the
nose in the corner, however you choose to discipline, but out of love.

This is what God wants for us, is to grow in our faith and our love for Him.

Going back to the verse where we were talking about, Jesus says that the heart matters.

This is where we need to stress something important.

Jesus is not condemning the mere recognition that a person is attractive.

That's going to happen.

What He is condemning is the deliberate, lustful looking.

The look that feeds sinful desire.

The look that turns people, a person, into an image to be worshiped.

Now, do mean by an image to be worshiped?

Justin, we don't worship idols anymore.

How many idols do we carry around in our wallets from day to day?

dollars bills.

Many, many people worship that.

They lust after money, piles of money.

Some lust after women, some lust after cars.

It could be any number of things.

Then Jesus says, "'If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, cast it from thee.

If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, cast it from thee.'" His language is severe on
purpose.

He showing us how important this stuff is.

He is not teaching self-mutilation.

He's not saying if you like looking at that pretty girl, go ahead and gouge your eyes out.

He is teaching radical seriousness.

Sin is so destructive.

Sin is so dangerous.

Because by disobeying our Creator, we can condemn ourselves to eternity in hell.

It has got to be dealt with very decisively, like a surgeon with a scalpel.

Anything that leads us to commit sin needs to be addressed decisively and immediately and
thoroughly.

So the lesson is this, don't play with sin.

Do not pet temptation.

Don't sit there and say, well, it's okay if I watch this, it's a...

I the saying is a slippery slope.

It's slicker than you think.

Don't make excuses for lust.

Don't try to manage it while keeping it alive.

If something in your life is feeding a sinful desire, it needs to go.

If Christ is not in it, neither do we need to be in it.

Jesus is teaching us that it is better to lose something precious in this life.

than to lose our soul eternity in hell.

The battle with lust is not won when the hand is restrained.

It is won when the heart has surrendered to God.

And we'll go ahead and leave it there, and we will pick up next time on verses 31 through
32, where we will talk about divorce and marriage.

I'm sure everybody is looking forward to that one.

Thank you for