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2001
11th February (am) - The Sermon On The Mount
The Christian And Lustfulness

There was a story on the news recently about a man who had asked to have his hand 'cut off''!

Well, not actually, 'cut off' - but he did ask that his hand which had been transplanted in a revolutionary operation, a couple of years ago, should be removed because it was distressing his life rather than enhancing it. The transplant had worked to a fair degree, but now he was experiencing not only physical problems, but psychological trauma. He felt that it was best to have the hand removed, and the medical team granted his request.

Now tonight's passage in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount deals with voluntarily having your hand cut off - but in an entirely different context and for very different reasons. Jesus said: 'If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away ....' He made this comment in the context of teaching about aspects of sexual morality - if there is a danger of acting wrongly in this area of life, we are to take this drastically serious action in order to deal with the problem - for after all, says Jesus, it is better to deal drastically with the problem at this stage, rather than allow it to destroy our lives, even to the stage of being consigned to hell itself.

But even having noted Jesus solemn warning, we have not actually come to the real core of what he says in tonight's verses.

Jesus' main point is that it is not just the outward, actual actions of sexual immorality that we need to be serious about - it's more than that, it goes deeper - it includes the thoughts that pass through our minds - it's the wrong ideas and possibilities that may enter our minds through the doorway of our eyes ...... and if that is a problem for us, and is causing us to think the wrong way and have the wrong desires, then we must deal with things at that level. and so as well as the words about cutting off your hand, he says: If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away . It is better to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.'

Jesus is making the Christian approach to living and behaving rightly, much more rigorous and thorough than the Pharisees of his day tended to do ...... and maybe more rigorous and thorough than we tend to do - but's that not a new lesson for us now, for we've seen it already in the Sermon on the Mount - especially last week when we thought about Jesus' teaching on anger - it isn't enough not to murder someone, said Jesus - it's also about the thoughts of selfish bitterness and personalised anger that we allow to grip our hearts and minds.

Right and wrong is maybe more than we thought it was - as we said a week or two ago in the section introducing these topics.

'You have heard that it was said, Do not commit adultery' said Jesus to his listeners - agreed, for no-one, then or now, could dispute the 7th Commandment - no-one serious about their faith and their life would want to.

But that is where some of the religious teachers in Jesus' day stopped - so long as you were not guilty of actual adultery, your life could be regarded as morally pure - but what, said Jesus about the wrong sort of thoughts that might pass through your mind and occupy your imagination - Do they count? Do they come into this question of morality - Yes they do said Jesus - 'I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart'.

Almost certainly, by words like lustfully and adultery, Jesus was including any kind of sexually unacceptable behaviour - if it is wrong to do it, it is also wrong to think about it!

Maybe the Pharisees should really have known that anyway - that is if they knew the 10th Commandment as well as the 7th.

7th forbids adultery i.e. the behaviour/action ....... but the 10th deals with the inward area of thoughts and desires and imagination, because it forbids us to 'covet our neighbour's wife' - and I'm sure that is meant to include coveting your neighbour's husband, friend etc.!

So in his teaching here, Jesus is simply reinforcing what the OT teaches us anyway. We are to be clear and very careful about this whole area of life - thoughts, attitudes and behaviour in the whole area of sexual morality is being addressed here.

Now this is a topic that is fairly difficult to deal with and apply in a general congregational sermon - we have to be sensitive to all age groups and we are only too well aware of our own embarrassments about dealing with this topic - but, at the same time, it is a very important one, especially in the climate of opinion that prevails in 2001 - we live in a day where issues of sexual morality are flaunted, ignored, challenged in all manner of ways - it's back to my Nike slogan of a few weeks ago - Just Do It - whatever suits you, is all right - there are no fixed rules or standards!

I think that, in trying to speak helpfully and relevantly tonight, one useful approach is to try to set out for us a number of key pieces in the jig saw that is this topic of sexual morality which Jesus raises in these verses ..... and then to conclude with one or two very practical applications. So first of all, some key pieces in the jig saw of trying to think about these matters and get them right.

This is not an insignificant area of life - it is high priority - we need to treat the topic of sexual morality very seriously! Jesus obviously gave it this priority when he made the drastic, if metaphorical, recommendation about gouging out the offending eye and cutting off the offending hand - it must be serious if this is the remedy!
But this is not anything new in biblical teaching - the OT set down the death penalty for offences of sexual immorality (Lev. 20), and I think that this approach is still reflected in Muslim culture.

The NT has many, many warnings about sexual immorality of all kinds - it identifies this broad aspect of life it as a prominent feature of the non-Christian, pagan world, and it lumps religious idolatry and sexual immorality together - unfaithfulness towards the true God and unfaithfulness with regard to true relationships. are seen as massively significant issues of life. When the early church sent out a decree from the Council of Jerusalem about the key areas of life for new Gentile Christians, idolatry and immorality were the 2 areas of life that they focussed on.

One of the aspects which makes standards of sexual behaviour such a vitally important part of living is that it is not even a personal, individual matter - it's a matter which will damage at least 2 lives, as the NT letters of Paul mention.

So Jesus is not saying anything new or different in making the matter of sexual morality an area of high priority - he is reflecting all of Scripture, OT and NT, only he is reminding us that it applies to personal, private thoughts as well as to actual actions and behaviour.

So it is not an insignificant area of life - far from it!

This is not the unforgivable area of life - this real or potential aspect of sin is not in a category all of its own! Now that's a very, very important point because sometimes we have maybe tended to think it was. That this is not the unforgivable sin couldn't be made more clear by Jesus than in the little story from John 8 that we read - the woman taken in adultery, for whom the Law prescribed the death penalty. And yet Jesus dealt with the woman with a remarkable blend of firmness and forgiveness - her life was not unforgivable - there was the real opportunity of making a new beginning: Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.

- Did Jesus know something about the background factors in this situation? Often we do not know the whole story!

- Did Jesus perceive that her accusers might be pure as far as actions were concerned, but maybe not thoughts?

- Did Jesus know that while this might not be a problem for them, other aspects of living were?

Whatever the full story, Jesus made it clear that it was not too late for this woman's situation to be put right, and so he offered her understanding and forgiveness, in contrast to the gloating zeal of the Pharisees.

Maybe we too need to be very, very careful when we get on that high horse which is called self righteousness, feeling that we have not sinned in the area of sexual immorality, judging and condemning others as if there were no possibility of complex circumstances or new beginnings.

Maybe we find it all too easy to be like those critical, self righteous and morally proud Pharisees!

So this is not the unforgivable area of life!

This is not essentially a cheap and nasty area of life - sexual immorality issues are not to be confused with sexuality itself.

Sometimes Christians get very confused by that distinction. Because the issues of sexual immorality are to be taken very seriously, some Christians have consciously or sub-consciously found themselves feeling that really all matters related to sexuality are doubtful and dodgy, cheap and nasty - that any mention of such matters, and any positive thoughts about this aspect of life are very questionable indeed. And so they have tended to think that the sexual aspect of life must automatically mean the lustful approach to life that Jesus refers to in our verses. And that idea can be found through all the various strands of Christianity - from the monastic approach to life in the Catholic tradition, through to a very narrow minded approach in the Protestant tradition. And yet that is to go very much against the true Christian perspective provided for us in Scripture.

- that in creation, God made us male and female, without embarrassment; that he pronounced this sexual dimension of life to be good with the purpose that each might complete and enrich the life of the other.

- that principle way of thinking about sexual morality is carried on through the Bible in books like Song of Solomon, and in the wide ranging teaching of Scripture about the love and beauty of the marriage bond.

And, I think, that we need to apply this point in a wider way - that if God has made us male and female, with different, but complementary qualities, then there should be a sense in which we can deal with the attractiveness of the opposite sex without allowing that to become lustfulness - admiring without desiring!

It's a fine line, but I think that it is a fair distinction.

I don't think that it is other than a realistic distinction.

Maybe, especially for young people, this is how it always is - appreciating the attractiveness of someone else in a way that might eventually lead to marriage plans and commitments - without simply allowing attractiveness to become lustfulness.

So this is not essentially a cheap and nasty area of life.

This is not about experiencing sexual temptations, but about entertaining them. There is a massively important difference between temptation, of any kind, coming into your life, and the way in which you actually react to that temptation. Temptation is part of all human life for all human beings, but it becomes Sin when we welcome the idea, encourage it and act upon it. Experiencing temptation - entertaining temptation. Feeling temptation - feeding temptation. It is the latter aspects that are the problem. Experiencing temptation is an unavoidable part of life - no-one is exempt, not even Jesus was exempt. It doesn't tell us all the kinds of temptations that bombarded him - although we have the story in the gospels - but Hebrews 4 says He has been tempted in every way - just as we are - yet was without sin. Jesus experienced temptation, but he did not entertain it - he was determined to be faithful to God his Father, and he fought against temptation at all times, right through to the Cross. So the fact that we may feel temptation is not a sin - whatever area of life we are dealing with - it's how we react and deal with it - do we fight it or do we feed it? Do we entertain it or excuse it .... or do we expel it from our lives? Sometimes people worry about the temptations which bombard them - they feel particularly vulnerable in certain areas, they feel that the actual temptations are sinful - they maybe even conclude that they are therefore guilty of unforgivable sin - when in actual fact the crunch consists in how they react to these areas of special temptation - it's no sin to be tempted - its what we do with that temptation!

So 4 major pieces of the jig-saw -if we get these anyway right, we'll be well on our way to coping with the whole area of sexual immorality.

This is not an insignificant area of life - it is high priority!

This is not the unforgivable area of life - this real or potential aspect of sin is not in a category all of its own!

This is not essentially a cheap and nasty area of life - sexual immorality issues are not to be confused with sexuality itself.

This is not about experiencing sexual temptations, but about entertaining them.

So, against that background, I simply want to finish off with 2 very simple practical applications: - 2 very basic lessons which seem obvious and unavoidably important.

We do need to be careful about the influences we expose ourselves to and the situations we place ourselves in.

If we place ourselves in situations which are full of unhealthy and unwholesome attitudes and influences, then there is a very real danger that our own thoughts, and maybe even behaviour, will be affected - if we play with fire, there is a real danger of getting burnt. There is no doubt that such influences and attitudes are very much a part of life in 2001 - if you have satellite TV just scan down the channels and the content of some of them - and terrestrial TV is sometimes not far behind.

Sex and violence seems to help viewing figures, so the programme makers give people what they want.

So too, with some films, plays, internet sites, newspapers.

We must not make the mistake of tarring all with the same brush, or of condemning all these forms of information and entertainment - nor can I tell you which paper you should read or film you can watch - but we can surely agree that these are some of the ways in which our thoughts, attitudes and desires can be unhelpfully influenced. It is as James puts it in the first chapter of his letter: Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. then after desires has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death.

We do need to be careful and disciplined about the influences we expose ourselves to and the situations we place ourselves in. And maybe that also applies to work and social situations - that we need to be wise and careful about situations that have the potential for dangerous developments.

This approach to life which is aware of the dangers and which is disciplined about the situations and influences to which we might be vulnerable is surely very close to what Jesus means about taking drastic action - gouging out the eye or cutting off the hand.

We need to be positive about building the right attitudes and the best friendships. This is not just to be a negative thing :

- I don't think Christian living is to be like Muslim culture - where the men and the women are very much separated from each other - where the women are wrapped up from head to toe so that their physical attractiveness is concealed.

- I don't think that Jesus meant men and women to live separated lives, like separated schools for boys and girls.

Rather I think that the Christian way is for us to learn to build real relationships of respect for one another, and friendship with each other - where the friendships are genuine without ulterior motives or unspoken agendas - learning to respect the integrity of another person's life without seeing them as objects of desire. Perhaps that process needs to begin fairly early in life - maybe the healthy, wholesome atmosphere of good church organisations can really help - so too will the atmosphere of a home where the right attitudes are seen and experienced as well as talked about.

So maybe even in this most practical of topics, we come right back to the fact that the key to the whole thing is Jesus himself. He is the one, who not only tells us what we should and should not do, but he is the one and only person who can deal with the wrong thoughts and desires that may come into our lives - because he has been tempted in every way, just as we are ..... he is able to help us in out temptations and difficulties, as the book of Hebrews tell us.

He is willing, as he did for that woman in the story, to deal gently and forgivingly with us

- he is full of compassion and mercy; he understands our whole make-up in life and all the background circumstances

- and he is able to give us life as it is meant to be, and better than we will ever make it ourselves

- even in this sensitive area of life that we have thought about tonight.

What a commendation for a life that makes Jesus Saviour and Lord.